98 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



to grow a few flowers and early vegetables, and start their seedlings 

 in. It should be possible for many to have modest greenhouses 

 here; they need not necessarily be heated through the winter, but 

 utilized for starting early plants for the home garden, both flowers 

 and vegetables. Where a greenhouse is not possible, it does not 

 cost much to have a cold frame with two or more sashes, which can 

 be used as hot-beds for starting tomatoes, celery, lettuce, egg 

 plants, cabbages, and other plants. It is simply astounding that 

 so many residents in these United States prefer to buy their vege- 

 tables the year through, when they, in many cases, have facilities 

 for raising the same at home. Take the city of Boston and its 

 suburbs as an example, and what a wretchedly small portion of the 

 residents who have homes trouble to grow even a few of the most 

 necessary vegetables. We see many fine homes with their lawns 

 and shrubs, veritable Queen Anne fronts, but too often, alas! 

 what we might say, Mary Anne backs. For it is too true that 

 beyond collections of junk, ashes, and other rubbish, what might 

 be in many cases a garden of utility is only an eyesore. 



The soil right here in Massachusetts may not appear so rich as 

 in our prairie states ; it contains more rock and also a lot of gravel, 

 but there are few soils which will not with a little coaxing grow 

 creditable crops, and there is no earthly reason why thousands of 

 persons of moderate means should not raise practically all the 

 vegetables needed for themselves and families, if they would but 

 utilize land which is now practically made no use of. There is no 

 more practical way to reduce the cost of living than to grow fresh 

 vegetables in the home garden, and one of the best ways to encour- 

 age the rising generation to improve on present day methods is to 

 interest them while of tender years, in the home or the school 

 garden movement. It would also be philanthropy of the best 

 type if, in the vicinity of many of our towns and cities, blocks of 

 land could be rented for a moderate sum to working men, who 

 might desire to grow vegetable crops. These latter allotments 

 are a feature in Europe where intensive culture is more practised 

 and necessary than here. It would be an excellent innovation here 

 and would be welcomed by thousands of European settlers, who 

 mourn the absence of anything in the nature of such gardens. 



Vegetable gardens should always, if possible, be made where they 



