58 THE -TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



in Hookertown, but they all declared they got one, when 

 they come to see my carrot crop. I guess I had one my 

 self, but it was not exactly the same as my neighbors . 



You know, last year I told you about the subsoiling of 

 my garden, and the lots of garden sauce I put into my 

 cellar, in the fall of 1856. That waked up some folks 

 considerable, and Seth Twiggs in particular. One day, 

 last spring, he come down to our house pipe in mouth, 

 as usual. Says he, &quot; Esquire Bunker, I am going in for 

 some of them premiums, myself, this year, and I calculate 

 to beat you on carrots, do your prettiest.&quot; 



&quot; Dew tell,&quot; says I, &quot; and what are you going to manure 

 with?&quot; 



&quot; Pig manure and a subsile plow. You see I ve got 

 Deacon Smith to subsile my garden, and I ve got manure 

 enough to cover the ground an inch thick, all over. You re 

 a gone coon, this time, Esq. Bunker, I shall beat you ;&quot; 

 and the smoke rolled up in a cloud as he walked off, the 

 picture of self-satisfaction. 



Says I to myself, after Seth had gone, &quot;a subsile plow 

 is not the chief end of man. I ll try a few tile drains and 

 a trenching spade.&quot; 



The lower end of my garden, you know, is bounded by 

 a ditch, and has always been too wet. I got sole tile 

 enough to drain a quarter of an acre, putting them down 

 three-and-a-half feet deep, and thirty feet apart. Thinks 

 I to myself, &quot; If Seth Twiggs gets the start of Tim Bunker 

 on carrots, he ll have to manure with something deeper 

 than subsile plows.&quot; After the tile were put down, I 

 could see they were needed, because after every rain that 

 came, they would discharge water into the ditch. Seth 

 thought he was doing rather an extravagant thing, sir, 

 putting on the manure an inch thick. It only showed 

 what a fog his mind was in, about manures. I had a 

 grand compost heap, that I had been making all winter 

 muck, night-soil, soap-suds, and a lot of bony fish at 



