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.