Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1909 — Farming by the Square Inch. [ARTICLE]

Farming by the Square Inch.

This is the atoTy of a remarkable solution of the secret of success in farming On a small scale, chiefly for the benefit of those who cannot afford to buy large tracts of land and would not be able to work them if they could. So writes H. D. Jones in the Technical World Magazine for July. To pique the curiosity of the reader, let it be first explained, in all seriousness, that if a farm cultivated In this way is leased it should he understqod that when the tenant moves he is at liberty to take the soli with him. The soil used in this method of fanning must be of unusual richness. The story begins with the efforts of two women to gain a livelihood from Mother Nature. They leased five acres of land in Berkshire, England. Later they found that five acres was too much land, and that they could find full work for themselves and for students who flocked to them to learn how It was done, with profit for all, on a piece of ground less than half the size df that first taken. Th teachers of the women were a French gardener and his family, who, with an acre of land In France, sold $2,500 worth of produce in a year. The scene at the farm is thus described by one who visited It and made the photographs that go with the article. In a bare plowed field stands a square palisade of zinc plates enclosing about three-quarters of an acre. Behind it the French gardener and the women who lease the land have wrought what looks like a sheer miracle to anyone unacquainted with the system. The ground is all covered wlty inverted bell glasses of the kind known in Europe as clochers. Under each bell at the time this writer visited the farm were five lettuces. Lettuces were growing around the bells and other vegetables sown broadcast Were coming up everywhere. In each of a, number of frames four feet square were thirty lettuces, a mass of carrots and cauliflower. The entire secret of the growth of these products before the regular season is in the cropping and the soil. Every inch of the soil bears at least three crops a year, each of them anticipating the season and therefore producing fancy prices. —; This remarkable method of making every inch of land count is described In detail by the writer and the article is illustrated with very interesting photographs.