CHAPTER I. A MOUNTAIN GAR- 

 DEN IN MAINE 



MAINE is the only state in the Union 

 where sugar cane cannot be raised. 

 It grows there only a few feet high 

 and the sap isn't sweet. If all our 

 cane sugar had to be raised in 

 Maine it would cost about a thou- 

 sand dollars a pound. 



Maine com, on the other hand, is the sweetest 

 com raised in this country or anywhere. Most 

 of the canned corn in the market pretends to 

 come from that state, or is labeled "Maine 

 Style." That tells the whole story. 



A strange paradox — for corn is a hot-climate 

 plant quite as much as is sugar cane. The two 

 plants are cousins, and at a distance look 

 almost alike. 



How do I explain this paradox? I don't try 

 to explain it ; I simply state it as a curious fact. 

 I tried sugar cane — once, and never again. 

 But com — sweet com — ^has the place of honor 

 in my vegetable garden, which is situated in 

 Oxford County, near the picturesquely located 

 village of Bethel. 



Mount Washington and the rest of the Presi- 

 dential Range of the White Mountains are in 

 full sight, less than twenty miles to the south- 

 west. At the time we start our garden, early in 

 May, Washington and its neighbors, Jefferson 

 and Madison in particular, are still clad occasion- 



