THE BALANCE-SHEET. 125 



record nothing but their successes, while their failures are 

 never heard of. 



Candor compels me to admit, however humiliating it 

 may be, that I have often been like one groping in the dark, 

 and have made blunders and mistakes, which, if made by a 

 hired man, would have tempted me to discharge him. On 

 one occasion I nearly ruined my early potatoes by applying 

 a compost of fish-guano and loam, in which there was too lit- 

 tle loam, directly to the potato. Again : I destroyed another 

 plan ting of early potatoes by putting nitrate of soda in con- 

 tact with the seed ; and twice I had to reset my strawberry- 

 fields, — once by putting super-phosphate too near the roots, 

 and in the other case by using bone and ashes in the same 

 way. I might mention other instances in which lack of 

 knowledge has occasioned serious losses. 



On the other hand, favorable conditions and circumstances 

 have made some of my crops very paying. I sold, one year, 

 potatoes from an acre and a half of ground *to the amount 

 of a little more than six hundred and sixty-nine dollars. 

 And again, on a field of two acres, I applied in the fall, and 

 ploughed in, seven tons of fish-guano from the oil-works, and 

 in the following spring a good dressing of manure was also 

 ploughed in. It was set to Wilson strawberry-plants, rows 

 four feet apart, with early potatoes between the rows on one 

 acre, and early cabbage on the balance. That season the 

 maggot very generally destroyed early cabbage in our vicinity ; 

 but mine mostly was unhurt. I sold the cabbage and pota- 

 toes for eight hundred and thirty dollars. 



On that field, the year following, the strawberries were 

 sold for $2,606.51, and the year succeeding that for about 

 $2,100 ; but all this was in times of inflated prices. 

 Whether my business was more or less profitable, I kept 

 steadily on; and although a paying crop would stimulate, 

 yet an unprofitable one would not dishearten me. Notwith- 

 standing the frequent mistakes, I have, to the best of my 

 knowledge and ability, applied business principles to my 

 farming operations. 



And now for the financial results. In 1869 my farm was 

 paid for. It was in a fair state of fertility, and bearing good 

 crops ; it was stocked with team and tools, and I had laid 

 aside three thousand dollars. Since then, I have put in 



