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.