CORNELL READING LESSON FOR FARMERS. 



Issued hy the College of Agriculture^ Cornell Univer- 

 sity^ Ithaca^ N. Y., in the inonths of November, 

 December, January, February and March. 



Entered at the Post Office at Ithaca, N. Y., as second-class matter under act of 



July 16, 1894. 



No. lo. March, 1900. Peter's Idea of 

 Improving "Worn -Out" Lands. 



BY JOHN W. SPENCER, 



It was near to the shortest days of the year that I fulfilled a prom- 

 ise to attend a Grange meeting to be held in a small town in Western 

 New York. I arrived in Rochester the night before, in order to l)e 

 able to catch the early morning train. As I passed the Douglas 

 monument in the early gray of the morning, with hat drawn low on 

 my head and nlster turned up to protect my ears, the sharp frost 

 sifted throno-h the air like ashes and the snow creaked beneath the 

 wheels of the early wagons. I wondered what I should say at the 

 meeting. 



The village was a typical country hamlet. It contained neither 

 wealth nor scpialid poverty. No one of its inhabitants could meet 

 with a misfortune without receiving the sincere sympathy of all. 

 The public buildings were a school house, a church with a horse 

 shed, a blacksmith shop, and a store carrying a stock of goods of 

 such completeness as to remind me of the imdtuni in parvo jack- 

 knife which an uncle once gave me. I wondered the more what I 

 should say. AVould I find good farmers here? 



The meeting was a forenoon and afternoon affair in the Grange 

 hall over the store. The hall had a dining room and kitchen annex, 

 much to my welfare. In the early part of the afternoon session, I 

 noticed amono- the faces that seemed interested in the discussion, a 

 middle-aged man with full beard, blue flannel shirt and felt boots. 



571 



