1885 



GLEANI^'GS 1^ JJEK CL'J/rUKk. 



181 



who live as I do, where we have, on an aver- 

 age, from three to four months of winter, I 

 expect these talks to be applicable, also, to 

 those where winter is almost unknown. 

 When I was a small boy, and was helping 

 father raise a crop of potatoes, he remarked, 

 that, if the weather were favorable, we 

 should probably get a hundred bushels. 



" Well, pa." said I, '' suppose the weather 

 is not favorable, how many Inishels shall we 

 probably get thenV"' 



lie replied, that we might not get over 2-3 

 bushels; but lie added, in an encouraging 

 way, " If the weather is favorable, it will be 

 so for otiier people also, and the crop of pota- 

 toes raised will be so large they will likely 

 bring only about 25 cents a bushel, giving us 

 $25.00 for the crop. If the weather is not fa- 

 vorable, other people will have a small crop as 

 well as we, and the price may be a dollar a 

 bushel; and in timt case we should get $2-3.00 

 for our crop. So you see it would not make j 

 any difference, after all. Our business is to ! 

 do the best we can." j 



Now, I am going to add what father did 

 not add then : That the expert farmer or 

 gardener nowadays succeeds in getting a 

 large crop, even if the season is unfavofable; 

 and he may, if lie is up to tlie highest recent 

 attainments, get the 100 bushels of potatoes, [ 

 and get the $1.00 per bushel also ; and that 

 is what we are going to work for. In fact, 

 that is what this book is intended to help ; 

 you to do ; and the princi])le is to be carried I 

 out all the same, whether you raise bees, 

 chickens, strawberries, or potatdes. Take 

 whatever (Jod sends you in the shape of 

 weather or opportunities, and make the b( st 

 of them. Endeavor to see his loving hand 

 through it all. If you are away down south, 

 you can get bountiful crops with compara- 

 tively little exertion ; while if you are up 



north you will have to fight frosts and win- 

 ter ; but you will get higher prices on this 

 very account. Sometimes farmers and gar- 

 deners get blue and discouraged because it 

 rains all the while ; at other times they get 

 blue and discoui-aged because it does not 

 rain at all. "Now, let us shape our work so 

 we shall have something to be thankful for. 

 I^et us make these forces of nature our 

 friends, instead of our enemies. To illus- 

 trate what I mean : Several years ago I was 

 greatly annoyed by the high winds blowing 

 the bees down while the fruit-trees were in 

 bloom, and I kept wishing we could have a 

 day when the wind didn't blow. I finally 

 told my wife that I was going to buy a wind- 

 mill to make bee-hives, that I might be en- 

 abled to use this annoying and troublesome 

 wind as a, servant, instead of having it an 

 enemy. At the same time I built a high 

 fence around the apiary, and battened all 

 the cracks, so that I had a small spot of 

 ground that was tolerably tranquil, no mat- 

 ter how windy it was in other situations. 

 Such wind-breaks pay all they cost, with- 

 out any question, not only in bee culture, 

 but in gardening and fruit-raising. Well, 

 after I got my wind-mill all up, 1 wanted 

 the wind ; and I was so anxious to have it 

 blow that I several times got up in the night 

 to do my grinding and sawing. Thus you 

 see I was fixed all right when the wind 

 didn't blow, but I was fixed better .still if it 

 did blow. Brother Terry brings out the 

 same idea in his potato-book. If a shower 

 came up, and interfered with curing his 

 clover, he consoled himself by thinking that 

 his potatoes received more benefit tlian the 

 clover received damage, and at the same 

 time he did all in his power to protect his 

 clover. 



CTIAPTEIl II. 



Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for 

 —FRov.2i:Tt. 



Our good old friend Horace Greeley used 

 to advise the young men to "go west," as 

 you may remember. I presume his idea 

 was, that by going west they would find 

 broad fields of fertile soil, where the results 

 of their energies would bring good pay, and 

 furnish comfortable homes for all. If you 

 want to be a large farmer, no doubt the 

 above advice still holds good. But my field 

 of labor would be to commence at home, 

 where you are. I have known a good many 



thyself in the llekl; and afterwards build thy house. 



young married people to go west, and after 

 awhile come back to the very spot they left, 

 poorer in purse, even if they were richer in 

 experience. Now, if that money and time 

 had been expended on a little piece of ground 

 at home, it would have been far better. 

 Horace Greeley had in mind broad fields. I 

 would advise developing a few acres, or 

 even one acre or less. From Peter Hender- 

 son's "Gardening for Profit," we extract 

 the following in regard to the cultivation of 



