rm for the period averaged more than $1000 a
year. And this was during the early days of his experience; later he
made more.

Professor W. J. Spillman, of the Agricultural Department, visited
him in 1903, and studied the methods employed. Then, he says, the
rush to see the farm became so great that the owner had to give it
up.

Few people who know nothing about it, and won't learn, can take even
three acres and make anything off it. To get the phenomenal yields
takes capital--sometimes large capital, wisely spent. Sometimes we
read of immense products "per acre"; this often means the product of
a single rod of ground, this gives at the rate of so much "per
acre," or might, if extended.

But any one can take a little bit of ground and use it thoroughly
and increase his borders and his knowledge as he goes on. He will
find plenty to pay him for doing or teaching whatever he has learned
to do that no one else has done "If a man make but a mousetrap
better than his fellows, though he makes his tent in the wilderness,
the world will beat a path to his door."

The mission of this book is accomplished if it interests you to
consider the possibilities of making a living on a few acres and
leads you to investigate. It is not written as a textbook, for, as
has been shown, there are authorities enough cited to supply all the
technical information needed.

Its sole object is to show what has been done and what can be done
on small areas and to show that life in the country need not be so
laborious if the same methods are used which make successes of
business in other lines.

If it does this and is the means of checking in any degree the
reckless trend of people from the country to the cities, the author
will feel that his efforts have been well repaid.

CHAPTER XXII

THE WOOD LOT

If you have a bit of woods on your little farm, take care of it. By
intelligent thinning you can make an average income of five dollars
per acre from ordinary second growth wild woods. The cord wood,
barrel hoops, fence posts, and so on will decrease your expenses,
while the timber will increase in value. That lot is the place to
start your boy as a forester.

Instructions how to treat the trees can be obtained from your State
Forestry Department or from the National Forest Service at
Washington: the care of growing timber is a big subject and requires
study, but don't sell your standing timber without their advice.
Forestry can ha