Chapter XVII: Section 1754: applies to all branches of the service, in Washington, D (8)

Sweet corn requires plenty of space in order to produce enough ears to supply an average family and for that reason finds its proper place in large city and suburban gardens. The rows should be spaced at least 3 feet apart, and the individual plants should stand 15 to 18 inches apart in the rows. If the corn is planted in hills containing three stalks each of the hills must be at least 2¹⁄₂ feet apart in the row for the early dwarf-growing varieties and 3 feet apart for the later or larger growing sorts. Corn requires a rich soil and should not be planted until the ground has warmed considerably. A pint of seed will plant 400 to 500 feet of row in either drills or in hills. Cover the seed 1¹⁄₂ to 2 inches deep and thin to three stalks in a hill or to single stalks 15 or 18 inches apart in drills. If a large number of offshoots or suckers appear at the base of the plants at the ground, these should be removed, as they draw the strength of the plant. None but those shoots that appear very near the ground should be removed, as some of the varieties have their ears quite low on the stalks and the young ear looks very much like a sucker until the silk appears.

The Golden Bantam is the leading early variety. The Country Gentleman, Stowell’s Evergreen, Mammoth Evergreen, and Ohio Sugar are among the leading medium and late varieties. For a continuous supply, plant Golden Bantam as early as possible, then follow in a few days with a planting of Country Gentleman. Two weeks later plant Stowell’s Evergreen, and follow with additional plantings of some good late variety every three weeks until midsummer.

_Sweet Potatoes_

For an early crop, sweet-potato plants are started in a hotbed or greenhouse, and they must not be set in the open until all danger of frost is past and the ground is well warmed up. They usually thrive best when planted on wide ridges some 4 to 4¹⁄₂ feet apart and 12 to 15 inches apart in the row. Any good garden fertilizer will answer for this crop, and it is best applied either in small trenches or to the surface of the ground before the ridges are thrown up. Frequent shallow cultivation should be given until the vines begin to run. The Porto Rico, Nancy Hall, and Southern Queen varieties are recommended, and the Big-Stem Jersey where a dry-fleshed potato is desired.

_Vine Group_

The vine group includes cucumbers, summer and winter squashes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. Owing to the space required by these crops they are not adapted to planting in a small garden. For the convenience of those who desire to grow them, brief cultural directions are given.

Practically all of the vine crops can be trained to a wire fence or trellis or on wire netting. By this method they can be planted along a fence or beside a building where there is good sunlight and the vines can be trained up out of the way of other crops. In case cantaloupes or squashes are grown on a trellis, it will be necessary to support the fruits by means of bagging or cloth slings.

All of the vine crops require plenty of fertility in the soil. In addition to a shovelful of manure and a handful of fertilizer in each hill, a small quantity of commercial fertilizer may be worked into the soil around each hill after the vines begin to spread over the ground. The fertilizer should not be placed closer than a foot from the base of the plants and should be scattered over a considerable area. The results to be obtained in a small garden from growing any of the vine crops except summer squashes and cucumbers are extremely doubtful, and beginners are advised to devote the space to crops producing more food on a small area.

_Cucumbers_

One or two hills will produce enough cucumbers for the average family. Each hill should be given about 50 square feet of space, or 7 feet in each direction. The hills should be made several days before planting, with a shovelful of manure mixed thoroughly with the soil of each hill. About a dozen seeds should be scattered in each hill and covered to a depth of about an inch. Later, the plants should be thinned to three to five in a hill.

Cucumbers are very tender and should not be planted until all danger of frost is past. The plants may be started indoors by planting the seeds in pots, paper bands, or quart berry boxes filled with soil; then set in the garden when the weather is warm. The young cucumber plants are frequently destroyed by a small beetle. The easiest way to protect the plants is by covering each hill with a small wooden box the bottom of which has been removed and a piece of fine mosquito or fly netting tacked on. After the plants become toughened, the beetles are not likely to trouble them.

White Spine is the most common variety.

_Cantaloupes_

Cantaloupes, sometimes referred to as muskmelons, are grown exactly the same way as cucumbers.

The Rocky Ford, Tiptop, Hoodoo, and Ohio Sugar are among the leading varieties.

_Watermelons_

Watermelons require too much space for planting in a small garden. The cultivation of watermelons is practically the same as that of squashes.

The Kleckley Sweets and Florida Favorite are among the best small watermelons for home growing. The variety known as Tom Watson is the one most frequently sold on our markets.

_Squashes_

Two varieties of summer squashes are suited for growing in city gardens. These are the Summer Crookneck and Pattypan. The summer squashes are of bush habit of growth and do not require much space. Three to five hills of either of the kinds mentioned will supply the ordinary family. The hills should be 4 to 5 feet apart. Plant 8 or 10 seeds to a hill, covering them to a depth of an inch, and when the plants are well established thin them to three in a hill.

The Hubbard Squash and Boston Marrow form true vines and require more space than the summer bush varieties. The fruits of the summer varieties are used while they are young and tender, but those of the fall and winter varieties are allowed to get fully ripe before being gathered and stored. Four or five hills will be sufficient, and a space of 10 or 12 feet should be allowed between the hills.

