POTATO CULTURE). 147 



lowed as I do potato-growing ; but there would be 110 profit 

 whatever in our making butter from two or three cows, if 

 the labor of my wife were counted, as it is with me. She 

 would have to go through with all the operations of dairy- 

 ing every day in the year, the same as though enough were 

 being done to amount to something ; and then, could she 

 afford the best implements and conveniences? could she 

 have ice and the separator, and the Babcock tester, and a 

 power churn arid worker, etc.? Of course, not. Then why 

 not extend and push our potato and wheat growing, and 

 drop the dairying entirely, and let some one else extend and 

 push that ? That is business. That is sensible. That is 

 what we did some twenty years ago. That is what has paid us. 

 I have in mind a man who is now working very much as 

 we did when we first came on the farm. He has cows and 

 young cattle, and pigs and chickens, and raises, or tries to, 

 every thing he needs for himself and stock that will grow on 

 his place. At any rate, it looks so to me. He and his fam- 

 ily work very hard early and late, and have for many years, 

 and they just barely live, as he has told me. Every year 

 they put in two or three acres of potatoes. The soil is not 

 suitable for them at all. They plow out the furrows with a 

 one-horse plow, the father holding while the son leads the 

 horse. Then they drop them by hand and cover with a hoe. 

 When the weeds get to show green all over the field they 

 cultivate up what they can between the rows, and day after 

 day work hard to hoe out those in the hills. Often the clay 

 soil dries and bakes after a shower because they are so driven 

 with work that it is impossible to tend to any thing on time. 

 Well, they get through some way, and dig them out by hand, 

 late, in the mud; and 'labor, interest, and seed, fairly paid 

 for, would have bought more than they harvest. This pic- 

 ture is not overdrawn in the least. Now, friends, you may 

 talk against specialties all you please ; here are the facts : 

 That man is growing poorer and poorer growing potatoes, 

 while we are making money right along. He has no business 



