MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 107 



you up, farm and all. It is the great 

 subject of modern times, how to fer 

 tilize without ruinous expense ; how, in 

 short, not to starve the earth to death 

 while we get our living out of it. 

 Practically, the business is hardly to the 

 taste of a person of a poetic turn of 

 mind. The details of fertilizing are not 

 agreeable. Michael Angelo, who tried 

 every art, and nearly every trade, never 

 gave his mind to fertilizing. It is much 

 pleasanter and easier to fertilize with a 

 pen, as the agricultural writers do, than 

 with a fork. And this leads me to say, 

 that, in carrying on a garden yourself, 

 you must have a &quot; consulting &quot; gardener ; 

 that is, a man to do the heavy and 

 unpleasant work. To such a man, I say, 

 in language used by Demosthenes to the 

 Athenians, and which is my advice to all 

 gardeners, &quot;Fertilize, fertilize, fertilize ! &quot; 