The vine or running squash may be grown in a corner of the garden or on a trellis. In one instance an old peach tree formed a support for a large squash vine and the fruits were held up by slings consisting of strips of bagging.

PLAN No. 281. MAKING CLOTHING FIREPROOF

To make clothing fireproof, and thus save hundreds of precious lives, dissolve one pound of ammonium phosphate in one gallon of cold water, and in this soak for five minutes the fabric to be fireproofed. Then dry, and it will not burn. It does not harm the material. It sells for about 25 cents a pound in the drug stores. Make it up and sell it at $1 per gallon. But when the cloth is washed it is no longer fireproof, until treated with this solution again.

PLAN No. 282. MAKING PULLETS PAY

Buy pullets in the fall, give them good feed and care, and they will lay eggs all winter, making you a profit of several dollars per pullet. Sell them as hens the next spring and they will bring good prices for setting purposes, or as a table bird.

PLAN No. 283. PUMPKINS IN POWDER FORM

Don’t can pumpkins. Slice thin, dry in the sun, then in an oven, and grind up in powder form. Put in cartons for sale. It makes more pies per pound than canned pumpkin.

Have a good recipe tried out with your powdered pumpkin. Put the directions for use on your carton. Retail one-half pound cartons for 10 cents, or more, and it will make twice the number of pies that a 10-cent can of pumpkin will. Get local customers first, and later deal with a jobber or wholesaler.

PLAN No. 284. MONEY IN HORSE-RADISH

Horse radish has made money for live men. Simply grate the horse radish and sell it when nice and fresh to the grocer, hotelkeeper, or to individual users. Horse radish is perennial and needs little or no care. A half-acre will produce a great amount of horse radish. To start it take whole ones, cut them in small pieces, and plant like potatoes.

PLAN No. 285. PROFITABLE PLAIN SEWING

Women who used to spend hours and days in doing fancy but useless needle-work, now believe in doing the plain kind of sewing and getting paid for it. Making aprons, handkerchiefs, underskirts, and many similar articles, is a much more valuable use of spare time, which most women have. Lace-trimmed or monogramed handkerchiefs bring good prices.

PLAN No. 286. PICKLING DANDELIONS

Gather dandelions by the ton, put them down in brine just as you would cucumber pickles. Retail them in the winter by the quart. This will make you extra money.

PLAN No. 287. PLANTING ENDIVE FOR PICKLING

Plant endive on a city lot. This article can be treated in brine and cannot be told from fresh dandelion greens. Get regular customers for the entire winter. Supply stores, restaurants, etc.

PLAN No. 288. EARLY CUCUMBERS

Very early cucumbers bring $1.00 per dozen. Start your cucumber plants early in strawberry boxes in the house. When they have four leaves on them, transplant, early in April, and you will have your cucumbers in the market before your neighbors have planted theirs. You could sell cucumber plants to your neighbors and to the stores also.

PLAN No. 289. RAISING SWEET PEAS

Raise sweet peas. One ounce of seed will produce 10,000 blossoms, and florists pay around $3.00 per 1,000 for them. On an acre thirty ounces could be planted, or even on a city lot three ounces of seed can be raised and make you money.

PLAN No. 290. A NOTION STORE AT HOME

A poor woman living in a Chicago suburb made a good living by laying in a small but well selected stock of notions at her home, which was a long distance from a store of any kind. She got these at wholesale prices, and sold them at regular retail rates, so she made sufficient profit to support herself in comfort, as the ladies in the neighborhood bought practically all their little notions from her.

PLAN No. 291. MAKING COTTAGE CHEESE

Few foods are more palatable, more healthful or more economical than cottage cheese, when properly made.

A California farmer’s wife makes hers from milk that is not too old, and often sours sweet milk by adding a little buttermilk to it. She cooks it in 5-gallon “shotgun” cans. As soon as the milk sets into a firm clabber she puts the cans into a 30-gallon tank of boiling water, connected with the kitchen stove by pipes and the usual waterback in the firebox, stirring the milk a little, and cutting the curd with a long-bladed knife. When the curd readily separates from the whey, lift the can out and let it stand from ten to twenty minutes. The contents of the can are then poured into a large bag made of cheese-cloth, which is hung up to drain. The whey is fed to the pigs as it contains milk-sugar which is a fattening ration. In a few hours the cheese will be drained enough. It is then thoroughly mashed and mixed in a proper vessel, salted, and it is ready for the trip to town. It should be sold at once as it does not keep long.

If cream is plentiful and cheap, a little mixed with the cheese places it at the top notch of quality. One can decide for himself whether he can afford to sell cream in this way, by the price he obtains for the cheese.

Cottage cheese is now sold at retail to the consumer for 10 to 15 cents a pound. This means nearly 30 cents a quart, a pint weighing slightly over a pound. It ought to bring at least 10 cents a pound to the maker, which is no mean profit for skim-milk usually fed to hogs and calves.

PLAN No. 292. DEVELOPING AND PRINTING PHOTOGRAPHS

A city woman, fond of photography, made her spare time profitable by developing and printing photographs for others, and by taking orders for that class of work, and having it done by a local dealer, paying him 20 per cent of her earnings. As she purchased all her material from this dealer, it helped increase his sales also.

