WHERE TO FIND OUT HOW 55 



formation books, pamphlets, lessons, and letters 

 is its contradiction. One realizes there may be 

 more than one way to do most things, that geog- 

 raphy and climate add to the variation. This book, 

 for instance, must be read in the light of the fact 

 that my experience has all been had in southeast- 

 ern Pennsylvania; a good day's motoring in any 

 direction will run up a seasonal variant of a week 

 to ten days. It is obviously impossible to cover the 

 whole "varying shore" of any agricultural ques- 

 tion within the compass of a single book. So much 

 I can understand. But what get me down are such 

 contradictions as that I ran into on corning beef. 

 I got two recipes, from two unimpeachable gov- 

 ernment sources. My experience in pickling pork 

 and other meats told me one of two things must 

 be true: either the one recipe must produce meat 

 too salty to eat, or else the other one would not 

 preserve meat at all. There was only one thing to 

 do. I made two small batches instead of one large 

 batch one by each recipe and so learned that the 

 stronger brine makes fine corned beef, the weaker 

 one lets the meat spoil. Happily, most of the con- 

 tradictions involve no greater financial risk when 

 one is practicing maximum diversification for 

 home use. 



This same contradiction invades the vegetable 

 world: there is no agreement on how much a given 

 planting should yield. Parenthetically, and under- 



