128 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



August, 1918 



Farm Vegetable Gardening. 



Thouc^h verv many farms are of 

 cofirse ])rovided with ample, well 

 arran,c:ed and well stocked veget- 

 able jjardens, it is still true that 

 generally speaking the Australian 

 farmer prefers to go without 

 vegetables or buy them from the 

 hawker rather than take the 

 trouble to grow them for himself 

 and family. Not long ago the 

 writer visited a farm on the Mur- 

 ray where the calling of the store 

 boat was the only opportunity of 

 getting this very important form 

 of food. There w-ere several chil- 

 dren in the household, vet excellent 

 onions, measly potatoes, and wilt- 

 ed greens were practically all thev 

 got in the way of vegetable diet. 

 The extraordinan- jiart was that 

 the path by which the distressing- 

 ly inadequate vegetable supply was 

 carried from the landing place to 

 the house, crossed a patch of beau- 

 tiful alluvial, that a gardener 

 woiild have given his head to pos- 

 sess ; deepj cool, rich in humus and 

 as easilv worked as a patch of 

 sand. Pumjritig- arrangements in 

 connection with the house and 

 stock supply would have made 

 watering by gravitation an ex- 

 tremely simple matter. Yet be- 

 cause once some vears before, this 

 ai"ea had been flooded, it was con- 

 sidered not worth the risk of 

 putting the crround to its very 

 obvious use. This of course is an 

 extreme case and few country 

 homes have a patch of ground so 



clearly made on purpose for veget- 

 able growing, but any ground can, 

 with the readily available labor and 

 material on a farm, be made to 

 produce most excellent vegetables. 



The real reason why fanners, 

 as a rule, do not grow vegetables, 

 is that they will not be bothered 

 pottering around a small patch 

 with a spade and hoe. This is not 

 laziness, merely habit, and a 

 mighty bad habit. As for puttiog 

 a hand on to , do the job, well the 

 average farmer reckons he can iise 

 any able bodied, labour to better 

 advantage. 



— Difference Between Work and 

 Play. — 



Discussing gardening v. games 

 a writer on the subject points out 

 that it is just the difference between 

 work and plav the "One man," he 

 says, " after a long day's work in 

 the field is prepared to either 

 knock a cricket ball about with a 

 bat or chase a football for an 

 hour. The absurdity does not 

 strike him. Another finds it re- 

 creation to leave off the regular 

 work of the farm and knock a 

 golf ball about a paddock with 

 various types of golf sticks. It 

 does not occur to him that this is 

 a ' fiddling ' occupation for a man 

 whose work keeps him in the open 

 air all the time. The '.same time 

 devoted to walking about a pad- 

 dock with a grub hoe would do an 

 immense amount of good in eradi- 

 cating weeds, poisonous or other- 

 wise, suckers and seedlings, which 

 are detrimental to the farm. One, 



however, happens to be called 

 work, does not cost anything and 

 brings in a profit. The other hap- 

 pens to be called s]X)rt or play, 

 brings in nothing and costs a good 

 deal. Therein lies all the differ- 

 ence. Paying a doctor for advice 

 and druggist for medicine co.sts 

 money, but it enables a man to 

 feel that he is entitled to certain 

 privileges and attentions and the 

 sympathy of all his friends. To 

 spend his spare time poking round 

 a vegetable plot, doing what he 

 calls Chinaman's work, saves him 

 the neces.sitv of going to the doc- 

 tor or buying physic, but although 

 he saves money and time the or- 

 dinary individual does "not obtain 

 the same amount of satisfaction. 



— The Importance of Gardening. — 

 After all it is largely a question 

 of temperament, training and 

 habit. There is no questiorLJwhat- 

 ever that the gardening habit is 

 altogether a good one, and, as far 

 as I know, not one single draw- 

 back. The men who attend to 

 gardens do not neglect their field 

 work . They are kent in better 

 health, they save monev, and life 

 is much more pleasurable. 



T know people say, "Oh, I know 

 nothing about gardening," but 

 when they started iMaA'ing golf, 

 billiards, or cricket, they knew no- 

 thing about these thines. Thev 

 did, however, find fi pleasure in 

 learning them, and the point T 

 wish to make is that in addition 

 to its value, frardening' may. ex- 

 cept in one particular, give all the 

 pleasures of these other occupa- 

 tions without their drawbacks. 

 The one exception is, companion- 

 ship, social intercourse and so 

 forth. As man is a social crea- 

 ture it is quite impo.ssible to over- 

 look this fact in re^-ard tn the aver- 

 age individual. Gardening, how- 

 ever, is so important to the borne 

 life and health of himself and his 

 family, th^t no farmer should al- 

 low him.self to nee-lect it for any 

 other consideration. 



♦ 



The results of numerous experi- 

 ments have establi.shed the fact 

 that when a deep-milking cow is 

 mated with a bull, the dam^' of 

 which was also a deep milker, it 

 is found that the female offspring 

 yield large ciuantities of milk, 

 while the males will beget deep 

 milkers. It will be recognised 

 therefore, that the milk records 

 of a herd of cows form data of 

 considerable value to a stock- 

 owneT who is anxious to_ breed and 

 rear animals of special value for 

 dairy ]nirpo'Ses. 



EXECUTOR TRUSTEE & AGENCY 



COMPANY OF S.A., LIMITED. 



Capital Authorised ... . £100,000 



Capital Subscribed .... £75,000 

 Uncalled Capital, Capital Paid up, and Reserves £109,273 

 Amount at credit of Estates, Trusts, and Clients £2,630,724 



DIRECTORS— W. J. Magarey (Chairman), W. Herbert Phillipps, 

 L. A. Jessop, H. C. E. Muecke Richard Smith, E. W. van Senden. 



The Company transacts all classes of business as Executor, 

 Trustee, Attorney and Agent. When winding up an estate only one 

 charge is made for realization. 



MONEY TO LEND AT CURRENT RATES. 

 The Company's SAFE DEPOSIT provides absolute security for 

 the storage, under Depositor's sole control, of CASH, DEEDS, 

 JEWELLERY, SCRIP, PLATE, and other VALUABLES. 



YEARLY RICNTALS OF SAFES, from £i i/. 



ERNEST W. WILLIAMSON, Manager. 

 W. W. CARTER, Assistant Manager. 



OfiBccs, 22 Grenfell Street. 