PLAN No. 293. “CITRONETTE” CUCUMBERS

Raise cucumbers, and when ripe place on the market “citronette.” This is better than “sugared citron” and much cheaper.

Recipe: Pick cucumbers when ripe; split in half; scrape out pulp. Put in salt brine for one or two days, then draw off brine and add one pound of sugar to each pound of cucumber rind; let stand over night for juice to draw, then place on back of stove and allow to simmer until translucent and most of the water has evaporated. Turn occasionally to keep from burning. When the water has evaporated, and it looks dry, allow it to cool. You then have “citronette.”

This project has been tried and it made $6.00 a day for a year, using only one-half acre of ground.

PLAN No. 294. CANNING VEGETABLES, ETC.

Can vegetables, peas, beans, sweet corn, also fruit, and pickles. From a good farm paper select an advertiser offering “home-canning outfits,” and get his circulars. Buy an outfit. Get customers by placing a tempting ad. in your local paper, and by getting out attractive placards to be used by grocers who handle your goods. You can raise your own vegetables and fruit, or buy them from a farmer wholesale very reasonably.

PLAN No. 295. SMALL-TOWN CATERING

A young lady who lives in a small city where there are many social functions, has found catering on these occasions quite profitable, and she thus relates her plan of operations:

“I have furnished refreshments and acted as hostess for a social club of young men--usually thirty plates at fifty cents each. I serve fruit punch during the card game, and either a fruit salad or a meat salad, with crackers, ice cream or sherbet, cake and nuts, or mints. My profit is between five and six dollars. I also cater for the Masons’ ladies’ nights on the same terms, and in this small country town there is no other business of that sort.

“The Masons have about one hundred plates. I introduce the ladies and group them congenially; and the young daughters are only too glad to wait on the tables in pretty aprons, so that I employ only one maid. I arrange the tables for progressive Five Hundred. The girls who do not play are glad to serve and punch the score cards. The men can play pool, and there is a table for cinch and dominoes.”

PLAN No. 296. PERFUME FOR A SICK ROOM

The following makes a very pleasant antiseptic perfume for a sick-room, imparting the odor of the pine woods, and is very grateful and refreshing to an invalid:

Oil of bergamot, 6 drams; oil of orange, 1 dram; oil of rosemary, 1 dram; eucalyptol, 2 drams; bornyl acetate, ¹⁄₂ dram; tincture benzoin, 4 drams; water, 2¹⁄₂ parts; alcohol to make one gallon.

Mix and spray about the room whenever the air begins to indicate the necessity for freshening it.

PLAN No. 297. RAISING CAPONS

One poultry man in a Kansas town got so much more for his young roosters than was paid to any other person in the same place for apparently similar stock, that several of them came to him to find out why this was the case.

He replied that there was no secret about it, that he simply caponized the male birds at about four months of age; that this process not only made them grow much faster and larger, but gave their flesh a flavor no other bird possessed, and that when people had once tasted a young caponized cock they would buy no other, if they could possibly get these.

The process is very simple, and is performed with a set of tools that can be bought for $2, so that the extra profit on a few birds soon pays for this expense and the time and trouble required.

The other poultry growers in the community at once adopted the same plan, and the increased demand for their product in the market showed them where and why they had been losing money before, instead of making it.

PLAN No. 298. A LOSING GROCERY BUSINESS MADE A SUCCESS

Near a good-sized Texas town a man and his wife were trying to farm a piece of sun-baked land, and were making a failure of it, when the wife proposed that they start a small grocery. They had a few hundred dollars, and borrowed a little more, and with this they bought a small stock of groceries, but the growth of the business was so slow as to be disheartening.

On her way down to their store one afternoon the woman noticed that trade was brisk in those places that presented a cleanly appearance, and then she got busy. Together they scrubbed the floors, applied paint where it was needed, and began a general clean-up campaign that soon transformed the dingy little place into a most attractive store room. Pyramids of canned goods were erected in the show window, and everything tastefully arranged on counters and shelves to present the best possible appearance.

She had a number of jars of preserves, pickled fruits and vegetables they had put up while on the farm, and these she brought to the store, where they were quickly sold. She then put up more at their home, all of which were sold at a big profit. Then she baked cakes and brought them to the store, where they found a steady sale, which encouraged her to bake many more.

As a means of advertising their “clean grocery,” they labeled the collar of their dog and the net mesh that covered their delivery horse with catchy phrases, and soon had their place widely talked about.

Their business grew until they were obliged to move to a larger building, where they have the best trade in the town.

PLAN No. 299. BRINGING WOMEN TO A STORE

It was a woman’s idea that brought scores of women to a store, where her husband was a clerk, who had never been in the place before, and coming in once, usually became regular customers. Her idea was very simple, but it worked splendidly. It was merely to have the management of the store put up a free bulletin board in a prominent place just inside the entrance, upon which women in need of maids, domestics, or help of any kind, could pin up a short notice of the place offered, the wages paid, special privileges and requirements. At the same time, women and girls in search of employment could also use the bulletin board to help them in securing the places they wanted, and it was not long until the store was visited with women anxious to consult the bulletin board, which well served its purpose as a free employment agency.

