INTRODUCTION 19 



home gardening, and it may also easily earn money enough to 

 meet all its expenditures by selling plants, flowers, and vege- 

 tables to the public. 



Fresh vegetables of fine quality command high prices. 

 The public are ready to pay fancy prices to schools or to 

 children without question at the start, and they are willing 

 to continue to do so if the quality of products warrants it. 

 This puts a premium on raising the best of everything that 

 is as effective a stimulus as a prize competition. While it 

 is well worth while to compete at horticultural exhibitions, 

 because pride in the school or home garden will be augmented 

 by success in winning prizes, the finest success is measured 

 rather by the production of vegetables and plants that find a 

 steady market. 



There are various vegetables rarely seen in markets that 

 may be raised profitably for neighborhood sale. For exam- 

 ple, Swiss chard wilts on the shelves of a stall, but when 

 freshly cut for dinner it is the finest summer pot-herb imagi- 

 nable. Customers who commence its use continue. Families 

 tired of red turnip radishes from the markets will relish crisp 

 white icicle radishes or summer radishes from a boy's home 

 garden. Those weary of stale and stringy pod beans from 

 the stores will delight in tender beans picked in the neighbor- 

 hood but an hour before dinner. A garden of herbs may be 

 managed so as to enlist a permanent line of customers, who 

 will send for their mint, tarragon, dill, sage, and the like as 

 household need arises. 



The best plan for profits, however, is the sale of plants for 

 home gardens. The main costs of the hardy plants catalogued 

 by large dealers, and of bedding plants supplied by local 

 florists, are incident to advertising, soliciting orders, packing, 



