FARM WANTED

This is refreshingly different from most books on conversion from city life to country life in that Mrs. Hilles didn't want a Farm- had no intention of farming- had no interest in gardening-and didn't turn out to be a ready made farmer without making a lot of mistakes on route. It is fun reading about the way circumstances somehow took hold, and almost without intending to do it she became a full-fledged, all round farmer, with livestock (chickens, cows, pigs- and sporadically goats, sheep), a vegetable garden, small fruit-and laden shelves bearing the results of her labors. The farm is in Dutchess County, New York-and it isn't a gem of a place, which proclaims its ancestry to passers-by. The buildings were architectural eyesores; there was no real barn; makeshifts served to house the stock and guests listened to chickens in the broader, and put up with milk pails in the kitchenette until it was completely converted to a milkroom. There was fun and disappointment and satisfaction throughout. And the reading is unadulterated delight for anyone who has gone through any part of it. The other side of The Egg and I- with humor applied to living instead of to writing about it.