34 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 



CHAPTER VI. 

 (fLCSG (fROPPIDG. 



COMMON objection raised to a 

 home garden is the expense and 

 labor in planting and caring for it. 

 My little patch, which measured 

 a trifle over one-thirtieth of an 

 acre, was a tough, hard clay, and 

 yet, in addition to one man's labor 

 for one day, it required only nineteen half days' work 

 in April and ten half days in May. This included the 

 preparation of the ground and planting all the early 

 crops. In no instance was a whole day's work given 

 to the place, and the time spent was usually from 

 four to six in the afternoon. I think the entire work 

 could easily have been done in ten working days. 

 The entire outlay, aside from my own labor, includ- 

 ing new tools, seeds, lumber, cloth and fertilizer was 

 $14.79. The heaviest expense was for 200 pounds 

 Mapes' fertilizer, $5.05 (delivered), and this was 

 enough for the entire season, no other manure of 

 any kind being used. Fourteen dollars and seventy- 

 nine cents would buy quite an assortment of vegeta- 

 bles, canned and otherwise, at the stores. Did it 

 pay? Was it worth the expense, labor and trouble? 

 It csrtainly did pay, as I propose to show at the sum- 

 ming up of the season's work. Meanwhile it may be 

 well to see what was obtained for the money. By 

 the first of June the following vegetables had been 

 planted at different times : four kinds of peas, four 

 kinds of radish, upland cress, chicory, leeks, potatoes, 