Very soon the store became talked about all over town, as the place to look for help or positions, and of the hundreds of women who visited the place for that purpose, many of them stayed to look over the stock, and buy.

The business was so greatly increased that the management of the store, impressed with the value of the idea, gave the husband of its originator a considerable increase in salary.

PLAN No. 300. A TRAVELING GROCERY

A southern woman’s husband was 30 years old, and a grocery clerk at $50 a month. Both were hoping for something better, when a good idea came to the wife. It was to start something new--a grocery on wheels!

She had saved a few hundred dollars before her marriage, but had never told her husband, as she intended to surprise him with it when the proper time came--and that time had arrived.

With this money to start with, she drew a plan for a wagon arranged with shelves and compartments for holding canned goods, preserves, breakfast foods, coffee, cheese, fresh-baked bread, cakes, pies, fresh fruits and vegetables--everything to be found in a well-ordered grocery. Sealed packages were a specialty, for sanitary reasons.

They had rented a neat little store in a suburb and put in a fine stock of groceries, which the wife took care of while the husband made the rounds of the entire neighborhood with his wheeled grocery. The women were more than pleased to come out to the wagon every morning and make their purchases for the day, without having to go to a market for what they wanted, so that his wagon was in constant demand in every part of the suburb. Later a motor truck took the place of the horse.

PLAN No. 301. SALES MANAGER BECOMES REALTY OWNER

The sales manager for a large Chicago concern was married, had three children, and was getting further and further behind every year, with debts that constantly increased. Then the wife thought out a plan that she hoped would bring a betterment in conditions, and decided to make it win.

She began by selling their grand piano for $800 and buying a second-hand up-right for $185. Then she sold her buffet, china closet, two extra bedroom suites, four good rugs, several sets of silverware, some china, cut-glass, pictures, etc., at private sale, and from these she received $720 more.

Out of her total receipts, she paid the family debts and had $640 left. She paid $300 for a lot in the outskirts of the city; $54 for enough second-hand lumber to build a shack 20x40 in size, she and her husband putting up the building and putting in a cement floor, and lining the building with tar paper. They divided the shack into four rooms with straw matting for partitions, bought second-hand windows at $1 each, and made their own doors. Then they placed rugs on all the floors except the kitchen and moved in, thus saving $40 a month in rent.

They still had $200 in the bank, and out of this she paid $40 for putting down a well, then she gave piano lessons to country children, at 50 cents an hour, and earned $20 a month that way. She set up her grandmother’s old loom and wove rag rugs until she had earned $700 that way, and at the end of three years they had $3,000 in the bank, had raised the house, put in a foundation, dug a cellar and built two porches.

In two years more they were another $2,000 ahead, so her husband resigned his position and they began buying vacant lots at $250 to $400 each, bought old houses “for a song,” tore them down, and with the material built several tiny new bungalows. The husband did the carpenter work, she did the interior decorating work and the children helped a good deal. When a bungalow was finished, they readily sold it for from $1,700 to $2,200 and made a nice profit on each.

To-day they are living in a modern 9-room bungalow, and own twenty-seven vacant lots besides, all paid for, and have an income of $4,000 a year.

PLAN No. 302. HOT SOUPS FOR BUSINESS GIRLS

A practical and profitable idea came to a woman in an eastern city when she thought of the large number of business girls and girls in government employ who so earnestly long for the taste of home-cooked foods, which they never get.

Instantly she had formed her plan to put up ready-to-serve, homemade soups, potpies, beans, clam and fish chowders, and other things, to be delivered in glass jars, just at dinner time, to those girls who would love to have a hot meal at home, if they had anyone to cook it for them, or had time to cook it themselves.

Making sure that nothing left her kitchen until its taste and attractiveness were tested and proven when it reached those tired women and girls, it was a veritable blessing in glass jars.

She baked beans without pork, but with an onion in the center instead, and covered with salad oil. She made Dutch potpie cooked like a stew, made fish and clam chowders and prepared them all in the most appetizing way, so that anyone would relish them.

Later she set up a table and an electric stove in the corner of a hall in a large office building occupied mostly by men, where she served lunches taken from her fireless cooker, and these the men took to their offices on trays provided by themselves. On these she realized a profit of 40 per cent, besides having enough food left to supply her own family.

PLAN No. 303. BREAD AND CAKE BAKING SOLD TO WOMAN EXCHANGE

A married woman in New York, who had formerly been a stenographer but could not return to that work on account of her household duties, which included the care of two children, yet who was anxious to help in enlarging the family income, decided to bake cakes and sell them through various woman’s exchanges.

Her sales were very good, but often there would be cakes left over, and, to avoid this, she changed her selling method so as to supply a certain number of families with bread and cakes. Her entire capital was but $5, and she started with seven customers, having discontinued her deliveries to the exchanges.

