WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 147 



at last with the engaging bean in a pool of suc- 

 cotash ? Shall I compute in figures what daily 

 freshness and health and delight the garden 

 yields, let alone the large crop of anticipation 

 I gathered as soon as the first seeds got above 

 ground ? I appeal to any gardening man of 

 sound mind, if that which pays him best in 

 gardening is not that which he cannot show in 

 his trial-balance. Yet I yield to public opinion, 

 when I proceed to make such a balance ; and I 

 do it with the utmost confidence in figures. 



I select as a representative vegetable, in order 

 to estimate the cost of gardening, the potato. 

 In my statement, I shall not include the interest 

 on the value of the land. I throw in the land, 

 because it would otherwise have stood idle : the 

 thing generally raised on city land is taxes. I 

 therefore make the following statement of the 

 cost and income of my potato-crop, a part of 

 it estimated in connection with other garden 



