Waterbury Democrat., 1901-07-27
THE WooDMAN's WILD GARDEN


 From May until December no woods man who will take the trouble to study or learn from another's experience little of the botany of the woods need go without a sufficient supply of vege- tables from his wide-stretching wild garden. Or perhaps if he will only watch the deer and bear for a while, instead of shooting them on sight, he will learn, as the newspapers say, something to his advantage"
 There are times when 1t seems to the meat-clogged hunter and fisherman as if he would give half his kingdom for a mouthful of some tart or peppery or bitter vegetable, to cleanse and purge his alimentary canal and get the leaden feeling out of his stomach. At such times, instead of signing for the vegetable pots of civilization, let him devote half an hour to gathering bunch of the roots of the toothwort or crinkled root, which may be eaten like radishes, dipped in salt, and will lend delicious savor to meal of meat and bread. Another pungent root, or tuber, growing plentifully in the woods is the ground-nut, or dwarf ginseng. You can find it in almost any moist clearing, though you must dig deep for the small round tuber that tastes so grateful to a meat-jaded pal ate.
 hesitate to speak of mushrooms as an article of woodland diet, because, plentiful as they are about old stumps, logs, etc, 8 special knowledge of them is necessary to guard against confus- ing them with poisonous toadstools, which they so closely resemble. But if some member of the party only pos sessed this knowledge, what feast might be enjoyed far from the luxuries of civilization
 The woodsman's wild garden, how ever, grows many varieties of whole some and delicious greens which, i'll the spring, any camper may easily rec ognize and have for the picking. Along the brookside in how many old beaver meadows, while trout-fshing, the lus- cious leaves and stalks of marsh mari golds or cowslips. None i'll the river meadows of the settlements grows finer than this unmarketed vegetable of the wild woods. And how these cowslip greens refresh the whole sys- tenn, when boiled in the camp-pot and served with dash of vinegar, salt and pepper Every camper should take a small jug of vinegar with him into the woods, just for greens" as the boys say.
 Then there Is that other wholesome and delicious pot-herb of the woods called familiarly eow-cabbage, This has not so wide range as the marsh marfgold, but in localities where it is found 1t grows abundantly, and has the advantage of leafing out earlier than cowslips, and remaining tender and edible for a longer period. Trilli- ums also make excellent greens, and as the camper will find them blooming late = June in the open woods, he can pro-ong with them his pot-herb diet until the very height of the trouting season.
 The wild parsnip, found growing along the edges in May and June, is fully as palatable as the cultivated va riety, and is an excellent appetizer when fried or Drowned in the camp spider. The Indian cucumber root, which any field botanist can unearth for you in the fall, is not much behind the garden cucumber in succulence and flavor. The Indians used it for rel ish, and the woodsmen will find 1t a
 
 Serve with vinegar, pepper and salt
 The roots of the yellow pond lily, chopped fine and fried, have very pleasant taste, and make q wholesome and readily accessible vegetable food in the woods. Wild radish, if you know it and can find, is really crisp and pungent relish, with much the same taste as the garden radish, which was derived from it.
 Almost every boy should remember the watercresses he used to gather in the cool brooks about his native town The camper will find it in the quieter reaches of mountain. streams. and un- der the banks of mountain lakes. Tn the latter, too, he will find the wild celery of which ducks are so fond, and which is grateful also to q discrimi- either the creSs or the wild celery spices the guides biscuits and the fiaky pink flesh of the mountain trout! Wild mustard and horse-radish, too, will put keen edge on a dulled appe- tite, if you cannot find watercresses.
 In Thoreau's Maine Woods,'' he speaks of using hemlosk leaves as a substitute for tea. The woodsman should know of several other and bet ter brews than that in case the tea caddy gets empty. Wintergreen leaves make a far better tea than hemlock, The leaves of red root yield pleasant drink, and wild chicory is better than either of the foregoing. Common dan- delion roots, dried and crushed, fur nish q coffee that is both palatable and wholesome.
 I have not mentioned berries or highbush cranberries as one of the re- sources of the woodlands husbandry, because such resource is evident to all. And yet many a camper in the | summer and fall will allow himself to get half sick on perpetual meat and biscuit, rather than spend the time to gather few quarts of the luscious and abundant fruits with which the burned-oyer clearings abound.-Forest and Stream.