The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-05-10
INCOMES FROM TENDED ACRES
RY ISAAC L. TOTEM.

BY ISAAC /. TOTEM.
1t is surprising how few acres are
really required to provide good living
for family.
When one acre is farmed along the
most advanced lines it produces food
stuffs in marvelously large quantities.
1t was our pleasure to visit an old
acquaintance a short time ago who Is
doing things almost phenomenal on
ave acre tract.
Three years ago he began growing
vegetables, not variety, but just one
kind; because he has no market for
general line of vegetables.
This practice of specializing, we be-
lieye, is, In most cases, productive of
better results than that of generaliza-
ing.
AS the saying goes: IF you do not
want the shot to scatter put in single
shot"
We learn that thorough study Of
the crops we are trying to produce on
our farms makes for larger profits,
yet when we have SO many crops and
look after we cannot, because of time
ad the lack of competent help, do JUS
tice to them all
This old acquaintance of ours does
not depend upon the local market for
the sale of his product, he sells his
entire crop to the buyer who comes to
his little place to buy the vegetables.
BY handling only the one crop he
can study it's requirements better than
IL he were raising a variety of crops
and he does not have to devote time
to peddling or to standing on the mar
ket square.
Concentrating my efforts on the
one CROP" said he, affords an oppor-
tunity to go more deeply into the spe-
cial requirements of my business.
There are few men who could make
success of any marked degree II they
tried to practice law, medicine and do
number of other things of profess
sional nautre all at the same time.
1T would be a physical impossibility
for them to do justice to SO many
things, while in centralizing their eff
forts on one line of endeavor they at
tain the highest degree of efficiency
in that one line.
"The same reasoning, believe.
holds true in the farming business as
in the others"
An outline Of how our friend han
dies his five acres will show that there
IL substance in his reasoning.
His soil was exceptionally wet, and
this, of course, means that he must
do certain amount of draining. The
crop which he raises requires consid-
cradle moisture, but not quite so much
as the soil held throughout the plant
ing and growing seasons. The problem.
then. that confronted him when it
came to the subject of drainage was
How should he drain just so much and
no more, that Is, how could he keep
from overdraining his land.
The solution was quite simple when
he reasoned it out. He put in enough
tile to drain the soil thoroughly when
necessary and when he wanted to hold
the moisture in the ground he used a
piece of board as valve to shut
of the water at the tile outlet.
"One Sunday" said he, my wife
and I went visiting. That was during
the growing season and l had the tile
shut of. While we were away from
home there came up heavy rain
storm which flooded my vegetables.
When we came home we had little
lake all our own; but we did not care
to run as ummer resort; our business
was that. of growing vegetables.
when l saw the water it did not
take me long to get on my rubber
boots and hurry as quickly as possible
to the tile outlet and remove the
board that prevented the tile from do
ing their work. Within three hours
from the time that l removed the
board the water had practically all dis
appeared from the surface of the
ground and then put the board back
in it's place at the tile outlet to hold
the remaining quantity of water.
He does all of his blowing in the
fall; because he has learned through
experience that by so doing he can get
out his crop earlier in the spring than
If he waited until spring to do the
plowing.
BY blowing the ground in the fall he
claimed that the weeds will start ear
Her In the spring and give him a
chance to kill most of them before the
crop is planted. He virtually tends the
greater part Of his crop before he
plants it.
Before he put out his crop this
spring he used the harrow six times
and the drag four times. and 1t is not
difficult to imagine the condition of his
seed bed His soil is naturally loose,
too.
AS soon as the seeds in the ground
he begins to use hard weeder, and
IL 1t does not rain too often before