11 



The apple, most popular, most useful of all fruits, is in 

 natural state a "wilding crab," having had "many a foul 

 curse for its sourness." Under cultivation it is changed 

 to the most delicious flavor. The Baldwins and Greenings 

 and Spitzenbergs and Pippins that hang in beauty on the 

 bending boughs are the product of the farmer's art. 



The potato which bursts and opens its snowy grains to 

 grace your table and tempt your taste is another trophy of 

 the farmer's art, for in its wild state it is quite an indiffer- 

 ent plant. 



There is a kind of farming which is always a fraud. It 

 is fancy farming — a showy cupola on the barn, a pattern 

 fence along the road, a groom with a striped cap, a car- 

 peted office, a fancy wagon with prancing horses for the 

 market, a patent stall for the last imported cow, a race 

 course, herd books and pedigrees, and a big sign over the 

 barn lest you mistake the place, 



"The Highland Farm." 



The mistake is in the name. It should be the "High- 

 laud Buildings." 



Farming is not in the cupola and the office, and the herd 

 book and the pattern fence. The true farmer does not 

 despise the luxury of good buildings and equipments. 

 But his pre-eminence is not in these, but in the knowledge 

 of his art. 



He knows the nature of every field, how to stir the soil 

 and cast the seed. He knows the signs of opening spring, 

 when the plowshare may first turn the ready soil. He 

 knows the place where the warm sun makes the earth 

 ready for the early salad and the succulent pea. He knows 



