The Detroit times., 1911-01-10
BY ALFRED A. JOHNSON.

| am writing this story of my ex
perience as a green city man on the
farm with the hope that my success
may persuade others to leave their
city flats and nerve-racking occupa-
tons for the free, independent life
OF the farmer.
Four years ago / was employed In
st. Louis as bookkeeper for shoe
manufacturing house at $1,000 year.
had been with the firm eight years
and was married with a family OF
three children, two girls and one
boy.
Like millions of other men in
American cities | was fairly we'll set
tied into the groove of the city work
er on small salary, doing my work
as we'll as I knew how, paying my
bills, living honestly and occasional
ly putting a dollar In the savings
bank against the time when old age
or loss of position would stop my
earning power.
My wife and had saved $4,000
with the idea of buying city home.
In this we were probably more for
tunate than thousands OF others.
won't try here to outline the
thought processes by which We came
to trun from city life to home on a
farm. Before that had always imag-
ined far mlife a humdrum existence,
full of ceaseless work and little re.
ward-a business no man should un-
dertake unless born and trained to
the soil. But | discovered that the
sum total of human endeavor is happi-
ness. AS a bookkeeper in the city, try
as hard as | might, found II almost
impossible to better my condition.
Every raise in salary was discounted
by the increasing cost OF living. My
dependent family filled me with dread
for the future
When my wife and had fully made
up our minds to the change, our 81
200 nest. egg gave. Ms confidence to 90
ahead. We selected land near Para
gould, Ark, because II was cheap, fer
tile and close to big markets. We set
tied here four years ago on farm OF
100 acres, 80 across cleared and 40
acres In wild, cut-over land. The
cleared land had been worked for
about ten years.
We bought the place for $4,000.
including a small farmhouse, barn,
cotton shed, divers farming tools,
two mules, COW, a calf and three
pigs.
paid $1,000 down and gave my
note for the balance, due In one,
two and three years, secured by u
mortgage.
That mortgage has been cleared
off, We are now free from debt
and have cleared up 20 acres OF
wild land, making 400 acres under
cultivation this year. We have 600
apple trees, several hundred peach
trees and a few plum trees almost
ready to bear. We have $4,000 In
the bank besides this years crops,
which | expect to net me $4,000. In
year or two We expect to take a
trip tc Europe and to send the boy
to college.
II sounds almost impossible, but
1t is true, and l don't believe there
is a man of intelligence in America
who could not repeat my success. II
he will apply to his own farming
business the same energy and brain
he Is using on the business of some
body else in an unhealthy city.
Inc pOSSlDlllticS VI thS ioi hiAh6
business are enormous. see my
way clear now to apply scientific
methods Of cultivation on a larger
scale and can become as rich as
please.
But IL I had only succeeded In max
ing my farm yield me comfortable
living, would not regret the change.
I love every inch of my farm and
every living, growing thing on It. As
I review my four years work my
greatest satisfaction comes from the
thought that | have created sor1e-
thing and that my family and myself
are living clean, healthy, Independent
lives. We have freedom in the broad
est sense.
When my wife and | landed on our
Arkansas farm We knew nothing
about farming except the little tech
meal knowledge we had crammed in
10 our heads from few months
reading of farming journals and gov.
eminent reports. OF the practical
side of farming we knew nothing. We
found the farm in a rundown cordi-
ton. but we determined that from
the very beginning II must produce
everything its live stock and human
occupants consumed, except few
groceries and little clothing; that
| 100 acres OF good land should do that
IL nothing more.
Tin my next article will tell you
I NE Afd n