728. California Prunes.—This great state has now 85,000 acres planted with prunes, and produced last year 65,000,000 pounds. The crop has grown from nothing to this enormous amount in the last few years. People do not rush into an enterprise in this way unless they are pretty sure it is a good thing. The “good thing” in this case is that prunes costing one and one half cents per pound to raise sell for six and seven cents, and the prune raisers are all getting rich.
729. A Bee Farm.—Here is another California bonanza. Says a man in the southern part of the State: “Last year I marketed ten tons of extracted honey, and three tons of comb honey, all from 154 colonies. I received on an average ten cents per pound, or a total of $3,600. The space employed was 1,386 feet, or somewhat less than an acre.”
730. The Apple Acre.—A man in New England said that after forty years experience, raising all kinds of crops, he found that his apple orchard averaged $55 per acre, which was better than any crop on his other 200 acres of land.
731. The Sugar Beet.—Purchase a farm within a few miles of a sugar beet factory. With proper cultivation you can grow nine tons to the acre, and the factory price should be $4.50 per ton. The thriftiness of the beet makes little trouble with weeds, and hence the expense of raising is not one-fourth that of onions.
732. Gilt-Edged Breeds.—The sum of $5,100 was recently paid for a Poland-China boar. A litter of pigs of this breed brought $3,500. These sums seem almost incredible, but when people have both the mania and the money they will pay any amount to gratify their taste. There are persons who take as much pride in pigs as others do in horses. The best way to succeed with new breeds is to cultivate a strain for yourself. It requires time, patience and experience, and some outlay in risk, but in the end it pays, especially if one has the gift of knowing how to trumpet his stock.
733. December Layers.—With a trifling expense you can have eggs at Christmas as well as at Easter. The price is often more than double at the former season. Connect with hot water-pipes and keep your hens warm. A cold hen never lays an egg. A poultry expert says if a flock is well cared for the whole year round, it should pay annually for each hen $1 net. At the same rate a flock of four hundred would bring a net income of $400.
734. Florida Celery.—In Florida the first growers made from $500 to $1,500 per acre. Competition has reduced the price, but at present rates men with six acres are getting a comfortable support, and those who have the means to cultivate a large farm of this popular vegetable are rapidly growing rich.
735. Oneida Hops.—It takes a good many hops to weigh a pound, but growers in Oneida County, New York, have raised 1,400 pounds per acre, receiving therefor $112. Probably this is somewhat better than the average, but profits in even low-price years are better in that section of the country than for any other crop. Hops are a safe and easy crop.
736. Boston Beans.—They are not raised in Boston—only baked there. They are a hardy crop, and will grow on any properly cultivated soil. One year with another they bring $2.50 per bushel. Beans are the surest of all crops, and if the price were only as certain, you could figure out your income in advance almost as accurately as if employed on a salary.
737. Christmas Trees.—Buy for a few hundred dollars an abandoned farm too poor for culture, and pack it with small evergreens. Christmas trees command from fifty cents to $5, and you can grow a thousand of them on a single acre. There are fortunes in what is called worthless land if you know how to improve it.