298 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



Do I digress? Seemingly — but deliberately, 

 let me confess. For we have too generally 

 shifted the vegetable garden into the discard, 

 if it has been considered at all. It is despised, 

 in short, instead of being honored; and I aim to 

 see it restored to its proper elevation in the 

 general garden concept. For if this is not done 

 by those whose opportunities have developed in 

 them discrimination and taste, and recognition 

 of values as well as the sense of responsibility, 

 it will fall more and more under the ban in the 

 minds of that great mass who advance only by 

 imitation — and who imitate the least admirable, 

 more often than not. So to the end that it 

 may be thus elevated, I have gone afield to point 

 out its ancient lineage and its true aristocracy. 

 It occupies indeed the place of touchstone in 

 modern gardening, by which sincerity shall be 

 revealed as well as gauged. Let this never be 

 forgotten. 



Let us moreover never confuse this obligation 

 to produce — and to apportion land so that the 

 productive garden is a'ccorded a worthy place — 

 with the cost, in money terms, of the product. 

 We have learned — or we have failed! — that it 

 is not the money that food costs, but the food 

 that counts in the last analysis. To be able 

 to show actual food retr.riis is therefore of far 



