184 THE STRAWBERRY GARDEN. 



the shower had passed. The soil acted as a disinfectant, and 

 absorbed both the water and odor. 



The cistern built to catch all the wastage of every kind 

 from the house and the pump, to spread in a harmless and 

 perfectly proper manner over the land, made the secret of 

 the Wellson success. Without this weekly application to 

 the plants, such a garden, and bearing such crops, would 

 have been nearly impossible. To the chain-pump they owed 

 everything. The great principle, " Waste not anything," as 

 here applied, is the one secret of all successful horticulture. 

 If all the refuse of each dwelling in the land were as care- 

 fully saved and returned to the soil, the barren hills of New 

 England would vie with the prairies in fertility, and millions 

 upon millions of money, that now flows into our seaports 

 and rivers, would reward the toiling farmer, or gladden the 

 patient gardener. 



As it now is, we waste and abandon each year more than 

 enough to support every living creature for life, were it all 

 returned to its proper place, the soil. 



One of the chief objects in writing this book is to illus- 

 trate the value of this much-neglected principle, c ' Waste 

 not anything," and to show a way of preventing it. [See 

 Appendix B.] 



