168 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



idea. The science of farming isn't merely a 

 hodge-podge of detached facts ; it's a big idea, 

 with the facts grouped around it. The indi- 

 vidual farm, if it's to succeed, must have some- 

 thing of that form. Why, you might just as 

 well pile up a lot of bricks hit-or-miss and ex- 

 pect to get a finished piece of architecture as to 

 stick to the old scrappy way of "working the 

 land" and expect to build a successful farm. 



Our concern was to build a farm, to make a 

 farm that would grow richer and better and 

 more fruitful year after year. It would not 

 satisfy us merely to haul fertility upon the 

 land and distribute it around. We would do 

 that, of course, as one of the means to our end, 

 whenever it could be done to advantage in 

 hastening the work of putting our fields in 

 condition for cropping; but to rely upon out- 

 side sources of fertility was too crude to serve 

 as anything more than a temporary aid. If 

 the success of our farm must depend upon the 

 use of manure taken from our neighbors who 

 ought to be using it upon their own land, and 

 whose farms would be running down because 

 of their failure to use it, then farming as a 

 whole would show itself vitally weak. Do you 



