Annual Report of the 
324 
of barn-yard manure, such as I could get in the city and haul home; 
and then everything I .could gather up in my garden, tomato and 
potato-tops, cabbage-stumps, &c., fifty wagon-loads. Then there 
was a bed of muck near me. From that I got fifty more wagon¬ 
loads. Most of that heap has been worked over from one to three 
times during the season, and next year it will yield me a handsome 
return for the cost and trouble of making it. I shall mix some of 
it into the soil and use the finest of it for top-dressing. I think 
every farmer or gardener should have a compost-heap. 
Id. W. Roby, of Milwaukee. Gentlemen, during the three days 
this convention has been in session I have listened attentively to 
the papers and discussions without saying anything; but, as there 
seems to be a lull in discussions and no more papers to read, I want 
to make a few suggestions on a topic not yet touched upon. 
THE GARDEN AND LAWN. 
1 believe that an orderly, well-regulated, well-cultivated kitchen 
garden is one of the indispensable adjuncts to good living and 
well-being on the farm, as well as in the village, town and city. 
A complete garden with its seasonable fruits and vegetables has a 
far greater influence upon the health and comfort of a family than 
a majority of people are willing to concede. 
The Creator intended us to have our ‘‘fruit in due season,” and 
without that, as all the philosophy and medical science on the subject 
declare, we but invite and court disease, disorder and death. The 
person who indulges the same kind of diet the year through has a 
lease of no more than half a life. Far too many farmers’ families 
are restricted to strictly^ farm products for food, the effect of which 
is too often plainly observable in the face and physique of many 
farmers’ sons and daughters. Good or bad diet has a wonder¬ 
ful effect on the physical and mental constitution, as was so forci¬ 
bly demonstrated in the arm3 r during the late war. Where the 
sixty odd chemical elements of the human system are not supplied 
as natural waste occurs, depletion, debility and enervation are the 
sure results. 
The well-ordered kitchen garden will afford a wide w$iy of escape 
from most of these evils. I was born and brought up on a farm 
and I still take delight in farm operations. I am yet farming, 
though on a small scale, in a great city, yet I derive many benefits 
