Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-03-23
From @. d. Warmers Book.
Wy Summer In q Garden.
THIRD WEEK.

NAL SIN, at least vegetable tOtal QepravlLy
in my garden and it was there before /
went into it, 1t is the bunch, or joint, or
snake grass, whatever it is called. As
do not know the names of all the weeds
and plants, / have to do as Adam did in
his garden, name things as fine them
This grass has slender, beautiful stalk !;
and when you cut it down, or pull up
long root oft, you fancy it is got rid Of;
but, in day or two, it will come up in
the same spot in half dozen vigorous
blades Cutting down and pulling up is
what it thrives on. determination rather
helps it. IF you follow a slender white
root, it will be found to run under the
ground until it meets another slender
white root, and you will soon unearth a
network of them with knot somewhere,
sending out dozens of sharp pointed,
healthy shoots, every joint prepared to be
an independent life and plant. The only
way to deal with it is to take one part hoe
and two parts fingers, and carefully dig it
out, not leaving joint anywhere. 1t will
take a little time, say all summer, to dig
out thoroughly small patch; but if you
once dig it out, you will have no further
trouble. 81. r.
have said it was total depravity. Here
it is. If you attempt to pull up and root
out any sin in you, which shows on the
surface,-you may have noticed how it
runs into an interior network of sin, and
an ever sprouting branch of them roots
somewhere and that you cannot pull out
one without making general disturbance,
and roofing up your whole being. l sup
pose it is less trouble to quietly cut them
OF at the top,-say once week, on Sun
days, when you put on your religious
clothes and face,-so that no one will see
them, and not try to eradicate the net
work within.
Remarks.--This moral vegetable figure
is at the service Of every clergyman who
will have the manliness to come forward
and help me at my days hoeing on my
potatoes. None but the othodox need
apply. .
/, however, believe in the intellectual if
not the moral, qualities of vegetables, and
especially weeds. There was worthless
vine that Cor who) started up about mid
way between a grape trellis and row of
bean-poles, some three feet from each, but
little nearer the trellis. When it came
out Of the ground it looked around to see
what it should do. The trellis was already
occupied. The bean pole was empty.
There was evidently little the best
chance of light, air, and sole proprietor.
ship on the pole. And the vine started
for the pole and began to climb 1t with
determination. Here was as distinct an
act of choice of reason, as a boy exercises
when he goes into forest, and, looking
about, decides which tree he will climb
And, besides, how did the vine know
enough to travel in exactly the right direc-
ton, three feet, to find what it wanted :?
This is intellect. The weeds, on the other
hand, have hateful moral qualities. To
cut down a weed is, there fore to do a
moral action. | feel as if I were destroy
ing sin. My hoe becomes an instrument
Of retributive justice. l am an apostle Of
Nature. This view of the matter lends a
dignity to the art of hoeing which nothing
else does, and lifts it into the region Of
ethics. Hoeing becomes, not pastlme,
but duty. And you get to regard it so,
as the days and the weeks lengthen.
Observation - Nevertheless, what a man
needs in gardening is cast-iron back,
with hinge in it. The hoe is an ingeni-
Gus instrument, calculated to call out a
great deal of strength at great advant-
age.
The striped bug has come, the sadest of
the year. He is moral double-ender,
iron clad at that. He is unpleasant in
two WAYS. He burrows in the ground so
that you cannot find him, and he flies
away so that you cannot catch him. He
is rather handsome, as bugs go, but utterly
dastardly, in that he gnaws the stem Of
the plant close to the ground, and ruins it
without any apparent advantage to himself
find him on the hills of cucumbers (per-
haps it will be cholera-year, and we
shall not want any J, the squashes (small
loss), and the melons (which never ripen).
The best way TO deal with the striped bug
is to sit down by the hills, and patiently
watch for him. If you are spry, you can
annoy him. This, however, takes time.
1t takes all day and part of the night.
For he fieth in dark ness, and wasteth at
monday. If you get up before the dew
is off the plants,--it goes off very early, -
you can sprinkle SCOT on the plant, (soot
IS my panacea If | can get the disease
of a plant reduced to the necessity of SCOT,
am all rightly and SCOT is unpleasant to
the bug. But the best thing to do is to
set toad to catch the bug. 1t is al
pleasure to see such unity among the lower
animals. The difficulty is to make the
toad stay, and watch the hill. IF Won
know your toad, it is all right If you
do not, you must build tight fence round
the plants, which the toad cannot Jump
over. This however, introduces new
element. i find that I have geological
garden on my hands. 1t is an unexpect-
ed result of my little enterprise, which
never aspired to the completeness Of the
parin e .(nrdi,, do. DID, 3, -