No. 4.] PLEASURES OF FARMING. 379 



do the same, and if he gets anything but pleasure from it 

 he Avill be less fortunate than I have been. The dogs are 

 the worst and about the only enemy the sheep raiser has. 

 Given good sheep to start with, a good pasture, and warm 

 stables for early lambs, there is great pleasure in raising 

 sheep. I am not much of a farmer and a toleralily poor 

 specimen of a practical one, as I know you know, but such 

 as I am, I get more pleasure out of my farm life than I did 

 out of a not unsuccessful career in New York Cit3^ A pair 

 of twin heifer calves wdiich I found in my cow-stable one day 

 did not make me unhappy, nor has the raising of them to 

 milch cows made me miserable. I am proud and get pleas- 

 ure in leading such stock to our annual cattle show. I have 

 also had great pleasure in raising a pair of matched horses 

 from suckling colts to six years of age, and to a weight of 

 precisely 1,150 pounds each. One of them had to be reared 

 in infancy on a bottle, and being now a fine animal, I feel as 

 though somethino; had been created from almost nothing. 

 It is nothing l)ut pleasure to ride after them, and a lively 

 spin behind them is better than " Black Crook." 



But of all the sources of pleasure which I have from 

 my farm, I put the garden in the front. Beginning work 

 in it in the last of March, often di<iging through snow to do 

 it, I find pleasant occupation for some part of every day 

 until the crops are ready for the table. Once planted, I can 

 take care of the garden without seriously interfering Avith 

 other work. An early hour in the morning, a lute one at 

 close of the day after the field work is done, are generally suf- 

 ficient ; but if more time is demanded, it is not wasted, for 

 an abundance of early garden vegetables is as desirable and 

 profitable as any crop on the farm. I am not situated with 

 facilities for selling my garden products, but I know what 

 the pleasure is of giving away quantities bf them. It is not 

 half the work to keep a garden always in order that it is to 

 do it periodically or at infrequent intervals, and the crop 

 returns are best under constant care. When I can have on 

 my sterile hilltop, radishes, lettuce and cucumbers to give 

 away early in June, and hundreds of tomato plants a little 

 later, then my pleasure in farming comes in. To do this 

 with toleral^le certainty, with no hot-houses or indoor plant- 



