184 THE TIM BUNKER P APERS. 



&quot; Wall, his land allers was better than mine; and then 

 he has more cattle to make more manure, and he buys lots 

 of guanner and bone dust, and all the ashes folks makes in 

 the village, and sets every boy that s big enough to run 

 on tew legs to pickin up bones, and buys every ded hoss 

 and rotten sheep, and murdered cat, shoemaker s parin s, 

 old boots, ded hens, old rags, and feathers, sticks em into 

 this muck, and makes manure. If a man has money nuff 

 to buy carrion, he can make manure and make crops, but 

 ye see it costs more than it comes to. And then, who 

 wants to be runnin an opposition line to the crows ! The 

 Squire is great on ded bosses, depend on t. The crows 

 haven t had a decent meal of vittles the last five years, 

 the Squire s been so spry after every ded critter.&quot; 



Jake Frink touched up his nag and disappeared rather 

 suddenly after this display of his philosophy of big crops. 

 There was, of course, some foundation in truth for his 

 reflection upon my methods of making manure. But 

 neighbor Frink displayed his own pride, as well as my 

 humiliation, in his remarks. One would hardly think it, 

 but Jake Frink is really above his business, and is asham 

 ed to do what ought to be done, to make the most of the 

 materials within his reach to enrich his stores of manure. 

 You see, this digging mud is nasty business. You must 

 soil your boots, and your shirt sleeves, and a splash of 

 mud upon your shirt bosom is not uncommon. And the 

 handling of dead horses and other diseased animals is not 

 particularly savory. But then if a man is going to be a 

 farmer, he musn t faint at the sight of such things, or carry 

 a smelling bottle to keep down the stenches. Muck makes 

 clean corn, yellow as gold, and the sweetest of meal, and 

 all offal and putrid flesh in the laboratory of the soil is 

 turned into luxuriant grass, which makes nice milk, cheese, 

 and butter, and a plenty of it. Being a farmer, and 

 &quot; nothing else,&quot; as the boys say, I go in for muck and 

 more of it every year. 



