CHAPTER THREE 



The Expectation of Plenty 



A FRIEND of mine was negotiating the pur- 

 chase of a near-by farm. A doubt was raised 

 whether he would work as much on his farm as I 

 do on mine, and if not whether he could hope to 

 make a go of it. 



"Listen," he said. "I don't know how much 

 actual farm labor Henry does, although I suspect 

 you could put it all in your eye. It doesn't matter 

 whether he does any or not. When you drive down 

 the pike, late of a winter night, and see the light 

 on in his study that is when he is doing the work 

 that makes his farm go." 



The point is well taken, however exaggerated. 

 Success in farming, even the kind of part-time 

 farming practiced at Medlock Farm, depends as it 

 does in all other enterprises on formulating a defi- 

 nite plan. It depends, in a word, on the proper 

 exercise and co-ordination of the three great fac- 

 tors that govern every human undertaking: staff 

 work, or planning; executive, or seeing that it gets 

 done; labor, or doing it. Neither function is more 

 important than the others. Often, on the farm as 



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