PLAN No. 788. FARMER WINS SUCCESS
This farmer, who lives in eastern Washington, tells an interesting story of making a profitable place of his twenty acres of logged-off land:
“When I bought my land six years ago, I only had $15 to pay down, no team or anything to commence with, but I had faith in the land and I commenced to work.
“The first year I did not do anything on the land except to build a house, and I had to work out to support my family. The next winter I slashed and cleared some land in addition to cutting wood for a neighbor. The next year I broke up 8 acres with one horse and set out 375 apple and other trees, raised potatoes and other garden truck and bought a cow. The next year I raised garden truck and my wife and I ran a restaurant in the Y. M. C. A. in Spokane. The next year I broke up three acres more and planted this with the other land to potatoes, turnips, grain etc., working out as much as possible. Last year I sold $100 worth of crops from my eleven to twelve acres, raised grain enough for my two horses and two cows, and vegetables enough for my family; sold butter amounting to $100, and broke three acres more and sowed it to winter wheat.
“I have my land about paid for and have a good frame house of four rooms, a shed, barn, plenty of farm machinery, and about fourteen acres under cultivation. The stumps are not all out yet, but I hope to burn them this year, and get a few more acres cleared up sufficiently to break. I find, after burning the brush, that timothy and clover will do well by sowing in the fall in the ashes in time for them to get a start, and the following year the same grows sufficiently for good pasture. In a year or two the stumps are rotted, so that the cost of clearing is very much reduced and at the same time the pasture is making good food for my cows; and if a small patch is cleared to furnish feed for the winter months, two or more cows will help very much in solving the problem. Of course, chickens have helped us, my wife doing the work with the chickens and milking the cows when I was away earning money. With the large amount of work to be obtained in this country, a man need not be idle any part of the year.”
This is a good illustration of what a man with practically no money can accomplish.