It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things 

 . . . the world wearing the mark of its Maker, whose stamp 

 is everywhere visible and the characters very legible to the 

 children of Wisdom. — William Pcnn. 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



Vol 



ume 



IV 



DECEMBER 1911 



Number 8 



How a Potato Farm Furnished Homes Near to Nature 



By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Connecticut 



HE cry, "back to nature," of 

 ancient times is now heard 

 generally and almost 

 everywhere. More than a 

 hundred years ago a 

 wealthy New Yorker delv- 

 ing in the cares of business 

 in the city that was then youthful, heard 

 it and felt the impulse. He was coun- 

 try born and bred, and though he had 

 made a fortune large for those days, he 

 felt that the thing most to be desired 

 is to live in the simplicity of nature. 

 Eastward from New York he went 

 some thirty-five miles and bought a 

 peninsula then not long from the hands 

 of the original Indian owners. Here he 

 built a home and while he did not farm 

 the land, he for many years enjoyed 

 liis peninsula as Robinson Crusoe en- 

 joyed his island — monarch of all he 



surveyed. In time Moses Rogers 

 ceased from his labors and passed into 

 the unknown. But he could not endure 

 the thought of having his beautiful 

 country place divided or diverted into 

 alien hands that would not value it as 

 he had valued it. He wanted it to be- 

 come a great estate and in accordance 

 with that desire he tied it up as best he 

 could till his youngest grandchild 

 should become twenty-one years of age. 

 But the heirs did not have the same ap- 

 preciation of a country home and they 

 leased the entire premises to Farmer 

 Scofield who put all the beautiful acres 

 to purposes more practical than esthe- 

 tic and contemplative, for he made 

 them into one great potato farm. So 

 well and so extensively did he raise 

 potatoes and so small was New York 

 at that time, that it was a current state- 



Copyright 1911 by The Agassiz Association, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



