HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 89 



was broken and harrowed thoroughly, again 

 and again. Around the old pole stable our 

 tenant had used lay a waste of old manure, 

 the accumulation of years. We moved this 

 down and spread it over our patch, turning it 

 under. In late winter it got another breaking, 

 and still another before the first planting. We 

 had a strong, deep seedbed, as well prepared 

 as one season's handling could make it. 



We began our gardening early and kept at 

 it through the summer. We were on familiar 

 ground there. For years before we came to 

 the farm we had done successful gardening for 

 our own needs. We were just as successful 

 on the farm. There was nothing unique in 

 our methods or our results ; but we were doing 

 something that none of our neighbors was at- 

 tempting. The gardens around us, on the 

 farms that had any at all, held nothing more 

 than a few poor potatoes and maybe a weed- 

 grown patch of turnips. Most of these folks 

 got their "greens" from the fields and waste 

 places "poke" sprouts, sour dock, lambs- 

 quarters and dandelions. That's not bad eat- 

 ing, if you want to know it ; but to depend upon 

 that supply isn't exactly thrifty farming. Our 

 garden gave us a great variety, with the choic- 



