Foreword 



that the menial drudgery of gardening opera- 

 tions is a thing of the past, and he will also 

 find that the boys and girls of the family will 

 be delighted to assume largely the responsibil- 

 ity of keeping the garden in proper condition, 

 because operating the machinery of it will 

 seem more like play than work to them. With 

 the modem cultivator equipped with a variety 

 of shovels and hoe-teeth, to suit all kinds of 

 vegetables, one can do more work in an hour, 

 and do it a great deal better, than could be 

 done all day with the ordinary hoe, and this 

 with but small expenditure of muscle. A 

 woman finds that a few minutes' work with 

 the garden cultivator rests her because of the 

 change it affords from housework. It fur- 

 nishes an exercise which brings half dormant 

 muscles into play, and it takes her out of doors 

 wriere she gets the tonic of fresh air and sun- 

 shine. 



Let me urge every one, therefore, to have 

 a garden, if possible. Especially the man who 

 needs some kind of outdoor work to counteract 

 the debilitating effects of indoor occupation. 

 The clerk, the book-keeper, the minister, the 

 student, — any one whose occupation is more 



13 



