694 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



will meet them with greater capabilities. She will strive to reach the 

 pinnacle of her powers and utilize to the full every talent God has 

 given her. Educated motherhood will be found ministering to the 

 ennoblement of home and society by wise methods through great per- 

 sonalities and with magnificent results. 



THE FARM GARDEN. 



READ BEFORE THE POWESHIEK COUNTY FARMERS INSTITUTE 



MRS. FRANK CRONE, DEEP RIVER, IOWA. 



The garden is one of the most necessary things on the farm. 



It is a good thing to have fresh vegetables for the table not to mention 

 the financial help that accrues in their sale. 



A family without a garden can trace the fact in enlarged grocery 

 bills. A good garden will keep an ordinary family, along with a little 

 pin money derived from the sale of eggs and butter, or cream. 



Besides all that, vegetables and fresh fruits are healthful and reduce 

 the doctor bills. Meat and canned goods are agents of the drug dis- 

 pensaries, and if there were no virtue in garden truck as a food the 

 exercise of taking care of one would find its recompense in better health. 



We always have two gardens — the early and the late. Our early garden 

 is fenced in near the house. In this "patch" we raise the early varieties, 

 such as onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, beans, beets, Kohl rabi, cabbage, 

 turnips, and in this garden is the strawberry bed and also the hot bed, 

 in which we propagate our own plants, such as cabbage, tomato, pepper 

 and sweet potato, thus saving time and expense when we are ready to 

 transplant. 



Of course, sometimes something will happen, such as last year, when 

 my plants froze. It is absolutely necessary to have good seed. We save 

 our own seed when we can. 



For our late garden we select some spot in the corn field, where 

 the soil is rich and fertile, and plant the seed in rows so it can be culti- 

 vated with the corn plow one way, thus saving much work with the hoe. 

 I have also found that the vegetables grow much better than if crowded 

 too close together. In this garden we plant all the vegetables for fall 

 and winter. We also try to have a melon patch. But this is not very 

 encouraging, especially when someone watches to see when the melons 

 are ripe and invariably beats you to them. However, that does not 

 really discourage us. We strive to raise enough for ourselves, and if 

 some one steals a melon now and then we return thanks for those, 

 that are left. 



My advice to my friends is to raise a garden. Its not only helpful, 

 healthful and profitable, but it affords a place where the children can be 

 taught habits of industry. 



