830 FARMING BY INCHES; 



" You shall have it, Mrs. Jones. We'll take up the cu- 

 cumbers next. After the turnips were pulled up, the ground 

 was covered with cucumbers. In order to do this we pulled 

 up a turnip or two every six feet, and planted a few cucum- 

 ber-seeds in the empty space. By the time the turnips were 

 ripe the young vines were a foot long, and ready to spread 

 over the ground. By so doing we lost a few turnips, but 

 gained three weeks in time, and made one crop overlap an- 

 other. The squash-bugs and other destructive insects 

 troubled us greatly ; but we showered the vines every morn- 

 ing with wood-ashes and plaster, and so fought the bugs off." 



" t"es," said the doctor's wife ; " but where did you find 

 out that plaster would keep off the insects? " 



" Harriet read it in one of our agricultural papers, * The 

 Country Gentleman/ I think. Our cucumbers gave us 

 more trouble than any other one crop. Part of them we 

 sold fresh, but the bulk of them went for pickles. The 

 number of young cucumbers we had was something enor- 

 mous, seventy thousand, if I remember rightly. The cash 

 return was one hundred and five dollars." 



" But was it not a great job to gather them, Nelson? " 



" It was, to be sure ; but we employed girls to help us." 



" Employed girls ! " 



"Certainly. They made the very best of pickers and 

 helped us greatly." 



