176 GARDENING FOE PLEASURE. 



nothing about gardening." I told him I thought neither 

 objection insurmountable if he once begun. 



The result of our conversation was, that he resolved to 

 try, and try he did to a purpose. Our interview was in 

 March, and before the end of April he had his lot all 

 nicely dug over, the labor being done by his own hands 

 during an hour and a half each morning. His custom 

 was to get up at six o'clock and work at his garden until 

 half past seven. This gave him ample time to dress, get 

 breakfast, and be at his desk in the city by nine. The 

 labor of merely digging was (to him) heavy and rather 

 monotonous, but he stuck to it bravely, and when he 

 again presented himself before me for plants and seeds 

 and information as to what to do with them, it was with 

 some pride that I saw my prescription had worked so 

 well, for my friend then looked more like a farmer than 

 a pallid clerk. The regulating of his little garden was a 

 simple matter, and was done according to the following 

 diagram : 



During his first season, of course, he made some blun- 

 ders and some failures, but his interest in the work in- 

 creased year by year. His family was supplied with an 

 abundance of all the fresh vegetables and fruits his lim- 

 ited space could admit of being grown a supply that it 

 would have taken at least $150 to purchase at retail, and 

 stale at that. But the benefit derived from the cultiva- 



