CROPS AND PROFITS 



all these belongings of the farm — have en- 

 listed his admiration for my crested, golden, 

 Polish fowls, — for my garden, for the fruits; 

 — for the wide stretch of fields, and the herd 

 of cows loitering under the shadow of the 

 scattered apple trees, he turns upon me, in his 

 city way, with the abrupt questioning, "Is n't 

 it confoundedly expensive, though, getting 

 land smoothed out in this style — what with 

 your manures, and levelling, and planting 

 trees?" 



And I answer — "N — n — no; no; (some- 

 what bolder). There 's a certain amount of 

 labor involved, to be sure, and labor has to 

 be paid for, you know. But there are the 

 vegetables, the chickens, the eggs, the milk, 

 and the fruit, which must come out of the 

 shops, unless a man have a home supply." 



"To be sure, you 're quite right;" and I 

 think he admitted the observation, as many 

 city people incline to, as a new idea. "But," 

 he added, with an awkward inquisitiveness, 

 "Do you ever get any money back?" 



My friend was not a reader of the Agri- 

 cultural Journals, or he could not have failed 

 to notice the pertinacity with which the profit- 

 ableness of farming is urged and re-urged. 

 Indeed, with all consideration for the calling, 



215 



