ELEVEN] COME AND SEE MY CABBAGES 



color, very sweet, and melting in quality, while the 

 meat is so thick that there is hardly room for the 

 seeds. With me it has been only moderately pro- 

 ductive, and rather late. A shrewd boy taught 

 me to have my melon patch in the middle of a 

 corn field. Here he had the attractive fruits lying 

 all over the ground and undisturbed. It is pos- 

 sible that, in any other location, a moonlight 

 night might note their departure. I do not quite 

 understand why it has become an excusable, if 

 not justifiable, act, to steal two things, melons 

 and grapes. 



I have deferred noting my squashes, although I 

 hold a good squash to be nearly as fine a thing as 

 a melon or a dish of succotash. I brought you 

 out into this garden of mine to make your mouth 

 water, and I think I shall succeed in doing it. But 

 before I tell you how to raise good squashes, I must 

 give you the key that unlocks the whole question, 

 and will keep your place increasing in fertility, 

 rather than running down to barrenness. Just as 

 soon as you buy your property, I want you to 

 begin one or more compost piles. If it is an 

 old farm, you will find no end of decaying matter 

 and manure lying around here and there — old 



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