6 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



generous hospitality to our friends some of whom 

 were out of work a hospitality which, unlike city 

 hospitality, did not involve purchasing everything 

 we served our guests. 



To these things which we produced in our first 

 year, we have since added ducks, guineas, and tur- 

 keys; bees for honey; pigeons for appearance; and 

 dogs for company. We have in the past twelve years 

 built three houses and a barn from stones picked up 

 on our place; we weave suitings, blankets, carpets, 

 and draperies; we make some of our own clothing; 

 we do all of our own laundry work; we grind flour, 

 corn meal, and breakfast cereals; we have our own 

 workshops, including a printing plant; and we have 

 a swimming-pool, tennis-court, and even a billiard- 

 room. 



In certain important respects our experiment was 

 very different from the ordinary back-to-the-land 

 adventure. We quickly abandoned all efforts to raise 

 anything to sell. After the first year, during which 

 we raised some poultry for the market, this became an 

 inviolable principle. We produced only for our own 

 consumption. If we found it difficult to consume or 

 give away any surplus, we cut down our production 

 of that particular thing and devoted the time to pro- 

 ducing something else which we were then buying. 

 We used machinery wherever we could, and tried to 

 apply the most approved scientific methods to small- 

 scale production. We acted on the theory that there 

 was always some way of doing what we wanted to do, 



