The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-06-26
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
TnE PHILOSOPHERS EXpEnf-
ENCE As a GARDENER.
Tells Of Ills Success ~ Raising Fine
Vegetables.

AFTER guou dinner, especially if W0
have earned it-worked for Il bodily
and wanted IL. But / have heard folks
cay they were never hungry and not
even tho odor Of cucumbors aud onions
10 the dining room would excite their
appetite. have heard others saw
they bad the appetite, but were afraid
go indulge u because Of digestion.
Such folks are to be- pitiod. They have
my sympathy. Tut sincerely believe
that work or physical exercise is
remedy for both. j suppose that
Shakespeare suffered in this way, Tor
be says, "Now, lot digestion wait on
appetite aud health on both" Certain
10 is bis death was sudden and prema.
ture, for ke lived only fifty yonrs.
Milton understood this trouble too,
for be says that Adam sleep was sweet,
being bred from pure Indigestion.
That's the secret-working in the gar
oen-l inherited that trait from the
old mau-Adam, 1 mean-and / sleep
sweotly, too, after have worked in
my garden. There is no insomonia
about me, but Mrs. Arp suffers from
st sometimes when / am snoring like a
hippotamus
I was Eliminating about the value Of
a good garden to the family-we had
an excellent dinner today, and I
counted up the cost. We have five in
the family and the dinner cost MS only
cents apiece, and there vas enough
left for two or three more. We had a
small piece of middling meat, about
half pound, that was boiled with the
beans, and there were seven different
kinds Of vegetables from my garden.
The butter and buttermilk were home
made The rice and oornmoal and
huckleberries cost little-not much.
Everything was we'll cooked, and all
that was wanted was an appetite and
good digestion.
/ am reasonably proud OF my gar
den, for it is all my own work. I pre-
pared the ground and dressed it and
opened the burrows and planted the
seed and cultivated the plants and
killed the weeds, and it is my especial
pleasure to watch everything rs 1t
grows, and gather the vegetables and
wash them at the back door and call
the good wife and children out to see
them and listen to their compliments.
We have had long drought, but I
had fortified against it. Every hill
was first spaded ont foot deep and
filled with water, and after it had
soaked into the ground filed up the
hole with mixture of top soil and
barnyard scrapings and sifted ashes
and put on some moro water. Every
furrow / opened for beans and pens
and beets / let water run III it. and
then put the fertilizer in and
planted the seed. l had eighty holes
10 dig for tomatoes and forty for
squashes, and as many more for Gu.
cumbers, and notwithstanding tho
drought, everything has grown vigor.
ously. 1t is hard work, and takes pn-
thence to lay the foundation in this
way, but it pays. My squash vines
cover a space of four feet square to
each HILL and my tomato plants are
five feet high and full OF healthy fruit
Well, now, to tell the whole truth. ]
have hydrant in the center of the
garden, and when the dry, hot weather
was at its worst I opened small trenches
close by the roots Of the plants anG
turned the water on and let it rur
slowly and sonk in, and afterwards
covered the trenches with dry dirt
This too, is trouble, but it paid we'll,
Some folks sprinkle, but that does
harm and no good. 1t bakes
the surface and never reaches tb,
roots. Sprinkle nothing but grass
Where water is plentiful and conven
lent there is no excuse for poor gar
den. 1t is better to dig deep and fer
tilize and cultivate a square rod vel
than to skim over half an acre "niggel
fashion" and see it all dry up when th,
dry drought, as Cobe calls it, comes
The intensive system is the best fol
gardens, know from long experience
Ibmade me sad to see the crops on th,
railroad between Marietta and Atlant,
the other day Acres and ncres o
corn not six inches high and cottol
almost invisible. It did look like per
ishing to death in the name of tn
Lord. It is poor country, know
but they couta SOW it down in Pea
and gradually improve it SO that
Georgian wouldn't be ashamed fol
travellers to look OFT OF the car windov
as they ride through it.
1t is astonishing how much inhu
ence one good farmer has over tn
neighborhood in which he lives The,
are very envious Of each other and vii
try to keep up with the best. hea
some shy that their oats crop is tota
failure and will not be fit to cut.
see a few acres of oats in a field no
far from me that will make good crop
OF conrae there Is somethinq in th