154 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



acre of good Bermuda grass than the average 

 southern acre of corn is worth. 



Our rather aimless first work on that hillside 

 taught us something. The poverty of the so- 

 called pastures hereabouts isn't the inevitable 

 logic of natural conditions; it's chargeable to 

 the farmers themselves. The roughest of these 

 hill lands, which are habitually left as ugly 

 wastes, may be converted to profitable use at 

 small cost. We couldn't make a better pas- 

 ture than the one Nature made for us immedi- 

 ately we gave her a fighting chance. If there's 

 one complaint more often heard than another 

 among the farmers here it is that they can't 

 afford to keep "milk stock" that must be given 

 "boughten feed" all the year round. With a 

 pasture like ours for the summer, and cowpea 

 hay carrying a good crop of matured pods for 

 winter feeding, besides an acre or two of fall- 

 seeded mixed small grains and rape for winter 

 pasturing, milk and butter may be had here all 

 the time at as little cost as anywhere on the 

 map. It just isn't done; that's all. At this 

 time, late in May, our cows are in fine milk 

 and sleek as pet rabbits ; but they haven't had 

 an ounce of grain in the last two months save 



