HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 121 



take my word for it that I'm stating the fact 

 fairly as we've seen it here. Many of these 

 people had been successful home-makers on 

 their town lots, with gardens and chickens and 

 flowers ; but they couldn't change their think- 

 ing from the square yard to the acre. Acres 

 overwhelmed them. 



We've had another point well illustrated 

 here ; a point that ought to be obvious enough, 

 though it's too often ignored. The man who 

 said that poets are born, not made, didn't ex- 

 clude the other callings from his rule. The 

 rule is just as good for farmers as for poets. 

 That is to say, the man who succeeds at farm- 

 ing must have the flair for it. It isn't enough 

 to be convinced that farming may be made a 

 good, paying business ; one must be a thorough 

 convert to the soil. We've known men here- 

 abouts who came to their new farms with most 

 impeccable schemes of business management, 

 but who fell down disastrously because, when it 

 came to the critical point, they were hopeless 

 aliens to the land. I don't know any better 

 way of saying it than to use a rather vague 

 phrase: The successful farmer must love the 

 soil, feeling himself akin to it. Love of the 

 good earth makes a far better beginning than 



