266 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



a profitable department of every home, just as also 

 a small cider press will turn waste into profit for the 

 orchard. 



Lima beans constitute one of the most delicious and 

 nourishing of all foods; save your dried ones, as 

 well as all the bush beans you do not use or sell 

 during the summer. In the course of five years you 

 can have a storage of plums, pears, berries, and 

 vegetables. You are not getting rich, are you? 

 Well, you are at least on the road to comfort, and 

 a good income is in sight. 



A good deal, all this while, is offered out of hand 

 by Nature. The troublesome dandelion is a bless- 

 ing in disguise, it is not only of big food value, but 

 if you wish your hens to lay eggs, throw bushels of 

 dandelions into their yard. Wild scoke makes an- 

 other superb " greens " and the hated purslane is a 

 third. Wild grapes make better jelly than the vine- 

 yard grapes, and that from wild gooseberries can 

 hardly be surpassed. 



All this time keep your compost piles building, 

 and once or twice a year distribute and plow them 

 under. You are not a good country home maker un- 

 less your soil grows richer constantly, and this is just 

 what Americans must learn, that every acre may 

 double its produce until the whole land is a garden. 

 Do not throw away the suckers from your rasp- 

 berries, but constantly enlarge your gardens by plant- 

 ing them. You can have the beautiful everywhere 

 as well as the useful, and this you secure while you 



