The Mena weekly star., 1912-01-18
FULTON'S FARM LIFE
T. F. Tells of His Struggles, Dis- appointments and Successes
 for First Year.

new is with us, perhaps some of your readers would like to know what have been doing with that i0-aere farm I mentioned in your paper a year ago, and so l VIII give brief outline of my work and the general results. In the first place, by grubbing and cleaning up all fall and winter, was only able to get about ten acres ready for the blow by March f. All my pet theories about deep winter blow ing, subsoiling, etc., had to be abandoned for the reason that l had too much work to do to get ready So, having no team of my own, swapped work with neigh bor to do some blowing for me, and lrented three acres of my ground for corn. Then l began to make Igarden and planted some early po- tatoes and sweet corn. Later on I planted my field corn, then a big patch of peanuts, and still later about two acres of cantaloupes. Before planting any garden or field seeds, however, I set out one-half acre of strawberry plants and one half acre in Early Harvest black Iberries: also a lot of Kansas Black lCup raspberries, Lucretia dewber- ries and a small vineyard of Nj agara, Delaware and Concord lgrapes. Tn addition to this work, II pruned up my old orchard and set out several young trees.
 When the cultivating season came on I found myself with
 nothing to work with but a good
 sharp hoe, but by keeping that old comrade busy from sunup until
 sundown, and swapping some more work for the use of pony and blow, I managed to keep on top of
 the weeds and crab-grass. But
 sayl man, it was race, and my
 back aches every time I think about it.
 { During the latter part of June II planted a good sized patch ol ground in sweet potato slips, and also some late sweet corn. On July i my Duroc brood SOW far
 rowed a litter of five pigs, and on
 July t0 I planted my late crop of Irish potatoes between the rows o1
 my late sweet corn, and there is , where I missed something. The i corn shaded the ground too much and I did not make good crop. III ? planting my peanuts also missed
 f. as I broke the pods and planted the kernels. and got very poor r stand. I should have soaked the lpods 2i or 36 hours and planted
 them whole. Before planting my cantaloupes, and l had the assur-
 ance of several farmers in the
 neighborhood that they would al- so plant several acres each in mel ons, but thehy didn't, and with me it was the same old snipe-huntine story. I held the sack until I saw about St0O worth of choice Rocky Ford cantaloupes rot in the field could not pay the express eharg- es and make anything. Of course sold quite a lot to the home trad' and fed wagonloads to my hogs but my crop was practically lost , Tn addition to my other crops,
 planted cowpeas whenever I could find room, even between the row. of strawberries, and also a half
 acre of pop corn and fourth o. an acre of turnips.
 Tn spite of my bad luck on some things, came through all right , and before the leaves began to fal s had my corn crop cut anC shocked, a good lot of cowpeas anC eowpea hay put away, about f
 bushels of fine sweet potatoes stored; also fair crop of Trisf potatoes, bushels of beets "holeC , up," nearly a barrel of dried beans a big lot of Yellow Denver onions , a barrel of dried fruit, worlds ot [ canned stuff from the orchard anC garden, and last, but not least, a
 good fat hog in the pen.
 All last spring, summer and fall
 and so far this winter, I have solo enough stuff from my little farm
 to buy groceries for myself and | wife, and I have lived like a king
 At present writing I have good
 family horse, three head of good calves, a big brood SOW. a good | flock of laying hens, with enough | good corn, hay and fodder to feed them all until grass comes again, land plenty of good stuff to eat un- til I can grow some more.
 Come down. Mir. Editor. and eat some of my sngar-cured ham. smoked with hickory wood, served with red gravy and fried eggs. had almost forgotten to say that I have recently built a new house, or rather rebuilt an old one, and have made so many changes in the place that old timers hardly recognize it any more. The fact is, l havnt done much but get the farm in shape to produce some re- suits that will really be worth re- cording.
 So with my plans for the com- ing year all mapped out, and my star of hope riding high in the sky. l wish you and your great army of readers very happy and prosperous New Year.
 Yours sincerely,
 T. P. Fulton.
 Cove. Ark Dec % iQtf