| T. B. Terry | |
| Birth Date: | 1 February 1843 |
| Birth Place: | LaFayette, New York |
| Occupation: | Farmer, agricultural writer |
Theodore Brainard Terry (January 2, 1843 – January 1, 1916) was an American farmer, journalist and agricultural writer.
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]