12 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^' 



"The water should be boiling ere the com is 

 pulled," is a good old maxim which we follow 

 scrupulously. We have also made our jarred 

 Golden Bantam (as improved by Burbank) a 

 feast for epicures by canning it when it is as 

 young and milky as when it is eaten directly 

 from the cob. We score the rows of kernels 

 with a sharp knife and scrape out the juice 

 and tender meat, leaving all the husks on the 

 ear. You ought to see the expression on the 

 face of our visitors when for the first time they 

 taste it. Com like that ought to bring five 

 times as much as the dry, flavorless, husky 

 stuff usually sold in cans. 



We city folk consider ourselves wondrous 

 wise in having made arrangements that enable 

 us to have * 'fresh" vegetables, berries, and 

 fruits all the year round. But after a long 

 transit from the South they are no longer 

 fresh. Far better is it to wait till they are *'in 

 season" in our own latitude. 



The first strawberries in our markets are 

 small, sour, flavorless; yet thousands gobble 

 them up eagerly, thus taking off the edge of the 

 season's appetite; and when, a little later, the 

 luscious, sun-ripened, fragrant berries of near- 

 by gardens arrive, these same persons miss the 

 virgin joy of eating the superior product. 



Epicures, whose chief concern is superior 

 flavor (not only because they enjoy it, but 

 because they know that it stimulates their 



