10 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



fruit trees, while in the smallest there was room 

 for peas and beans, or potatoes, carrots, straw- 

 berries, and other table luxuries and necessaries. 

 As Consul Tredwell justly remarked, "this sub- 

 stitution of fresh vegetables for the cheaper 

 varieties of store food is of primary importance 

 to the health of a congested community." 



If city folk fully realized the gain in health 

 and pleasure that would result from eating 

 "home-made" vegetables in place of the gro- 

 cer's usually wilted wares, the building of 

 garden cities would be accelerated with a rush, 

 and vegetarianism would suddenly become so 

 popular that meat prices would tumble down 

 all in a heap, so that every consumer would be 

 happy. 



Under present conditions the only opportunity 

 the average citizen has to find out what a treat 

 it is to eat vegetables fresh from the garden is 

 in vacation time, at a farmhouse. Compara- 

 tively few, however, board with farmers, and 

 many farmers, moreover, do not know how to 

 raise the best vegetables, nor their wives how 

 to cook them in the most savory ways. As for 

 the rural iims and hotels, it is surprising how 

 many of them get their vegetables in cans from 

 the cities; and while canned goods of all kinds 

 have undoubtedly improved greatly within the 

 last few years, and are now, perhaps, as desir- 

 able as most of those sold as "fresh" in the 

 cities, they are no more to be compared with 



