DETAILS AND DOLLARS MY GARDEN. 83 



a day I can provide a good-sized family with 

 all the potatoes, cabbages, turnips, carrots, 

 onions, and beets that will be needed the year 

 round ; all the raspberries, blackberries, straw- 

 berries, and currants for the summer ; all the 

 peas, beans, beets, lettuce, spinach, and toma- 

 toes that will be needed in summer. And I 

 can do this with an expenditure for manure 

 not exceeding $12, provided the ground is in 

 reasonably good condition. I think that the 

 reader will admit that this is something well 

 worth knowing. The trouble with most men 

 who go into gardening upon a small scale is 

 that they pay out money for what they should 

 do themselves to men who are often lazy or 

 dishonest, and that while they themselves may 

 work very hard for a few hours or a few days, 

 the work is intermittent, and that is the worst 

 sort of work for a garden. With a garden, the 

 maxim, " a stitch in time saves nine," is particu- 

 larly true. I have seen pieces of ground in 

 such a condition that in half an hour's work 

 with a steel hoe I could kill every weed there; 

 three weeks later to do the same thing would 

 have required a day's work or more, and then 

 it would not have been well done. To manage 



