You will find much innocent and profitable amusement in your garden, and will please to plant bush beans and pole beans of various sorts, having enriched the soil with horse or hog manure. With regard to pole beans, you will do as well to set the poles first, and then plant the beans round the poles.
In the open ground, plant cucumbers, cabbages, cauliflowers, late peas, early corn, squashes, melons, gourds, &c. Hoe and bush such peas as have come forward, and weed all the plants which have made their appearance.
Let me say a few words in favor of the birds, which, at this time, are on every tree. A notion prevails that birds do great injury in gardens and fields, and hence, many of them are shot, and boys are encouraged to persecute them with stones. A person of long experience has ascertained that birds, in general, do far more good by destroying vermin, than they do harm by the little grain and fruit they consume. In a district of Germany, there was once an order given to kill all the rooks, which are birds of the crow kind. This was complied with, and the consequence was, that the wheat crop was almost entirely destroyed by insects, which the rooks would have devoured.
The Village of Economy.
This is a New England village, and is remarkable for its pleasant, cheerful aspect. Every person who rides through it is delighted; and the place has such a reputation, that the land is worth more, and the houses will sell for more, than in almost any other place of the kind you can name. And this all arises from the good taste, neatness, and order, which characterize the inhabitants. I give you a view of the house belonging to Capt. John Pepperidge; a careful, correct, upright man, who has risen from poverty to ease and competence, by industry, economy, and prudence.
His house stands three or four rods back from the street; the front yard is green and grassy, and decorated with fruit trees. The wood pile is fenced in; the barn yard, pig pen, &c., are also tidily fenced. It is a maxim of Pepperidge’s that there should be a place for everything, and that everything should be in its place. This is his great maxim; and he not only observes it himself, but he requires every man, woman, and child, about him, to observe it also. He says it saves him one hundred dollars a year.
He has other rules, such as a stitch in time, saves nine; and so as soon as a stone falls off the wall he puts it up; when a rail gets out of the fence, he replaces it; when a gate is broken, it is forthwith repaired; if a clapboard is loose, a nail clenches it. Thus matters are kept tight and tidy. Of a wet day, instead of going to the tavern, he spends the time in making little repairs. At odd moments of leisure, he sets out trees and shrubs—thus, year by year, beautifying his place, and rendering it not only more comfortable, but also worth more money, in case he should ever desire to sell it.
Capt. Pepperidge takes great pleasure, and perhaps a little innocent pride, in his place—though, to say the truth, it is by no means costly. He loves better to spend his time in making it more comfortable and pleasant; in setting out trees, improving the grounds, mending the fences, &c., than in going about to talk politics, or gossip upon other people’s business, or in haunting a tavern bar-room. In short, his home is comfortable, pleasant, delightful. It is neat and orderly, inside and out. And he has made it so; though his wife, having happily felt the influence of his example, contributes her share to the good work. His children are well dressed—well educated—well behaved. Can such a man be a drunkard? Can he be vicious? Can he be wicked? Who has so good a chance of health, and wealth and happiness? Who so likely to be respected by his neighbors? Who so likely to do good by his influence and example? Come, Capt. Wideopen, I pray you, and learn a lesson of farmer Pepperidge!
Let us look at the practical effect of Pepperidge’s example. Formerly the village of Economy was called Uneasy-Swamp, and was inhabited by a set of people becoming the name. They were poor, ignorant, idle, and uneasy. They were jealous of all rich people, and considered the unequal distribution of property a dreadful evil. They were equally jealous of the wise, and considered the unequal distribution of knowledge a nuisance to be abated. They were also jealous of the virtuous, and hated nothing so much as a just and honest man. In short, they were, half a century ago, where some conceited but ignorant and uninformed people are now—willing to level everybody and thing to their own standard. If a candidate for office was up, who addressed their prejudices and coaxed them with promises,—though meaning to cheat them—he was the man for them. The more ignorant a magistrate—the more mean—the more base—the more fellow-feeling rendered them kind, and the more ardently they espoused his cause. Such was Uneasy-Swamp, a place which has its image still in some parts of the country.