FARMERS GARDENS. 



349 



horse-radish, potatoee, tomatoes, pickled cabbages, ouions, cucumbers, and pep- 

 pers. Those vegetable juices that contain lime are especially efficacious in all 

 scorbutic affections. Malate and citrate of lime abound in the juices of the 

 apple, the lemon, the currant, the grape, and the tomato. With a supply of 

 these fruits, or, when the fruits themselves cannot be had, with the juices in 

 concentrated form, furnished as a part of their daily rations, many men might 

 have been saved for the service of the country who are now laid in distant 

 graves or discharged from the army with enfeebled or broken constitutions. 

 With the facilities for transportation we now have all our hospitals might be 

 well supplied with fruits, vegetables, and vegetable acids. In the vicinity of 

 our forts and permanent camps they may be easily raised, as in Prussia, by the 

 soldiers themselves. 



Asparagus and rhubarb both require a rich, deeply- worked soil. Late in 

 autumn they should be well covered with horse manure, or with a compost con- 

 taining night soil. This should be well worked into the ground with the fork. 

 The ground should then be mulched with straw, coarse hay, or fine boughs. 

 In the early spring the mulching should be removed, and the ground made 

 light and clean by the fork and rake. No other care is necessary but to keep 

 the ground free from weeds. Coal ashes have been found useful when placed 

 around the roots of currants ; tbey should be applied in autumn, and forked in 

 in the spring. Spent tan bark may be spread in the rows betAveen the bushes ; 

 it keeps the ground moist around their roots, prevents the growth of weeds, 

 and is thought to be some protection against the borer, to whose attacks the 

 currant is so liable. 



As an appendix to the above remarks on garden vegetables I present the fol- 

 lowing table given me by a friend in Providence, Rhode Island, showing the cost 

 per Aveek of the vegetables and fruits consumed in his family of twelve to 

 fifteen persons. He purchased day by day all that were used in his household, and 

 kept an accurate account of the same. It shows the importance in an economi- 

 cal view of the vegetables used by New England families, to say nothing of 

 what they contribute to health or the pleasures of life. With the exception 

 of the large fruits, I think all the vegetables named in this estimate might 

 easily be produced on one acre well cultivated as a garden. 



Cost per week of vegetables for a family of from twelve to fifteen persons. 



Sprinn 



Potatoes %\ 00 



Turnips 75 



Beets 50 



Squashes 62 



Ouious 12 



Parsnips 25 



Cabbage 50 



Celery 1 00 



Pickles 25 



Beans 33 



32 



Summer. 



Potatoes .... $1 00 



Turnips 150 



Beets 1 00 



Squashes 1 25 



Onions 13 



Greens 75 



Lettuce 75 



Radishes 2 00 



Beans 1 00 



Peas 2 00 



Green com ... 1 50 



Cucumbers . . 50 



Tomatoes 1 50 



14 88 



For 13 weeks.. 69 16 



For 13 weeks. 193 44 



Autumn. 



Potatoes.. .. $1 00 



Turnips 1 00 



Beets 1 00 



Squashes 1 00 



Onions 12 



Beans 1 00 



Green com... 1 50 



6 62 



For 13 weeks. 86 06 



Winter 



Potatoes $1 00 



Turnips 75 



Beets 50 



Squashes 62 



Onions 12 



Pickles 25 



Cabbage 50 



Celery 1 00 



Beans 33 



5 07 



For 13 weeks.- 65 91 



Total vegetables, $414 57. Fruit per week : Apples, $1 ; peaches, $2 ; strawberries, $5 ; 

 raspberries, $1 ; pears, $0 50 ; cherries. Si ; blackberries, $1 ; melons, $1. Total fruits, 

 $12 50. 



