266 FARMING BY INCHES 



"After breakfast, I must move them to the frames in the 

 yard." 



"Well, Robert, pray tell me how it happens that you 

 know so much about such things. When and where did 

 you study botany?" 



"I will answer your question by asking you another. 

 I graduated at Harvard, did I not?" 



"Yes." 



" Well, that will account for everything." 



After breakfast, the plants were removed to the now dry 

 and warm frames. The soil in them had been worked over 

 and raked smooth, and looked very fine and nice. The 

 boxes of seeds were placed on the soil, under the glass, and 

 in one of the empty frames. Robert now proceeded to plant 

 the potatoes I had cut up the day before. Opening a nar- 

 row trench with his hand, he packed the bits of potato, cut- 

 side down, as thickly as they could stand, just like herring 

 in a box, then another row, and so on. When it was 

 finished, the soil was smoothed over them, and they were 

 plentifully watered from a watering-pot Robert had bought 

 for the purpose. There were thirty-five rows, and eighteen 

 in a row, making in all seven hundred and thirty " sets," 

 as the books called them. The few potatoes that remained 

 were carefully washed and eaten. 



By this time the weather had become warmer, and the 



