Charlevoix county herald., 1914-11-21
An Optimist.
CHAPTER |.

was living on farm Wnere Ihe CloNei
is blooming, the birds are singing,
and the air is full of the hum of bees
and the sweet fragrance of the flow
ers. The place was large city in the
Middle West, and the man was jim
Smith.
Jim was just forty-three years old
that day. He stood five feet ten, and
weighed two hundred and two pounds.
His face was bright red, but he was
not sunburnt, and he had been an
alderman.
Jim came home earlier than usual
for supper, for he had a secret to tell
his wife and daughter. He was a
good-natured fellow-good to his wife
and adored by his daughter. He had
been thinking of late that although
he had lived in the great city all his
life he had not been able to save any
money. They had lived well, always
having the best, and seeing all the
sights, for he had received plenty of
comp" tickets while he could deliver
the ward vote; but the day of Woman
Suffrage, and the "Drys" had, so to
speak. Clipped his wings" and he
had determined to leave the city and
began life all over again.
He also realized that he was get
ting near that invisible line called the
age limit" where he could no longer
hope to get a job in every shop, be-
cause they wanted younger men, and
his new plan seemed almost neces-
Sity.
He had seen an advertisement in
one of the papers which stated that
a man could buy a piece of land in
Michigan, and by planting two acres
of it to strawberries he could have an
annual return of 81 200. Another two
acres to raspberries would yield $500.
One acre to garden crops would keep
the family, and furnish some veget-
ables to sell. Five acres seeded to
alfalfa would furnish enough hay to
keep two horses and three cows, as
three crops could be cut each year,
and stock fed on alfalfa did not need
anything else except shoes and water
1t also said he should keep ten acres
for timber, for the wood was being
rapidly cut off and an advance in lum-
Der was sure to follow.
There was one more statement
which attracted his eye. and made
him determine to buy this farm. 1t
said that this particular piece of land
WAS uTN, anu Ildu al SdlluN obli' cRhh
was an ideal place to raise chickens.
Chickens! The name was like magic
to his ears. One of his neighbors
kept chickens in his back yard in the
city, and sold several thousand dol
,ars' worth of eggs and prize stock
each year. and here on the same page
Of the paper was this neighbours adj
vertisement telling how his particular
areed of hens would make five dollars
per year for any man if fed his patent
chick feed, which just made the hens
law whether they wanted to or not.
Sometimes they could not get to the
nest in time, and laid them in the hen
ward, and double yolk eggs were sim
ply because they tried to save time
by laying two eggs in one shell so
they could have more opportunity to
eat his patent chick feed.
Jim made up his mind right then
and there that if a chicken could
make five dollars per year all he
needed was one thousand hens, two
acres of strawberries, two acres of
raspberries, one acre of garden, and
five acres of alfalfa, which would pro
duce three crops year.
Then he began figuring his yearly
income. How much would three crops
of alfalfa amount TO? 1t would keep
two horses and three cows. That was
easy. He would ask the city barn
boss, where the city horses were kept,
how much it took to keep two horses,
and that would tell him exactly how
much he could expect from his alfalfa
lot. So he called up Pat, the barn
boss.
"Hello, Pat, is it you? Glad to hear
your voice this beautiful afternoon.
Now, Pat, am going to be farmer,
and / am just figuring out how much
alfalfa hay is worth. Could you tell
me about how much it costs to feed
one of your horses on hay?"
''Hay is it ,ye're after?" said Pat.
"Well, faith, it somewhat depends on
how many Of the alderman's horses
help to ate it, but it is safe to say
that alfalfa hay in this barn is worth
twenty-five dollars per ton, and a
horse will ate, ten tons year"
Thank yOu," said Jim, chat was
what / wanted to know"
"Ten times $25 is $3.50, and two
times that is $500. l suppose the
cows will eat as much, so that will
be $3.50 more, or $3.50 for my al
falfa lot. That will make me an in
come of over $4,000 year, and that
is not so bad after all"
He called on the real estate agent
and asked for information regarding
the land advertised He was told j;
was dirt cheap at the price named
but seeing that he had been an alder
man of the city he was willing to give
him a deed for a payment of SIS pei
acre down, the balance in small
monthly installments suitable to him
self. He was sure that any man could
pay for his farm in one year after
he had gotten in his crops, and he
was glad to show his faith in the land
by being willing to wait until jim
could produce the money from his
crops to nav for il.