ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 183 



liquid manure in trenches to his garden? Not at all; 

 he bragged about that wonderful crop of celery, but would 

 not take the hint. 



We knew a case where a farmer subsoiled a field and 

 raised crops in consequence which were the admiration of 

 the neighborhood ; and for years the field showed the 

 advantage of deep handling. But we could not learn that a 

 single farmer in the neighborhood took the hint. The man 

 who acted thus wisely, sold his farm and his successor pur- 

 sued the old way of surface-scratching. 



A stanch farmer complained to us of his soil as too loose 

 and light ; we mentioned ashes as worth trying ; " well, 

 now you mention it, I believe it will do good. I bought a 

 part of my farm from a man who was a wonderful fellow to 

 save up ashes, and around his cabin it lay in heaps. I took 

 away the house and ordered the ashes to be scattered, and 

 to this day I notice that when the plow runs along through 

 that spot, the ground turns up moist and close-grained." 

 It is strange that he never took the hint ! There are thou- 

 sands of bushels of ashes lying not far from his farm about 

 an old soap and candle factory with which he might have 

 dressed his whole farm. 



A farmer gets a splendid crop of corn or grain from off a 

 grass or clover lay. Does he take the hint? Does he 

 adopt the system which shall allow him every year just 

 such a sward to put his grain on ? No, he hates book- 

 farming, and scientific farming, and " this notion of rota- 

 tion ;" and jogs on the old way. 



A few years ago our farmers got roundly into debt ; and 

 they have worried and sweat under it, till some of them 

 have grown greyer, and added not a few wrinkles to their 

 face. Do they take the hint ? Are they not pitching into 

 debt again ? 



A few years ago mules commanded a high price ; every- 

 body raised mules forthwith ; the market of course was 

 glutted ; the price fell ; everybody quit the business ; mar- 



