328 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



house on the turnips through the winter, will be many 

 times more than what you lost in order to grow those 

 turnips ; and of course when you give this to your next 

 year's potato gardens, it will more than make up for 

 what you lost. It is, in fact, as if you put some of your 

 manure out at interest. You could not think a man had 

 made a bad bargain, who lent l in May, to receive 

 3 back that day year; yet this is really what you 

 are doing by sparing some of your manure for turnips 

 one year in order to have more manure the next ; the 

 only difference is, that the manure will pay you back 

 more than 3 for 1 ; and there is no fear of your 

 debtor running away. There is an old saying, "Those 

 that do not play cannot win." If you will not spare 

 something one year, it is impossible that you should be 

 better off the next. If you really know the value of 

 manure, you will not grudge a little loss at first, in 

 order so much to profit afterwards. 



But I think I can hear another man objecting against 

 clover and turnips, " Sure but we get great trouble by 

 them." Now, any man who says this, really does not 

 deserve to have a farm at all. Can you grow any crop 

 potatoes, wheat, or any other without trouble 1 Would 

 it not be a pleasant thing if we had only to sit still, 

 and every kind of crop was to grow of itself 1 You can 

 get nothing in this world without trouble ; and no one 

 but an idle lazy fellow, would make this objection. 

 The real question is, not whether you will get trouble 

 by them, but whether they will pay you for your trouble. 

 I have no doubt but that they will do so, especially if 

 your wives make the butter, and you employ your 

 children in cutting the clover, and in hoeing and thin- 

 ning and pulling the turnips and in feeding the cows. 



