ADVICE FOR LACKLAND 



than why you should not have strawberries 

 giving two quarts to the plant.' 



"I was not prepared to gainsay the proposi- 

 tion. The truth is, I feel a certain awe of 

 distinguished horticulturists that blinds me 

 even to their wildest assertions. What has an 

 humble cultivator to do, or to say, in the 

 presence of a man who has bagged his pre- 

 miums at a New York Horticultural Society, 

 and is taster ex-ofjicio at the Farmers' Club? 



"I did not argue the matter with him; I 

 submitted; I acknowledged my mediocrity 

 humbly. 



"Now, my dear fellow, there are cows 

 which yield their twenty to twenty-five quarts 

 a day, but they are very exceptional. Many 

 such, whose private history I have known, 

 have been fed upon their own milk with the 

 cream taken off. This involves, as you will 

 admit, I think, a quick reconversion of capital, 

 which, with children in the family, is not al- 

 ways practicable. 



*Tn a general way, I should say, it would 

 be far safer to count upon an average of 

 twelve to fifteen quarts per day, even with the 

 best of care. And as regards your actual pur- 

 chase of an animal, I dare say you will have 

 Wall Street friends, who will talk grandly of 



77 



