, 1890-08-16

kitchen and TO rtilt rs g0Nt "A tM1f'e WIN
as pleasant surroundings ia q town nt We
or three thousand inhabitants, would cost
from fifteen to twenty dollars ii nront,r. Ar
excellent free turnpike passes my door and
| can drive to clTulch or post office in tWejl-
ty minutes. This farm with lis improve
ments, has for the last ten years, been
valued on the tax duplicate at ii little less
than four thousand dollars, and this has
been reduced considerably by the %decenniat
appIaiSement: Our rate of taxation III the
country is always much less than in town,
and is rarely much above ] per cent, so
that my taxes Oh the farm and a thousand
dollars worth of tools and stock, have
never exceeded $40 a year, and are usually
less. Now let us see what this farm turli-
ishes my family in addition to a home.
FIRST, OR breaustuff, my family averages
eight persons, and our flour, corn meal and.
~buckwheaC -four all come from the farm,
and would cost if purchased an average OF
about $35 a year. ,,Our fruit, which the fAru'
furnishes, would probably cost us 500 q
year, as we have a constant and liberal
supply of small fruits, heginningwith straw
berries, followed by raSpberries, black
berries and grapes, and orchard flui : IN
abundance. We do not make a quart
or two of berries last a day, but dur
ing the strawberry season now just clos
COI WO ~ n ROSh VI I = ASo u
day most of the time, aud they were
fresh from the vines and better than
we could rave bought in the market.
We keep three or four J ersey cows, princi-
pally for the family, although we sell some
butter, but not until the family has had all
the butter, cream and milk they can use,
and in addition my wife makes a supply OF
cheese during the hot weather when butter
is plenty and cheap. You may put down
a credit to the farm of $50 for dairy pro-
ducts but that is far less than the sauf8
quality and amount would cost five should
bny it, for my family uses about ole pound
of butter a day, and this at 20 cents a
pound would amount to more than this, to
say nothing Of the cream, milk and cheese.
Are fresh laid eggs and Spring chickens u
desirable addition to the bill of fare ? Well,
we have u constant supply of these. the year
through, so that instead of an occasiOnat
luxury they are q common article Of die t.
I think we will credit our poultry yard
with $50. But [ must not forget the gar
den, for we rave u constant succession of
vegetables from April, when we begin to
use Asparagus, through the range OF pc as
beans, radisheS, tomatoes, beetS, I%ettucef
spinach, green corn, sweet potatoes, etc.y
fasting all summer and stocking the cellar
for Winter, We cannot afford to credit the
farm less than $50 for all these.
But am not done yet, for 40 we nOt
have juicy hams, first. class breakfast oacOw
pure lard with no cotton seed oil in it,
dried beef in Summer and fresh beef iw
Winter2 There is not a week III the en-
tire year and % good part of the time
scarcely a day that the farm does not fur
nish us good meats, and we will give it a
credit of S75 for this. Do l sell anything
from the farm9 o, yes, in the best seasons
l have sold nearly one thousand dollars
worth, in bad seasons when the the wheat
had rust / have fallen below $500; bnt this
is rare. If l worked myself on the farm as
most Of my~neighbors do, less than 500
would pay for labor hired, but as paper
and institute work take most of my time [
pay out from $3.50 to $500 a year for work.
Ms investment is safe. No bank cashier
can skip to Canada with it. Every tree
l plant on it adds to its beauty AID value,
and I am gradually improving my farm.
Now if | should grow discontinued and sell
out l could not get the true value of the
property in these times of encouragement
but it | should find Il customer who .would
give me $1,000 c'sh for my farm, teams
and tools, how could | invest the money so
that it would be sale, and yield the com
fort to my family it does now? There are
millions of capital seeking investment, the
owners of which would be glad to loan it
on good security at six per cent. We will
suppose that | could do this and then my
income would be $500 a year. 1t would