HOW TO EESTOKE A WOKX-OUT FARM. 37 



CHAPTER IX. 

 HOW TO RESTORE A WORN-OUT FARM. 



I have never yet seen a " worn-out " or u exhausted farm." I 

 know many farms that are " run down." I bought just such a 

 farm a dozen or more years ago, and I have been trying hard, ever 

 since, to bring it up to a profitable standard of productiveness and 

 am still trying, and expect to have to keep on trying so long as I 

 keep on farming. The truth is, there never was a farm so rich, 

 that the farmer did not wish it was richer. 



I have succeeded in making the larger part of my farm much 

 more productive than it ever was before, since it was cleared from 

 the original forest. But it is far from being as rich as I want it. 

 The truth is, God sent us into this world to work, and He has 

 given us plenty to do, if we will only do it. At any rate, this is 

 true of farming. He has not given us land ready to our hand. 

 The man who first cleared up my farm, had no easy task. He 

 fairly earned all the good crops he ever got from it. I have never 

 begrudged him one particle of the " natural manure " he took out 

 of the land, in the form of wheat, corn, oats, and hay. On the 

 dry, sandy knolls, he probably got out a good portion of this 

 natural manure, but on the wetter and heavier portions of the farm, 

 he probably did not get out one-hundredth part of the natural 

 manure which the land contained. 



Now, when such a farm came into my possession, what was I to 

 do with it ? 



" Tell us what you did," said the Doctor, " and then, perhaps, 

 we can tell you what you ought to have done, and what you ought 

 to have left undone." 



" I made many mistakes." 



" Amen," said the Deacon ; " I am glad to hear you acknowl- 

 edge it." 



" Well," said the Doctor, "it is better to make mistakes in trying 

 to do something, than to hug our self-esteem, and fold our hands 

 in indolence. It has been said that critics are men who have failed 

 in their undertakings. But I rather think the most disagreeable, 

 and self-satisfied critics, are men who have never done anything, 

 or tried to do anything, themselves." 



The Deacon, who, though something of an old fogy, is a good 

 deal of a man, and possessed of good common sense, and much ex- 



