New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-02
II FARM THAT PAYS.
Words Of Wisdom and Comfort for
The -4naateur.

THE FAT OF THE LAND. BY John Williams
Streeter limo. PIP X. 4OG. The Macmillan
The very marked tendency toward country life
in America has naturally been reflected in the
current literature OF the day. SO we have had
our Elizabeths solitary and gregarious We have
been taught how 10 know the wild flowers what
IS perennial within commuters radius what d
hardy woman plants in her garden, how to get
back TO the woods and next 70 the ground and
now even the wilderness has been made 10 bios
som. But all these things, delightful and nspir-
ing as they are. have 20 do rather exclusively
with the romantic and ornamental side Of life
with wonlanS lovely mission of Frightening and
adjoining the home OF arranging color schemes
and providing a succession of exquisite blooms
AID OF discovering new and absorbing ways of
taking the tOiIer off his. work and setting him to
engaging and UnreInuneratve tasks in the d.
Tection OF beauty and that simplicity which
costeth mitch money. But man, too must have
MS work cut out for him in the country In the
not distant day when means of locomotion in
The heavens above and in the sewers under the
earth when skyscraping fats and towering
taxes have driven the last home seeker out of
the city, must find occupation. diversion
and profit in the country life
When one who is struggling for the first tins
WIFI sub3ou drainage and Bordeaux mixture
ana the Hitchings mulch is visited by city
Araenc- the nrst question asked is, DO you make
1t payf and the answer is usually what do
you mean by pay? expend more for labor and
materials on the farm than 1 receive back in
cash and products. But think of the health
ana enjoyment and freedom from yyorry-are
these things of no value because they do not
figure In the ledger?" With such mean subter-
cuges does the amateur farmer convince himself
anc leave bis neighbor unconvinced Thousands
nave peen trying TO experiment to the good of
their souls and the contentment of their minds
but few there be who do not find a sympathetic
chord touched by Evarts's famous mot Cham
payne or milk2 They cost me the same" At
Last, however. there has arisen a prophet IN
Israel who writes for practical men in a prac-
teal way. THE Fat of the Land" is the story
or an American farm an epic of real country
life, not the diluted artificial hybrdized kind OF
our trolley ridden suburbs, but the genuine
Hirnon-pure Al article spent three or four
hundred acres We take the author at his
word that he Is relating actual experiences, and
that his story is substantially based on facts
though eInbellished as to incident and charac-
ter. A mighty interesting narrative 1t is.
In brief, a successful physician in middle life
abandons his practice IN town for reasons Of
health and buys a farm to put in effect the
most advanced and approved theories of scien-
tifc intensive farming. Unrestricted in the
choice Of locality by any cramping notions of
sentiment, he settles good land near a good
market. This he proceeds to lay out in fields for
grain and grass, while he plans his barns and
outbuildings in accordance with his precon-
ceived theories. His barn cost 1920 his
twenty-one registered Hosteins about 500
apiece; the pig house, lJ0x30 feet, cost s., 100,
and his nineteen registered Chester Whites $31
apiece With this considerable plant (lot
speak OF chickens and things he did a business
Of 6600 pounds of butter. netting 50, 127. and 122
young hogs that brought in S1,170 IN a little
more than six months. The figures are taken
at random and illustrate the authors principle
of paying we'll for stock, houses and care,
feeding as much as possible and demanding the
best results What exceed the joy of
theorist whose pocketbook demonstrates the
curacy Of his propositions? A forty-acre
orchard yielded in the first year S3S in the
second $3.50, in the third 500 and in the fourth
SLIT. 1t sounds almost like the fortune made
IN breeding rabbits. And yet, set forth in tab
ular form with chapter and verse for every de-
cision, the results convince while they bewilder
or amaze. At the end Of three years invest
Inent had been made of 100000, and the follow
ing table shows the results Of the four sue
ceeding years: