Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-05-10
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Make "A Good Garden.

The formers garden should receive
far more attention than il usually gets.
1t is on his success with this that
much of the advantage and greater
healthfulness of the farmers life de-
ponds. To have fresh vegetables in
succession through their season. and a
good variety stored for his winters use,
ought 10 be the farmers especial priv
ilege. In reality the tables of those
in cities earning less than most farmers
are better supplied with vegetables
and fruit than are those whose lack is
only eXplainable by their neglect to
grow them. The city man who has to
buy everything finds IA variety costs no
more than TO cOnfine himself TO one
dish. The farmer often makes "A rule
TO buy nothing that he might grow,
and then neglects 10 grow what he
might
There is an economic aspect 10 this
question not often considered. If farm
ers grew aud used themselves greater
varieties Of vegetables they would be
not only healthier, but the markets for
the few specialties they generally grow
would be less likely 10 be glutted. The
past year, for EXAMPLE, potatoes have
been extremely cheap. The crop is
more than the demand. If One-tenth of
the potato land had been diverted to
growing carrots, turnips, cabbage, cell
cry, parsnips and like vegetables, there
would have been no glut i'm either, and
the farmers profits would be increased.
II requires more work, more skill and
intelligence TO grow a large variety OF
vegetable crops than to grow one or
two. More farmers have got into the
habit of growing potatoes than have
learned the best methods of growing
other vegetables, and this is perhaps
one reason why they are so much more
largely sold than any other.
We need to learn Il lesson from the
great famine which prevailed in ireland
more than forty years ago after the
failure of the potato crop. The people
had become too exclusively dependent
on the potato as a means of subsistence.
1t is not perfect food for maintaining
strength and vigor, and when famine
struck the land, the cnfeebled poor
easily became victims TO "A pestilence
which followed in its wake. IL is in
countries like India and China, where
one kind of food is the main source of
subsistence, that the dread Asiatic
cholera takes its rise. If men ate more
wholesome food, and in greater variety,
the attacks of many kinds of disease
would be averted.
1t is not much that any one farmer
can do to change the prevailing dietary
habits Of the whole country but each
can for himself resolve TO set better
example. The first step in this good
work is to lay out garden, not too
large to be thoroughly cultivated, and
fill it with as great "A variety of vegeta-
bles as the farmer can successfully
manage. When one farmer in any
neighborhood does this, others will
quickly follow his example, and he can
probably dispose for a time Of any sur
plus vegetables he may grow more than
are needed for his own use among
neighboring farmers. 1t is not any
willingness to live poorly that restricts
so many farmers to "A diet of bread and
butter, with pork for the only meat
and potatoes, with an occasional boiled
dinner, with cabbage as the only vege-
table. They want TO enjoy greater
variety Of vegetable food, and now, as
their thoughts are turning TO spring
work, is the best time TO give them a
hint as to the best way to realize their
desires. -American CultivatOr.