WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GARDENING. 69 



mer squash was the most ludicrous vegetable 

 he knew. It was nearly all leaf and blow, 

 with only a sickly, crook-necked fruit after 

 a mighty fuss. It reminded him of the mem- 

 ber of Congress from ; but I hastened 



to change the subject. 



As we walked along, the keen eye of the 

 President rested upon some handsome sprays 

 of " pusley," which must have grown up 

 since Saturday night. It was most fortu- 

 nate ; for it led his Excellency to speak of 

 the Chinese problem. He said he had been 

 struck with one coupling of the Chinese and 

 " pusley " in one of my agricultural papers ; 

 and it had a significance more far-reaching 

 than I had probably supposed. He had 

 made the Chinese problem a special study. 

 He said that I was right in saying that " pus- 

 ley " was the natural food of the Chinaman, 

 and that where the "pusley" was, there 

 would the Chinaman be also. For his part, 

 he welcomed the Chinese emigration: we 

 needed the Chinaman in our gardens to eat 

 the " pusley ; " and he thought the whole 



