aks, etc., plus the hog feed from
the refuse chestnuts, walnuts and Chinese dates. The great secret of
nature is that your security lies in a balanced land use between animal
and plant production with crops for animals, and animal manure for the
crops, with a margin of each for the profit book. I bought this
abandoned swampy, rocky, sandy soil farm of 72 acres, to show how it can
be done on land too rough for the plow. The first requirement was to
work out a program with permanent crops to bring in a continuous return,
while planting and developing the slower bearing nuts and crop trees. I
have found you must live on the farm a year to learn which soils and
sites are best for a species. For instance, the field that fitted my
plan to plant walnuts is too wet, so there we shall plant the hickories,
pecans and hicans with persimmons as fillers. The place where I wanted
walnuts was too sandy, so we shall plant chestnuts and filberts, and
where I wanted chestnuts the soil is good for walnuts.

_Starting a Profit Cycle_--To create a return as quickly as possible on
such a cycle we started a small flock of chickens, ducks and geese. The
next step was to decide what to plant of a permanent nature to make a
succession of crop income from spring until the nut crop comes in
autumn. In the spring of 1945 we planted an acre of asparagus and one of
raspberries. In 1947 both started bringing in returns. In 1948 they will
be in full production. In 1946 and 1947 we set an acre or more of
blueberries. Half of the blueberries were planted in a semi-swamp,
useless to farm or pasture, but the home of blueberries after we drained
it. These will start bearing in 1948 and increase in production for ten
years. We have 2 cows for family milk as I nearly live on it. The
surplus we use in vealing calves as well as to start a herd.

The first year we took in about $100, the second $150; to date we've
taken in $850, plus an inventory increase of 5 nine months old bulls and
6 year old heifers. No soil can live without manure and, due to the
results of over 20 years of organic soil management, we use no chemical
fertilizers. Hence, we need lots of manure. I can not afford to buy
straw so we use shavings and sawdust for bedding.

We apply to the manure in the stables about 100 pounds per animal of raw
phosphate rock a week, which sweetens the dust and helps feed the soil.
We also buy straw for seven riding horses for the manure, as this is
great fox