Farm Gardens 41 



Roberts gives the following advice for the "Farm Garden" in 

 his "Farmstead": 



"The farm garden should be ample and contain not only 

 enough vegetables and small fruits for the use of the family, but 

 a surplus to sell or to give away. The farmer used to large areas 

 is reluctant to undertake anything so small as he imagines the 

 garden to be ; hence, too often he plows it and leaves the planting 

 and cultivation of it to the 'women folks.' If he knew how to 

 manage a garden he would find that the half -acre of land devoted to 

 small fruits and vegetables could be made the most profitable and 

 pleasurable part of the farm. Higher remuneration is received 

 for the time spent in harvesting the products of a large, well 



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Fig. 6. Plan of a fa.no. home garden. 



kept garden, than in harvesting the cereals or milking the cows. 

 It must be said, however, that there are good reasons for the 

 farmer's distaste for gardening, for the gardens, as usually laid 

 out, necessitate the maximum of hand-culture and the minimum 

 of horse -culture. The result of such gardens is a minimum of 

 products secured by maximum of effort, and a resultant surplus 

 of weeds. 



"The garden should be about four times as long as it is 

 broad, unfenced when possible, near to the house, and should be, 

 in miniature, a farm with the cereals, grasses and large fruits 

 left out (Fig. 6). The side farthest from the dwelling should be 

 devoted to the perennial plants, such as grapes, currants and 

 other bush-fruits. Everything should be planted in straight rows, 

 with spaces sufficiently wide between the rows to admit of horse - 

 hoe culture. The grapes and blackberries might occupy one row, 



