Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-04-21

H\VII east within relatively easy
SVS motoring distance of WASH
tnston, last year produced $40 bushels
Of potatoes per acre on an eighty-acre
tract and every practical farmer and
.pricu,turist east of the Mississippi
river. unacquainted with the facts and
not in possession of the proofs. would
throw up both hands and boot rau-
cously.
But Just that thing was done last
year on a big New Jersey farm.
Talk to even the best and most pro-
xressive truck farmers OF a lettuce crop
worth ss6.417.es and he will hurdle to
the conclusion that you are referring to
the production of an entire section.
Speak OF $4,000 worth of spinach
and your truck grower will blink his
eyes.
Mention a crop of romaine that
brought s12ss7. and he will put you
down as mildly insane.
Tell him that a half acre under glass
produced $1,000 worth of radishes last
wear, and he will begin to doubt the
ACCESSIBILITY of qualifying adjectives IN
describing your mental condition
Go ahead and talk about cucumbers
to. the value Of s1l.s44,6o, grown on
trellises in the English fashion; can
bage crop that brought more than
$4,000; Strawberries to the amount OF
s2s,l2S. and the man used to the Two
or three figure results obtained on the
general run of market gardens ana
truck farms is likely to call up the
nearest asylum and ask about padded
cells and straitjackets.
-
Yet these are the figures, attested by
one of the biggest auditing concerns IN
the country. for the New Jersey farm
referred to.
On this showing and that made for
fve-year period from 1912. the United
States government has just closed
contract to take the entire crop of sta
pie vegetables produced at Seabrook
during the cropping season OF 1918 for
the use of American soldiers in France.
The crops to be grown. il is stated. are
to include tomatoes potatoes, squashes.
carrots, beets and similar staples. The
tomatoes are to be pulped, the pulp
canned and exported in concentrated
form. Potatoes. carrots. etc. will be
sliced and dried, squash is to be cooked
and canned as pulp, and beets are to
be canned ready for use.
So far as is known. the Seabrook
farm is the only farm in the United
States able to produce staple vegetables
In the quantities desired by the govern
ment.
Last years gross total for the Sea-
brook farms. near Bridgeton, n. J., was
deducting all expenses. overhead. COM
missions, etc.-the absolute net for the
farm-were s54.22s71
That is another bald statement that
the average truck and general farmer
is likely to receive with boots and
jeers. The best way to make such a
statement is to make it in as few words
statement with proofs.
Up to 1912 C. F. Seabrook, owner of
Seabrook farms, was in business with
his father in the trucking business. He
was born and reared within a few miles
Of the present farms, had little more
education or training than is within
the reach of the average farm boy in
any we'll developed section of the east
but he had imagination, foresight, in
itiative. and as soon as he had taken
fair hold of the original farm he began
to try out new methods of which he
had heard.
Among these was heavy fertilization,
PRINCIPALLY WIN stable manure; careful
selection of seed. extra care in cultiya-
tion and application of straight-out fac
tory standardization of cost, upkeep,
overhead and all expenses, and exact
methods of reckoning profits.
In 1912 young Seabrook had a few
acres of the original farm under a sys-
tenn of overhead irrigation which had
just been worked out by the Depart
ment of Agriculture. Use of manure
in quantities never even dreamed of by
the average farmer and the never-fail-
Ing supply Of moisture insured by the
irrigation pipes, combined with a sea-
son of high prices such as every farmer
dreams of. but few ever realize that
year brought to the Seabrooks father
and son. more money than they had
ever seen at one time before
When profits and loss had been fig
ured it was found the farm had earned.
net for that year more than S24 900
There is where the elder and younger
Seabrook split. The father wanted to
take that money and bury it deep down
in bank somewhere, where it would
draw or 3 per cent interest, and re-
tire. The son couldn't see it that way:
he wanted to put 1t back into the farm
and make it earn more that way. The
result was that the son bought the father
out and since then has run the farm him.
self.
At present Seabrook farms consist of