HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 91 



the same way. The grapevines were formed 

 on an intensive renewal system. Part of this 

 work was done for the sake of keeping up ap- 

 pearances around the house, and part for the 

 better returns we were sure to get by and by 

 in fruiting. Nothing need be said in defense 

 of that extra care. I speak of it only because 

 it was a radical departure from the way such 

 things had been done on neighboring farms. 

 Farmers are proverbially careless of their or- 

 chards everywhere. That's a part of the 

 short-sighted habit of slighting everything that 

 does not promise quick returns. Here in the 

 hills if a farmer set out a few trees for home 

 fruit they would be left to shift for themselves 

 afterward he would forget all about them for 

 three or four or five years, until it was time 

 for them to come into bearing. There's been a 

 mintful of money lost on the farms by that 

 thriftless trick. A follow-up system is just as 

 necessary in bringing a farm to the profit- 

 making point as in any other business. Lack- 

 ing such a system, a farm springs a hundred 

 leaks. The hardest work I've had to do with 

 my farm helpers has been in persuading them 

 of the wisdom of keeping things up. With 

 neglected holes at the bottom, there's just no 





