410 ANNUAL REPORT. 



white willow hedges, and I find we are able to gather vegetables 

 from our garden earlier in the spring than almost any one else in 

 the vicinity, besides being protected much later in the fall from 

 frosts. Last fall my tomato vines were green and loaded with 

 ripening fruit when almost everybody else's was killed with frost. 



I am sorry to say, there is too much of a disposition with the 

 farming class to de\rote their entire time and energy to the care of 

 their fields and stock. 



The orchard, the garden and the yard are considered weak- 

 minded topics, fit only for the consideration and devotion of women. 

 I know farmers who will not spend a day's time in helping to 

 arrange the garden, but if the poor, weary housewife, by dint of 

 perseverence on her own part, and perhaps with the help of the 

 children, succeeds ' in spading up a small piece of ground 

 and raising a few vegetables, and when the hard-earaed delicacies 

 that should be relished only by those who have struggled for them, 

 are at last brought upon the table, the "liege lord" will be first 

 to help himself, without even giving a passing thought as to how 

 they came, 



I have often thought that instead of simply an apple sticking in 

 man's throat, it is only a mystery how he has escaped the 

 lodgment in the same region of a whole cabinet of specimens of 

 the domestic fruit and vegetable kingdom. 



A.gain I have seen men, women and children go three or four 

 miles to gather little stinted wild strawberries. 



To be sure, their flavor is nice enough, but they are so small, 

 and the same amount of time spent in going for them and cleaning 

 them would set out a bed of beautiful Bid wells, Manchesters or Cap- 

 tain Jacks in one corner of their garden at home, that would only 

 require a small amount of attention and would always be handy to 

 gather at their convenience. Three years ago we set out a bed of 

 strawberries in our garden, simply for family use. We kept them 

 weeded out that summer, and in the fall we put on a light mulch 

 of chafi", and the next spring I was astonished to find with a family 

 of nine or ten using all we could possibly get away with without 

 foundering, that at the end of the season we had sold $25 worth. 

 The following spring proved to be a very unfavorable season; how- 

 ever, aside from all we needed for family use, we again sold fifteen 

 dollars' worth, making in all forty dollars' profit from this little 

 bed. The same spring I set out a new bed and last spring we got 

 some very nice berries from it. Last fall I potted some Bidwells 

 and Manchesters and set them out. The weather proved so dry 



