CROPS AND PROFITS 



tic wicket, over which a Virginia creeper has 

 tossed itself into a careless tangle of festoons. 

 The entrance is overshadowed by a cherry- 

 tree, which must be nearly half a century old, 

 and which, as it filches easily very much of 

 the fertilizing material that is bestowed upon 

 the garden, makes a weightier show of fruit 

 than can be boasted by any of the orchard com- 

 pany. 



A broad walk leads down the middle of the 

 garden, — bordered on either side by a range 

 of stout box, and interrupted midway of its 

 length by a box-edged circle, that is filled and 

 crowned with one cone-shaped Norway-Spruce. 

 These lines, and this circlet of idle green, are 

 its only ornamentation. Easterly of the walk 

 is a sudden terrace slope, stocked with cur- 

 rants, raspberries, and all the lesser fruits, in 

 a maze of belts and curves. Westward is a 

 level open space, devoted to long parallel lines 

 of garden vegetables. The slope, by reason of 

 its surface and its crops, is- subject only to 

 fork-culture; the western half, on the other 

 hand, has the economy of deep and thorough 

 trench-ploughing, every autumn and spring. 



Nor is this an economy to be overlooked by 

 a farmer. Very many, without pretensions to 

 that nicety of culture which is supposed to be- 



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