108 FARM ECHOES. 



this. His is an unusually rocky farm, and he insists that 

 if the earth did "go round," and his farm ever "got 

 bottom side up," there would be a great rattling of stones 

 below, and that he " rather guessed " he would be saved 

 the trouble of getting any more stones off his land. 



The surplus stones on Echo Farm are packed into 

 ravines, and covered with earth. When there are no 

 ravines to fill up, they are piled in large mounds and 

 covered with earth. The crops on these covered stones, 

 both in ravines and mounds, have always been large, 

 and less affected by drouth than in surrounding fields. 



The farmer who imagines that his work for the year is 

 completed when he has gathered his hay crop, shoots as 

 wide of the mark as does the merchant who considers 

 that his debt is discharged when he gives his note for it, 

 payable "ninety days after date." 



The work of a thrifty farmer is never finished. Each 

 day, whether it be in June, December, or any other 

 month of the year, brings its work, and plenty of it. 

 The haying season is not the only busy one on a farm, 

 though the old proverb: "Make hay while the sun 

 shines," has doubtless created a contrary impression. 

 Sunshine is needed for other and equally important 

 work, especially in the fall of the year, when leaves are 

 to be gathered for bedding animals, and when the sun- 

 shine is most valuable, because we then have so little 

 of it. Dried leaves make the best bedding, and are an 

 excellent fertilizer. 



The censure "Nothing but leaves," certainly does not 

 attach to our trees. In ornament and in use, they do all 

 that is expected of them. Robing themselves in their 