She wrote to a number of people who were able to pay her prices, and soon secured a good list of regular patrons. In six months she had forty-five steady customers, was baking all kinds of cakes besides raisin, whole wheat and brown breads, and rapidly increasing the number of her patrons, so that in six months more she had a total of seventy-eight. Some of these, when starting on their summer vacations, arranged to have her supply them regularly by parcel post while away, and when they returned in the fall they continued to buy her baked products.

She employed a boy at $2 a week to make deliveries two afternoons each week and all day Saturdays, and before very long her net profits had reached $150 a month.

PLAN No. 304. MAKING USE OF SURPLUS APPLES

In some sections of the country thousands of bushels of fine apples are allowed to go to waste every year, simply because there is no one to gather them and make practical use of them.

A man in eastern Ohio, where the supply of apples is largely in excess of the demand, made profitable use of this apple surplus by a new method of concentrating cider, through freezing and centrifugal motion. This method consists of first freezing the raw cider until it is solid, by placing it in shallow trays and exposing it to a freezing outdoor temperature. Then it is crushed up fine and put into a receptacle like a barrel churn, and whirled very rapidly. This throws off the juice in the form of a syrup and leaves the water in the machine as ice.

One gallon of this concentrated cider, or syrup, is as strong as five gallons of ordinary apple cider, and when put in a cool place will keep from six months to a year without fermenting. It also reduces the bulk about four-fifths, so that it can be shipped at a low transportation cost, thus increasing the profits by a large percentage.

This man gathered up several hundred bushels of the apples that were going to waste, rented a cider press, and turned out the cider in immense quantities, late in the fall when the weather was freezing cold. The concentrated product he shipped to the city and sold it at big profit, the first netting him nearly $1,000.

PLAN No. 305. SELLING EGGS AT A HIGH PRICE

Even in those times when eggs were selling to the middle man for 20 cents per dozen, a man who lived in the suburbs of an eastern city, and kept hens that laid large, rich-looking, golden brown eggs, worth twice as much as the tiny white ones in the dealers’ stalls, always sold every egg he could produce for 60 cents per dozen, or a nickel each.

The way he did it was to advertise in the city papers that he would send eggs by parcel post the very day they were laid, and guaranteed them to be strictly fresh and safe for sick people as well as robust persons.

That brought in the orders, and the way he kept them coming from the same people, year after year, was by making good--by actually shipping the eggs the day they were laid--and strictly fulfilling every promise he made. These facts, once duly impressed upon the minds of his city customers, made the eggs he sent them worth three times the price of ordinary market eggs of small size and uncertain age. Anyone, situated as he was, can do the same thing and make money out of it.

PLAN No. 306. FREE RECIPE BOOKS TO FARMERS

In order to interest city merchants in the possibilities open to them for country trade through the parcel post, and to interest the farmers in the goods carried by the city merchants, an advertising man in a western city thought out a plan that would do both.

First, he secured the name of every farmer within fifty miles of the city in which he lived. Then he got up a little 16-inch page booklet, with an attractive cover, and filled one-half of every page with interesting and useful information for farmers, such as recipes, methods of gardening farm, garden and orchard products, etc.

He then went to merchants in various lines, showed them the plan of the booklet, exhibited his list of farmers’ names, assured them that he would send a copy of the booklet free to every farmer on that list, and got them to fill the other half of each page with an advertisement of those goods especially for farmers’ use. The front of the cover he used as a title page, while the three other cover pages he sold for advertising purposes at good rates.

That little booklet netted him over $250, after he had submitted affidavits to the advertisers that copies of it had been sent out free to all the farmers, as he had agreed. He prepared another booklet, using the same matter, except the ads., and these he obtained from another set of advertisers. The matter already set up for the first booklet saved a great deal on the cost of composition, and at the end of the year his profits amounted to more than $2,000.

PLAN No. 307. TRUST PLAN WORKED LOCALLY

A mail-order man back east decided to work trust plan by which he could keep in close touch with those selling the goods, and have settlements where necessary.

From a catalog issued by a reliable house carrying a line of novelties adapted to the trust plan, he selected a few attractive ones which any child could sell at 10 cents each, and which cost him about $1.50 per gross, and these he advertised in the local papers, offering a premium to anyone selling a certain number of them.

He was thus enabled to place a large quantity of these novelties in the hands of children and others, who sold them and promptly remitted or called personally to make settlements and receive their premiums.

This system reduced his losses to a minimum and greatly increased his profits, so that he sent no more goods on the trust plan to outside towns, but confined his operations to his home city.

PLAN No. 308. ICE WOOL SHAWLS BY PARCEL POST

Another good parcel-post idea was worked out with success by a mail-order man, as follows:

He bought a quantity of ice wool shawls from a Chicago supply house, at a price which allowed him to retail them at 98 cents each, and still make a good profit. He secured the names of all the farmers’ wives within 150 miles, wrote a neat circular describing the beauty and stylishness of ice-wool shawls, and, wrapping one of these around each shawl, he sent them by parcel post, stating that if they wanted it for 98 cents, to remit him that amount, if not, to notify him on a postal card enclosed for that purpose.

But a very few of the shawls came back. Hundreds of money orders for 98 cents each did come, and he sold thousands of them in that way, realizing a good profit on each sale.

