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Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"

I do not mean
that this sum will furnish terrapin and champagne, but I do not
understand that terrapin and champagne are necessary to comfort, health,
or happiness.
Let us look for a moment at some of the things which the factory farmer
does not buy, and perhaps we shall see that a comfortable existence need
not demand much more. His cows give him milk, cream, butter, and veal;
his swine give roast pig, fresh pork, salt pork, ham, bacon, sausages,
and lard; his hens give eggs and poultry; his fields yield hulled corn,
samp, and corn meal; his orchards give apples, pears, peaches, quinces,
plums, and cherries; his bushes give currants, gooseberries,
strawberries, raspberries, blackberries; his vines give grapes; his
forests give hickory nuts, butternuts, and hazel nuts; and, best of all,
his garden gives more than twenty varieties of toothsome and wholesome
vegetables in profusion. The whole fruit and vegetable product of the
temperate zone is at his door, and he has but to put forth his hand and
take it. The skilled housewife makes wonderful provision against winter
from the opulence of summer, and her storehouse is crowded with
innumerable glass cells rich in the spoils of orchard and garden.


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