ttJLTTniE OF GARDENS. 251 



frequently see the table spread with nothing but meat and 

 bread, or with only one or two of the poorest kinds of vegeta- 

 bles with it. It has been noticed too, that there is a very 

 great difference in the goodness of living in families of nearly 

 the same rank and wealth ; and that good living does not de- 

 pend on the expence ; bu* on the contrary, those families who 

 live at the greatest expence generally live the poorest. Bread 

 and meat are by far, the two most expensive articles of food ; 

 and as most families are in the use of these articles, the dif- 

 ference in living in different familieSjdepends principally on the 

 different kinds of culinary vegetables which are prepared and 

 presented at the table with the bread and meat. As all those 

 kinds of vegetables are much cheaper than bread or meat, the 

 greater the quantity of these consumed in a family, the less 

 will be the expence of living ; for it is presumed that people 

 will consume but a given quantity of food, and that what is 

 consumed of one kind will be spared of another. It is not e- 

 nough to have but one or two kinds of vegetables on the ta- 

 ble at once ; people have not all the same taste ; some will pre- 

 fer one kind and some another, so that when there is a variety, 

 every one will meet with something agreeable to his taste ; 

 and there is no loss in preparing more vegetables for the ta- 

 bles than can be consumed, as they afford more nutriment for 

 domestic animals than they do in their raw state. There ie 

 no class of people in the community who have it in their power 

 to supply themselves with such a variety of the best kinds of 

 vegetables, at all seasons of the year, as the farmers. But this 

 would require a garden, and some attention to it. And in 

 this a great portion of the farmers in the northern states are 

 generally deficient. A small piece of m-ound w^ithout any 

 permanent inclosure, and planted with a Tew of the coarsest, 

 and most common vegetables, is all they call the garden. 

 And even this is indifferently cultivated. One might suppose 

 that the farmer considered the garden oflittle or no con- 

 sequeoce ; and the labor bestowed uix)n it little better than 

 lost, while they toil excessively in the field. This is an error 



