82 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



In market gardening for profit, one acre might be devoted 

 to vegetables, one acre to small fruits; strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, etc., and one 

 acre kept for buildings, poultry, etc. An energetic man could 

 clear one thousand dollars a year besides his living, after he 

 got a start, and be absolutely independent; that is, unless 

 some predatory railroad corporation could confiscate his 

 profits before his product reached the market. 



Some persons are just naturally so successful with plants 

 that if they stuck an umbrella in the ground we should ex- 

 pect to see it blossom out into parasols but they don't 

 know why it does, and they can't teach any one else how to 

 do it. 



Any fool can sneer at "book farming" or at anything else, 

 but you can hardly succeed without the best books by prac- 

 tical men. Do not let some experienced ignoramus talk 

 you out of experimenting under their guidance. You will 

 learn little without experience, and unless you have the 

 grower's instinct, you will learn less without books. 



Don't be hypnotized by long experience or by success. 

 Hardly anybody knows his own business. You must have 

 noticed that few of the people you buy of or sell to, know 

 any more of their goods than you do. 



It is just the same with trades. Hardly a barber knows 

 that he should not shave you against the grain of the skin. 

 Even the cat won't stand being rubbed up the wrong way ; 

 but the barber never thought of that. 



We lawyers and the doctors are supposed to be thorough 

 in our own field I said lately to one of the ablest men at 

 the New York Bar, " About one lawyer in a hundred knows 

 his business." He said, "That is a gross overestimate." 

 Shortly after I talked with three Judges, one of the City 



