DETAILS AND DOLLARS MY GARDEN. 79 



amount the tools and the wire fencing say 

 $20 may be looked upon as well invested for 

 the future, so that my actual outlay, for which 

 I should receive an equivalent in the shape of 

 vegetables, was about $37. The list of vege- 

 tables begins with entries day by day ; then the 

 garden produce is lumped at the end of the 

 week; and finally in September the garden 

 appears to have yielded nothing but tomatoes 

 and beets, the potatoes having failed to come 

 to any thing, owing to a variety of causes, 

 which my assistant explained in different ways 

 on different occasions. One day he said that 

 the potato bugs had done it, and another day 

 he was convinced that if I had put in manure 

 enough earlier in the season I might have had 

 splendid potatoes. In other words, if I had 

 spent ten dollars for manure, and had given up 

 my days to fighting the bugs, I might have had 

 five dollars' worth of potatoes in return. 



The first entry of vegetables is in a bold hand, 

 and is to the effect that on the loth of June 

 we had some radishes of an estimated market 

 value of five cents. Then come lettuce and 

 peas, and later on spinach, beans, radishes, 

 carrots, and finally tomatoes in profusion. For 



