THE PROBLEM, THE PEOPLE, THE PLACE 11 



The other extreme the roots-and-berries school- 

 assumes successful farming can be done without 

 expense. These wishful thinkers see in country life 

 a return rather, a retrogression to pioneer if not 

 primordial conditions. 



My own way, I perhaps fondly believe, is the 

 auream mediocritatem, the golden mean between 

 these extremes. It is not true that it is cheaper to 

 buy it than it is to make it or to grow it. On the 

 other hand, it can not be made or grown for 

 nothing. While I view with distaste large farms 

 run for tax purposes, yet I do not hold with the 

 eaters of bark and grubs: I am for comfort, con- 

 venience, and a civilized life first, last, and all the 

 time. Nothing but dire necessity could induce me 

 to put out the furnace fire and try to cook and 

 keep warm at the fireplaces. 



In addition to confusing discomfort with sim- 

 plicity, the roots-and-berries school usually leans 

 toward vegetarianism or some other dietary crotchet. 

 I had a strong, healthy great-uncle who killed 

 himself in the prime of life with such notions. His 

 brother, my grandfather, thought he was a vege- 

 tarian too: he always said he was. Yet for the twen- 

 ty-eight last years of his life, during which I knew 

 him, he ate prodigiously of meat at least twice, 

 more often three times, a day. He was well and 

 strong enough to take up farming when he was 

 over seventy and make a small fortune from it in 



