WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 83 



Then there is the cool cucumber, like so many 

 people, good for nothing when it is ripe and 

 the wildness has gone out of it. How inferior 

 in quality it is to the melon, which grows upon 

 a similar vine, is of a like watery consistency, 

 but is not half so valuable ! The cucumber is 

 a sort of low comedian in a company where the 

 melon is a minor gentleman. I might also con- 

 trast the celery with the potato. The associa- 

 tions are as opposite as the dining-room of the 

 duchess and the cabin of the peasant. I admire 

 the potato, both in vine and blossom ; but it is 

 not aristocratic. I began digging my potatoes, 

 by the way, about the 4th of July ; and I fancy 

 I have discovered the right way to do it. I 

 treat the potato just as I would a cow. I do 

 not pull them up, and shake them out, and de- 

 stroy them ; but I dig carefully at the side of 

 the hill, remove the fruit which is grown, leaving 

 the vine undisturbed : and my theory is, that it 



