TEN ACRES ENOUGH:
A PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE,
SHOWING
HOW A VERY SMALL FARM MAY BE MADE TO
KEEP A VERY LARGE FAMILY.
WITH
Extensive and Profitable Experience
IN
THE CULTIVATION OF THE SMALLER FRUITS.
EIGHTH EDITION.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLER,
(SUCCESSOR TO C. S. FRANCIS & CO.,)
522 B R O A D W A Y.
MDCCCLXVI.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,
By JAMES MILLER,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New York.
PREFACE.
THE man who feeds his cattle on a thousand hills may possibly see thetitle of this little volume paraded through the newspapers; but thechances are that he will never think it worth while to look into thevolume itself. The owner of a hundred acres will scarcely step out ofhis way to purchase or to borrow it, while the lord of every smallerfarm will be sure it is not intended for him. Few persons belonging tothese several classes have been educated to believe Ten Acres Enough.Born to greater ambition, they have aimed higher and grasped at more,sometimes wisely, sometimes not. Many of these are now owning orcultivating more land than their heads or purses enable them to manageproperly. Had their ambition been moderate, and their ideas morepractical, their labor would be better rewarded, and this book, withoutdoubt, would have found more readers.
The mistaken ambition for owning twice as much land as one canthoroughly manure or profitably cultivate, is the great agricultural sinof this country. Those who commit it, by beginning wrong, too frequentlycontinue wrong. Owning many acres is the sole idea. High cultivation ofa small tract, is one of which they have little knowledge. Too many inthese several classes think they know enough. They measure a man’sknowledge by the number of his acres. Hence, in their eyes the owner ofa plot so humble as mine must know so little as to be unable to teachthem any thing new.
Happily, it is not for these that I write, and hence it would beunreasonable to expect them to become readers. I write more particularlyfor those who have not been brought up as farmers—for that numerousbody of patient toilers in city, town, and village, who, like myself,have struggled on from year to year, anxious to break away from thebondage of the desk, the counter, or the workshop, to realize in thecountry even a moderate income, so that it be a sure one. Many such areconstantly looking round in this direction for something which, withless mental toil and anxiety, will provide a maintenance for a growingfamily, and afford a refuge for advancing age—some safe and quietharbor, sheltered from the constantly recurring monetary and politicalconvulsions which in this country so suddenly reduce men to poverty. Butthese inquirers find no experienced pioneers to lead the way, and theyturn back upon themselves, too fearful to go forward alone. Books ofpersonal experience like this are rare. This is written for theinformation of the class referred to, for men not only willing, butanxious to learn. Once in the same predicament myself, I know theirlongings, their deficiencies, and the steps they ought to take. Hence,