His crops were skillfully planted in rich soil, carefully cultivated and usually harvested earlier than those of his neighbors.

One summer he raised potatoes so large that many of them weighed one pound each, and new potatoes and green peas, fresh from the garden, invariably appeared on Aunt Sarah's table the first of July, and sometimes earlier.

I have known him to raise cornstalks which reached a height of thirteen feet, which were almost equaled by his wife's sunflower stalks, which usually averaged nine feet in height.
Aunt Sarah, speaking one day to Mary, said: "Your Uncle John is an unusually silent man.

I have heard him remark that when people talk continuously they are either _very_ intelligent or tell untruths." He, happening to overhear her remark, quickly retorted: "The man who speaks a dozen tongues, When all is said and done, Don't hold a match to him who knows How to keep still in one." When annoyed at his wife's talkativeness, her one fault in her husband's eyes, if he thought she had a fault, he had a way of saying, "Alright, Sarah, Alright," as much as to say "that is final; you have said enough," in his peculiar, quick manner of speaking, which Aunt Sarah never resented, he being invariably kind and considerate in other respects.
John Landis was a successful farmer because he loved his work, and found joy in it.

While not unmindful of the advantages possessed by the educated farmer of the present day, he said, "'Tis not college lore our boys need so much as practical education to develop their efficiency.