330 Transactions op the 



and prosperous one. But the fact that his occupation is necessary is a 

 scandal to California agriculture. And the fact that our farmers pay 

 the professional gardeners a good profit on all the vegetables they con- 

 sume, and then pay the dealer and peddler their liberal profits for hand- 

 ling and conveying them from point to point, is anything but compli- 

 mentary to the energy, enterprise, and skill of the farmers themselves. 

 So long as such a state of things is allowed to continue, so long will 

 farming in California continue to be an uncertain, speculative occupa- 

 tion, instead of, as it may be, a sure, safe, reliable, and profitable business. 



"We are aware that many farmers claim that, under the dry climate of 

 California, vegetables cannot be profitably raised in the wheat growing 

 districts of the State. We are also aware that but a few years ago the 

 same doubt was almost universal in regard to the growth of small grains 

 on these same soils. Time and experiment have fully controverted the 

 latter doubt, and we firmly believe that a little more time and a little 

 more experimenting will as fully controvert the former. We believe the 

 defect is not in the climate, nor yet in the soil; and we will endeavor to 

 show that our belief is well founded. We will also endeavor to point 

 out to our farmers the time for planting and mode of cultivation neces- 

 sary to be pursued in order to succeed in making good vegetable gardens 

 in the grain raising districts, and thus secure to all good, fresh, and 

 healthy vegetables from their own grounds. 



There seems to be a prevailing dislike or distate among farmers 

 generally, and more especially among American farmers, to the care and 

 cultivation of kitchen gardens. There is j)robably no State in the Amer- 

 ican Union in which the dislike is more deep seated and universal than 

 in California. Our California farmers are possessed with almost a uni- 

 versal mania for the cultivation of broad fields — of extensive farms of 

 from one to ten thousand acres, where more physical and less mental 

 labor is required. 



This system is more speculative, has more excitement in it; and if 

 liable to great losses, it still, under favorable circumstances, may bring 

 great gains. This element is what gives ib favor with our California 

 farmers. 



On the other hand, the cultivation of the garden is no speculation. 

 Though a small business, it is safe and sure. But the garden, to be made 

 successful and profitable, requires the exercise of judgment, system, and 

 patience. These, accompanied with a little care and attention at the 

 proper time, would secure to every farmer in our State, whether his 

 farm be large or small, a good garden, from which, at almost all seasons 

 of the year, his table could be supplied with an abundance of the choicest 

 vegetables — crispy and fresh from the soil. 



What California farmer, or farmer's wife, would not like, in the early 

 Spring, to be able to step from the house into a well inclosed and well 

 cultivated vegetable garden, in which, each in its apjjrojn-iate place, were 

 growing luxuriantly all the luscious, early vegetables — such as lettuce, 

 radishes, peas, beets, turnips, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn, 

 beans, carrots, parsnips, etc.? No matter if a sweet pea vine, a honey- 

 suckle, a pink, a geranium, or other innocent flowers were allowed a 

 little share in such a garden, in the stead of weeds, they would do no 

 harm, but would add, by their cheerful presence and delightful fragrance, 

 to the pleasurable emotions of the owner or other members of the family 

 when they step out to pluck some of the choice fresh vegetables for the 

 breakfast or dinner table. 



After ornamenting the garden it would detract nothing from the 



