



Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team










THE HOME ACRE

E. P. ROE






CONTENTS

   CHAPTER I   TREE-PLANTING

  CHAPTER II   FRUIT-TREES AND GRASS

 CHAPTER III   THE GARDEN

  CHAPTER IV   THE VINEYARD AND ORCHARD

   CHAPTER V   THE RASPBERRY

  CHAPTER VI   THE CURRANT

 CHAPTER VII   STRAWBERRIES

CHAPTER VIII   THE KITCHEN-GARDEN

  CHAPTER IX   THE KITCHEN-GARDEN (Concluded)




CHAPTER I

TREE-PLANTING


Land hunger is so general that it may be regarded as a natural craving.
Artificial modes of life, it is true, can destroy it, but it is apt to
reassert itself in later generations. To tens of thousands of
bread-winners in cities a country home is the dream of the future, the
crown and reward of their life-toil. Increasing numbers are taking what
would seem to be the wiser course, and are combining rural pleasures
and advantages with their business. As the questions of rapid transit
are solved, the welfare of children will turn the scale more and more
often against the conventional city house or flat. A home CAN be
created in rented dwellings and apartments; but a home for which we
have the deed, a cottage surrounded by trees, flowers, lawn, and
garden, is the refuge which best satisfies the heart. By means of such
a suburban nook we can keep up our relations with Nature and all her
varied and health-giving life. The tired man returning from business
finds that his excited brain will not cease to act. He can enjoy
restoring rest in the complete diversion of his thoughts; he can think
of this tree or that plant, and how he can fill to advantage unoccupied
spaces with other trees, flowers, and vegetables. If there is a Jersey
cow to welcome him with her placid trust, a good roadster to whinny for
an airing, and a flock of chickens to clamor about his feet for their
supper, his jangling nerves will be quieted, in spite of all the bulls
and bears of Wall Street. Best of all, he will see that his children
have air and space in which to grow naturally, healthfully. His
fruit-trees will testify to his wisdom in providing a country home. For
instance, he will observe that if sound plums are left in contact with
stung and decaying specimens, they too will be infected; he will see
that too close crowding renders the prospect for good fruit doubtful;
and, by natural transition of thought, will be glad that his boys and
girls are not shut in to the fortuitous associations of hall-way and
street. The area of land purchased will depend largely on the desires
and purse of the buyer; but about one acre appears to satisfy the
majority of people. This amount is not so great that the business man
is burdened with care, nor is its limit so small that he is cramped and
thwarted by line fences. If he can give to his bit of Eden but little
thought and money, he will find that an acre can be so laid out as to
entail comparatively small expense in either the one or the other; if
he has the time and taste to make the land his play-ground as well as
that of his children, scope is afforded for an almost infinite variety
of pleasing labors and interesting experiments. When we come to co-work
with Nature, all we do has some of the characteristics of an
experiment. The labor of the year is a game of skill, into which also
enter the fascinating elements of apparent chance. What a tree, a
flower, or vegetable bed will give, depends chiefly upon us; yet all
the vicissitudes of dew, rain, frost, and sun, have their part in the
result. We play the game with Nature, and she will usually let us win
if we are not careless, ignorant, or stupid. She keeps up our zest by
never permitting the game to be played twice under the same conditions.
We can no more carry on our garden this season precisely as we did last
year than a captain can sail his ship exactly as he did on the
preceding voyage. A country home makes even the weather interesting;
and the rise and fall of the mercury is watched with scarcely less
solicitude than the mutations of the market.

In this chapter and in those which may ensue I merely hope to make some
useful suggestions and give practical advice--the result of experience,
my own and others'--which the reader may carry out and modify according
to his judgment.

We will suppose that an acre has been bought; that it is comparatively
level, with nothing of especial value upon it--in brief, that the home
and its surroundings are still to be created.

It is not within my design to treat of the dwelling, its architecture,
etc., but we shall have something to say further on in regard to its
location. Before purchasing, the most careful investigations should be
made as to the healthfulness of the region and the opportunities for
thorough drainage. Having bought the acre, the question of removing all
undue accumulations of water on or beneath the surface should be
attended to at first. The dry appearance of the soil during much of the
year may be misleading. It should be remembered that there are
equinoctial storms and melting snows. Superabundant moisture at every
period should have channels of immediate escape, for moisture in excess
is an injury to plant as well as to family life; while thoroughly and
quickly drained land endures drought far better than that which is
rendered heavy and sour by water stagnating beneath the surface.
Tile-drains are usually the cheapest and most effective; but if there
are stones and rocks upon the place, they can be utilized and disposed
of at the same time by their burial in ditches--and they should be
covered so deeply that a plow, although sunk to the beam, can pass over
them. Tiles or the top of a stone drain should be at least