Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-05-08

change and our visions widen with ex-
perience. When l see the way our one
COW turns raw materials into finished
products and into money. II opens my
eyes to the possibilities OF the bovine
family. Besides. like cows. Chickens
and pigs are all right as business prop
ositions. but they don't make the
slightest appeal to my affections Cows
do. The happiest hours have are
when I am milking and caring for
ness. morning and evening. of apollo
giving to Lady" for having opposed
her advent at Sunny Knoll
Worthy Society Belle.
Did you ever smell a cows breath
when she has just come in Off a clover
patch? society belle might well envy
it. They don't have anything in per-
fume bottles at the drug stores to COM
pare with it,
And there is no other member of the
animal family which responds so read
lily and so generously to proper treat
ment. Take II COW OF even average
quality. give her clean and comforta-
BILE quarters. an abundance of clean
water and plenty of clean and whole
some food and she will accomplish
what those foolish old alchemists spent
their lives vainly striving for-she will
transmute baser things into gold. More
than that. she Will do it at the ratio
OF dollar in gold for about 20 cents
value in the baser things. If you know
of any way to beat that in the scheme
of getting some one else to work for
you I'd be glad to be advised.
SO the combination of cows and
chickens. with bees and preserved fruits
as side line, Is the one to which we
are looking forward. We're not going
to he in any hurry about 1t. What we
aim to do Is to get afoundation-the
best foundation our means will permit
upon which to build. That applies
both to chickens and to cows. We are
by no means satisfied with the chick
ems we have, and we may decide to
throw them out altogether. In any
event. our objective for the next few
stead of to take an immediate profit.
Land Brings Contentment.
Whatever else acquisition of this ad-
ditional ten acres may or may not do,
it has brought us into state of con-
tentment. When we first moved to the
country our one ambition was to make
showing of net profits-the quicker
the better. We felt that we had to show
an actual profit the first year In Or
der to justify the experiment. All that
is changed now. Instead of working on
nth-to-month basis or a year-to-
on the proposition of lifetime. If it
takes ten years or fifteen years to COM
plete our program we will not think
the time too long. Don't get the idea,
however. that we have lost sight of
the desirab ility or the need Of making
it pay We simply are not in as big
hurry as we were year ago.
1t seems strange, when we think of 1t
now. that for thirteen years of our
married life-and for all the years of
~IfxC
simply drifted. My government posi-
ton was secure, apparently. and the
salary no doubt was liberal for the
value l returned, but there wasn't any
thing in the future for which it SEEM
ed worth while to strive. And year by
year we saw my salary diminish, so
far as Its purchasing power was con-
cerned, and all the time the need of
larger purchasing power increased Is
| it any wonder that we got discouraged
and in a rut-or that any government
clerk gets discouraged?
Put Blame on Congress.
About the only thing we did was to
sit around and complain that Congress,
while increasing the pay of it's own
members. failed to do anything for u.s.
We still are of the opinion that Con-
gress has been unfair to the govern
| ment clerks, but we can't help but be-
lieve that the average clerk could do a
great deal more than he does to i'm
prove his own condition.
When / get ten acres of our land I'M
der a high state of cultivation, 500 to
1000 chickens. and as many good Jer-
sey cows as five acres of pasture and
ten acres of cultivated land will sup
port. I'm not going to care whether
there are any more government jobs or
not. l assuming, of course, that
when that time comes we will have
Sunny Knoll all paid for and free of
debt, with the house remodeled and
such barns and other outbuildings as
are required all constructed.
So that is our program for the flu
ture. Pending it's fruition, the cur
rent program is to hold fast to my gov
eminent job. l am not going to let go
of it until I have a completed plant
| with which to work and assurance.
from actual demonstration, that / can
earn $1,000 a year on the farm over
and above interest on our investment
If that time never comes, there is only
one course left for me. I'll grow old
and gray in the government service
holding on to my job and hoping
against hope that some day Congress
will wake up to the needs of the situa-
ton and provide for the pensioning
and retirement of superannuated
clerks. T. >. M