92 FARMING IT 



of the lusty husbandman berating his sluggish 

 cattle, the bleating of sheep, the lowing of cattle, 

 and the grunting and squealing of fat pigs, all of 

 which went to make up a pastoral symphony or 

 bucolic tout ensemble. Daily the flock of bronze 

 beauties descended to the fields and woods, where 

 they industriously put in from twelve to fourteen 

 working hours in hunting down grasshoppers, 

 katydids, crickets, and other vermin, and nightly 

 did they festoon the apple trees, the roofs of sheds 

 and barns, and the seats of farm-wagons with 

 their plump bodies. 



In those days the raising and marketing of 

 turkeys formed one of the principal sources of 

 income for the farmer or the farmer's helpmeet. 

 They were raised in two ways. The most profit- 

 able method was to enter your neighbor's orchard 

 when the family were asleep, and carefully and 

 without noise raise the drowsy turkeys from their 

 roosting places, and market them in a distant 

 county before morning broke. 



The element of chance that entered into the 

 transaction and occasionally involved those in- 

 terested in this industry in expensive legal pro- 

 ceedings rendered this method slightly unpopu- 

 lar, although the percentage of profit was very 

 considerable. 



The other and more popular method was to al- 

 low the woman of the household to take entire 



