The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-05-13

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@S Tho farmers 6arden.
The time for singing of birds and
planting Of galde has come and we
desire to call attention offarmers to the
value of the acre which all large land
owners should devote to the cultivation
of kitchen vegetables. We are satisfied
that this can be made not only the most
profitable acre on the farm, but one
that will conduce most to the comfort
of the family. The average farmer is
apt to neglect this part of his estate,
partly because he does not prize veg
etable diet at its true value, and partly
because he regards the work in the
garden as "puttering" business fit only
for women and children. We are not
vegetarians ourselves, and are far from
advocating an exclusively vegetable
diet for others, and least of all for farm.
ers., They are hard workers in the
open air, need hearty food, and can
digest it better than those leading q
sedentary life. Still, the old. fashioned
routine at the Greenhouses of fried pork
for breakfast, boiled corn beef and pork
for dinner, and the same cold for sup.
per, with only potatoes and cabbage in
the vegetable line, was severe tax on
the stomach of even the most robust,
often led to dyspepsia and fevers. That
the Creator intended the diet Of man
to be mixed is manifest from his natur-
al love of such q diet the adoption of
his teeth, stomach and other organs for
it, and the careful observation of the
skillful psychologist. The wild Indian
says, Buffalo meat is enough and good
enough for me" but the average wild
Indian is far from being a healthy man.
As a race the Indians are subject to
disease and die young. The few old
stalwarts only exemplify Darwin's idea
of 1.-The survival of the fiitest." Besides
when the red man is brought within
the pale of civilization, where he can
get hold of fruits and vegetables, he
devours them with u gusto which con-
tradicts his talk about buffalo meat.
The truth is that, while the vegetarians
are q cadaverous-looking set Of :men-
DR.. Graham himeelf being no exception
land the blood of the meat german
Diners are in an inflammatory state,
tending to violent passions as well as
violent fevers it is only the man who
tempers the stimulating influence of
meat with q liberal supply of fruits and
vegetables who is blessed with health
and the prospect of green old
age. The farmer who should feed his
COWS with cornmeal mainly would be
unwise ii not insane; but he is no less
foolish when he confines himself and
family principally to q pot-luck diet, as
many are inclined to do.
The other excuse which farmers offer
for the neglect of their gardens, "the
putteripg nature of the business, }" had
some foundation when the garden vas
little sixpenny affair, inclosed with a
picket fence, in which there was little
room for horsepower and more de-
mand for the spade than the pillow.
The citizen and the villiagel must con-
tent themselves with such contracted
gardens, but the farmer has land enough
to make his garden as large as he pleas
es. and locate it where it can be cult
waited with the same facility with which
he cult Yates his patch of potatoes. The
notion that the kitchen garden must be
under the kitchen window, and snr.
rounded with q picket fence to keep
the hens out, was long since exploded by
progressive farmers. Is is very con
veniet to have the garden near the
kitchen, and so it would to have the
pig pen; but there is no more necessity
for the one than the other. Located in
the field, it Can be cultivated by horse
power, and its site be changed from time
to time as the rotation of crops may re-
quire. The old-fashioned mode of cult.
waiting flowers and vegetable together the
former on borders of walks and the lat
ter in little parallelogram shaped beds,
made the labor of a garden four.fold
what it is under the horsepower plan
Of long rows and no alleys. We spent
! no little time in our youth in one of
these old-fashioned gardens, and as we
remember it, half the time was spent
in hoeing out the walks and trimming
up the borders. It was much work and
little pay, and We do not wonder that
farmers called it puttering work, and
were Disguised with it. Still, this old
style OF gardening is not altogether oh.
solete. In closely settled villages there
must be some excuse for spade and
hoe garden, but the farmer with land
and horse power in abundance should
garden on more econmlcal and salts.
factory plan. If he will only try this
field gardening, and see how easily and
cheaply asparagus, beets and cabages
and the whole alphabet of vegetables
are cultivated, we are confident that he
will raise score Of bushels where. he
now raises one. and this with little, if
any, increase of expense. Any surplus