The garden yard

Don’t imagine that you cannot do anything with a bit of ground. You can.

Don’t run away with the idea that the farmer’s life is all fun or all labor. It isn’t. It is a mixture of both, and fun and labor are equally healthful and profitable.

Don’t think that breaking up the surface soil for an inch or two is the same as plowing. It is not. The old proverb is good advice for the farmer—“Plow deep while sluggards sleep.” To plow in the fall is to lessen your spring work by at least a third. Spring plowing is easier because of it, and the work of the harrow is lighter.

Don’t begrudge manure. All forms of life require food. If you want your plants to grow, feed them.

Don’t plant tiny, tender seeds in hard, cold, lumpy soil and expect them to grow. They won’t. Pulverize your soil, warm it with sun, air and manure; make a cosy little bed for your seeds, and while they snuggle into it, they will be sending out little sprouts all the time to see what the rest of the world is like. Just as it is good business policy to treat your hired help as if they were human beings with feelings, instead of mere tireless machines, so it pays to make your seeds comfortable.

Don’t forget that your plants like air, and that what they get by their stems and branches is not enough. The roots have to breathe. So keep the earth about them stirred somewhat, that the air may get to them.

Don’t skimp the supply of moisture. Although you don’t want to drown out the seeds by soaking the ground, yet you must so till it that it holds all the moisture the plant needs. You find your craving for water greater in summer than in winter, especially if you are working hard. Well, the plant is working hard, if it is growing. See that it has its drink of water always at hand.

Don’t decide to let the weeds on the roadside grow, just because they seem “nearer the other fellow’s plot” than yours. There are no “other fellows” in a matter of this kind. It does not take long for the weeds he has to get to you. If he doesn’t know the importance of cleaning even the road, and you do, just set him the example. He’ll soon ask you why you did it. After that, he’ll probably do his share. At any rate you will have done yours.

Don’t try to grow more and better crops than your neighbor, just for the “fun of getting ahead of him.” Grow them to prove how much can be done with your facilities, and to show him, as well as yourself, how much more pleasure and profit he can find in gardening than he has known before. Next year he’ll probably show you a thing or two.

Don’t think you have to emigrate to some far-away spot to make a living from the earth. All soil can be made to produce if you use brains as well as labor. Begin where you are, no matter how small the plot. Learn to do it in little before you try it in large. If you have no plot where you live, try to get the use of a vacant lot in your town or city. Put up a tent and live in it. You and your family will be the better for roughing it a bit. There’s lots of fun in camping if you go about it in the right spirit.

Don’t be afraid to ask advice from the Department of Agriculture. They are conducting their experiments for your sake, if that’s the sort of knowledge you want. If it were not for you and thousands like you, they would not need to discover so many of Nature’s secrets. Get the benefit of their discoveries.

Don’t think you can farm without proper tools, any more than a man could print a paper without a printing press. The old-fashioned, small hand-press, would stand a poor show beside the new power presses. So with old-fashioned, hand-gardening tools. You can do more work with a wheel-hoe than with ten hand-hoes, and it isn’t so painful either. Get only the tools you need, but be sure to get them, and get the best of their kind.

Don’t let your tools stand out in all weathers, and don’t forget to clean them and see that they are oiled. A dirty farm implement may mean the spread of disease; unoiled bearings may mean injury from rust or breakage. Save time and expense by a little care.

Don’t expect eggs from dirty or ill-fed fowls. The natural returns from such conditions are vermin and sickness; and you’ll get them.

Don’t expect to take everything out of the soil and put nothing back. The soil is like a bank account, so long as you keep adding to it, you may draw from it. But if it is all “draw” and no “add,” then you will soon come to the end of your resources. Feed your soil and it will feed you.

Don’t plant poor seed. You can’t afford it. The best is cheapest. If you have poor seed on hand, throw it away—or perhaps it might do for the chickens. No loss can be so great as the loss of planting it.

Don’t forget that women are apt to make good gardeners, because they are willing to “fuss over” necessary small matters. If you do not like to attend constantly to “little things,” if you “hate details,” you will be unlikely to make a big success of intensive culture. The man who does best is the one who loves to compare soils and fertilizers and seeds, and to try how many seeds sprout and how long they take; who is interested in the temperature of every hot-bed; who watches for just the day to use the wheel-hoe on this row and the hand-plow on that; who finds the time only too short while he sets out onion seedlings; who enjoys putting up nice bunches of vegetables or packages of fruit. In short, the man or woman whose interest is in watching the crops instead of the clock, is the one who succeeds in garden work.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you must have a fine house before you can take up gardening. A shack is as good as a palace, and better, if you can afford the one and not the other. Anything that can be ventilated and made weather-proof will be enough. After you have made your fortune, if you have not in the meantime learned the value of simple living, build your fine house, and be as splendidly uncomfortable as even the worst Philistine could desire. But while you are earning your fortune, be comfortable. It pays.

Don’t think you must throw up your job and rush into farming for a living, unless you have had some experience, or have a snug little bank account to depend upon while you are learning. Get your experience on a small piece of land first, while still holding down your present job. Be sure you like the work and that you are willing to give all necessary time and attention to it.

Don’t think that this list exhausts all the “don’ts,” practical or otherwise. There are dozens of others. But it is well to leave something to the imagination and to experience. You’ll learn them for yourself and remember them better for it. Nevertheless, it will do no harm to attach the rules for farm buying submitted to the American Jewish Association. They run as follows:

Don’t think about buying a farm if your wife won’t live in the country.

Don’t believe in agents when they tell you gold-brick stories.

Don’t chase after big farms.

Don’t buy a farm unless you have money enough left to buy a cow.

Don’t run too much in debt when you buy your farm.

Don’t pay a deposit on your farm until you have consulted a lawyer.

Don’t forget to insure your farm buildings in a reliable company.

Don’t buy a farm unless you are able to meet the mortgages.

Don’t buy a farm unless you have consulted those who know.