Reasons for Learning Gardening 23 



by fresh vegetables ? Why is it often better to raise fresh vegetables 

 than to buy them ? 



Name persons in your neighborhood who either make a living 

 by growing plants and selling the produce or increase the family 

 income in this way. Is the number of persons who make a living 

 by growing plants large as compared with the number in other 

 important occupations ? 



Things to Do and Observe 



1. To determine whether gardening is profitable. Determine 

 whether or not a garden pays by keeping an exact account of 

 everything done- or money spent, and of everything harvested 

 from your garden throughout the entire garden season. Keep 

 this record in some permanent form (perhaps the diary form will 

 be easiest). At the end of the season put down in one column 

 just what the garden cost in actual expenditures for labor, tools, 

 seed, fertilizers, and other materials, and include also an estimate 

 of the value of your own labor. In another column set down the 

 market value of all produce obtained, whether used by the family, 

 sold or given away, or allowed to go to waste. Compare the two 

 totals. 



After balancing the money account decide whether the edu- 

 cation and training you have received through caring for the 

 garden is of any particular value to you. 



2. To find out whether families without gardens use -vegetables 

 freely. A wealthy farmer in a farmers' meeting argued that it 

 was cheaper for him to buy strawberries for his family than to 

 raise them, but when questioned about it, he admitted he had 

 bought none the past year. Find out, if you can do so, whether 

 families who buy their vegetables use them as freely as those who 

 have gardens. 



