6 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



to 1932. Six acres were and are in timber; an- 

 other acre in young orchard, part of which was 

 set out in the spring of that fateful year. Nearly 

 another acre is in lawn and buildings. All the rest, 

 save for a small fraction of an acre dedicated to a 

 summer vegetable garden, we had let run to sec- 

 ond-growth timber. It made fine game cover; but 

 a half-dozen pheasants and as many rabbits are not 

 much annual return out of thirty-eight acres. There 

 was no other livestock on the place. 



In spite of this reduction of farm property to 

 its minimum uses there was still, as anyone who 

 has ever owned any kind of real estate knows, 

 a certain amount of work to be done all the time 

 merely to "keep the place up," as it is called. For 

 this purpose I had for the last eight years employed 

 a man three days a week the year around. In sum- 

 mer he mowed the lawn and tended the garden. 

 In winter he did painting, cleaning, wood-cutting 

 anything that came to hand. It was sometimes 

 a problem to find work enough to keep him busy 

 from one growing season to the next. 



There was therefore the possibility of laying 

 him off and saving his wages. I could cut the grass 

 and tend the garden myself. There were times 

 when I had done it. But reasons other than the 

 prospect of weeding the onions and pushing the 

 lawn-mower made this course distasteful. My man 

 is a family man. Furthermore, when any man has 



