CHAPTER III. WHAT VEGE- 

 TABLES VV^E SHOULD GROW 

 OURSELVES, AND W^HY 



WHEN I planned my first trip to 

 Switzerland the first thing I did 

 was, of course, to buy a Baedeker. 

 Of all guide books ever printed, 

 that was undoubtedly the best. 

 It covered every mountain, vil- 

 lage, road, and cow path ; gave the prices of all 

 the hotels and wayside inns, with an estimate of 

 their degree of excellence; and the hundreds of 

 glorious viewpoints were one and all described 

 so eloquently and yet discriminatingly that I 

 was completely at a loss what to do. It was 

 impossible to see everything in a few short sum- 

 mer months. What was I to prefer? Fortu- 

 nately, some friends who had been everywhere 

 in the Alps made out a route for me which 

 the subsequent experience of ten summers in 

 Switzerland showed to have been just right. 



Readers of this book who are planning their 

 first garden — and my principal object is to 

 persuade as many as possible to grow their 

 own vegetables and flowers — will do well to 

 seek similar advice from friends or neighbors 

 who have had gardening experience and know 

 what can be grown best in your county. The 

 catalogues of the great seed growers are as 

 elaborate and as puzzling as a Baedeker. When 

 you first look them over you mark something 



