| Cost of stable manure and ashes | $248.00 |
| Plaster and guano, not all used | 20.00 |
| Ploughing, harrowing, and digging up the garden | 30.00 |
| Cabbage and tomato plants | 30.00 |
| Loss on my first cow | 7.00 |
| Garden seeds | 8.00 |
| Cost of six pigs | 12.00 |
| Corn-meal and bran | 28.00 |
| Dick’s wages for six months | 72.00 |
| $455.00 |
Here was an outlay of $455, all of which was likely to occur every year, except the two items of loss on cow, and cost of buying cabbages and tomato-plants, which have subsequently been raised in a hotbed at home, without costing a dollar. The great item is in manure, amounting to $268; and this must be kept at the same figure, if not increased, unless an equal quantity can, by some process, be manufactured at home.
Then there was the following permanent outlay made in stocking the farm with fruit:
| Strawberries for six acres | $120.00 |
| Raspberries for two acres | 34.00 |
| 804 Peach-trees, and planting them | 72.36 |
| $226.36 |
This constituted a permanent investment of capital, and would not have to be repeated, so that the actual cost the first year was, as stated, $455. My own time and labor are not charged, because that item is adjusted in the grand result of whether the farm supported me or not. There was also the cost of horse and cow, ploughs, and other tools; but these, too, were investments, not expenses. They could be resold for money, no doubt, at some loss. A portion of that capital could therefore be recovered. So, also, with the large item of $226.36 invested in standard fruits; as, if the farm were sold its being stocked with them would insure its bringing a higher price in consequence, probably enough to refund the capital thus invested.
It is fair, therefore, to charge the current expenses only against the current receipts. The latter were as follows:
| Sales of | blackberry plants | $460.00 |
| “ | cabbages | 82.00 |
| “ | tomatoes | 120.00 |
| “ | garden products | 80.00 |
| “ | pork | 49.00 |
| $791.00 | ||
| Current expenses, as stated | 455.00 | |
| Profit | 336.00 | |
This was about $1.25 per day for the two hundred and seventy-five days we had been in the country, from April 1st to January 1st, and, when added to our copious supplies of vegetables, fruit, pork, and milk, it kept the family in abundance. I proved this by a very simple formula. I knew exactly how much cash I had on hand when I began in April, and from that amount deducted the cost of all my permanent investments in standard fruits, stock, and implements, and found that the remainder came within a few cents of the balance on hand in January. I did not owe a dollar, and had food enough to keep my stock till spring. The season had been a good one for me, and we felt the greatest encouragement to persevere, as the first difficulties had been overcome, and the second season promised to be much more profitable. I considered the problem as very nearly solved.
It will be noted that no cash was received for strawberries, and herein is involved a fact important to be known and acted on by the growers of this fruit. Most men, when planting them, say in March or April, are impatient for a crop in June. But this should never be allowed. As soon as the blossoms appear, they should be removed. The newly transplanted vine has work enough thrown upon its roots in repairing the damage it has suffered in being removed from one location to another, without being compelled, in addition, to mature a crop of fruit. To require it to do both is imposing on the roots a task they are many times unable to perform. The draft upon them by the ripening fruit is more than they can bear. I have known large fields of newly-planted vines perish in a dry season from this cause alone. The writers on strawberry culture sometimes recommend removing the blossoms the first year, but not with sufficient urgency. I lay it down as absolutely indispensable to the establishment of a robust growth. Thus believing, my blossoms were all clipped off with scissors; and hence, though stronger plants were thus produced, yet there was no fruit to sell.
It must also be remembered that my entire profit consisted of the single item of sales of plants; hence, if there had been no demand for Lawtons, or if I had happened to have none for sale, there would have been an actual loss. My having them was a mere accident, and my luck in this respect was quite exceptional. Unless others happen to be equally lucky, they may set down their first year as very certain to yield no profit. With persons as inexperienced as I was when beginning, no other result should be expected.