1896.] ESSAYS. 83 



against epidemie disease is to carefully observe the laws of health, 

 keeping the digestive organs in healthy action, so in the vegetable 

 kingdom avc should study carefully the natural conditions under Avhich 

 the different i)lants grow to perfection, and aim to supply those condi- 

 tions as far as [)ossible. The family garden is in many cases the most 

 neglected part of the fai'm, and the excuse is often made that it don't 

 pay ; that the vegetables used in the family can be bought cheaper 

 than they can be grown. This to a certain extent is true, but it is 

 true only so far as we are able to grow something else that will bring 

 more money than the vegetables cost. No one, who is dependent on 

 the income of his farm, can afford to neglect the garden simply 

 because he cannot realize big pay for the time expended. If the 

 vegetables are grown they are to be had for the gathering at any time, 

 and the satisfaction of having choice vegetables in their season of one's 

 own production should be worth something to any man. If they are 

 not grown the family must go without, or good money be paid for less 

 desirable goods. Every garden should have a good bed each of aspara- 

 gus and rhubarb ; they are both to be had early in the season before 

 spring-planted crops are ready. The good qualities of both are too 

 well known to need any description. The former being an excellent 

 substitute for peas, which are so universally popular, and can be had 

 continuously for five or six weeks before peas are ready, and the latter 

 follows closely on the late-keeping apples, so that we are not wholly 

 dependent on dried fruits. These crops will both bear a great deal of 

 kindness in the way of manuring, and should receive a heavy dressing- 

 each year. In setting the asparagus roots the land should be heavily 

 manured and thoroughly and deeply plowed ; make the rows four feet 

 apart and the plants two feet apart in the row ; cover the roots six 

 inches deep, so that the manure and fertilizers can l)e harrowed or 

 cultivated in without disturbing them. For rhuljarb, make the hills 

 four feet apart and put a w^heelbarrow load of manure to a hill, 

 (iive the garden a heavy dressing of stable manure in the spring, 

 then as the early crops are removed a})ply phosphate for the late ones. 

 In arranging the garden, I would, as far as possible, have the differ- 

 ent crops in parallel rows the entire length of the garden so that as 

 the early crops are removed the ground can be more easily prepared 

 for the later ones. Though I well remember that as a bo}' I preferred 

 to have the rows run the short way and but few of them. 



A bed of dandelions, though seldom seen in the family garden, 

 would be found very desirable and could be had earlier than the native 

 ones. Josh Billings once said of the dandelion blossom, that he didn't 



