The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-08-27
FINDS NEW BONNET
IN HER HENS NEST
Process by Which Women
Farmers Do Things
SOIL YIELDS LUXURIES
As Well rs the Staff Of Life. for the
Coin is Easily Extracted from III
Iatter-Grcat Things a 14-Acrc
Farm Can DO and Does.

Mary Rankin Cranston. a New York
librarian, a few years ago fell victim
to the country micrObe. h was Civ
ing all her mental and physical
strength to her work, getting in re-
turn a good enough salary as salaries
go, but only that and nothing more.
She hunted about, found a little
farm in New Jersey, made a payment
on it with her savings of six years
savings from money earned by extra
work. not from her regular salary
and two and a half years later she
quit library work for good and NOV
ed out to her farm.
She planted potatoes and failed.
She planted rye n failed. But IN
the second failure she learned a les
son about raising hay that was worth
the failure. She nursed the fruit trees
already on the place and added more,
planted some berry bushes bought
some chickens and for the first time
IL her life, knew the real meaning Of
the word Independence"
New Dresses on Berry Bushes.
From the beginning the little farm
of fourteen acres has paid living ex-
penseS. If its owner wants a new hat,
says the Housekeeper, she finds 1t In
the hens nests. If she needs a new
dress there is one hanging on the Der
ry bushes or on the fruit trees; and
from the hay field can be harvested
new books or a buggy, as the need Of
the moment may be. So far Mrs. Gram
ston has done all Of the work herself
except the ploughing. narrowing and
cultivaing.
I look after my horse, chickens. gar
den. crops n housekeeping all alone
and love every bit Of it, she declared
enthusiastically. And IN spare moments
she has received enough from maga.
zine articles and from lectures to pay
for q new house.
She would not recommend her sort
OF farm life for leisure lovers, but in
return for constant work and good
management she has found independ-
ence, keen pleasure and the best pos
sible opportunity for self develop
ment. Incidentally she has discovered
hat h can do a bigger days work
than she ever dreamed Of and feel the
better for it
Another Dooryard Heroine.
Miss Mary f. Boots. Of Milpitas,
Cal. is another ~dooryard heroine.
Though Miss Boots grew up on a
ranch, her education fitted her as we'll
for teaching or giving music les
sons as for ranching; but when her
father died and left his ranch to be
divided among his children Miss Boots
did not let her brothers manage her
share with theirs. She wanted it sep
arate. because-weil, because she al
ways had wanted what belonged to
her, individually. with no partnership.
She had begun on her own hook. in
her own ~dOOryard. aS a child when,
with money earned from chickens. she
bought a COW. With this beginning she
kept on until she had quite a herd
breeding from fine strains of Hol.
stems.
Whatever she now has. whether 8
COW, a collie, a strawberry plant or q
wagon. it must be the best. In addi
ton to cattle, Miss Boots has made G
speciality Of tomatoes, potatoes, straw
berries and raSpberries. When the LANG
gets Door she plants alfalfa.
Money in Flowers.
Years ago IN invalid woman il
Ventura, Cal, stepped out of her bach
door into her flower garden in tn.
hope of sharing the husbands burden
Of supporting the family. She love(
her flowers, and by working amons
them she clung fast to the slendei
thread by which her life hung. Sh'
turned that love to account, and il
time the name of Theodosia 8
SheDherd came to be known anon,
florists, from ocean to ocean,. as a seet
grower and the originator Of mar
splendid varieties Of flowers.
In that first little garden Mrs. Shep
herdS helper was her si~x-year-ol
DAUGHTER and as the business grew
Myrtle SheDherd learned the WAYS q
1t unco~nsciously. Her marriage too
her away from home, but when wit,
her mothers passing there came
question Of selling the gardens sh
could not let them go. Thus she too
the management of the business.
Specialization the Thing.
Already she had learned that til
thing to do was to specialize. Sh
began with petunias, that faithf,
denizen Of the humbles1 garden. Sh
q doubled it, and heightened ia
stem and coaxed it into colors N
forms that rival, the orchid. and he
latest achievement, one toward While
foriculturists ave striven for yea
is the causing Of the double varieti,
y to seed. Meanwhile she has carried {