MORE SETBACKS 75 



The thorough harrowing I had given the garden 

 patch alone had saved it for further experiments. 

 Well, I was disappointed, as I had looked for- 

 ward to at least an acre and a half of corn, beans, 

 and squashes. 



So I set to work in the garden, and planted 

 sweet corn, lettuce, beets, cauliflower, carrots, 

 pole-beans, and sowed nasturtiums the whole 

 length of the yard, or about three hundred feet. 



The green things were showing in my neigh- 

 bors' gardens, and I was far behind them, but I 

 fondly hoped that by extra care and cultivation I 

 might arrive first. But in order not to be entirely 

 distanced, 1 went to town and bought at a grocery 

 store several boxes of tomatoes and cabbage- 

 plants, and set them out in regular order in the 

 most conspicuous part of the garden. 



I also bought a couple of hundred strawberry- 

 plants, cleared a patch of witch-grass by actually 

 picking it out with a fine-toothed comb, and 

 set them out in regular cadence. 



The field was now quite overgrown with witch- 

 grass, and much to my astonishment a great va- 

 riety of other weeds were shooting up. Evidently 

 the dressing placed on the land the winter before 

 had been filled with seeds. A casual examination 

 of the specimens disclosed pigweed, ragweed, 

 live - forever, chickweed, dandelion, purslane, 

 nettle, plantain, skunk-cabbage, bulrush, as well 