PLAN No. 309. CIGARS FOR FARMERS

A cigar man in Denver made up a special brand of cigars, placed two of them in a neat little case, and sent them by parcel post to several hundred farmers, with a note saying they were presented with the cigar maker’s compliments. He also enclosed a coupon, good for a certain premium with each box of cigars ordered. The cigars were good, and many of the samples sent out brought orders for a full box, at the regular price.

PLAN No. 310. A NEW TRUST PLAN

Instead of that disagreeable method of selling goods--house to house canvassing--an agent in an Illinois city made use of the parcel post, with good results.

Selecting the article he wished to sell, he prepared a strong circular fully describing it, and wrapped the article in this circular, ready to send out by parcel post.

From the city directory he obtained a list of householders in various parts of the city, and mailed the article to them, with the statement that it was sent for inspection, and that his agent would call in a few days and give a full explanation.

He sometimes mailed out as many as 1,000 a day of these articles, and later sent out agents to close the sales, on a commission basis; and, as the sales were much more numerous under this plan than by canvassing from house to house, the increased profits fully justified him in assuming the extra expense the new plan involved.

PLAN No. 311. A GOOD COUPON IDEA

A Chicago man who knew the truth of the saying, “a woman loves a bargain,” made a practical application of that principle to his own profit.

From the catalog of a supply house he selected an article that could be bought for a few cents, in considerable quantities, and yet would be a good value when retailed at, say, 26 cents. In a local paper he placed an ad. descriptive of the article, with a coupon at the bottom, saying: “We have only a few of these on hand. If you wish one, send this coupon and 26 cents, and we will send it by parcel post.” He sold large quantities of goods by this method.

PLAN No. 312. SELL GOODS ON INSTALLMENTS BY PARCEL POST

A Seattle man originated the plan of selling goods on the installment plan by parcel post, and made it succeed.

Running an ad. in the local papers, describing the article for sale, he attached a coupon upon receipt of which the goods would be sent by parcel post for inspection. If approved and desired, the first installment was to be remitted at once, the others at stated intervals, but in all cases the names of two references were required.

He sold quantities of goods, sustained no losses, and made a good profit each year through this plan.

PLAN No. 313. MEDICAL VEGETABLE GARDEN

A San Francisco man, who knew something of the medical and other properties of _Cannabis Americana_, commonly known as hemp, experimented with it and found that it would grow in this country as well as in India, and decided it was a good thing.

He procured enough seed to sow one acre of land, sewing it broadcast the same as oats or buckwheat. He kept the weeds down until it had obtained a good start, and, as it then grew fast as the weeds, it needed no further attention. In the fall he cut it, cured it like hay, and sent it to the market, where it brought 45 cents a pound. There were two tons of it, and that 4,000 pounds sold for $1,800, all from one acre.

PLAN No. 314. IMPROVING A MARKET

A market-man’s wife, who wished to make her husband’s place of business the most popular in that part of the city, did so by planning the meals for about forty of their regular customers. She charged nothing for her services, kept well within the weekly limit of each family, and relieved the housewives of all anxiety in the matter of deciding what the menu for each day should consist of. It not only made them permanent customers, but enabled the storeman to order only what he knew would be sold on any one day, so that his stock of meats and vegetables was always fresh, his prices no higher than those who gave less attention to their patrons’ needs, and his place was soon what the wife set out to make it--the most popular and profitable market.

PLAN No. 315. BOOSTED HUBBY’S BAKERY

A woman in California, who was impressed with the waste of gas and other fuels by women who devoted long hours to cooking “little dabs”, of oatmeal and other foods for their children, concluded to make that an unpopular and unprofitable pastime for these women, by having such things all cooked in her husband’s bakery, where there would be no waste, while it saved hundreds of mothers many anxious hours and tedious toil that were wholly unnecessary.

Her husband agreed with her that it would be a good thing all round to cook all these things in the bakery and place them on sale at prices that would mean a great saving of material as well as fuel, and guarantee their quality at the same time.

They began by cooking oatmeal guaranteed to have been steamed four hours, and baked small individual rice puddings in attractive little brown pottery molds, all of which sold so well that they added mutton broth with rice, plain beef broth, chicken broth with barley, and bean, pea purees for the children.

Desiring to expand their field of activities, they induced well located bakeries, delicatessen and other stores to handle their products on a commission basis, and, while their profits were not large, the business finally became so extensive that it paid exceedingly well.

Finally they gave up all this, and established a small model factory for children’s foods, and now have two motor wagons distributing these foods, which bring them a profit of several hundred dollars a month.

PLAN No. 316. MAKING STOCKING PATTERNS

A lady in Reno, Nevada, who had long deplored the woeful waste involved in the throwing away of women’s stockings as soon as a small hole appears in the foot, hit upon an excellent plan for effecting a great saving in this regard, and one that at the same time brought her a good income.

Her plan was to make patterns for stocking feet, as the material in one pair of women’s hose will re-foot three or four pairs, and thus save the cost of a new pair when all that needs replacing is the small foot part of the stocking.

