WHAT IS THE GOOD OF IT? 



4^5 



Now while this melancholy company may feel bet- 

 ter for their wailing, it doesn't do a particle of good 

 to anybody else. If they were polite they would 

 pull down the curtains and have a good cry all by 

 themselves where nobody could hear or see them. 



It is not wise, it is " not good business " to listen 

 to these people. It is one of the everlasting verities 

 that out of the ground comes all food, all raiment, 

 all wealth, all good things worth having. One ker- 

 nel of corn will grow into a plant bearing two ears 

 of corn containing 200 kernels or an increase of 

 400 per cent, in six months on a piece of the earth 

 measuring 2x2x1 feet. Where is the trade or busi- 

 ness in any city that will pay such an increase ? 

 Wall street is ridiculous beside such a percentage, 

 and yet they say it does not pay to raise corn ! It 

 pays nature — she grows rich. And if a field of corn 

 increasing at this rate, does not pay the owner, there 

 is something the matter with the man. It is not 

 the plant, or the field. Forever and ever, so long as 

 the world holds men, there will be a demand for 

 food, and every particle of it must come out of the 

 earth or the sea. Every ounce of food is, first of all, 

 a plant. Forever and ever, then, will there be a de- 

 mand for plants. The growing of food can never be 

 unprofitable, if the right man be at the plow. 



Never in the history of the world were there so 

 many to eat in proportion to those who gather food 

 from the earth. Never did the earth yield so much 

 in proportion to the labor spent upon it. Never be- 

 fore did it cost so little labor to earn food. The 

 great cities of to-day would be impossible if the 

 food they consume had to be raised by hand tools 

 or teamed to market by horses. There are not 

 horses enough in the world to haul the food from 

 the farms to the towns. There are not men enough 

 in the entire country to cut the grass or gather the 

 grain by hand. How then is it possible that the 

 ancient art of gardening is falling into unprofitable 

 decay ? It is not. Gardening or producing plants 

 and food on small pieces of ground is simply in a 

 transition state. Take the potato. It was a garden 



crop, it is now a farm crop. To raise potatoes at a 

 profit it must be treated as a manufacture ; it must 

 be done on a large scale, with the largest, best and 

 most powerful tools. 



The man who harvests one acre of potatoes by 

 hand cannot compete with the man who harvests 

 a hundred acres by machinery. Shall he, therefore, 

 give up his acre garden and say that gardening does 

 not pay ? Not a bit of it. Cover the acre with 

 glass and don't raise potatoes. It's business, not 

 sentiment. Gardening will pay, always did pay — 

 the business gardener. 



Moreover, never before did the great mass of the 

 eating population (that's everybody) want so much 

 food. Never before were the eaters so particular as 

 to what they eat. The American wants the best and 

 he can pay the best. He uses more fruit than any 

 man who ever lived. His wife wants more flowers 

 than ever woman wished for before. It is idle to 

 say that it does not pay to produce fruit and flow- 

 ers. Perhaps it doesn't pay you. It pays some- 

 body and if it is not you. why, did it never occur to 

 you that there was something the matter with you? 



You and I and all of us who are producing 

 food from the ground, are tired of the people who 

 wail about the unprofitable farms and gardens ; 

 we are too busy to stop to listen to such creatures. 

 Let them go off to the cities and stay there. They 

 are not worthy to live in God's country. We know 

 that seed time and harvest shall not fail. We know 

 that the food producing business is simply suffering 

 a great and grand change for the better. The 

 changing may be a trifle uncomfortable (moving 

 day always is), but the move is an advance. Gar- 

 dening is growing safer and surer. It is becoming 

 more scientific, more exact, more like a manufac- 

 ture, and therefore more profitable. We are look- 

 ing forward and not backward, and much prefer 

 those who will lend us a hand to those who mere- 

 ly sit on the fence and howl. What is the use of 

 wailing ? 



Charles Barnard. 



