148 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



time we meet around at the farmers houses, generally 

 once a month, some Saturday afternoon, so as to look at 

 the crops and stock, as well as to discuss questions. Well, 

 by a little coaxing and management, we have got most of 

 the young farmers in the neighborhood of the village in 

 terested, so that we frequently have twenty at the meet 

 ing, and that makes about as large a company as a plain 

 farmer cares to talk to. My immediate circle of friends 

 are among the most punctual members. Mr. Spooner and 

 Deacon Smith are always on hand to keep things straight ; 

 Seth Twiggs comes up to see what he can through his 

 clouds of smoke ; Uncle Jotham Sparrowgrass limps 

 around with his invaluable scraps of experience from Long 

 Island ; and Tucker, Jones, and Jake Frink, drop in to see 

 what new exercise is going on in Tim Bunker s pew. 



The club is getting to be a good deal of an institution, 

 if not a great one, in Hookertown. The last topic talked 

 up was &quot; How to Make Farming Profitable.&quot; We had a 

 stranger into the meeting from Massachusetts, Mr. Pink- 

 ham ; and he took the ground that it was not profitable, 

 and for his part he did not believe it could be made to 

 pay. He said &quot; he had got a little property together, but 

 he did not make it by cultivating the soil, though he had 

 worked at it thirty years steady. He had a farm given 

 to him to start with, and if he had done nothing else but 

 farm it, he believed he should have run in debt every year. 

 He had worked in the winter and on rainy days at shoe 

 making, and all that he was worth, over and above what 

 he inherited, was owing to his trade.&quot; 



Uncle Jotham guessed Mr. Pinkham was about right, if 

 men managed their farms in the old way. He had known 

 a hundred farmers or more, on the Island, and there wa n t 

 a half dozen of them that got ahead any, until they begun 

 to catch bony fish. This made manure mighty cheap and 

 plenty, and a man must be a fool that couldn t get big 

 crops with manure a plenty. But to have nothing but 



