The Mena weekly star., 1913-01-09
TDe @aktns OOer
 of an Dl0 Garm
Experiences of T. P. Fulton oi
 Cove, As Related by Himself.

letters 01 inquiry rom SuDScflDcfS living in different parts of the United States since 1 began writing an occasion article for The Star and Democrat concerning the progress have been making on my little i0- acre farm, I have decided .o make another report before the old year gets too far along in the annals of the past" as the school girl says in her composition.
 Well, to be as brief as possible, I will say that after two years and three months of grubbing and chopping, fencing, building, ditch ing and filling up gullies, l am be- ginning to make my place look fairly well, and if 1 am spared for two years more will make the old 40 blossom like a rose. When an old man starts out to build up an old Polk county farm with nothing but his two horny hands as hls working capital, he takes big job, want to tell you, but it is patient toll that makes the world move, as we'll as to make Arkansas farms look better. Yes, sir, 1 am on top of the grubs and sprouts, black berry bushes and the diabolical green brier vines. Got 'em all go- ing, and am now clearing out pine grove for some new corn ground. Did any of you fellows ever tackle a pine grove after a gang of loggers had made it look like a Kansas cyclone had warped through it? Well, that is tho kind of a job l have on hand, and by heaving and setting, pulling and hauling, sweating and conversing to myself in some foreign language, 1 managed to get an acre burned off in two or three weeks. l say burned off, because I pile the pine tops together, roll the logs into heaps and let the fire do the rest. Hot fires? Well I should smother! I am now looking at this paper un- der scorched eyebrows and through little stubs of winkers. Pine tim Der, by the way, is not much good for anything except lumber and a cheap grade of shingles. It will answer for summer stove wood for quick fire, but there is very little carbon in it and the ashes are not good for fertilizing purposes, as they contain no potash.
 Speaking about corn ground brings me to a report on what I produced on my little place last year. It is not altogether what we do on our farms, but what we get out of them. It is well enough to make improvements, for they in crease values, but we must live while we work, and we should make our living out of our farms. This l am glad to say, I have been ablc to do ever since I took charge of the place. I will say in this connection however, that 1 have done cOnSid- erable work for my neighhors tC help along. l even took my faith full old horse and plowed corn all day last Fourth of July to carr Sl.50 Better that than to spend two or three dollars for firewateI or go in debt at the store. Debt That is what is the matter witt most of our farmers. It keeps theil noses to the grindstone all the time and they don't seem to know how to shake off the shackles.
 I failed to keep an exact account of everything I marketed from the farm last year, but I began with early apples at 20 cents a gallor and wound up on dried fruit at S cents per pound During the sum- mer months I sold apples by the Ibushel and melons by the wagon load, and they all bought groceries and other necessities. I also mar keted quite a lot of vegetables out of my garden and I had the frs sweet potatoes that went into town which l sold for Si per bushel Last fall a year ago I bought anC traded for three calves, which cOs
 me on an average of $5 each I got them through to grass without costing me a dollar, and in June sold them for $i0 each. I planted about five acres of my best anC in corn, marking the rows foul feet apart each way and planting one grain in the hill. l plowed tho corn four times and hoed it care fully twice, and l had the best crOI of corn in the neighborhood. TC the best of my knowledge it would average 9 bushels per acre, whicf is pretty good for old ground. Or May t5 my Duroc brood SOW far rowed four fine pigs from a regis tered Duroc sire, and as soon a. the corn was sufficiently mature began feeding. In November butchered one of my pigs, whicf made some fine meat and saved mt the expense of paying f7 and iS cents per pound for packing house salt horse. Early in December butchered another pig and, MT. Ed ltOr, l wish you would come dowr and eat a couple of slices of the smoked ham out of that pig. Or December 26 I butchered the 300- pound mother of the pigs. Why Because she was not prolific enough for her size and weight. Her frs litter of pigs was five and her sec ond only four. She should have farrowed eight or ten. Aside fror I