Reports of Local Societies. 243 



is that it requires a little attention almost daily, and demands 

 tlionght, patience and system in order to make it a success. The 

 fact is they would much rather attend the larger crops, where 

 the horse furnishes the muscular power, and others have fur- 

 nished the brain power in machinery, which makes it possible to 

 go ov6r a number of acres in a day. It would be far better to 

 neglect some other crop, and spare the time for the garden; for 

 it is a well-established fact that a single half acre of erround de- 

 voted to garden culture, and which may be planted and attended 

 without encroaching very much upon the regular farm work, by 

 economizing odd spells, while waiting for teams to feed and tools 

 to be repaired, and perhaps all hands putting in a Saturday after- 

 noon occasionally, would annually produce more of the essentials 

 for good living than four or five acres of any other crop on the 

 farm, without taking into account the health, comfort and i-efine- 

 ment that is sure to follow. After viewing the actual facts in 

 the case, I am not surprised that some of our farmers are mo- 

 rose and cruel, and that their sons and daughters early desert 

 the old homestead for a situation where salt pork and soggy po- 

 tatoes are not the chief article of diet. Without a garden of fruits 

 and vegetables, the diet of the farmer's faniil}'^ must be mainly 

 confined to bread, meat and potatoes, or a large draught must be 

 made upon the profits from the sales of stock and farm crops to 

 purchase the extras that are essential to a fairly good living. 



This style of living may be tolerated in winter, but when warm 

 weather returns the system requires less strong food, and the ap- 

 petite craves cooling- and juicy vegetables and fruits, fresh from 

 the ffarden. It seems to me that it must be revoltin": to the stom- 

 ach of a weary and hungry man to sit down to a dinner of boiled 

 fat pork and old potatoes, in the season for asparagus, green peas, 

 string beans or new potatoes. Could these things be purchased 

 as cheaply as they can be grown, it would be economy to grow 

 them and have them always at hand fresh as wanted; but the 

 facts in the case are that more than one-half of the expense will 

 be saved, and a much better article secured, by growing them. 

 Early vegetables and summer fruits are luxuries within the reach 

 of every farmer's family, at a very trifling outlay of time and 



