Home Gardening. — 15 



baker's show window, and longingly contemplating the loaves, 

 pies, cakes and other dainties displayed in tempting array before 

 his eyes, is not an uncommon sight, and it has often filled my 

 inmost soul with pity. Imagine the youngster with an intense 

 longing for fruit and vegetables peeking through the picket 

 fence which divides his brute father's possessions from the 

 garden of his neighbor whose fortunate children he can watch 

 as they are gathering strawberries, or pulling crisp radishes in 

 joy and glee. There is the luscious and coveted fruit almost 

 within his reach, and temptingly displayed. Will you wonder 

 if the boy, the first chance he gets to do so unobserved, removes 

 a picket, and crawls into what to him is paradise beyond, and 

 helps himself to what really is his due ? If the father refuses to 

 grow these things in his garden, and has " no money to spare for 

 such luxuries," the boy will have no scruples to take surreptitiously 

 what is so temptingly put before him. Average human nature 

 is not built that way, to be strong enough against such odds. 

 You cannot extract purity from glittering temptation, or morality 

 from undue restriction, no more than health from the pork barrel. 

 The man who willfully and needlessly deprives his family of the 

 privileges of a good vegetable garden fails in one of his fore- 

 most duties. He cannot possibly be a good husband, nor a 

 good father, and he certamly is not a good Christian / 



Neither does he deserve to be called a good manager ; for 

 the question of profit also enters in this combination. Self- 

 interest is a strong motive power. Here I wish I were able to 

 convince every farmer in this glorious country of the great truth 

 that an acre of vegetable or fruit garden, properly taken care of, 

 will be the most profitable acre on the farm. While at present 

 prices many of our farm products grown as " average crops " do 

 not return the full equivalent for manure and labor expended on 

 them, much effort and energy seems to be simply wasted, and 

 might be turned to much better account for the production of 

 the garden stuff which is now so sorely missed in the household, 

 or might be sold at remunerative rates. 



The amount of " green stuff" that can be grown on a single 

 acre, well tilled, in a single summer, is simply incredible — wagon 

 loads upon wagon loads ; and there need not be a single meal from 

 early spring until winter that is not made more cheerful, more pal- 

 atable, more wholesome, and altogether more enjoyable by the 

 presence of some good dishes from the garden, not to say anything 

 about the canned tomatoes, sweet corn, berries and the crisp stalks 

 of celery, etc., during the winter months. I and my family live 

 largely on the products of garden and poultry yard during the 

 entire summer, and we enjoy pretty good health generally. No 

 meat bills to pay, no nausea caused by greasy food, no dyspepsia ! 

 Think of sixty meals with big plates of strawberries, and sixty 



