The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-07-03
NYE ON HIS FARM.
HE POSES AS YE GENTLE SHIP.
HERD ON HIS OWN LAND.

@@$ Wv Az LAM
He Describes the Landscape Gardener.
Flowtow, and Tells What He is Fond
Of--The Sheep That Have Never Done
So AN Invitation to Clarence.
Copyright, 1894, by Edgar W. Nye.1
Latitude "a deg. so min. N. Longitude
80 deg. 80 min. W., Spring of 1894.
Once more I have returned back TO
my little old red Venetian farm and
am living on the top shelf of same.
The place still stands at an angle of 40
degrees and is well laid out. took a
precaution three years ago to lay all
my gas pipes, drains, subways, etc.,
before spreading on the farm proper.
AS a result I now have a farm that
cannot sag, and I do not have to be
constantly tearing it open to examine
the bowels Of the earth, as other farm
ers do here.
Farming in this State is not properly
begun. We have many beautiful sites
for farms, good foundations upon
which to build farms, but we begin to
plant and SOW without having first put
IN our wires and subways. Then the
showers wash our cornfelds into the
river far below, leaving the farm itself
perfectly destitute of soil. A farm NAV
thus become too neat for things to grow
upon.
have a neighbor who has a beauti-
full b~rownstone front farm and base
ment, lee Postum Trot, this State,
and you could walk all over it in white
silk socks without soiling the soles of
your feet.
l bought three farms, however, and
putting n right on top of the other,
I've got what I call a soiled farm. By
buying three farms one above the other,
and watching a wet season, when small
farms may be easily shufled, l slid one
over the other until now I'll not have
to get a stonemason to come and plant
my potatoes for me
Billie Baldwin, the butcher, came
over day before yesterday to buy my
sheep and little eve lambs. Ishall not
be a gentle shepherd boy on aud after
this date.
Last year 1 bought nine sheep that l
thought would look well dotting the
landscape. If 1 had not been an author
of renoWn, doubtless 1 should have
been a painter. When l had bought
Buck Shoals, I turned to my wife and
said: This is splendid. Now what
shall we get to dot the landscape with9'
A landscape gardener told me that
sheep were used a good deal in the old
country. He was an imported gar
dener, with a large blue girl tattooed
on his arm. He had a husky voice
and used to sing, ''The corn is wavin,
Annie dear" That's why his voice
was 10 husky.
He got hold of the key of my wine
cellar and drank up the whole bottle.
was going to hire him for a year,
but when I found that he was of disso,
lutte habits I babe him begone.
He also did another thing that made
me turn against him.
We have hot and cold water all
over the house-When the pipes burst
and the land has such a rapid decline
that it falls over 100 feet between the
porte cochere and the buttery. There
fore the bathtub at the back of the
villa is 1876 feet above the bay window
on the off side of the house and has a
stopcock off the outside of the villa,
with hose attached.
Well, this mans name was FloWtow.
1 rose with the lark, and so did Flow
tow, and I entered the bath like anaiad
queen, as it we're, singing a ballad that
one could hear all over the place. One
could hear me also spatter the water
and sing like a wren. I had just got
entirely soaped. Ny undated fore
head was a soft lather, and my eyes
held over a dimes worth apiece.
grasped blindly for my sponge. 1t
was as dry as an essay on duty. 1
wiped out one eye with a corner OF my
bath gown and looked.
Flowtow had attached his hose out
side and watered the watered the pan
sizes and left me high and dry while 1
was taking my tub.
Well, he is the nan who suggested
sheep to beautify my blue grass heath.
These sheep we're turned loose and
babe to run away and scamper over
the grass and bring me the next spring
each a nice little, timber tail lamb with
a vox populi bleat.
So far none of then has, Some neigh
Dor told us that each grown sheep