The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1886-03-11

What splendid thing it will be to have
plum orchard p
Worms don't sting plums,n corrected
Mrs. Pratt.
"Well, little thing like that doesn't
matter. How much do damsons and green
cages sell for a bushel, Susant'
Mrs. Pratt smiled. "I don't know,
she said but / think we can do 1t. Then
We might keep a few bees. My grand
mother, in the country"
"Oh, yes, know. They sell honey by
the pound. Fifty pounds of honey at
| twenty cents a pound, that would be ten
dollars Ten dollars will go further in
| the country than twenty five in the city.
Susan, we'll be rich.
But there'll be drawbacks" suggested
Mrs. Pratt.
Oh, yes, 'lashlns aud 7siashins of
them. 1here'll be lions in the way, but
we'll slay them with pluck and indus
try"
q" Don't mix metaphors" corrected
again Mrs. Pratt.
Well, say it doesn't matter"
"There will be so much for us to
learn"
" But we can't do more than go to the
Old woman's home at last, even if we fail,
and we'll do that if we stay here. We
can learn anything anybody else can, Su-
san"
The two women were very much in
| earnest.
"We'll succeed or die trying they
said
They shook hands on that, too. The
rest OF the winter they skimped down to
the last notch and saved $25 more apiece
They had then $3.50 to begin to set up
housekeeping l fancy they had almost
as much pleasure planning out their home
aud their chicken houses as they did after
they had made their venture success.
For they did make it a success.
March lst they took the leap. They
felt as if they were jumping off the end of
pier In the night, into water of nknown
depth. 1t did require courage.
But they jumped. Their plan proba-
bly, required more talking over than if
men had been starting into it. They got
books on poultry raising.
They leased for five years three acres
OF ground, with a house of three rooms
on 1t. That was their home, kitchen,
| bedroom and sitting room. They meant
to devote their wealth to their poultry
yard. They selected place near enough
good-slzed town to afford market for
| their products. Such simple make-shift
buildings as they could do with at first
were erected, very cheaply. There was
the awful possibility of failure, and the
old wonan's home always before them y
Mrs. Pratt read from her hen book:
" An acre of ground will be enough
yard room for 100 fowls. No more than
fifty should be kept in one house. For
that number building should be thirty
feet long, ten feet wide, eight feet high
in the front and FIVE feet in the rear, with
a s!oping roof"
Susan, how does that strike YOU p"
" | think | understand it," murmured
her friend.
There must be separate apartments
| for the sitting hens, and-''
"Oh, come, now Must we have parlor
bedrooms for the old hens ?'
Something like that, | take it. Lis
ten: There must be such provision that
the brooding snwls cannot get together
and quarrel
Like women in a boarding house,"
murmured Pratt.
And fight and break their eggs, and
so learn the bad habit of eating them,"
continued Platt.
She put the book down.
Wen begin with 100 hens. Each
one will make profit of dollar a year.
ha
that"
"There's our vegetable garden and our
| bees
eyes, we might raise nearly all our
own eating. It's one of the aspirations
of my life to have an onion bed"
They bought scrub chickens at first and
all the Plymouth Rocks they could afford.
Their early chicks were out of the shell
in the beginning of May. Miss Platt
undertook to remove her first hen from
the nest. 1t seemed to her that fowl was
out Of temper. She edged around to the
rear. The hens head was around before
| her.
"Quaw-awaw-k!" D." said the hen.
{" Oh, DEAR" said Miss Platt.
"If lions are in the way we'll slay
them," said Mrs. Pratt.
Miss Patt put out her hand timidly,
"Chicky, chicky! Henny, henny!" she
coaked. She patted the hens tail to pet
her.
Chicky darted out her sharp beak and
took piece out of Miss Platt's finger.
"Mercy!" she exclaimed, 81 didn't
know hens would bite. Susan, did you p
"No, replied Susan.
Miss Platt retreated. She put q strip
of plaster upon the wounded finger and
drew on a pair of gloves. Pale but de-
termined, Susan following close behind
she advanced to the charge again. She
drew long breath, put out both hands
together and captured the enemy. But
it was long time before Mrs. Pratt ven
tured to pet sitting hen.
The two women worked hard. They
could not have lived without their gar
den. But they did all the work in it
themselves, except plowing. Their bones
ached and their hands were blistered.
Sometimes at night they we're so discour.
aged that they hardly dared look one
another in the face lest each should guess
the others thought. But they had
burned their ships behind them and could
not go back if they would.
They found for one thing that vegeta
BILE gardening could be learned out OF
books, with patience and hard trying.
TrHT L. r. AZ