WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 9 



Exercise then must be, and was it not better to raise 

 lettuce for my table than to trundle an unprofitable 

 lawn-mower, or walk the streets in idleness. Beside 

 this, every hour spent in the garden was a sanitary 

 gain and therefore a commercial gain that could not be 

 expressed in money. I am certain that I buried four- 

 teen distinct headaches in that garden in one summer 

 at a decided gain in medical attendance. It is cer- 

 tainly fair, then, to put the labor in the garden as 

 free, because it would have been spent on something 

 in any event. Besides this, the crop from the garden 

 was a real money return for my labor. Within the 

 next thirty days we used on our table or gave away 

 thirty-five heads of lettuce at an avarage price of five 

 cents, or $1.75. Some of the plants were transplanted 

 twice and the space occupied by the mature crop was 

 about twelve by three feet. 



I knew from former experience in the business that 

 a garden could be made to pay. How much I resolved 

 to find out, as soon as may be, and for this purpose 

 opened an account with my little plot, which account 

 was duly made up and balanced at the end of the 

 year. Herein is set forth the pros and cons of the 

 whole business. 



I paid out for labor, seeds, tools, etc., just $6.61. 

 There was sent to my table, between June thirteenth 

 and November first, vegetables of all kinds to the 

 value of $25.82. Besides these vegetables there were 

 produced sixty-four strawberry plants ( Jessie ) worth 

 at the time, as the Jessie is a new variety, at least two 

 cents each, or $1.28. This made a total return from the 

 ground of $27.10. Deducting the cash paid out there 

 was just $20.49 l^^t as the final result of my summer's 

 work. 



Pitiful little tale, not worth recording. 



Think so ? 



