48 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



wit, still it compels the research of so many of the 

 myriad activities contributing to the maintenance 

 of human life and civilization that it cannot but 

 "cultivate the waste places of the mind" to a de- 

 gree nothing else does. To anyone forced to spend 

 eight or ten hours a day in the highly competitive 

 roar and turmoil of the city it is not work at all; 

 it is the finest, most complete relaxation and di- 

 version. 



Nevertheless I should not like to do it all the 

 time, nor would I recommend such a course to 

 anyone. There is more to be gotten out of country 

 life if one has time to sit down and think about 

 it to plan. (We simply must get on with this 

 business of planning!) It is a good way to begin. 

 By doing the work one learns what ought to be 

 done, and what can or cannot be done. No one 

 who has tried it would ask a hired man to pitch 

 hay all day and can vegetables all night; or to 

 spray fruit trees in freezing weather, or to work 

 four straight hours in a truck patch under a hun- 

 dred and thirty degrees of sun. The knowledge 

 gained by such experience is the best possible 

 check on that over-enthusiasm which perennially 

 tempts one to bite off a bigger farm program than 

 he can chaw and thus invite failure. I could do 

 all my own work, but I should not care to do it, 

 and I should count the necessity to do it a defeat. 



