THE TIM BUNKEK PAPEKS. 



I inquired. &quot; Wall, neow I can t tell,&quot; said Jake, scratch 

 ing his head. It seems as if the trouble was at the top of 

 the pocket instead of the bottom, and I ve been allers 

 siferin to find out why money didn t git into my pocket. 

 Mine allers gits eout afore it gits in, so that the most of the 

 time I don t have nothin . I ve allers ben runnin astarn 

 since I begun to farm it, and I don t know what the mat 

 ter is.&quot; 



Jake s puzzle is that of a good many others, though 

 few, it is to be hoped, are quite so bad off as he is. They 

 do not make any headway, but are rather getting in 

 debt every year. Many have to sell out and change their 

 business, or emigrate to the West, where the land has not 

 been so long abused as it has in the older States. There 

 is something in Jake s insinuation that bad help is the 

 cause of bad crops. This is apt to be the case where the 

 employer is not in the field himself with his hands for a 

 large part of the time. I have never yet seen a farm that 

 would thrive without the constant oversight of the owner. 

 Farming necessarily confines a man at home as closely as 

 any other business. There are occasions of loss every 

 day in seed time and harvest, if he is away from home. 

 But Jake s trouble is not here, for he does not hire much 

 help of any kind, and what he does hire is a fair average 

 of farm help. 



One thing that makes him run astern is the want of all 

 system in making manure. He does not feel that this is 

 an essential part of a farmer s business. He does not 

 make one load where he has the material to make ten. An 

 empty barn-yard makes a barren corn-field. This makes 

 a man discouraged, and he does nothing promptly and 

 with a will. He runs astern in every crop through the 

 season, and in his pecuniary affairs at the end of the year. 



But this is not all the trouble with my neighbor. Jake 

 is not what he ought to be morally, and this, perhaps, lies 

 at the bottom of his poor farming, as is the case with a 



