T. B. Terry

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T. B. Terry
Born(1843-02-01)February 1, 1843
LaFayette, New York
DiedJanuary 1, 1916(1916-01-01) (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

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

References

  1. ^ American Blue-Book of Biography: Prominent Americans of 1914. p. 914
  2. ^ Who's Who in America, Volume 3. 1903-1905. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. p. 1467
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ a b c Hitchcock, A. P. (1915). "The Trials and Triumphs of T. B. Berry: Part Two". Country Life in America. 27 (2): 53.
  5. ^ Nixon, E. L. (1931). The Principles of Potato Production. New York: Orange Judd Publishing Company.
  6. ^ "Butter, Milk, Nuts, Chewing by Farmer and Physician". Health Culture. 19 (4): 195. 1919.

External links

Retrieved from "https://mdwiki.org/wiki/T._B._Terry"