Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1908-08-20
THE PERSONAL EQUATION.

iiAiA z bS2-k4 stf7hCAk " = LII Wy a GO
perienee as a gardener. but feel modest
iioeut 1t. / viii confess that my hunlil-
is not due so much to nature as to
.elsiey | have done 50 little gardening
aIs particular spring that do not
want to own up. About three full days
all told are all | could bring myself to
devote to it. All the remainder Of my
gardening this year has been yicari-
GUS
Last fall l saw chance to grab off
an old farm, and as | had the lust of it
strong within me and as / could also
inyeigle some OF the editor men into
letting me write stuff and send it in
fell upon that farm as the old hunter
falls upon the rabbit when the game
law goes out. 1t was in March when
we HE'D ourselves forth bag and bag
gage to our new possession
The farm, if twelve acres can be Gig
nified by that title, lies on its edge be-
tween a mountain and a river. Bill
Nye's experience was something Ike
mine, only he had it first. He began by
describing his North Carolina acres as
his side hill farm" The idea grew on
him, and soon he was referring to his
upright farm The thing still grew,
and he wound up by calling it his
"oyerhanging farm" That fits my case.
There are times when my slanting real
estate seems to jut out over the Hud-
son.
All the upper part of the farm had
once been cleared of everything except
the large timber, but had been neg
lected in criminal manner until it had
grown up into a secondhand wilder
ness. An original wilderness may pos
sess certain wild beauty, but sec
ondhand wilderness is as ugly as a
toad in mudhole. It exactly answers
to the Biblical term of the .abomiaa-
ton of desolation. y
The house was real farmhouse, lit
tie and old Nobody seemed to know
just how old that house was. At any
rate. it was '.muley," having been
built before the advent of cornices.
am still in doubt as to whether or not
it had ever been painted Possibly ii
had been painted the year it was built.
but il so it had long ago forgotten the
experience. Its shutters had blown of,
its doors We're discoura ged and defect
ed, and its floors were billowy, like the
sea- Nevertheless it had its good
! points. Its walls were of stone, COW
cred with Notwithstanding 1t was
put together with old fashioned pins,
and it was sozy Better than all. it
was away from the madness, ugIiness
ard STIFFNESS of the town had a noun
tain at its back and a river to smile in
its face. and its breath was the sweet
air of the open country.
! Most of my experimenting in the line
Of landscape effects has been on that
old house.
/ / never before knew Just what mir
acles paper and paint can perform
AS for the farm, my whole endeayor
has been to wash its face and comb its
hair II | can once get it clean can
tell what il looks like The garden l
have left TO my wife, who knows more
about gardens than l do, and to the
hired help.
But can begin to see possibilities in
the landscape. Most everything in this
world is worth while if you can only
get it clean.
AS to whether the experiments in
gardening viii pay or not, the com
mittee reports progress and asks leave
to sit again So far all I know is that
by hard writing l have managed to
keep just about even with the game
All / have raised yet has been a
large crop of blisters and dreams.
This is in the domain of the gentle
man farmer" where the owners refer
to their holdings as estates" and do
not know whether anything pays or
not All they know is that they pay.
And then they pay some more. After
ward they keep on paying. Any one
can see that theirs is paying game. =
In the next county lives Brother
Bob" Chanler, who says it costs him
50 cents for every potato he raises.
1t never viii cost me that. Sooner
than raise potatoes at that price | will
tell other people how to do it
Some one has said he cared not who
made the laws of a country so long as
he could write its songs.
| In like manner | care not who does
the farming of the nation so long as
can write about it.
ROCK EFFECTS.
like all other filings in gardening