330 Junior Naturalist Monthly. 



A GARDEN WORTH THE WHILE. 



Last fall at Interlaken, a small hamlet near Cayuga Lake, we found 

 a most interesting garden. The owner, Mr, A. C. Peterson, is a mer- 

 chant and a very busy one, but he enjoys the "fun of seeing things 

 grow." He planted the groimd himself and took care of it outside of 

 business hours. I know it will interest our Junoir Naturalists to 

 hear about it. 



The garden is forty-six feet by one hundred sixty-five feet. Ask 

 your father to show you a piece of ground about this size. You will 

 find it not very large and therefore you will be surprised when you 

 read the following list of fruits and vegetables raised on it. 



40 bushels early harvest potatoes. 



30 bushels purple top strap leaf turnips. 



2^ bushels fine pop-corn. 



5 bushels plums, from one tree. 



3 bushels apples, from one tree. 



1 bushel Concord grapes. 



133 pounds Hubbard squash. 



50 pounds asparagus. 



Now suppose Mr. Peterson had sold his garden products. Let us 

 see what he would have received for them. Following is a fair estimate : 



40 bushels early potatoes — 



If saved for seed $40 00 



If sold on market at 60c 24 00 



30 bushels turnips at 25c 7 50 



2J bushels pop-corn — 



If saved for seed at $1.50 3 75 



If sold on market at 75c 1 88 



5 bushels plums, Lombard, at 50c 2 50 



3 bushels apples at 30c 90 



1 bushel Concord grapes 1 00 



133 pounds of Hubbard squash at 2^c 3 33 



50 pounds asparagus, average retail, 10c 5 00 



In the harvest time, I saw some of the products of this garden. I 

 went into the cellar in which they were stored. The large, solid 

 potatoes were well worth seeing. The squashes, so heavy that 

 I would not want to carry one far, promised something good for 

 future dinners ; the pop-corn led me to think of an open fire place with 

 merry faces about on the coming Thanksgiving day; and the apples 

 looked so tempting that we were glad to hear our host say: "Help 

 yourselves." I wish our Junior Naturalists had been there. I 

 tiiink they would have learned that it is a good thing to have a garden. 



