18 GARDENING FOE YOUNG AND OLD. 



land. Any crop which is entirely consumed at home 

 will be likely to bring a fair price, and very frequently 

 the price will be determined by the cost at which the 

 article can be brought to our markets from Europe. 

 This was so last year in the case of potatoes and cabbages. 

 Suppose some of my young friends had had a ten-acre 

 field-garden in high condition, filled with potatoes, cab- 

 bages, celery and cauliflowers, not to mention other gar- 

 den crops. In spite of the drouth and the Colorado- 

 beetle, such a field-garden, prepared, enriched and culti- 

 vated, as I have recommended, would have produced 

 three hundred bushels of potatoes per acre. The ex- 

 pense of planting, cultivating, hoeing and digging of 

 these would not exceed thirty dollars per acre, while it 

 would have been an easy matter to have sold the crop 

 for from three hundred to four hundred dollars per acre. 

 So with cabbages. It would not have been a difficult mat- 

 ter to grow five thousand good heads of cabbage per acre, 

 which could readily have been sold at ten cents per head. 

 The planting, cultivating, harvesting, bury ing for the win- 

 ter and marketing would not cost over one cent per head, 

 thus affording a profit of four hundred and fifty dollars 

 per acre. This is five per cent interest on nine thousand 

 dollars per acre. We can afford to smile at those who 

 sneer at us for plowing our land four or five times to 

 destroy weeds and get it into good shape for starting a 

 good field-garden. Celery and onions would have afforded 

 still higher profits. Even a few acres of turnips would 

 have made no slight addition to our finances. What has 

 been will be. It may be some years before potatoes and 

 cabbages are again imported into the United States from 

 Europe. It is not at all flattering to our vanity that this 

 vast continent, with its rich land, brilliant sunshine and 

 energetic people, should be obliged to send to the high- 

 priced land of Holland for its sauerkraut, or to Scotland 

 for its potatoes. But we need not fear that the products 



