WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING, 43 



much, and interfere with the growth of the 

 vegetables. There may be something in this: 

 but when I go down the potato rows, the rays 

 of the sun glancing upon my shining blade, the 

 sweat pouring from my face, I should be grateful 

 for shade. Whar is a garden for ? The pleasure 

 of man. I should take much more pleasure in a 

 shady garden. Am I to be sacrificed, broiled, 

 roasted, for the sake of the increased vigor of a 

 few vegetables ? The thing is perfectly absurd. 

 If I were rich, I think I would have my garden 

 covered with an awning, so that it would be com- 

 fortable to work in it. It might roll up and be 

 removable, as the great awning of the Roman 

 Coliseum was, not like the Boston one, which 

 went off in a high wind. Another very good 

 way to do, and probably not so expensive as the 

 awning, would be to have four persons of foreign 

 birth carry a sort of canopy over you as you 

 hoed. And there might be a person at each end 