Ripping up a stocking of a good make, she succeeded in cutting out a perfect-fitting pattern from this, the only change necessary in using it being to adapt it to various sizes, and then she advertised to save the women of the country thousands of dollars in hosiery expense, if each of them would send her 10 cents for a pattern that would enable her to replace the feet of stockings whenever a small hole appeared in the heel or toe. No matter what the material, whether it was wool, silk, lisle or a coarse cotton, women realized that it would pay to re-foot them instead of buying new ones, and thousands of them sent for the pattern.

Many of the women who bought the patterns admitted that they did so for the purpose of making a business of re-footing stockings for women who could not do it for themselves.

PLAN No. 317. A RHUBARB BED THAT PAID

A grocer’s wife, with only a few square feet in the back yard of a city lot, cultivated a rhubarb bed that paid for itself hundreds of times over, and required but little care from the time it was started.

She obtained several pieces of old root stock from a variety she knew to be of the very best, and in the spring had the ground spaded up and pulverized until it was almost like powder, then she added some good fertilizer, and set out the roots in hills four feet apart each way, leaving the top or eye an inch or so below the level of the ground. These began to grow at once, and during the dry season were kept well watered, being frequently hoed to kill all the weeds.

A considerable number of edible stalks were pulled the first season, great care being taken to let none of them go to seed, by snapping off the seed stems as fast as they appeared.

The second season the growth began early and was remarkably rapid so that before any one else had rhubarb, she had a good display of it in her husband’s store where it sold readily at a very high price.

Ever since then this small rhubarb bed has kept her in pin money, and all the care it has required was to keep it free from weeds and to water it occasionally.

PLAN No. 318. PUREBRED POULTRY

An Eastern Washington farmer, who had raised scrub poultry for years, without ever being able to decide whether or not they were really worth their keep, finally decided to raise pure-breds, and now feels justified in making the change, as the returns from his high-grade fowls have been large.

He simply selected the breed he liked best, and gave them the care to which birds of high degree are entitled, and they have repaid him many times over for his efforts.

He now finds he can get more for a single pure-bred fowl than twenty of the common or barn-yard variety would bring, while their cost to raise is considerably less--bird for bird. Another thing: A single setting of eggs from a pedigreed hen brings him more than he could ever hope to receive for all the eggs an ordinary hen would lay in an entire season, and he is not only much better off financially, but feels that the satisfaction of having a breed that everybody else wants is worth a good deal to him.

PLAN No. 319. SORTING AND SELLING

A preacher’s wife, living in Michigan, has had to support the family for the last fifteen years, and this she has accomplished by cultivating a truck farm a few miles from the city in that state.

From this she derives an income adequate for all immediate needs. Her good judgment and experience in the selection, sorting and selling of farm and garden products have made her an expert. Her services command a high figure and she earns a good living each year through this skill.

PLAN No. 320. ARCHITECT--SEE PLAN No. 217

PLAN No. 321. DUSTLESS DUSTERS AND OIL MOPS

A woman in a New Mexico city, where dust is one of the most plentiful of products, earned a good living by making and selling dustless dusters and oil mops to the people of her town.

To make a dustless duster, mix--out of doors, of course--1 quart of gasoline, ¹⁄₂ pint of turpentine, ¹⁄₂ pound of whiting and ¹⁄₂ ounce oxalic acid. Mix in a 2-quart fruit jar. Shake the cloths well, then dip into the mixture, and hang out on the line to dry. The above amount is enough for making several dustless dust cloths. She sells them at 25 cents each.

To make an oil mop, she gets 20 cents worth of paraffin oil, warms it up by setting it in a pan of hot water, and dips the cloth in this and squeezes it quite dry, then hangs it up to dry thoroughly. In this mixture she also dips broom bags made of the legs of stockings sewed together. She puts the oil in a bottle to use again.

PLAN No. 322. WHAT A BUSY COUNTRY GIRL DID

A little farmer girl, who is not a bit afraid of work, earns enough to clothe her nicely every year, and here are some of the ways she does it:

Picks strawberries in June, at 2 cents a box; earns five dollars.

Picks huckleberries and blackberries in July and August; makes from eighteen to twenty dollars.

Gathers wild grapes in September, and sells them at $1 per bushel or 50 cents for a peach basket full.

Gathers hickory nuts in October, and sells them from Thanksgiving to Christmas at $2.25 to $2.50 a bushel. Also gathers chestnuts; sells them for 15 cents a quart.

Plants 5 cents worth of popcorn seed in the spring; gets five bushels; sells it at Christmas time for $2.50 a bushel; or $12.50.

In summer she gathers wild balsam blossoms and fresh pine needles; makes them into small head pillows; sells these in drug and dry goods stores at 25 cents each, net.

Gathers bayberries in August, and combines their natural wax with paraffin, melting them into pretty, green-tinted candles. Ties these in bunches of three with baby ribbon, and sells two bunches for 25 cents.

Planted sage bushes in a corner of the garden. Gets $1 to $5 from these every summer.

She is now going to raise medical herbs, such as boneset, catnip, wormwood, mullen, etc., and will sell these to a wholesale druggist at big prices.

