The Washington herald., 1912-12-08

mental Farms at Medford and
Wading River.
~ is one thing to run a farm: another
thing to make it pay. 1t is hard work
to grow and gather fruits and vegeta-
bles, but that is nothing to the diff
culties encountered by the inexperienced
farmer who attempts to market the pro-
cuce in the city for a price that will
pay the actual expenses incident to max
ing It grow.
From :he consumers end of the line
It is all part of the high cost of living.
The producer knows that he gets only
3 small '-taction of the price for which
his pro-ooe is sold in the city markets.
Both soAns the middlenIan. but there are
so many rliddlemen mnd such complex
machinery Tor getttng AZ rorts OF food
supplies rom ,hs farm az the producer
10 the homo Of JSe consumer. thRt no one
seems to know exactly how to get around
the difficulty without putting into mo-
ton other machinery that might in the
end be equally complicated and costly.
1t may be some help to women who
are interested in farming-whether on
their own account or because they are
trying to devise some means to help
their husbands in the uphill task of
making the farm pay-to learn how
we solved this problem on our Long
Island farm.
My husband and I took up the work
of intensive farming about seven
years ago. when We were given charge
of an experiment made by the Long
Island Railroad Company, to see IL
the pine barrens in the middle of the
island could be utilized for farming
land. We were given everything that
was actually necessary to work with,
but we had no fancy equipment. as
the whole purpose of the experiment
was to test whether or not people
could 90 into this uncultivated dis
trict, where for generations the sandy
soil had produced nothing but scrub
oak and scrubbier pine, and wrest a
living out of that same soil.
Therefore our necessity to make that
farm pay was quite as great as that Of
the farmer whose whole living depends
upon the crops. In sense, our living did
depend upon the crops we could produce,
and not alone our living. but our reputa-
tiOn as farmers and people capable of
making good in the task We had under
taken.
1t was no trouble 10 make things grow.
for the soil ". mad to work was vir-
gin as any ON the far frontier. We soon
had plenty Of things to sell The ques-
ton was how to sell them. True, we
were near enough TO New York to be
within reach of our market; yet other
farmers around us were plowing up their
crops of prime vegeta bIes of one sort or
another because it did not pay TO pack
them and send them into the city. Just
why this was so was a problem that ap-
peared to be beyond solution, for prices
in the city remained stationary or
climbed higher. even when the farmer
was not getting enough to pay for the
picking and transportation of his crops.
Finally we hit upon a solution, and,
Judging by the way the idea has spread
not to mention our own success with it
It appears to be the solution sought for
by many farmers with fruit and vege-
tables to sell.
Our discovery was of the possibilities
of the home hamper-a wooden crate
holding six spIint baskets filled with
fresh vegeta bles and fruits apd expressed
straight from the farm to the hungry
city dweller. No stops at commission