HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 55 



overnight. There's no get-rich-quick way of 

 doing it. Nature will do it herself if you'll 

 give her time and let her alone. You may beat 

 Nature's time if you'll put your mind to it; 

 but you must follow her methods. Nature has 

 a patent on the manufacture of humus ; that's 

 why. 



Well, then, we had a naturally good farm 

 that had become unnaturally poor. Two 

 things were to be done in reforming it. We 

 had to clean up the surface, getting rid of stone 

 and stumps and such-like litter, so that we 

 might really cultivate our fields. That would 

 take time and muscle. Then we had to get 

 humus into the soil. That would take time and 

 muscle plus some thinking. 



The state university at Fayetteville includes 

 the Arkansas Agricultural College. We went 

 over there and began to pester the professors. 

 We talked with the chemists, and the horti- 

 culturists, and the agronomists, and the animal 

 husbandry men, and every other man who 

 looked or acted like an expert in anything. If 

 we missed anybody in those interviews it was 

 because he saw us coming and hid. They were 

 certainly a fine lot of men. If the farmers of 

 the United States, whose work is all at sixes 