PLAN No. 323. A WIFE WHO BOUGHT A STORE

A street-car conductor on a Massachusetts street-car line, some twenty years, would probably be a conductor still if it hadn’t been for his wife, who took the initiative in launching an enterprise that finally robbed him of his $16-a-week job and gave him one as joint owner, with his better-half, of six prosperous stores, any one of which would make a good living for an ordinary family, besides a fine home in the country. The long hours and close attention of his position as conductor was wearing on him, and the wife decided to take a hand in managing affairs.

A small creamery near their home was for sale for $800. The wife had $500 she had saved, and she borrowed $300 more on her furniture and the store fixtures. She at once changed the name of the creamery to that of “Clover Farm Dairy Products,” cleaned the place all up, had the landlord paint it white, put in new linoleums, and had the doors and windows washed, so that everything about the place was “spick and span.”

She had previously arranged with the dairy above named to handle their products, which were popular, and opened up for business. The first week her profits were only $10, but in seven months the mortgage was paid off, and the place was clear. She then put a counter in the storeroom, and served sandwiches and light lunches all of which paid well. At the end of the first year she had $2,500 laid away as profits.

By that time she proposed to buy another store, and each of them own one, as her husband was ready to resign his position, and this venture proved as profitable as the first one, they kept on until they now own six stores and a nice farm.

PLAN No. 324. CLEANED AND REPAIRED CISTERNS

A man who made his living by doing odd jobs found the cleaning and repairing of cisterns about the most profitable work he could find to do.

Using a hand-pump to remove the water, he would go down into the cistern and scrub the walls clean with a broom, then dip up and remove the dirty water and debris from the bottom. Then he would throw in several buckets of clean water to wash down any particles of dirt remaining, dip this all out, and the cistern was clean.

But repairing was necessary in most cases, and if there was a leak, he would enlarge the hole with a hammer, force in some beef suet and then fill the hole with a mortar made of cement and water. For cracks in the wall, he gave it a coat of cement and water, throwing dust-dry cement over it until the cement set hard enough to hold. If the leak was so great that the above method would not stop it, he cut a hole in the bottom, set in a pail that could be emptied when full, and treated the leak as above, afterwards filling the hole in the bottom with stiff clay, cementing it with the mortar.

These jobs paid him well, and his time was fully occupied.

PLAN No. 325. GREASE-ERADICATING TABLETS

A very convenient grease-spot remover, made in tablet or stick form, was put up and sold in large quantities by a traveling man, who realized how easy it would be to use it while on the road. This is the formula he used:

Soft soap, 2 pounds; powdered Fullers earth, 2 pounds; turpentine, 6 fluid ounces. Mix the soap with the earth, gradually working in the turpentine, and give a dash of cheap scent, such as nitro benzol or even lemon oil. Then fashion into sticks or cakes. The spot or stain is first moistened with hot water, is rubbed with the cake and allowed to soak for a few minutes, or to get nearly dry, then it is well rubbed with a little warm water and a brush, or a piece of clean woolen, and afterwards rinsed in clean water and finally rubbed dry and smoothed off with a dry cloth or a brush.

Introducing this among other traveling men, merchants and others, he soon found such a demand for it that he gave up his position on the road, began making it on a large scale.

PLAN No. 326. A SOCIAL REGISTER

The society reporter of a leading daily newspaper in a middle western city, who enjoyed an extensive acquaintance among the prominent people of the place, devoted her vacation to accumulating the material for a “social register” in addition to the knowledge she already possessed regarding the foremost families of the city.

She was on intimate terms with most of the society leaders, and therefore had but little difficulty in inducing them to pay her $2 each for including the family name in the register, which was open only to those who were representatives of good citizenship, and properly entitled to such prominence.

The $2 paid by the head of each family covered the entire charge for having the names of all members of the family in the book, and included the family name, given names, address, telephone number, “at-home” days, names of daughters having made their debut, as well as those “coming out” the present season, the names of social societies or clubs to which any members of the family belong, with official position, if any held therein, the families, summer address, etc. In a word, it was a complete record of the city’s best people.

She appointed one or two solicitors capable of approaching exclusive people, for the purpose of enrolling them, and solicited only enough advertisements of the highest class to fill six or seven pages, charging very high rates for the same; and, although no capital was required to start the enterprise, by the time the solicitors and the printers were paid, she found she had cleared nearly $600 from the publication of the book. Every two years thereafter she published a new edition.

PLAN No. 327. CHARACTER READING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

There are comparatively few persons who are really qualified to make a success of this work, but once in a while some person is found who can give a very close analysis of the individual character.

A young lady in Indianapolis, who possessed this gift, made a great success of this work, and not only gave satisfaction to those who sent photos for her reading, but derived a good living from it.

She advertised in the “personal” columns of several widely circulated newspapers that she would describe the character of any one whose photograph was sent to her, detailing the habits, vices, virtues and other characteristics and traits of the individual, the strong and weak points in his or her make-up, whom the person should marry, the line of business to which he or she was best adapted--in short a clear and complete delineation of that person’s character, yet not through fortune-telling or anything of that kind.

She announced that, while the regular charge for such a reading was $1, she would make the price 50 cents for a limited time, and guarantee satisfaction.