DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD. 139 



never seen anywhere else except at Concord, and possibly at 

 Dedham. They have done the same thing there, they have 

 excluded the coarse vegetables, except it may be mangolds, where 

 bulk is sought rather than fine shape and quality ; these exhi- 

 bitions, and others that I might mention, have been made bet- 

 ter, the public have been educated up to a higher standard, and 

 they have come to know what a first-rate vegetable is ; and that 

 is just the object which, as it seems to me, should be sought by 

 these exhibitions ; and what we want to talk about to-day is the 

 best method of raising superior vegetables. 



Now I endorse all that has been said in regard to a vegetable 

 diet. I do not want to give up my roast beef; I like those things 

 just as well as the others ; but I do like vegetables. You may 

 laugh when I talk about the flavor of vegetables, as I do about 

 the flavor of fruit, but you know we fruit-growers cultivate this 

 matter of taste, and some of us think we are quite acute in the 

 matter. I sometimes taste twelve or fifteen varieties of grapes, 

 and taste apples and pears in the same way. There is just as 

 much difference in the flavor of different kinds of apples or 

 pears, as there is in their looks. Just so it is with vegetables — 

 the cabbage or the turnip — and I don't know why we should 

 not carry this same thing into vegetables, to see whether they 

 are the best of the kind that can be raised. To illustrate what 

 I mean : Here is a man who sets out his celery in early summer, 

 and earths it up as he finds it convenient, without regard to the 

 season whether it is wet or dry ; and when he comes to dig his 

 celery it is rusty, wormy, thin and poor. You go to Mr. Crosby, 

 of Arlington, or some other good grower of celery, who does 

 not treat his celery in that way ; and which would you take ? 

 You would not hesitate long to take that which was tender, 

 crisp, delicious and free from all those imperfections of which 

 I have spoken. What makes the difference ? One man knows 

 his business and the other does not. One gets a good article, 

 and the other does not. 



You may carry this all through. One man wants to raise 

 cauliflower. He goes into a seed store and buys cheap seed ; 

 pays five cents a paper for it ; he could not get a decent cauli- 

 flower if he bought a pound. Another man goes in and asks, 

 " Have you cauliflower seed ? I don't care about the price, if it 

 is five cents a seed, if it is only good." What is the difference ? 



