182 W A L L ' S M A N U A L 



that "the good old way" is best, and sticks to it. lie 

 works from morning till night, from spring till fall. 

 In the winter, he rests as much as his lessened duties 

 will allow. During this time, he reads little, or 

 nothing. Least of all, does he read about farming. 

 He don't want to learn how to dig potatoes from a 

 book. Book farming is all nonsense. Many other 

 similar ideas keep him from agricultural reading. 

 His house is comfortable, and his barns are quite as 

 good as his neighbors', while his farm gives him a 

 living. It is true, that his soil does not produce as 

 much as it did ten years ago, but prices are better, 

 and he is satisfied. Let us look at his premises, and 

 see how his affairs are managed. First, examine the 

 land. Well, it is good, fair soil ; some of it a little 

 springy, but it is not to be called wet. When first 

 laid down, will produce a ton and a half of hay to 

 to the acre it used to produce two tons. There are 

 some stones and stumps on the land, but not enough, 

 in his estimation, to do harm. The plowed fields are 

 pretty good ; they w r ill produce thirty-five bushels of 

 corn, thirteen bushels of wheat, or thirty bushels of 

 oats per acre, when the season is not dry. His father 

 used to get more ; but, somehow the weather is not as 

 favorable as it was in old times. Ho has thought of 

 raising root crops, but they take more labor than he 

 can afford to hire. Over in the back part of the 

 land, there is a muck-hole, which is the only piece of 

 worthless land on the farm. Now* let us look at the 

 barns and barn-yards. The stables are pretty good ; 

 there are some wide cracks in the siding, but they 

 help to ventilate, and make it healthy for the cattle. 

 The manure is thrown out of the back window, and 



