STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 69 



I was on the farm where I am now, I had several acres in beans. 

 They were up large enough to cultivate, and I got up one morn- 

 ing, and found that it had been raining during the night, and 

 threatened to rain more. However, I started the cultivator in 

 the beans. About the middle of the forenoon it cleared, and 

 by noon it was bright. The result was that that forenoon's work 

 cost me, at least, $150, by working when the ground was too wet. 

 The beans rusted until almost entirely spoiled, and I have never 

 cultivated when the ground was too wet since. If the ground 

 turns up slick when it is plowed, it is too wet. As to digging 

 parsnips, I plow by the side of the row with a common plow, 

 and pull the parsnips out by the side of the row. 



Mr. Pearson— I believe I have not had much experience with 

 the ground being too dry ; it sometimes damages my back, but 

 not the soil. But you have got to keep off the ground when it is 

 wet. I want the ground to work kindly. I would not advise 

 any farmer in my neighborhood to undertake to run a garden of 

 an acre. If he has one-fourth of an acre, and handles it well, 

 he will find it enough. I don't believe, either, in leaving the 

 work to the wife and children, or the hired man. My enclosed 

 garden is close to the house, where I must see it at least twenty 

 times a day, and after the ground was plowed there was no 

 hired man in it, and I don't believe I was in it more than half 

 an hour any day, and I have few, if any, weeds in it, either. 

 Most of my work in that garden was done with the hoe. I know 

 market gardeners say that it will not pay to use the hoe, but 

 when I have a garden no bigger than this room, I think I can 

 use the hoe to good purpose. 



SMALL FRUITS FOR THE FARMER'S GARDEN FOR A 

 FAMILY OF SIX-VARIETIES, CULTIVATION, 



AND AMOUNT. 



BY J. WEBSTER, CENTRALIA, ILL. 



We are living in a progressive age when it becomes the tillers 

 of the soil, to understand and realize the things around them, 

 seeking to harmonize their pursuits with the peculiarities of 

 their surroundings, latitude, soil and climate. It is truthfully 

 claimed that successful farming is more complex than a majority of 

 trades, and demands executive ability equal to the management 



