28 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



wonderful ten-dollar book of eight hundred 

 pages called The Vegetable Garden (E. P. 

 Dutton & Co.). It is translated from the 

 French of the famous specialist, Vilmorin- 

 Andrieux, with additional pages on English 

 and American varieties by W. P. Thomson. 

 To the melon thirty pages are given, and when 

 I read, e.g., regarding the Persian melon, that 

 the flesh is very thick, that it is almost without 

 any rind and almost entirely filling the fruit, 

 rather firm, but "very finely flavored, juicy, 

 sweet, and highly perfumed," and that in that 

 country there is a great number of varieties of 

 melons of which "travelers speak in terms of 

 admiration," I want to buy a ticket for Persia 

 immediately. 



One must look over the pages of that huge 

 volume to realize that vegetable eating, in our 

 own country, is still in its infancy. We think 

 we know something about potatoes, for instance ; 

 but read the fifty pages devoted to them by 

 M. Vilmorin-Andrieux and you will realize 

 what an amazing variety of these tubers we 

 have yet to sample and enjoy. Let the French 

 teach us about them; teach us also how to cook 

 them and other vegetables as only the French 

 can cook them; teach us, furthermore, to insist 

 on our rights. "In Paris," as Mr. Robinson 

 writes, "the cook has the upper hand, and no 

 grower dare send him the wooden fiber which is 

 so largely sent as vegetables to the London 



