The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-10-20
$4,000 CROP TAKEN
FROM BENNINGTON
CABBAGE PATCH
John Squires Achieves Spectacu-
lar Results from 12-Acre Plot
VEGETABLES WORTH $42 A TON
TWO Carloads Already sold-Harvest-
ing Shows Patch VIII Return
Average of II 1-2 Tons to the Acre /

A Vermont cabbage patch worth
$S000-more than enough to pay for
the 177-acre farm from which the
crop is being harvested-is sight
that is attracting considerable atten'
ton these days just west Of Old Ben
nington. The patch, II acres of it, is
on the farm of John Squires who
moved back to Vermont about two
years ago from Skeneatles, N. Y.
Cabbages are high this year and the
prices are likely to reach even greater
heights. Mr. Squires has already
sold two carloads of his crop for
S42.50 a ton. He says that there isn't
an acre in the patch that will harvest
less than Is tons and some of them
will yield as much as 20 tons Sup
posing the patch averages IL IL tons
10 the acre. This would make the
total for the whole II acres 2lO tons.
If cabbage is worth $42 ton in the
market ii doen't take large amount
of figuring to show gross income OF
better than eight thousand dollars.
Mr.. Squires says that the larger
part of the labor in producing the crop
was in the planting. The plants were
set with the aid of a machine and all
of this work was done by Mr.. Squires
and his two daughters. Harvesting
and hauling to the car will, involve
some labor and expense but not
much more than would be required in
- avt1ac
This is not the first time that Mr.
Sauires has raised cabbages. He was
formerly resident of Manchester
where he owned farm which he sold
about FIVE years ago to Robert I. Lin
coin and which is now part OF the
Lincoln estate. After disposing or
the Manchester property he bought
the farm on which he is now harvest
ing the big crop of cabbages and paid
$4,000 for it, There were good build
ings on the place and the land was In
fair state of cultivation. Because
of the death of Mrs. Squire's father at
Skeneatles he moved to that town ana
for nearly three years carried on
farm owned by the family.
Skeneatles is in the cabbage belt
and tons of the vegetables are raised
there each year and shipped to nearby
saurkraut factories. Like the other
farmers in and about Skeneatles, he
raised cabbage and thus acquired
knowledge of the business.
Mrs. Squires' mother died about two
wears ago. the estate was settled and
the farm sold and the family returned
l., hnf~ homo
the place at Old Bennington which
had not received all the attention 1t
required during their absence but was
still in fairly good shape.
Soon after Mr. Squires' return to
Bennington he expressed the opinion
that the soil i'm this vicinity was FAR
superior to that of central New York
state for the raising of cabbage. He
not only believed that natural condt-
tions we're better but he was confident
that vegetables higher in quality and
more in number could be raised here
for the reason that the crop was
new one. In the Skeneatles country,
he said, cabbage has been the main
farming industry for years and as a
result the soil has become infected
with the diseased condition that FOL
lows the continual raising of one crop.
The results attained prove that his
faith in Vermont as a cabbage country
has been verified.
His cabbage patch is not his first
unusual farming exploit Last year
Mr. Squires planted a section of land
to wheat, crop not much raised in
Vermont, and secured some startling
results.