Earlier in the season I had taken samples from a five-acre strip of damp, low-lying land at the foot of the hill which was fairly well drained, and sent them to the school for analysis. I received a report advising me to plant potatoes there and a formula for the best fertilizer to use. Here again it didn’t take a man bred on a farm to carry out the simple instructions. I had the field plowed as soon as the frost was out of the ground, applied my fertilizer of acid phosphate, kainit and nitrate of soda--so many pounds to the acre--and harrowed it in. It didn’t require even ordinary intelligence to have this done or to purchase Early Norwood, New Queen and Green Mountain seed and plant them in rows three feet apart and in sets fifteen inches apart. Hadley and I did the work--work that any day laborer was capable of doing. I reserved a small strip for the planting of Early Horn carrots, Market Model parsnips, Edmand’s beets and Early Milan turnips. These names didn’t mean anything to me, and I didn’t care if they didn’t. Before the end of the season, however, I wished I had reserved an even larger strip for these things. I never ate such vegetables in my life. I plowed up about an acre back of the barn for the garden and emptied upon this the manure from the cow barn, working it in well. Then I harrowed the ground until it was pulverized almost as fine as dust. According to the Professor not half time enough is devoted by the average New England farmer to the preparation of the soil for his seed. Oftentimes he is content with a shallow plowing and a single harrowing. I noticed that Dardoni and Tony, however, knew by instinct enough to work their soil thoroughly. They depended a great deal on hand labor, because for one reason they could secure help cheap. Newcomers were glad enough to work for them for the experience, and the chance it gave them to look around for places of their own. However, the result was the same and they did their work thoroughly. I planted about one-fourth of this garden to peas in successive sowings. Here was another simple and obvious advantage which I found my neighbors until now had neglected. They sowed perhaps an early and late crop of peas and corn but it never occurred to them to make three or four plantings and many of them didn’t even make two. When peas and corn were ripe everyone had peas and corn but in the intervals no one except Dardoni and his fellows had them at all. They were therefore either scarce or a drug on the market. Under advice I used Suttons, with a few Dwarf Champions. Another quarter of the garden I planted to beans--some string beans--Plentifuls and Valenties--some wax and Lima beans and a large patch of white pea beans for winter. Another quarter of the patch I put into sweet corn, using for the early varieties Early Cory and Peep o’ Day; for medium earlies Crosby, and for late corn Country Gentleman. Among these I put in a few squash seeds, Crooknecks and Hubbards.