110 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



did your duty last year? you know you had a two dollar 

 bill, and it cost you some trouble to get it changed when 

 you sent for yours ; you might just as well have sent for 

 two copies and let Jones have had one. He would'nt have 

 lost them two fine old sheep if he had read the Cultivator ; 

 because he would have seen that ruta bagas were just 

 what they wanted. But poor man ; did'nt know it. There 

 is your neighbor Williams too; you had some dealings 

 with him, and he would have been glad to have taken 

 the paper from you, "in the way of trade ;" "because that 

 would not be paying out money," though you paid it to 

 him. Now you know that he lost nearly all his first 

 planting of corn by the insects, birds, &c. ; and then came 

 up to your house to "get the receipt out of the paper 

 how to doctor the seed." But then it was too late to re- 

 plant; so he planted beans. Did you ever see a finer 

 crop? Got nicely ripe and pulled and hung up on the 

 scattering corn, lugged out to the fence, and stone heaps, 

 &c. to put up to dry. Well, there came on a long warm 

 rain; and poor man, he lost the whole of them nearly, 

 more than an hundred bushels. Do you remember when 

 he came to your barn, and the conversation? "Did'nt 

 you lose your beans, neighbor Thomas, that warm rain?" 

 says he in perfect astonishment, "I saw you pulling them 

 the same day I did, — and mine were the ripest. Why 

 bless me, how bright they do thrash out. Now in God's 

 name, do tell me how you saved them?" 



"Why, I read it in the Cultivator more than a year 

 ago." 



"Good heavens, 'twould have been worth more than an 

 hundred dollars to me." 



"So it was to me — and then it's so easy and simple; 

 take a parcel of stakes, — I took old bean poles out of the 

 garden, — out into the field and stick 'em round, and put 

 a few stones or sticks at the bottom, and then pull the 

 beans : no matter how green they are, and stack them 

 up with the roots touching the stalkes until you get high 

 enough; and then tie the top course with a little straw 



