rly
mortality of our great communities may be brought down below 15 in 1000;
once thought to be the acme of healthfulness.

* * * * *

Cheapening of food goes on remarkably, along with close and high culture
of the ground. Proper appreciation of the share taken by the
_atmosphere_ in the nutrition of plants has made soil construction a
much simpler and surer thing than formerly. Roof-gardens in towns are
very common and successful; half of the vegetables consumed in Baltimore
are said to be grown on roofs. I once saw a book entitled "Our Farm of
Four Acres;" and another, "Ten Acres Enough." Very little skill should
be needed now to enable a frugal family to live _well_ on two or three
acres of well-made ground.

_August 20th, 1931._

I bought yesterday a pound of the best grass-flavored adipo-butyrin (as
good as any dairy butter) for ten cents; a sirloin of good western beef
for twelve cents a pound; and, best of all, a bushel of Rocky-mountain
grasshoppers, as crisp and delicious as could be, for only thirty-seven
cents! They say, the supply of these last delicacies will be short this
season; as hardly any have appeared yet in Kansas or Nebraska.
Excursions for procuring them from farther west are, however, quite
frequently made.

* * * * *

I saw an account of the sale of some Southern lands in this morning's
paper. The best farm land in Virginia brings 400 to 500 dollars an acre.
Some in South Carolina has brought 400 and 500; good Maryland farms 5,
6, and 700 dollars an acre. Manufactories, too, are in active operation
in all the old Cotton States. It has happened, as every one might have
known would be the case, that when a generation or two had passed after
the cessation of slavery, and the old hatreds had been buried in the
graves of the men and women who nursed them, prosperity would increase
in the South to an extent that could hardly be imagined under the
slaveholding regime, the "dark ages" of America.

* * * * *

How fast arts and inventions are accumulating! The nineteenth century
seems likely to be equaled if not surpassed in new material appliances
of civilization and luxury. Railroad speed now often reaches ninety
miles an hour, upon the straightened and generally elevated tracks in
use; with the automatic block-signal system so complete, that col