A YEAR'S VEGETABLE SUPPLY FROM THE HOME 



GARDEN. 



By William N. Craig, North Easton, Mass. 



Delivered before the Society, February 24, 1912. 



Horticulture has its full share in the ceaseless activity of the 

 present age. Changes in the vegetable garden, the varieties grown, 

 and methods of culture show just as great changes as are to be 

 witnessed in the present improved methods of locomotion, lighting, 

 or sanitation. There have been, within the last twenty-five 

 years, particularly striking improvements in potatoes, peas, 

 tomatoes, beans, and in fact, all our standard vegetables. They 

 are to be seen in our markets in greater variety, of better quality, 

 earlier and later than previous generations thought at all possible. 

 There are now practically no periods in the year, even in midwinter, 

 when a good assortment of vegetables, either of greenhouse or 

 Southern outdoor culture, is not obtainable. The average con- 

 sumption of meats per head of our population is needlessly high; 

 there are tens of thousands of families whose pocketbooks would 

 be heavier, and health better, if they used more vegetables and 

 fruits, and cut their meat supply in half. 



We hear much nowadays of trusts, and the high cost of living 

 is dwelt on, not only here, but in practically every civilized com- 

 munity on earth, and our President is suggesting an international 

 tribunal to consider the causes of high prices and suggest remedies. 

 Perhaps the most practical remedy which could suggest itself would 

 be for more families to plant fruits and vegetables in their home 

 gardens. The European countries are far in advance of us in this 

 respect; there, every workingman who has the least ambition, 

 rents a piece of ground if he has none attached to his home, and 

 grows a fine variety of vegetables; in England, large numbers of 

 workmen even have small greenhouses in their gardens, in which 



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