Norwich bulletin., 1918-03-22

Cwrittsn Specially For The Bulletin.l A neighbor the other day handed me a book which he said he thought might be interested in.
 It was one of the sort, so common nowadays, in which the author un- dertook to show city folks how easy and profitable farming, more especially tue gardening end of it. is.
 zeu'Il all recognize the type. fsade Up of about equal parts of "Tha Gar den Magazine. Country Tafe in Amer tea, reports of various Experiment stations. and Dr. BaiIey's Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It undertoog to tell the poor city man who has tired of his "cabined, cribbed ai1d confined" life how he might escape it and live hap- pily forever afterwards on ten acres or three acres or even less.
 To prove which contention it quot cd numerous reports, made by all sorts of people, about all sorts of farm and garden triumphs..
 lii opening the book, 1t ciauced that my eye fell. first of all on the report of what one man raised on two strips of lsad, respectively 21x100 feet, and 1Ox50 feet-about 2,500 square feet iii all. One seventeenth of an acre, speaking roughly. He claims to have produced 100 melons at ten cents each; twenty squash at twelve cents each; 60 ears of corn at ono cent eacfs; seventeen bushels of peas, to- n1atoes and beets, besides lettuce, cab bages. radishes, onions and beans; al . together to the value of s41 The cost Of raising these tl1ings-as he figured it--wss SS.75. leaving him the very neat profit of $3275. This was some thing like the rate of $550 an acre And. the author goes on; "As we have shown. this may be doubled or trebied."
 have occasionally thought that ! knew a little something about veg etabIe gardening However, as have never reached this rate of profit on my five to seven acres of gardens ] was anxious to know how this other chap did At. He certainly got good prices fort some of his things, though nothing eSorbitant or fancy. But g profit of sss.75 from an outlay of $S.7; got my goat, as the boys say.
 Fortunately for my curiosity, this
 
 supplied an itemized bill of his cost Here it Is, and want you folks who know something about working land to see it. the same as I did:
 
 Manure, three loads ...., 3.0C Ashes. three barrels ..... 1.2C l, Half-bag fertilizer ...s... 1.25 -i50 fl. wire ne:s for peas ...... 1.2f
 Total if' ..,f. -....,............ $S.7; g sf read those items over, severa times. And then began to scratch m, head
 The situation plainly called fo, scratching. long. continuous an; thorough;
 or course, l don't know how mucl seed he bought and so cannot forn any conclusion about the adequacy o fliat item But
 Manure at q dollar a load on tn land? My, don't I wish I could bu, some at that ratei Why, it costs m, --tfiat, if1 go two miles after it with m, own team and draw and spread it my self. Drawn and spread it costs m, S2.5n, 2 load. and serious difficulty il getting it, at that.
 His ashes, too. certainly .Ver mighty cheap, if they were really un leacled hardwood ashes, the only kint worth handling.
 Probably he could get a lalf-bag o fertilizer for s1.25, if he wasn't to, particular about the analysis Blu who= took the other half? My deale AvoH't epen 0 1s7 pound bag and SC! me half. At least, not unless I pa him so Tnucli for my half that he ca, -sffor to faTc the ether left or hi shaPdk sindefnitsly.s
 And now aheut that wire netting He seems to lave got hold of some a sl.29 Q bale of 150 feet. The las n-ice which was charged me for bale of 24-inch wide, two- inch nesl netting was S2.50, or SS.10 for ,39-incl Wide. tTo-inch mesh netting was g. 5G or B. 10 for, 30-inch wide These are tn narrowest which are worth whila con sidering for peas. and it would talk at least double that width to supper properly vines of such varieties a Champion or Telephone. Leaving the seed, ashes and fertiIiz CT -utst of consideration, l should hay to add at least 55.s0 to his manure an netting items to get the same things And then shall have made onl