178 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 191: 



quently been said that a French family 

 will live well upon the rejected food ma- 

 terials of an American family. 



Referring to the annexed chart; the 

 black areas of the Composite Plot of 

 Business Conditions, shown herewith, repre- 

 sents what business has actually been 

 the past ten years. Areas A and C repre- 

 sent depressions and Areas B and D 

 prosperity; while the oblique line X-Y 

 shows the real growth of our nation. Now 

 some people think that the thing to do is 

 to "boom" business and increase the size 

 of the areas above the line X-Y; but this 

 is a great mistake. The law of action and 

 reaction makes it necessary for us to 

 "rest" below the line X-Y for all we go 

 above it. The very best we can hope to do 

 over an unlimited time is to keep on the 

 line X-Y, which we have been doing for 

 the last eighteen months. We, however, 

 can do something to raise the slope of the 

 line X-Y. Anything which increases pro- 

 duction or decreases waste will increase 

 the net growth of the country which is 

 represented by the line X-Y. Personally, 

 I believe that God judges us all by how our 

 acts effect the slope of the line X-Y. 

 What are you doing to raise the slope of 

 X-Y? What can you do to raise this 

 slope that you are not now doing? Well, 

 the easiest and most effective thing which 

 you can do to-day from a truly economic 

 view is to plant and personally care for a 

 back yard garden. 



THE SOURCE OF EVERYTHING 



At the beginning of this article I prom- 

 ised not to lecture the reader on the general 

 subject of reducing the expenses or econo- 

 mizing; but to treat of the problem in a 

 strictly constructive manner. I therefore 

 will say nothing more about the over- 

 flowing garbage pail, the unsifted ashes, 

 or the empty mending bag; but will strike 

 at once at the root of the great underlying 

 cause of the increased cost of living. 

 Everything that we eat comes directly from 

 the top — six inches — of the earth's 

 surface. Everything that we wear comes 

 either directly or indirectly from the same 

 six inches of soil, while the houses in which 

 we live come from the trees, etc., which 

 likewise grow. Therefore, 95 per cent, of 

 our expenditures are for what is produced 

 from the soil and 75 per cent, of our ex- 

 penditures are for what is produced in 

 this six inches of soil. 



But this is not all. To everything, 

 excepting what is produced in this soil, 

 there is an end. There is an end to our 

 iron; there is an end to our coal; there 

 is an end to all our resources excepting 

 what we can raise on our farms and in our 

 gardens. Therefore, although this ques- 

 tion is of great importance to us, it is of 

 even greater importance to our grand- 

 children and their successors. The future 

 of the world rests in this six inches of soil 

 and in the water powers running over our 

 precipices 



POLITICIANS CANNOT REDUCE THE COST 

 OE LIVING 



Whenever we read a political platform 

 or speech we nowadays see a lot about the 

 cost of living; but most of this talk is 

 purely for stage purposes. A few months 

 ago we had a presidential election and as the 

 various candidates and their friends talked 

 from one end of the country to the other, 

 they all told what they would do toward 

 reducing the cost of living. Now, it is 

 true that some of these men may do some- 

 thing to reduce prices; but they will do 

 very little, if anything, toward reducing 

 the cost of living. Legislation can raise 

 prices and lower prices; but it can do little 

 toward reducing the cost of living, without 

 a revision of the tax laws on a basis to 

 encourage production and eliminate waste. 

 Past legislation has raised prices, but 

 wages have automatically risen at the same 

 time; and past legislation has reduced 

 prices, but wages have also automatically 

 dropped at the same time. There is only 

 one way by which the cost of living can be 

 reduced, and that is by — well, let us see. 



