MY GARDEN ITS LOCATION. 47 



waiting for the ground to dry out. As a 

 general thing it does that only too fast In 

 the spring of '71 I had much of my garden 

 made in March, for after heavy rains I can 

 cultivate my knolls when most gardens are 

 in a swampy condition. 



But in times of drought, so frequent of 

 late, my ground suffers extremely, and I 

 have had blackberries dry to seeds upon the 

 vines, beets shrivel into little fibrous, leathery 

 knobs, and even the hardy tomato droop and 

 faint, ripening fruit that hardly made a mouth- 

 ful. The secret of my success lies largely in 

 planting my crops so early that the principal 

 growth is made, and the ground shaded before 

 the drought and heat of summer. Yet, as 

 the soil is new, I find that small fruits, 

 trees, and vines do finely, whenever the 

 season is at all favorable ; and if I start early, 

 with liberal stimulus of manure, I can gen- 



