INTRODUCTION 



tentious houses, each with neat lawn and 

 flower borders, a few shrubs, two or three 

 good trees, and having in the rear a small 

 vegetable garden, all cared for by the 

 owner, with perhaps a man for a day now 

 and then. 



If the vegetable garden be gone over 

 carefully once a week, every weed taken 

 out by the roots, and the earth well stirred 

 and loosened with the hoe or cultivator, the 

 vegetables will thrive and the place always 

 look neat. If the garden be good-sized, a 

 cultivator, with its array of tools, will 'be 

 found a great saving of labor; but if small, 

 a rake, spade, hoe and trowel will answer 

 every purpose. 



Where the place is too small for a 

 complete vegetable garden, a plot of ground 

 twenty feet by thirty, if well fertilized and 

 well cared for, will yield enough tomatoes, 

 cauliflower, egg-plants, peppers, lettuce and 

 parsley for a family of eight persons. On 

 this plot there is room for four dozen cauli- 

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