36 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



important factor in the winter vegetable diet, 

 failed; or that the well went dry at the peak of 

 the canning season, thus cutting the crop of canned 

 goods short. But I should add, in all fairness to 

 nature, that although the leeks failed the fall crops 

 of lettuce, radishes, and spinach were unusually 

 abundant and long-lasting; and if the water fail- 

 ure stopped canning, yet we had a carry-over big 

 enough to eke out the year's production; and, in 

 a year of almost universal drought, the biggest 

 corn crop we ever produced. 



The poorest year on a well-managed farm, di- 

 versified and dedicated to home consumption, must 

 inevitably be bountiful. The complainers are those 

 who seek only money crops. Money can be made 

 at farming, even though it is admittedly impos- 

 sible for a wheat farmer to cite a typical instance 

 to make a year's living out of ninety days' work: 

 which is apparently what the wheat farmer ex- 

 pects and the government esteems his inalienable 

 right. But if the wheat farmer could be persuaded 

 to go to work, to raise his own food instead of 

 buying it ready put up at the store, his condition 

 never would become desperate. 



The farmer who complains that everything 

 goes against him betrays his own incompetence as 

 surely as the man who cannot hold a job. Of 

 course things are going to go against you. But that 

 cannot deter you. We have been struck not only 



