FOR BUSINESS MEN. 
23 
ground. No amount of money spent at nurseries will give, in 
twenty years, the dignified beauty of effect that a few fine old trees 
will realize as soon as your house and lawn are completed. 
But, unfortunately, the mass of men are obliged by business 
necessities, or other circumstances which are imperative, to build 
on sites not blessed with large trees. To enable them to make the 
most of such places, it is hoped that the succeeding chapters will 
point the way. 
There is one hobby connected with removing from a city house 
to one “ with some ground around it,” which has been happily cari¬ 
catured by some modern authors. We refer to the enthusiastic 
longing for fresh vegetables “of our own raising.” A wealthy citi¬ 
zen, who had been severely seized with some of these horticultural 
fevers, invited friends to dine with him at his country-seat. The 
friends complimented his delicious green corn. “ It is capital, 
I’m glad you appreciate it,” said he; “it is from my own grounds, 
and by a calculation made a few days since I find that the season’s 
crop will cost me only ten dollars an ear.” Certainly this is an 
extreme case; but among the expensive luxuries for a business 
man’s home a large kitchen garden is one of the most costly. 
Grass, and trees, and flowers, give daily returns in food for our eyes, 
seven months of the year, and cost less; yet many good housewives 
and masters spend more in growing radishes, lettuce, peas, beans, 
and even such cheap things as cabbages and potatoes, than it 
would cost to buy just as good articles, and maintain, besides, a 
lawn full of beauties. Vegetable gardening is a good and profita¬ 
ble business on a large scale, but on a small scale is not often 
made so, except by the good Dutch women, who can plant, hoe, 
and market their own productions, and live on the remainders. 
The kitchen garden does more to support the family of the gar¬ 
dener than the family of the proprietor, and it is respectfully sug¬ 
gested that the satisfaction of having one’s table provided with 
“ our Patrick’s ” peas and beans is not a high order of family 
pride. The professional gardener, who does the same business on 
a much larger scale, and vends his vegetables at our doors, is 
likely to grow them cheaper and just as good as we can grow them. 
But in the matter of fruit, it is different. There are some fruits 
