28 MARKET GARDENING. 



phosphates, nitrates, chlorides and carbonates of potash, 

 lime, magnesia, iron and ammonia. Those ingredients 

 that are deficient in quantity can be readily added by 

 the application of stable manure, which contains every- 

 thing desirable, or by specific application of the constit- 

 uent wanting. The time has come when every farmer 

 must possess some knowledge of natural history ; he 

 must prepare himself, if he expects to follow his pursuit 

 successfully, as much as does the mechanic or the pro- 

 fessional man. Why should not the national govern- 

 ment establish at frontier army posts agricultural experi- 

 ment stations ? This nation is eminently agricultural, 

 and it is within the province of the government to 

 develop its resources in every practical way. 



The war department and the agricultural, working 

 in connection, could, in a few years, establish a series of 

 experiment stations, at once of national importance 

 and of hygienic advantage to each garrison. A post 

 garden is practicable at any military station ; of course, 

 under so great a variety of conditions as presented to 

 the soldiers of an army, each garden would differ from 

 the other in some particulars ; some upon mountain 

 slopes, others in valleys, on plains both fertile and arid ; 

 all influenced by meteorological conditions of widely 

 different effect. Such gardens would have to conform 

 to circumstances, and the more difficult these circum- 

 stances may be to surmount, the more pleasure in the 

 results, both in a gastronomic and scientific view. 



In Europe they do some things better than we, not- 

 withstanding our boasted practicability, and foremost 

 among their advances is that of public instruction. To- 

 day, in Austria and Sweden, there are many thousands 

 of public schools having gardens attached, where are 

 taught botany, vegetable physiology, and sometimes the 

 whole range of science and art so necessary to a thorough 

 understanding of vegetable growth and development. 



