ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY SOCIETY. « 223 



fence is far more inviting, — and, as the figures will by and by show, 

 even cheaper, — than one of huge stumps; and ag a protection, equally 

 good. The grounds around and near your house may be thus en- 

 closed ; and then adorned with currant, gooseberry, and raspberry 

 bushes, dwarf pear trees, rhubarb roots, grape arbors, strawberry 

 vines, and vegetables of all descriptions, the fruit of which will 

 always find a market, at good prices. I would add another suggest 

 tion, in regard to the cultivation of the grape. Experience has 

 amply demonstrated, that this fruit can be cultivated in this latitude 

 with .success.- Nature has provided you with many facilities, and 

 invites you to the effort. Her rocks and ledges are but so many 

 hot-houses. At the south side of every large rock, and on every 

 ledge sloping to the south, you may plant your grape-vine, confident 

 of success. And a little care will give you an abundance of one of 

 nature's richest and most wholesome productions. And this is not 

 all; these rocks and ledges are now unpleasant to the sight; convert 

 them into graperies, and you make them both remunerative and 

 attractive. 



You may raise the objection that you have no time to devote to 

 such purposes. To this I would reply, there are those who do find 

 time for such work, and who, by bo doing, accumulate fortunes, and 

 surround themselves with every comfort, convenience and luxury. 

 This work they did not do in one day, nor in one season ; but they 

 made a beginning — small at first — adding a little here and doing a 

 little there, setting out a tree, and planting a shrub or root, as time 

 and means would allow. Suppose you have a large tract of uncul- 

 tivated land; you cannot bring it all under cultivation this year, nor 

 next, nor during any one season of labor. What ! therefore, will 

 you never improve it, because you can not all at once ? Most cer- 

 tainly this would be an unwise course ; you will do what you can 

 this year, and what you can next and so on from year to year until 

 the whole is subdued. And such is the course to be pursued in 

 order to accomplish each and every object you have in view. Every 

 end must have a beginning, — you must sow before yoii can reap. 



Another objection frequently urged — and one, too, of fearful con- 

 sequence to the farmer — is, that you have no taste for such things. 

 Here is the real trouble. "I can't," is a word that never accom- 

 plishes, and has no legitimacy in the vocabulary of the Yankee. 



