 eadent old peoples of Europe—the 
HENRY FIELD’S 
SEED SENSE ‘ 
: “FOR THE MAN BEHIND THE HOE 
Published by Henry Field in the Print Shop-# 
Vol. XXXI 
x 
e * 

I heard a preacher say once at the start of his service, 
“Tm going to talk awhile this morning before I begin to 
preach,” and that’s what I’m going to try to do, but I’m 
afraid I’1l soon be preaching at you from the same old text 
—“‘Feed Yourself’—it seems impossible for me to get very . 
far away from it. 
- But like the good old Gospel of our fathers, it will bear 
telling over and over again. I’ve been preaching it—and 
practicing it too—all my life, and I intend to keep it up as 
long as-I Hive — which I hope will be 
quite some time yet. 
_ The one thing that can bring this 
- great country of ours back to peace 
and prosperity and sanity is nothing 
in the world but old-fashioned hard 
work and a determination by each 
and everyone of us to stand on our 
own two feet and feed ourselves, and 
elean up our own messes. 
We’ve got to get rid of the idea 
that the world owes us a living and 
will carry us around on a chip. The 
sooner we get over that foolish no- 
tion the better. 
America, and the real American 
people, became great and prosperous 
and the envy of the entire world 
through a spirit of independence and 
sanity and tolerance and hard work. 
And now a lot of very, very prom- 
_inent people have been trying to tell 
us that we should throw away all 
this and copy idealogies of the de-- 
same ideas that have put them into 
the shape where they are now, that 
we have to feed them to keep them 
alive. 
Well. nies we'll learn sometime. 

Shenandoah, Iowa, March, 194 5 
Talkin’ and Preachirt 


2. 8 D bed Tg 
BDe nx. 
ett mE 9 “allt 
the exercise and inophiene 2 i edeeiof mind you get 
from a garden are a wonderree, CT pre, 2 8 | physically, 
mentally and morally. 
Even if you have only a small space, you can still have 
a garden. It’s amazing the good eats—and pleasure—you 
can get off of a patch of ground no bigger than a bed quilt. 
And keep some chickens. Nothing much better to eat 
than fresh eggs and fried chicken. and chicken stew and 
_ all the rest of the good things in that line. 
According to my notion, the best 
kind of a job is one where you can 
be your own boss, produce something 
people really want, do it yourself, 
and get the entire selling price. 
That’s what you can do with gar- 
dening, fruit, flowers, vegetables, 
chickens, whatever you like best. 
Either on a big scale, or a small 
scale or even as a part-time job, it’s 
the best job I know of—one that you 
can go into anywhere. Maybe nota 
fortune in a hurry, but a real worth- 
while life and a good living. 
Well, if I keep on I am liable to be 
preaching at you again. Guess you’ve 
heard me talk this way before—and 
you’re likely to hear it again as long 
as I live. Maybe you agree with me 
and maybe you don’t, but I still be- 
lieve it is the real life and the thing 
this country needs right now. 
You’ll find a lot of good stuff in 
this Seed Sense—new ideas, special 
offers, new prices, and a lot of in- 
teresting pictures and stories. It’s 
well worth reading, if I do say it. 
It’s time you were getting your 
order in—or if you have already sent 
an order it wouldn’t hurt a bit to 
Or will we? 
But meanwhile, the best and wisest 
thing we can do, all of us, every 
family, every community, is to decide 
to set a pattern of independence and — 
self support. 
- Someone has said “When you need 
a helping hand, remember there is 
one right on the end of your arm— 
use it.” And that’s the truth if you 
ever heard it. 
_ Feed yourself, aye up your own 
LAST ONE MARRIED 
This picture was taken this past winter 
just after the wedding of our youngest daugh- 
ter, Letty, the last of our 8 daughters to be 
married. She and her husband were just 
ready to start by auto for their new home 
at Marseilles, Illinois, and Mrs. Field and I 
had stepped out the side door to see them off. 
Nice looking young folks aren’t they? Letty, 
you remember, is the one that was in the 
WAVES, and she met her husband when he 
was a GI in the Engineers, and they were 
both stationed at the same post. H.F. 
P.S. Yes, Ray and I were crowding Mrs. 
Wield a little. The photographer had just told 
make another order. 
Pretty soon it will be garden mak- 
ing time, with the maple trees bud- 
ding out and the hens singing in the 
yard, and you in a great hurry to 
make garden. Get the stuff ordered 
now and have it ready. And order a 
few baby chicks too. 
And don’t forget a strawberry 
‘patch. Finest thing in the garden. 
Easy to grow and yield enormously. 
100 plants, or even 200 wouldn’t hurt 
messes, work hard at your job, what- 
ever it may be, do a better job than 
ever. Don’t be a parasite and a load 
on ae rest of the community—pull your own share of the 
load. - 
. the picture, 
This—and a general policy of “peace and decency’— 
would in a little while solve most of our troubles. 
To be more specific—grow a garden—have all the vege- 
tables” and fruit and flowers you can possible use—and 
some to give away. Besides what you save in food costs, 
us to bunch up a little so we would all sees 
you a bit. Henry Field. 
PS — Nothing specially new I can tell 
you about Mrs. Field and myself and the rest of the Fields. 
We are still hard at work as usual and planning on a better 
garden than ever—with more strawberries and more flow- 
ers and more good garden stuff of all kinds, and we will can 
and freeze and store plenty for winter, and we will eat well 
and sleep well and feel well whatever may happen. Hope 
you can say the same thing.—H.F. 
Copyright, 1947, Henry Field Seed & Nursery Co. 
