258 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



it. I am thirty-eight years of age, had some ex- 

 perience in farm life when a boy. Can I start now 

 at gardening and make a living? I have a wife and 

 two children, but I have only eleven hundred dollars 

 to begin on." 



" In your case I should say it would be wise to 

 clerk it awhile longer, if thereby you can raise your 

 capital to twenty-five hundred or three thousand dol- 

 lars. I do not know you personally, but I have 

 strong disinclination to calling anyone into the 

 country who has nothing to carry him over the ex- 

 perience period and the possible depressions from 

 ill health. But if you cannot secure more capital, 

 make your trial somewhat in this way. Buy a small 

 property near a city and start in on truck gardening. 

 This will give you something to sell the first year. 

 Meanwhile you can plant fruit trees for the future 

 and you can have a berry garden, which will yield 

 you something the second year. 



" It will be necessary to keep your own horse and 

 do your own marketing. Find private customers as 

 soon as possible and treat them with the utmost 

 honor. Make your name highly respectable. A few 

 hens will give you chickens and eggs and a cow will 

 give you milk. Here you are. You will have to 

 economize in your foods and you must not waste a 

 dime on tobacco." 1 t 



Another letter pleases me better than any that I 

 have quoted and it comes from a woman. She 

 writes, " My husband and I always pull together 



