?82 



GLEANINGS IN liEE OULTUilE. 



Nov. 



small patches of ground. It forcibly illus- 

 trates the point under consideration : 



The passenger in the horse-cars going 

 from Sixtieth street to Harlem, on New- 

 York Island, any day from .June to October, 

 may see little patches of vegetation of dif- 

 ferent shades of green, ranged in uniform 

 and regular lines. These are the "salad 

 patches," cultivated mainly by German 

 market-gardeners ; they range from two 

 acres down to a quarter of an acre in area. 

 It seems a wonder that the cultivation of 

 such a small plot of earth should give an 

 able-bodied man a living; but a living it 

 does give, in nearly all cases, and some have 

 quite a respectable surplus for a " rainy 

 day." 



And now read the following : 



Four crops of lettuce are usually taken 

 from June to October, or nearly a ci op each 

 month. The plants are set about a foot 

 apart each way. and will average one cent 

 per head, so that the four crops give a re- 

 turn of nearly :?2, 000 per acre. This seems 

 like an immense return for an acre ; but 

 though the net profits are respectable, tliere 

 are some serious disadvantages attending 

 the cultivation. Few or none of these men 

 are owners of the land, nor in hardly any in- 

 stance have they a lease. They are tenants 

 at will, and pay a yearly rental of, in some 

 instances, SijO per acre. ]Many of your 

 country readers may think that an extra 

 cipher has been added to the amount, but 

 they must recollect that the value of some 

 of these " salad patches," as thev are called, 

 is $8000 per city lot, or over «;100,{)00 per 

 acre, so that the paltry rental of §ii50 per 

 acre hardly pays the interest of the amount 

 of taxes. 



But, you may urge that these enormous 

 figures were obtained in consequence of the 

 proximity to the great market of the city of 

 New York. Well, there is something in 

 this ; but there is something on the otlier 

 side too. Last winter a good many barrels 

 of lettuce were sent to our town by express, 

 from one of our large cities. It retailed to 

 our Medina people (and we are a town of 

 less than 2000 inhabitants) at 25 cents or 

 more a pound. When the trade commenced 

 I started some lettuce in our greenhouse, 

 and succeeded in getting heads that weighed 

 a pound apiece, on an average. Now, in 

 place of putting the plants at one cent per 

 head as Peter Henderson has done, say 2-3 

 cents per head. What sort of figures per 

 acre have you thenV or what sort of figures 

 would you get for the product of a little 

 greenhouse, or even a few ])oxes of plants 

 started in the window, and plant(>d outdoors 

 as soon as the weather would permit? Tlie 

 heads we raised weYe nicer and finer than 

 any that I ever saw in the cities, or that 

 came from the cities. But I hadn't the 

 heart to ask over five cents apiece for them. 



Now, I do not mean to advise everybody 

 in the country, town, or city, to go to rais- 

 ing lettuce for a living. I have chosen let- 

 tuce only for an illustration, and I have, 

 during tlie past year, demonstrated to my 

 complete satisfaction that fine products of 

 tills kind will be quickly taken in almost any 

 community, if the goods are properly 

 brought before the people. The question 

 may arise, " Is it well to encourage people in 

 paying out their money for things of this 

 kind that they would be just as well off 

 without?" If you are going to seek first the 

 kingdom of God and his righteousness, we 

 do not want to go into any kind of business 

 unless we can consistently and with a whole 

 heart, ask his blessing upon it. I was at 

 one time tempted to think that five or ten 

 cents for a head of lettuce, or the same mon- 

 ey for a stalk of celery, was an extravagance 

 that perhaps ought not to be encouraged. 

 Chemists tell us that a watermelon is 90 or 

 9-5 per cent water, or something of that sort. 

 In that case, is it not sheer folly to pay 25 or 

 50 cents for a watermelon? A head of let- 

 tuce is, quite likely, SO per cent water, or at 

 least a large part of it, and nothing more. 

 And so we might say of almost all kinds of 

 garden products. Tliey will do well enough 

 for rich folks, where they have more money 

 than they know what to do with. But, is it 

 a kind of traffic that a Christian ought to 

 engage in? My friends, I believe it is just 

 exactly the kind of traflic that a Christian 

 ought to engage in. Physicians have united, 

 almost to"a man, in pronouncing strawber- 

 ries worth all they cost, on account of their 

 health-giving qualities. A good many say 

 the same in regard to garden-sauce of vari- 

 ous kinds. Celery, for instance, has been 

 recommended for years past ; and after hav- 

 ing made a careful test of the virtues of the 

 plant, I think I am not mistaken. 



Luring the fore part of this present sea- 

 son, my friends as well as myself were some- 

 what alarmed by a nervous attack that ren- 

 dered it quite difficxilt for me to work in the 

 office, reading letters, directing business, 

 etc. A physician of considerable standing 

 advised me to give up fruits and vegetables, 

 and subsist principally on lean meat. He 

 specially directed that I was to eat no veg- 

 etables dui-ing the latter part of the day. I 

 began making careful experiments with 

 many articles of diet. He was right in con- 

 demning certain fruits and vegetables ; but 

 I have proved, over and over again, that I 

 could eat celery, right fresh from the garden, 

 in great quantities, without any bad result. 



