26 PRIZE GARDENING 



seventeen. After the war he moved from Pennsyl- 

 vania to Missouri, started a dairy route, married, went 

 to CaHfornia for his health, managed a dairy farm 

 there, returned to Missouri and built a flouring mill, 

 saved about fifteen thousand dollars and lost heavily 

 by fire, bought a larger mill and did a large business, 

 made seventy-five thousand dollars, only to lose every- 

 thing through a bank failure, finally starting at mar- 

 ket gardening with very slight capital. But a man 

 who can make four and one-third acres pay him clear 

 profit of six hundred and ninety-four dollars will not 

 long be hampered for lack of capital. He states inci- 

 dentally that he is selling from two hundred to three 

 hundred loaves of bread per day. An unmistakable 

 hustler is Mr. Rembaugh, and the bread item suggests 

 a family of the same energetic breed. The younger 

 daughter, it is stated, sold the garden produce and the 

 elder one kept the accounts. 



The story of the garden is at times quite dramatic, 

 with its accounts of drouth that lasted until the earth 

 gaped for water ; how the gardeners fought with irri- 

 gating trenches and a watering system devised for the 

 emergency, and how at last the situation is relieved 

 and the crops saved by sudden and copious showers. 

 There were lively fights, too, with insect foes and mys- 

 terious blights that carried off the melon vines, and 

 the list of purchases shows the kind of resistance 

 made. 



And Mr. Rembaugh worked! Sometimes after 

 the list of a day's operations that would look large to 

 an easy-going gardener, the comment is noted : " A 

 poor day's work." At other times we have such entries 

 as the following : " Worked fifteen hours, temperature 

 ninety-two. Very tired." This is not the leisurely 

 way in which many persons of middle age pass the 



