THE NEW CALL TO THE FARM. 33 



an alkali desert, you may obtain seeds and plants which will 

 thrive even there and return you a profitable crop. Not only 

 is drainage appreciated and applied to an extent never before 

 attempted in this country, but drouth is being circumvented 

 and defied until, all in all, the uncertainties of the agricultur- 

 alist are fewer than those of almost any other independent 

 avocation. 



It is freely admitted that the farmer's life still involves much 

 hard labor and anxious care ; that the elements may be against 

 him, and that in one evil hour he may see the well-directed 

 toil of months swept away ; that his animals are subject to ills 

 which his most assiduous care will not cure ; insects and micro- 

 organisms may blight and destroy his various growths of grain 

 and fruit and root and deprive him, not only of his hope of 

 abundance, but even of the most meagre returns for his labor. 

 Men of wide observation and experience strongly advise 

 against undertaking the avocation of the farmer without at 



c 



least $500.00 of capital to begin with, and this would seem to 

 be little enough, but the day when a man might begin with- 

 out a penny and yet succeed has by no means gone by. Doubt- 

 less, under such circumstances, success is more readily reached 

 in some parts of the country than in others. Seven years ago 

 there entered one of the counties of west-central Georgia a 

 young man who said he was from Indiana. He was very 

 poorly dressed, and his few belongings he carried on a stick 

 over his shoulder. He never vouchsafed much information 

 regarding himself, more than that he had come down on foot 

 his appearance indicated it and that he had stopped there 

 simply because he liked the country. He worked for a nursery- 

 man during the first winter for his board and lodging. The 

 next spring he was given a pittance for helping to put in 



