CROPS AND PROFITS 



our Fourth of July orators paint for our de- 

 lighted optics, dipping his wings in both oceans, 

 is the merest buzzard of a bird, except he have 

 more virtue in him than mere size. 



SEEDING AND TRENCHING 



If there is one fault above another in all the 

 gardening books, it is the lack of those simplest 

 of directions and suggestions, without which 

 the novice is utterly at fault. Thus, we are 

 told in what month to sow a particular seed — 

 that it must have a loamy soil ; and are favored 

 with some special learning in regard to its 

 varieties, and its Linnsean classification. 



"Pat," we say, "this seed must be planted in 

 a loamy soil." 



Pat, (scratching his head reflectively) : "And 

 shure, is n't it in the garden thin, ye 'd be 

 afther planting the seed?" 



Pat's observation is a just one; of course 

 we buy our seed to plant in the garden, no 

 matter what soil it may love. The more im- 

 portant information in regard to the depth of 

 sowing it, the mode of applying any needed 

 dressing, the requisite thinning, the insect dep- 

 redators, and the mode of defeating them — is, 



179 



