Evening star., 1914-11-14
TAKING A FAMILY
BACK TO THB SOIL.


ernment Clerk Who Sets Out
III to Lower the High Cost Of Ill
y Living. III
I am going to devote a good share
of todays space to answering ques-
tions, and in the beginning I want to
offer An apology that the answering
of some of them has been so long de-
layed.
Some of the readers who have been
kind enough to write m have wanted
information which, owing to the new
ness to me of the experiment, did not
feel qualified to give. Others have Of
fered suggestions which they wanted
me to try and advise them of the out
come. Naturally, time was required
before L could respond to these. 1t
may be accepted without my avowal.
l think, that I have appreciated all
the friendly advice and suggestions Of
fered Some OF them, however. did not
seem applicable to the conditions sur
rounding my experiment, and l did not
attempt to give them u trial. Some Of
those l tried failed to pan out" due,
it may be, to the unskillful manner in
which l tried them. Others have
worked admirably and l am convinced
they are a great improvement over
the methods 1 had been following.
A correspondent who writes q n the
notehead of the Treasury Department
and signs himself 'B. L. w. asks
three questions which are typical Of
many l have received.
Here is the way he phrases his in
quiries:
Three Typical Questions.
l. Your purpose in going to the country
was to reduce the cost of living. Have
you done it?
.. Could you not have remained in the
city and, by doing as much extra work
as YOU have done in the country, earned
for yourself and family more in the way
of material advantages and pleasures
than YOU have afforded yourself and
them by moving to farm?
3. Would you live in the country for
the sake of the country alone? IN other
words, If the cost of the living problem
was not acute and you had no children
whose health you had to consider, would
you and Jane prefer to live at sunny
knoll' or in your old fiat in the city?
The first question, asked by 'B. l.. W.,
1 have touched upon several times in my
letters Frankly, l can't answer it.
mean by this that l have spent so much
money from which l have yet derived no
return that l can't tell whether | am rich
er or poorer than I was that March day
and tracked over the muddy roads to
Sunny Knoll 1t will require an invoice
and a careful balancing Of the books be-
fore even an approximate answer can be
given, and then the answer will be largely
gueSSwOrk
Hard to Value Assets.
The difficulty is that there are so many
Intangible" assets whichany fair invoice
would have to show. Take, for example
the matter of experience. How can l de-
termine what / lost the past year as the
result of ignorance, or how can l place
valuation upon the experience l have
gained? i certainly made a lot OF mis-
takes which | will not make again, and
that those mistakes cost me money goes
without saying. / cannot tell how much
money they cost me, nor at the END OF
another year will I be able to figure my
profit derived directly as the result OF
experience gained this year.
The added fertility of my soil is another
"intangible'' assets which any fair invoice
| lizers and lime. Part of that, no doubt
got back i'll this years crops, but by far
the larger proportion remains in the soil
will get back some more next year, but
| if | continue to farm intelligently there
will be value there from this years in
vestment as long as work the land. And
then it must be taken into account that
the land doesn' belong to me. We figure
on exercising our option to buy at the
expiration of our lease, but that we shall
do SO is not certain Say. for sake of the
illustration, that L remain here for five
more years. Each year-again assuming
that i shall farm intelligently-I shall
add to the fertility of the soil. And each
year ! shall grow larger and better crops
How is it to be determined how much OF
my investment in fertility l have re-
gained and how much / have left to my
successor
Other Investments for Future.
There are other problems equally as
difficult to work out. I had three acres
cleared of scrub brush, hiring the work
done. If l owned the land that ex-
penditure might be added to my per-
| manent capital investment. But as
am only Il tenant, it will have to be
reckoned as part Of my working capt.
| tai, and unless l am to be loser ! mus,
| get it back with a profit during the pc
| riod of my tenantcy. The same is true
| of the grapes and berries and other
small fruits I have planted The grapes
| especially have a long period of prof
| table bearing ahead of them. but /,
will be two years before ! get any OF
| the fruit. Unless they are to repre-
sent Il loss instead of gain, ] must
remain here until l have harvested
enough fruit to pay for the cost of the
| plants and the labor of planting and
cultivating them. Grapes and berries
therefore. must be charged up as an
| expenditure from working capital, and
for the present, at least, there are nc
income items to set opposite them.
My expenditures for chicken houses
and fences present the problem in a lit
tie different way. My lease gives me
the privilege of tearing them down and
removing them. To do so, of course
| would result in a reduction in value OF
the plant beyond its natural deprecia
ton, but how much that would De
| would depend on how long 1 had used
them before they were torn down.
The best answer to the question I can
give Is that today l am poorer in cash
than ! would have been had we re-
| manned in town. But as an offset to
this we have certain property of more
or less definite tans1bility. Whether
that property is of sufficient value to
equal my loss in cash and fair return
for my labor will depend in a very
large degree on how l use the property
next year and the years after that.
Extra Earnings in Town.
Now we come to the second question,
which. briefly. is: Could I not have
done better for myself and family by
remaining In townsand doing an equal
amount Of extra work there?
The question hardly admits of a cate