8o HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



In the berry garden there will be, here and there, 

 strips that are fit for a few rows of corn or beans. 

 I learned a lesson from a Western boy who was left 

 in charge of my vacation home while I was in the 

 Western States preaching. Showing me about his 

 celery and his potatoes, he led me at last into the 

 cornfield, and there in the middle, all out of sight, 

 was a melon patch two or three rods square. 



He chuckled and I laughed, for what marauder 

 would think of hunting melons in such a place? 

 I find there are two things that boys and men feel 

 it is no sin to steal grapes and melons ; yet these 

 are the very things that give us most trouble to grow 

 successfully and the loss of which we most keenly 

 feel. 



The reason for spreading our garden-making over 

 several weeks is, in the first place, that some things 

 will stand frost, while others, like beans and corn, 

 cannot resist the chills that are pretty sure to come 

 in April. The old-fashioned rule was not to plant 

 corn until the twentieth of May, but those who plant 

 sweet corn for succession can venture the first plant- 

 ing about the first of the month. The second plant- 

 ing can come immediately after a frost, if one occur, 

 and at any rate about the middle of the month. 

 Plant sweet corn every two weeks until the middle 

 of June. Follow the same rule with peas, and in 

 this way you get a succession of good stuff for the 

 table until October. 



For my part I cannot get on without " greens." 



