DO YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY ? HAVE YOU ANY GROUND ABOUT YOUR HOME ? WHICH DO YOU PREFER- 

 TO BE AN INVALID OR TO HAVE GOOD HEALTH AND GOOD SPIRITS ? THE AMERICAN 

 GARDEN CAN BE AND WANTS TO BE YOUR FRIEND IN THESE MATTERS. 



IN ALL our smaller towns, and even in many 

 cities like Rochester, Kansas City, Springfield, 

 Atlanta and Newark, and in the suburbs of 

 cities like Boston, tens of thousands of fami- 

 lies live in separate houses, each home surrounded 

 by a little plot of land. In some manufacturing 

 centers in New England the entire population live 

 in such detached homes. Every farm has a garden 

 plot, too often half-used or wholly neglected. All 

 the good folks in these homes are, with great 

 unanimity, in favor of good dinners. Every one 

 likes plenty of good things to eat. Every one, too, 

 would answer the first of the above questions with 

 a great and mighty " Yes." 



Once upon a time it was proposed that all the 

 people in the world should at a given instant call 

 out "Hallo" as loud as they could, and then the 

 man in the moon would hear it and perhaps " hallo '' 

 back again. When the important instant arrived 

 not a soul said a word, except an old woman in 

 Siberia. The entire world wanted to listen to this 

 great and mighty shout, so there was only a little 

 squeaky " hallo " from Siberia, and the man in the 

 moon never replied at all. In like manner, could all 

 the dwellers in these separate homes reply at once 

 to our question there would be a very tremendous 

 " Yes !" 



Now there is a close connection between dinners 

 and saving money. Every dinner consists in part 

 of vegetables. Every good dinner also has some 

 fruit. These things cost more in proportion to 

 their nutriment than meat, fish, bread, milk and 

 cheese. At the same time they are just as essen- 

 tial as sugar and salt, and more valuable than tea 

 or coffee. Fruits are nature's preventive medi- 

 cines done up in palatable packages, perfumed, 

 sweet and luscious just to tempt you to eat them. 



Now out of the earth comes everything on your 

 table (or out of the sea, which is really the same 

 thing) and the most costly of the things you eat are 

 the very things that are the most delicate and the 

 most liable to perish in handling or transportation. 



Then, too, there is that final question — good 



health. Do you want it ? All right. It is out-of- 

 doors — close to your hand. You have only to go 

 out and get it (supposing, of course, that you were 

 born in good health) and keep it. 



Farmers often call the land immediately about 

 the dwelling the " home lot. '' All these little places 

 are really " home lots." 



Now put these things together — your home lot, 

 the desire for good health, the fact that you keep 

 house and want to save money. What is the 

 answer ? 



USE YOUR LAND. 



Walking through a long street in one of these 

 home-lot towns not long ago the representative of 

 The American Garden saw behind every house the 

 little kitchen garden, with its dozen tomato plants, 

 its lettuce bed, its rows of peas and beans, its rasp- 

 berry patch or currant row. On reaching one of 

 the local stores, the sidewalk was literally covered 

 with boxes of tomato and cabbage plants. Here it 

 was plain the people were seeking an answer to our 

 questions. They used their land. 



If your buy a head of lettuce for six cents at the 

 stores you have paid a profit to, at least, three men 

 or women — the grower who raised it, the teamster, 

 boat or railroad that brought it to town, and the 

 retailer. You may have also paid that useless 

 creature, the "middleman."' The fact is, all the 

 people taxed you for the lettuce, and it was mighty 

 poor lettuce by the time you got it. If you had 

 raised it yourself (at a cost of about one-twentieth 

 of a cent) all the profits — five cents and nineteen- 

 twentieths of a cent would have stayed in your 

 pocket. 



The retail prices of all these more perishable 

 vegetables, such as peas, radish, lettuce, rhubarb, 

 beans, tomato and sweet corn are high. It is 

 doubtful if they will ever be any cheaper, and it is 

 probable they will be much higher in the future. 

 The small fruits and cucumbers and melons are 

 also very expensive if bought in the stores. 



The American Garden sees all these things, and 

 it has been decided that it shall help all the folks 