KERNEL OF THE WHOLE MATTER 



In a previous part of this article I said 

 that practically all of our money goes for 

 what is produced in six inches of the soil, 

 which means that the cost of living depends 

 upon what is produced in this six inches 

 of earth. In other words, with a given 

 amount of waste the more that is produced 

 per capita, the lower the cost of living; 

 while the less that is produced per capita, 

 the greater the cost of living. For every 

 merchant who quits trading and becomes 

 a farmer, the cost of living to everyone 

 in the world is, in theory, reduced; while 

 for every farmer who quits farming and 

 becomes a banker, the cost of living for 

 all of us, theoretically, is increased. We, 

 therefore, see that there is an intimate 

 relation between the cost of living and the 

 amount produced. Consequently, to re- 

 duce the cost of living, more must be pro- 

 duced or less must be wasted. This, in 

 short, is the kernel of the entire matter. 

 More respect must be given to this six 

 inches of earth. The garden must become 

 a more prominent part of the household. 

 It must be respected, considered, cared 

 for and looked up to. 



The garden holds the solution of our 

 nation's problems and the problem of each 

 individual and reader of this magazine. 

 I care not whether the garden is large or 

 small; whether it is more pretentious or 

 the size of an average backyard, which 

 contains only 1,500 square feet, or if it is 

 only a window box in which may be raised 

 lettuce and radishes. Here lies the solu- 

 tion of the problem, not only for each 

 reader, but for the world as a whole; and 

 it is only as each of us solves this problem 

 that we can reduce the cost of living for 

 ourselves and be a factor in reducing it for 

 everybody else. Truth to speak, there 

 are at present too many consumers and 



too few producers of food products in the 

 world. Obviously enough, when the ratio 

 of consumers to producers becomes dispro- 

 portionate, there is trouble immediately. 

 The cost of supplying the table gets out of 

 harmony with the cost of clothing, fuel, etc., 

 and a clamor goes up that causes a general 

 unsettlement of politics, trade and industry. 

 The observing citizen must see that this is 

 true if he is alive to his present surround- 

 ings. If he has kept in touch with the grain 

 markets, he must have noticed how specu- 

 lators have sold grain down on favorable 

 indications regarding the dimensions of the 

 harvest for wheat, corn and oats, basing 

 their action upon prospective supply. 



While I have in mind the same principle 

 I am not expecting that every one is to 

 become a farmer in the accepted meaning 

 of that term, but purpose to deal with an 

 application of the principle that is within 

 reach of very many families. Now, I 

 promised that each reader can do this 

 without depriving himself of the luxuries 

 of life, but rather adding thereto, and this 

 phase of the subject I will take up in my 

 next article. 



Dandelion Greens All Season 



L. G. B., District of Columbia 



TLJAVING a taste for the wholesome 

 ■■■ -1 dandelion green, I have learned that 

 it quickly responds to any effort directed 

 toward its betterment. My dandelion 

 patch is on the edge of a small plum 

 orchard having a slight Southern slope. 

 Nature planted it years ago, when the strip 

 it occupies was a dividing-fence headland, 

 never plowed up. A little at a time the 

 weeds have been rooted out, and now the 

 strip is just dandelions and grass. The 

 grass sod is thin and is discouraged by 

 chopping-up somewhat with a spade during 

 dry spells, but enough of a sod to protect 

 the dandelion plants from being washed 

 full of soil during hard rains is found desir- 

 able. The only other attention the patch 

 receives is an application of a wheelbarrow- 

 load of old stable manure late every fall — 

 November 1st. 



With only these slight attentions leaves 

 have been produced twelve and fourteen 

 inches long by six inches wide, by actual 

 measure. However, only a few of the 

 plants are allowed to grow to anything like 

 full size any year. They bloom and reseed 

 the bed. The balance of the patch is 

 picked when the leaves are about four 

 inches long, thus giving me a steady supply 

 of tender dandelion greens the season 

 through. The leaves from these fertilized 

 and partially cultivated plants are tenderer 

 and less bitter than the pasture-grown 

 product. In mid-summer when lettuce is 

 most difficult of production, I cover some 

 dandelion plants with a wooden box, in- 

 verted, for a few days, and the leaves 

 become blanched and crisp and form a very 

 good substitute for lettuce. When picking 

 for greens do not reject the blossom-buds 

 — they make a delectable addition. 



