Publisher's Preface to First Edition. 



Dear friends, one great reason why I have asked Mr. Terry to 

 write this book on potatoes is the number of people that are at 

 this present time begging for something to do. In our factory 

 for the manufacture of bee-supplies, we employ from 100 to 150 

 hands, and it is not only daily but sometimes hourly that I am 

 besieged with applications for something to do. I have employed 

 as many as I could, and suggested means of employment to those 

 I have been obliged to send away. Many times these friends say 

 they have been everywhere, asking for employment. This mat- 

 ter has been on my mind for many months, and it has seemed 

 that the great problem before our American people was to find 

 something they could do, to earn the necessaries of life. Work 

 in factories is, to a certain extent, not permanent. The vicissi- 

 tudes of business necessitate cutting down the force, and some- 

 times stopping entirely. What shall the men and women of 

 America busy themselves with? How shall they earn their 

 bread by the sweat of their face? After having considered this 

 question prayerfully, the answer has come to me, u Go out into 

 the open fields, and ask old Dame Nature for something to do 

 till the soil, busy yourself with domestic animals, bees, poultry, 

 and the like." After you have once learned to do this, you are 

 independent; that is, you are not dependent on any human being 

 for the wherewith to earn your bread. You are looking to God 

 the Father; and he has said, " Him that cometh unto me, I will 

 in no wise cast out." Neither myself nor friend Terry would 

 advise everybody to go to raising potatoes; but a great many are 

 so situated that they could, by this means, supply themselves 

 with this great food staple. A penny saved is a penny earned, 

 you know, and brother Terry tells you not only how to raise po- 

 tatoes without any very great expense of time and labor, but he 

 also tells you how to raise better potatoes than you are likely to 

 buy of anybody. Again, a great many are already raising pota- 

 toes; and if you want to know how they raise them, go around 

 about digging-time. 



