SUCCESS OF THE YEAR. 251 



previously, there did not appear to be a market for 

 garden produce in Flushing, but are given as the 

 amount I should have had to pay if I had bought 

 the various articles at retail prices. This is clearly 

 proper ; for, if we had wanted them to eat, had pur 

 chased them at the stalls, and had paid the current 

 charges, there would have been just so much addi 

 tional outlay ; that we did not eat them is no answer, 

 for we could have done so had we wished. 



This exhibit was certainly entirely satisfactory ; the 

 account had steadily improved, and bade fair soon to 

 show a large income. I have even gone so far as to 

 leave out of question rent saved, dissipation at Sara 

 toga avoided, health improved, digestion invigorated, 

 pure air enjoyed, and a thousand other matters for 

 which we pay so dearly ; I merely take the hard, dry 

 figures the positive profit and loss in dollars and 

 cents and they give a clear net profit of nearly 

 eight hundred dollars. Nothing could be asked 

 more promising than this ; if it went on improving 

 at this rate, there was no telling where it would stop. 

 Farming had evidently proved itself a source of vast 

 wealth. We were nowhere near the limit of the pro 

 ductiveness of my five acres, and, with additional at 

 tention, we might reasonably anticipate increased re 

 turns. The result was so encouraging, the life at 



