The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-02-05
Che Oiroiuia State Sournal.
WEDNESDAY EVEN'G, FEB'RY5 1873
The Vegetable Garden.

For many a month in the year the table
Of many an industrious country-home has
rarely any other vegetable than potatoes.
Some have tomatoes for a few months,
corn for q few weeks, and now and then
there may be a dish of Lima beans. We
say nothing of the cabbage in some places,
but as a general thing good vegetables are
not the particular attraction of a farmers
table. When we come to meat, prepare
tons, pies, buildings, sauces, and all such
knick-knacks, the farmers girls are not
behind the rest Of the world.
But it is not their fault. If it was I'M
reasonable to expect the lsraelites to make
brick without straw, it is a worse case
here. If the head of the household do not
raise the vegetables, how shall the girls
cook them? and that they do not raise them
is q general complaint and lamentable fact.
Even when they are brought to feel that the
women will have vegetables they go to work
grudgingly. They must ''get the corn
ground ready"--''aud put in the OATS" or
something or another, and can't afford the
time to be blowing up the truck patch, or
digging up the garden. But the ''power
behind the throne' insists on it, a little
manure is dragged OH to some out-of-the-
way piece of the land, the soil scratched
over with the plow, and then with the
harrow and then the women or boys must
get along as best they can.
Now, this is not the way the thing is al
ways done but our readers will bear wit
ness to the fact that they have none of
them to so far to find the picture we have
drawn. Now most men like good vegeta-
bles, preferring some kinds to others of
course, and the indifference can only be
.l-a,..l - aa,1,-. 500 A. -
them properly than it does.
One of the mistakes of vegetable grow
ing for ones own personal use is to grow
is taken up. Too much labor then has to
be given in proportion to the desired
result. Vegetables as a rule require a
much richer soil than the average Of farm
crops but when once they have a deep,
rich soil, it is wonderful how many a very
small piece of ground will produce. In
this little place Of ours, Germantown, are a
very large number of small houses owned
by workingmen and mechanics, many of
whom by the agency Of the building socie-
ties, so popular here, become their own
landlords. The lots may not be more than
forty or fifty feet front, by a hundred feet
deep yet many of these men get a guam
tity of vegetables from these lots, besides
the space the buildings occupy, that would
astonish our country friends. And all this,
too, without more labor than a little time
before or after daily work affords. But
they make the ground rich and deep and
this makes it light, so that the spade or
fork works easily in it, and thus they get
without much care the good results we see.
There is no reason why the country vegeta-
BILE garden should not be as good as these.
Indeed it ought to better, as things to work
it properly are better to hand.
We hope that those who up to this time
have had but poor gardening conveniences,
will not allow the coming season to pass
without improving them ; and those who
up to this time have been worrying along
with a miserable ''truck PATCH" or with
out any kind of a garden at all, will re-
solve to do better in future.-Germantown
Telegraph.