T. B. Terry
T. B. Terry | |
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| Born | February 1, 1843 |
| Died | January 1, 1916 (aged 72) |
| Occupation(s) | Farmer, agricultural writer |
Theodore Brainard Terry (January 2, 1843 – January 1, 1916) was an American farmer, journalist and agricultural writer.
Biography
[edit]Terry was born in LaFayette, New York.[1] In 1870, he purchased a poor farm and made a great success of it. He lectured at Farmer's Institutes.[2]
Terry was educated at Western Reserve College.[3] He started out as a poor farmer. He had a farm about 12 miles from Akron, Ohio with 125 acres of which 70 were muck swamp which he sold for almost nothing.[3] He downgraded to 55 acres, only about 30 acres were farmable land. The house on the farm was a semi-ruin with broken windows and the barn doors had been burned for firewood.[3] Terry had two cows, a horse, wagon and land roller. He could not afford to hire any help so his wife assisted him with work. His year's cash income was only about $300. He had $3,700 debts to pay interest on.[3]
Terry was able to transform his farm by increasing his arable fields to 35 or 40 acres and practicing a 3-year rotation of potatoes which gave him his chief cash return, then wheat and clover the third year to enrich the soil.[4] Terry grew clover in fields in which previous occupants had refused to plow.[4] The previous tenant grew 7 bushels of wheat per acre, whilst Terry harvested 40 or more and had 200 bushels per acre of potatoes.[4]
Terry became an expert on potato growing. E. L. Nixon a professor of plant pathology commented in 1931 that Terry "has done more to fire the imagination and arouse popular interest in potato growing than any other writer in this country."[5]
Terry advocated a vegetarian diet in his book How to Keep Well and Live Long, published in 1909. In opposition to Dr. Elmer Lee he advocated the consumption of butter and cheese.[6]
Selected publications
[edit]- How to Grow Strawberries (1890)
- Our Farming (1893)
- The ABC of Potato Culture (1893)
- The ABC of Strawberry Culture (1902)
- How to Keep Well and Live Long (1909)
References
[edit]- ^ American Blue-Book of Biography: Prominent Americans of 1914. p. 914
- ^ Who's Who in America, Volume 3. 1903-1905. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. p. 1467
- ^ a b c d Hitchcock, A. P. (1915). "The Trials and Triumphs of T. B. Berry: Part One". Country Life in America. 27 (1): 61.
- ^ a b c Hitchcock, A. P. (1915). "The Trials and Triumphs of T. B. Berry: Part Two". Country Life in America. 27 (2): 53.
- ^ Nixon, E. L. (1931). The Principles of Potato Production. New York: Orange Judd Publishing Company.
- ^ "Butter, Milk, Nuts, Chewing by Farmer and Physician". Health Culture. 19 (4): 195. 1919.
External links
[edit]- T. B. Terry (Internet Archive)
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