His name is Jim Brown (not James but just plain Jim) and he works five and a half days a week as a clerk in a railroad office. His pay envelope is not too fat, but that does not particularly bother Mr. and Mrs. Jim Brown, because they are practically self-sufficient on their little, one acre homestead in the outskirts of the city. In the seven years since the Browns bought their place thev have never bought a vegetable from a store, except a few Irish potatoes. Last season they grew enough of everything, including both Irish and sweet potatoes, to last them the year around. In addition to a lusty vegetable garden, 100 by 150 feet, the Browns keep a cow and chickens. They also have a smoke a greenhouse, fruit trees and all kinds of berries, grape vines, about everything, in fact, that one can grow in that climate. Besides all their edible plants, they grew, in 1945, more than fifty kinds of flowers.

They have more than a hundred urns, pots and window boxes filled with interesting plants, including an orange tree that bears. These they winter over in their greenhouse. The Browns harvested a bumper crop in 1945. It included fifty bushels of tomatoes, eleven bushels of potatoes, and thousands of pounds of other vegetables and fruits. They canned 576 quarts of fruits and vegetables; dried a lot of things; stored thirty bushels of roots and 300 pounds of cabbage in pits for the winter. Surplus vegetables and fruits and canned goods were distributed to more than a hundred relatives and friends. Not an ounce was sold. Jim says be is "too busy working on the place and in the office to sell produce."' Jim Brown's garden has earned more than S300, in local and state prizes, in the past two years, as well as two silver medals and a lot of blue ribbons. Recently he was awarded the grand national prize by the National Victory Garden Institute-a S1000 Victory Bond -for being the top home gardener in the United States.

It is likely, however, that the Browns would be about as happy if they never won any honors. Their sincere love for their little place and everything about it is enough satisfaction. With a home free of debt, and a small cottage on the lot from which they receive rent of S26 a month, they are mighty independent. In fact, they enjoy more real independence than many business executives whose big salaries are whacked at by high rents, income taxes, and high living costs. Mrs. Brown also loves gardening and spends many hours working with her husband outdoors. Even their three-year-old daughter is learning how to garden. In ten months, in 1945, the Browns spent 1200 hours in the garden: almost thirty hours a week.