INTRODUCTION. 13 



the country is based on the idea of having a large gar- 

 den, only a part of which is necessarily occupied by 

 crops which require a maximum amount of manure. I 

 want the garden so large from the start, that the whole 

 of it may be very thoroughly plowed and subdued and 

 brought into good shape, and be ready at any time to re- 

 ceive such garden crops as we may wish to grow. 



It will do a farmer good it will certainly do his boys 

 good to have such a piece of land or field, where the 

 very best system of cultivation is adopted. Very few 

 farmers know what really good cultivation means. I am 

 myself a farmer, and the son and grandson and great- 

 grandson of a farmer, and mean no disrespect to farmers 

 when I say that most of us have very little idea of how- 

 much land can be improved by thorough cultivation and 

 high manuring. 



KILLING THE WEEDS. 



The first year I came upon the farm where I now live, 

 there was a field of ten acres of wheat. The field was 

 seeded to clover, but the clover was killed out, and the 

 wheat stubble was one mass of Quack-grass. I had had 

 considerable experience with this under-ground weed, 

 and I was determined to kill it, and I did kill it. The 

 field to-day is occupied with garden crops, and there is 

 not a spear of Quack in it. It so happened that at one 

 of the meetings of our Farmers' Club, the question un- 

 der discussion was, How to kill Quack-grass? It was 

 stated that land near Rochester, worth five hundred dol- 

 lars an acre, was so overrun with Quack as to be almost 

 worthless for cultivation, and some of the speakers 

 thought it would have to be abandoned. I was innocent 

 enough to get up and tell the method I had just used for 

 killing Quack on my own farm. " As soon as the wheat 

 crop was off," I said, " I plowed the land, and then har- 

 rowed it, and rolled it and harrowed it again until it 



