4 * POTATO CULTUKE. 



." I re'me.HiibQ r -of working, when a boy, for a neighboring farmer. 

 His good wife must have something for dinner for the harvest 

 hands; so she went out into the garden, and pushed the weeds to 

 one side, and hunted until she found potato-vines enough to 

 indicate where the potatoes had been planted. After working 

 among the weeds hard enough to have earned a panful of good 

 potatoes provided she had reasonable pay for the hard work she 

 did, she got a few little ones, to help make out a dinner. Poor 

 woman! my heart goes out in sympathy and pity as I think of it 

 now. After having worked hard to raise a large family of chil- 

 dren, grim consumption took her away. If I am correct, scarcely 

 one of the large family of boys and girls was content to remain 

 on the farm. My friend, may be your good wife or mother would 

 rejoice to see a nice thrifty patch of fine potatoes. What mother 

 is there who does not rejoice to see her growing boys relish their 

 food, especially after the boys have been at work in the harvest- 

 field? Well, don't you think you would enjoy it to help that 

 good mother by supplying her with an abundance of nice pota- 

 toes ready at hand ? Did it ever occur to you that it is fun to 

 raise potatoes? Why, my friend, it seems to me there are few 

 enjoyments in the world like seeing potatoes do their level best; 

 and when you have got so well acquainted with the nature of the 

 vegetable, so it is all under your thumb, as it were, what a thrill 

 of pleasure it gives one to be able to make them do their best, 

 and do it every time, whether we have drouth or extremely 

 wet weather! You may say it is impossible; that we are not 

 independent of the weather. My friend, we are independent of 

 the weather, to a great extent. If every thing is done as well as 

 it can be toward raising a nice crop of potatoes, we can be pretty 

 sure of a fair crop, even during the worst drouth, or iri spite of 

 frost or rain or snow. May be you think I am claiming a good 

 deal. Well, friends, the best way in the world to prove it is to 

 try following the directions given in this book, with a small 

 patch in the garden (if you don't do any more than that); you 

 will then be ready to extend operations a little until you have a 

 field of ten or twenty acres, as has friend Terry, every season. 

 Don't go into any thingr wn a large scale to begin with. Prove 

 yourself, and prove your soil; prove your knowledge and ability; 

 creep before you walk; and when you do walk, you will be able 



