124 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
have so long been convinced of its importance 
and impressed by our neglect of it that I feel 
very keenly the need of giving it strong 
emphasis. We are asleep to our opportunities, 
for one thing: and we are accursed with the 
fear of taking trouble! The gentle hen is 
banished because chickens are too much 
trouble; we grow only flowers because a veg- 
etable garden is too much trouble; flowers re- 
quire care, however, and this is trouble — so 
we are at last reduced to a tree and a bush and 
the lawn. And even the tree and the bush must 
be the unprofitable kind, because the mysteri- 
ous “ they” never plant fruit bearing trees or 
shrubs. So all the thousands of acres of 
suburbs in the United States are non-produc- 
ing; and fruits and foods are proportionately 
high. 
On all places less than one hundred by one 
hundred in size I am willing to concede the 
elimination of the hen; her cackle is too en- 
thusiastic for closer range and imposes too 
much on neighborly toleration. But some veg- 
etables and fruits, as well as flowers and shade 
are within the possibilities of every place and 
require no more trouble than a sane, normal, 
healthy, and healthy minded, intelligent family 
- — or man — should be ashamed to complain of. 
