superman of the little lands, Mr. Otto Reichardt, who raised white Pekin ducks at the rate of 40,000 to ten acres, and whose facilities and operations were all on a magnificent scale. Like Mr. King with his squabs, Mr. Reichardt's duck enterprise started as a side issue on a small lot, while he was employed at a trade. In 17 years this side issue developed into the main issue, with a plant costing $250,000, doing an annual business of $350,000, and with net profits that enabled him to live in an aristocratic suburb, and go the gait with the best of 'em. It is indeed a fascinating life story, but not particularly applicable to the immediate theme, except as showing that plenty of ducks for the enrichment of the luxurious table may be kept successfully on a very small space by modern intensive methods. Probably most readers will be surprised to be told that the lordly turkey, notorious ranger that he is, is also subject to intensive cultivation, and therefore eligible to a place on that luxurious table that is the rightful heritage of the home gardener. Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Hevener, of San Ysidro, California, raised a goodly bunch of turkeys year after year, as one of the interesting incidents of their acre home. The little turks were raised in a coop 10x12 ft. and, when grown, made their home in a eucalyptus grove, where they could roost in the trees. At all times they were confined to a small space, which did not, however, interfere with their growth, as they ranged in weight from 8 to 20 pounds. Mr. Hevener has turned off as many as thirty at the holiday season, and found them very profitable sellers, as well as exceedingly good to eat. Even the family pig can be raised in the garden-home plot in a perfectly sanitary way, and the family thereby supplied with pork and bacon. This proposition has been worked out successfully by the United States Department of Agriculture, as we shall learn, when we pass from philosophy to programme; from the consideration of the home-in-a-garden as a way of life, to the consideration of its mechanical aspects; or, as the reader may perhaps say, when we descend from the blue sky to the solid earth. In the meantime, we are not yet through with our luxurious table. There are two staples yet unaccounted for-milk and sugar. CHAPTER XIV 66 AND THOU SHALT HAVE GOAT'S MILK" "Thou shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens.” Mo Proverbs. ILK, butter and cheese are as essential to the economy of the garden home as fruit, vegetables, eggs and meat. Our scheme of production for the family that has set its heart upon the largest measure of independence and self-sufficiency would be woefully incomplete if it could not solve the problem of supplying itself with those necessaries. Of course, there is the good old family cow, which will doubtless be in evidence in the garden city of the future; for it is possible to keep the cow in an intensive way, and to work out a coöperative plan of pasturing. Indeed, the man who first aroused my interest in the possibilities of little-landing kept a most adorable cow on his third of an acre, and that cow was the largest source of his cash income, even though she rarely stepped outside of her diminutive barnyard. The modern milch goat is the thing for the garden home, since five to eight goats may be kept at the cost of keeping one cow; and since two good goats will maintain the family milk supply throughout the year. To speak up for the milch goat is, of course, to put one's self immediately on the defensive. The average reader will think of the Harlem goat and all it implies -of Shantytown, and the diet of tin-cans and billboards. Undoubtedly the goat is popularly regarded as a social outcast-at least in America. The best thing that has been said of it in the past is to call it "the Poor Man's Cow." But in recent years the English nobility have taken to goats and formed a society to promote its interests, under a motto revised to read "the Wise Man's Cow." The truth is that the goat, when understood and well-cared for, is one of the most interesting and useful of domestic animals, and has been so regarded in many countries from the dawn of history. The Bible is full of allusions to goats, their milk and meat. And in that and much other ancient literature they are always referred to in terms of respect. In this country it has happened that only the common "Nanny" has been much in evidence. She has usually been the makeshift of the poor, with no influential friends to proclaim her virtues, though in recent years it has been somewhat different. The public has begun to discover that there are goats and goats, including such aristocratic individuals as the Swiss Toggenburg, the Saanen, and the Anglo-Nubian, with its distinguished Roman nose. Enthusiastic breeders and promoters have sprung up, with their literature, their periodicals and their societies, in consequence of which the worthy milch goat is forging rapidly ahead in respectability. In California, at least, the goat has found its friends among the most refined and cultivated members of society. The most prominent among these is a young lady belonging to a well-known family, who resigned her position as teacher of Greek and arch |