COTTAGE GARDENING — A DIGRESSION. 301 



CHAPTER XLV. 

 COTTAGE GARDENING— A DIGRESSION. 



Before taking up the subject of vegetable culture, I 

 ■will relate an incident connected with cottage gardening 

 that may interest, if it does not benefit, some of those into 

 whose hands this book may fall. About twenty years ago 

 I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a gen- 

 tleman whose duties compelled him to be at his desk in a 

 close office in the city of New York, from nine o'clock 

 A.M. to four P.M. Being naturally of a weak constitution, 

 his sedentary life soon made him the victim of dyspepsy 

 to such a degree that he felt that he must soon resign his 

 situation. He was then a man of forty, entirely ignorant 

 of anything pertaining to country life, and it was with 

 great misgivings and reluctance that, by the advice of 

 his physician, he changed his home from a closely built 

 part of New York to a cottage in the then country-like 

 suburb of Jersey City Heights, N. J. His means enabled 

 him to purchase a modest cottage built on a lot fifty by 

 one hundred and fifty feet. He did not want the land, 

 he said, but the cottage was such as he fancied, and the 

 ground had to go with it. It was about this time that I 

 formed his acquaintance, through some business transac- 

 tion, and he asked my professional advice as to what he 

 could do with his land, which he had already begun to 

 consider somewhat of an encumbrance. I replied to him 

 that, if I was not greatly mistaken, in his little plot of 

 ground lay a cure for all his bodily ills, and that, besides, 

 it could add to the comforts if not the luxuries of his 

 table if he would only work it. ''I work it!" he ex- 

 claimed. *^You don't suppose that these hands could 

 dig or delve," holding up his thin and bloodless fingers; 



and if they could, I know nothing about gardening." 



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