The Naturalizing of a City Man 
Editor's Note:—The author of this narrative—begun in the December number—jiad refused to write the story 
of his experiences in going from business life to a farm. His objection was that the published account taken from 
his closely zoritten diary zcould contain nothing of the joy and inspiration he felt in getting close to Nature, and 
zvould be merely a matter-of-fact list of happenings with their message lost. He finally consented to write it in 
his own way, allowing memory and imagination to lend color to those days of struggle which are now cherished 
recollections. He preferred to hide his identity under the disguise of another person, but the essential facts are 
true and full of practical information. This is the seienth installment and deals zcith the early rewards of the 
.man’s labors. Subsequent issues w’ill shoze hoze business methods made the man more successful than his neighbors. 
A S the season wore on and Mantell had opportunities to com¬ 
pare results with those of his neig'hbors, he found himself 
justified in being pleased with the way things were going. 
Here and there he would come across a crop of some particu¬ 
lar thing that was ahead of his, but on the average he was more 
than holding his own. However, he was not easily satisfied, and 
not at all vain over his comparative success. He never lost an 
opportunity, when he did run across ,auy crop of extra fine ap¬ 
pearance, whether it was a field of potatoes, or just a few rows 
of lima beans or a melon patch, of getting acquainted with the 
grower and having a discussion. IMantell Uad learned early in 
his business life the value of being a good “listener," and in many 
instances reaped the benefit of it. For, if there was one thing his 
neighbors never tired of doing, it was talk; and the surest way to 
the esteem of one of these crusty tillers of the soil was to seek 
his advice in intelligent conversation. Fool questions, showing 
one's ignorance of things rural, immediately put one in a 
bad light! 
But not all went merrily. During July there had been but one 
rain worthy the name. During August not a drop fell. Early in 
the month there was a noticeable slackening in the growth things 
had been making. Toward the middle many of the garden crops 
showed signs of the growing need of moisture. They began to 
look light green instead of dark, and to wilt a little during the 
middle of the day. in the glaring sunshine. As the end of August 
approached the “drouth" was on in earnest, and was the universal 
subject of conversation. 
jMantell’s neighbors accepted the situation stoically—they had 
been through the same thing often before, and .accepted it as in¬ 
evitable fate. There was nothing they could do; it was part of 
the ungentle game of life they played. 
iMantell, however, was not of the temperament that acquiesces 
readily to the inevitable. IMoreover, he was not familiar with 
such happenings, had not counted on the possibility of such a 
thing, and had never been 
in the habit of letting 
chance play any important 
part in his business opera¬ 
tions. Therefore, the situ¬ 
ation put him on his met¬ 
tle. It made him .angry, 
even. The idea of sitting 
still and watching the re¬ 
sults of his labor and 
planning diminish visibly 
before his eyes was not 
one to be cherished. 
So, from the first, he 
did everything he could 
discover to counteract the 
effects of the “dry spell,” 
and sought all the further 
information he could find, 
which was not much The 
one practical principle 
which seemed most im¬ 
portant was one which he 
had already discovered, but wdrich had not been impressed upon 
him as emphatically as it now was. It was frequent shallow cul¬ 
tivation to maintain a dust mulch on the surface of the soil. So, 
fortunately, he had been working in the right direction, before 
he realized the full importance of his efforts. 
As the dry w-eather continued, .and seemed to be getting a more 
serious matter, he had taken another day off' for a trip to the ex¬ 
periment station to see wdiat his friend in charge of the held 
work there was doing, and to discuss things with him in gen¬ 
eral. There must be something more effective, he thought, than 
any of the suggestions he had been able to discover. 
The result of this trip w.as both disappointing and encourag¬ 
ing. He found that even wdth the advanced methods employed 
at the State farm, the drought w'as still a problem for which they 
had found no satisfactory solution. On the other hand, they did 
not at all take the attitude, “we must take it .as it comes" and let 
it go at that, wdrich seemed to be the philosophy of most of his 
neighbors. One very interesting thing he saw was a field of 
corn, wdiich they approached from a low' hill, so that it lay plainly 
before them, from corner to corner. The piece show'ed four dis¬ 
tinct strips from end to end. 
“I did not think." said IM.antell. “that there could be so much 
difference in varieties of field corn. What are they?" 
The professor laughed. “It’s all the same seed, all planted the 
same day — June fifteenth, a month too late for this section—all 
had the same fertilization, eight hundred pounds of pL 3-3-10 fer¬ 
tilizer to the acre. A month ago it all looked the same; two 
weeks ago there was just a noticeable difference; now as you see, 
you could not help noticing the difference.” 
Mantell stopped. “Then wdiat on earth makes it?" he asked. 
“I wdsh every farmer in the State could see that field," said 
the professor; he added wdth a shrug, “but we have very few 
visitors, comparatively. Half of that field w'as plowed five inches 
deep, deeper than manv of them plow', by actual measimement— 
they guess at it. general¬ 
ly. The other ■ half w.as 
plow'ed nine inches deep, 
and w'e had to take some 
stones out to do it. It 
was all planted the same. 
Then half of each has 
been cultivated twdce, and 
the remaining halves six 
times, the last four very 
shallow, tw'O rows .at a 
time. I don’t think I need 
tell you which plot is 
wdiich." 
“I should say not!" an¬ 
swered iMantell, “but had 
deep plowdng so much to 
do with it?’’ 
“Well, that’s the an- 
sw'er! But. of course, in 
a wet season it wouldn’t 
make so much difference, 
but I think in eight sea- 
Constant cultivation brought more bountiful results and produced an earlier 
harvest on Mantell’s farm 
(. 13 ) 
