MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



supply. Even amid the shrubbery of the 

 lawn, where I counted their bloom and foliage 

 a sufficient return, there have been gathered 

 scores of delicious peaches. 



I know that it is disorderly, and shocking to 

 all the prejudices of the learned, to plant fruit 

 trees in this hap-hazard way. But I love these 

 offences against system (particularly when 

 system is barren of triumphs). I love to test 

 Nature's own ruling, and give her margin for 

 wide demonstrations. 



THE POULTRY 



I KNOW not whether to begin my discourse of 

 poultry with a terrific onslaught upon all 

 feathered creation, or to speak the praises of 

 the matronly fowls, which supply delicate 

 spring chickens to the table, and profusion of 

 eggs. When, on some ill-fated day, a pesti- 

 lent, painstaking hen, with her brood of eager 

 chicklings, has found her way into my hot- 

 bed, and has utterly despoiled the most cher- 

 ished plants; or a marauding drove of young 

 turkeys has cropped all the late cauliflowers, 

 I am madly bent upon extermination of the 

 whole tribe. 



But reflection comes— with a nice fresh egg 



206 



