TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 89 



compared with the too often stale articles of food to be had in the mar- 

 kets and from hucksters' wagons. 



The vegetables and fruits which an average family may consume can 

 be grown on an ordinary suburban lot in Adrian. Where skill is exer- 

 cised, from two to three crops can be raised from the same ground in a 

 «eason. With proper management, and with sufficient fertilization, sur- 

 prising results may be obtained. 



Peter Henderson, one of the most successful gardeners of this country, 

 is the author of nine volumes on the various branches of horticulture. In 

 his work on "Gardening for Profit" we may learn how to make our gar- 

 dens yield large returns. The writer of this paper once tried an experi- 

 ment on a vacant lot, 80 feet wide by 150 feet deep. This lot was thor- 

 oughly prepared and planted to White Star potatoes. An accurate 

 account was kept of the expense of seed, cultivation, and marketing, 

 which net sum was $40.50. There were raised on this lot 112 bushels of 

 extra-fine potatoes, which were sold at 65 cents per bushel, amounting to 

 $72.80, leaving a net profit of |32.30. The season was favorable, the mar- 

 ket good, an exceptional year. But the cost of labor and material was 

 nearly twice what it should have been. It might have been done by per- 

 sonal attention for half that amount. The work was done in this case 

 by proxy, which seldom pays. 



The writer has been engaged in professional life for at least a quarter 

 of a century, and he has never been without a garden where it was pos- 

 sible to have one, to which he has given more or less personal attention, 

 and he can say that, after these years of observation and experience, a 

 garden pays. A good garden takes care and labor. No good thing is 

 accomplished without great labor. A poor, neglected garden never pays, 

 and this is true of a farm. To be a successful gardener requires study 

 and thought. There is as much need of the exercise of cerebral tissue 

 here as in anything else. 



The excuses for gardens that we too often behold along the highway, 

 don't pay for the plowing. There is not enough raised in some such gar- 

 dens to keep the sun from bleaching the soil. There would be more 

 money in good pasture, a crop of rye or buckwheat. Good returns may 

 be had from a garden, after it has once been thoroughly plowed and fer- 

 tilized. With two hours' work per day for six weeks, say from the middle 

 of May to the last of June, a few hours' work in April with the hot-bed 

 may also be added. An hour per day may be put in during most of the 

 early summer. But the most of the work in a family garden will be done 

 from the middle of May to the middle of June, for Michigan latitude. 

 These hours will prove a great blessing to any professional man, espe- 

 cially if put in during the time of early morning. 



What professional men need is a change of work from mental to physi- 

 cal exercise. This change is restful. Exercise before breakfast is 

 recuperative. An hour's labor on a May morning, until the perspira- 

 tion starts freely, when followed with the ordinary sponge bath, is better 

 than any expensive Turkish or Russian bath. This morning exercise will 

 prove a luxury to any man who is not too lazy to enjoy it. No one has 

 experienced the full fruition of life until he has tried the health-giving 

 elixir of the morning hour in his garden. The teacher, the lawyer, and the 

 minister each will find labor a true friend and a blessing in disguise. But 

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