that we played no part in it. 
     
    

    
     When the potato seedlings had reached a height of six to eight inches 
     
     above ground, the potato bugs came on the scene in force; from that time 
     
     until early fall it was a never-ending battle to keep them under control. 
     
     Paris green was our weapon. A half-pound tin of the lethal mixture, with a 
     
     few holes punched: in its bottom, was lashed between the prongs of a three-~ 
     
     foot forked stick. Armed with this, we plodded up one row and down the next, 
     
     dusting the leaves with a coating of the powder. Paris green was highly 
     
     effective, but a light shower would wash it off, so that repeated 
     
     applications were necessary. It was also expensive, which meant that we 
     
     aimed for a minimum of waste. This required that it be applied during 4 
     
     windless calm -- a condition that was usually found about daybreak. On 
     
     countless mornings, I reluctantly tumbled out, still half-asleep, and raced 
     
     barefoot on rapidly numbing toes through'the icy dew-drenched grass to do 
     
     my bit toward saving the potato crop. At times Paris green was in short 
     
     supply; it then became necessary to pick the bugs by hand. We used to 
     
     shake them off the leaves into an old tin bucket where we joyously 
     
     incinerated them by pouring in kerosene and tossing in a lighted match. 
     
    

    
     The other root crops were by this time reaching the stage at which 
     
     weeding and thinning were in order -- work which required care as well as 
     
     a degree of skill. Turnips were thinned so as to leave the seedlings about 
     
     ten inches apart; parsnips, carrots, and beets called for a little less 
     
     than half that separation. Weeding and thinning two or three acres of 
     
     -turnips was something of a major operation which required outside help -- 
     
     usually some neighborhood youth whose company in the field made the work 
     
     seem much less yonotonous. | 
     
    

    
     Mid-July brought haymaking. When I was a little over twelve, I was 
     
     deemed competent to operate the mower -- a two-horse job and a great boost 
     
    
   
   
    
     to my sense of inportance. I also drove the big rake, gathering the dried