CAN WE MAKE IT PAY? 259 



and we are going to pull together in another direc- 

 tion. We have been reading your articles and we 

 are going to have a country home sure. We do 

 not write to ask you where we shall go, that we have 

 decided for ourselves. We are going to raise hens 

 and chickens, partly because we like to and partly 

 because we think there is a living in it. We have 



been reading 's book, but we do not believe 



one-half that he says. We surely shall not go away 

 from the city expecting to get rich at once. We are 

 healthy, fairly honest, and we have a lot of stick- 

 to-it-iveness. What we want of you is to tell us 

 whether you would combine with raising fowls rais- 

 ing small fruits. Don't you think that we could get 

 a good deal of use out of our hens by letting them 

 have the run of a small orchard? If this letter 

 bothers you, burn it." 



To this letter I answered, " You have hit it just 

 right. Plant a plum yard and let it be a chicken yard 

 at the same time. Give a part of your fowls the run 

 of an apple orchard, at least part of the year. I 

 have a neighbor whose fifty chickens have had the 

 range of my gardens and orchards all summer. They 

 have done me vastly more good than harm. The 

 point is to keep down the bugs and the trypeta flies 

 and all the rest of the vermin. There is nothing else 

 in the world so good as hens to do this, not even the 

 birds. I take it, however, you will cultivate birds 

 also. The amount of income in such a case as yours 

 is not the point, nor ought I to undertake to tell 



