The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-03
THE KITCHEN GARDEN.

There is a great deal being said
and written about the Importance of
growing flowers and vines and max
ing homes attractive, that the young
folks will be tempted to stay in them !;
but not so much is said about raising
vegetables and fruits that will help to
give them sound bodies-thus making
non-essentials of more Importance
than the essential.
This is a month when many young
farmers are setting out in business for
themselves. Many of them have not
much capital to start with, and the
writer in his easy chair and the insti-
tute lecturer might do better than to
lay needless burdens upon them.
If weeds are kept down, fences in
good repair, and general tidiness pre-
walls, a family can enjoy life without
taking time and money for extra
adorning and beautifying their prem
ises, while they let debts go unpaid !;
their good names become tarnished,
and they are looked upon as having
no business qualifications. A good
name is of more value than decora-
ted lawn, fine horses and carriages,
costly furniture and dress. A good
name cannot be maintained without
prompt payment of just debts. There
is little fear but farmers will do quite
enough ornamentation when they
have money to pay the bills. Any
way, children that can see nothing in
standing by their parents but the fin
cry they furnish to please them with,
might as we'll go and try for them
selves how money comes. Such chill
dren are only burdens to their parents.
1t would be mnch wiser not to be
too anxious about keeping young
men on the farms. After giving
them such counsel as you deem to be
true, then let them decide for them
selves but keep your money under
your own control. Advice is thing
not relished much by young people,.
Almost any college professor, life in
surance agent or gay companion of
idle hours can have more weight as
advisers than the old folks, who have
devoted their best years in service for
them. Bought wit is said to be the
best, and it seems sometimes as if it
was the only kind there is. Many a
man has ruined himself and been poor
and dependent i'll his old days be-
cause of doing too much for thankless
children.
This is DEPRESSION simply to show
the futility of insisting on that which
we cannot control, and neglected those
things which we can. If we cannot
grow roses and cabbages both, grow
the cabbages; if we cannot grow
sweet peas and narrowfats, stick to
the narrowfats, for they will stick
closer to us; if we cannot cultivate
shrubs and currants, hold fast to the
currants; if we must choose between
lilies and strawberries, choose the
latter. 1t is not for everyone to have
everything, but to make wise and
practical selections is of vital impor-
tance. That farmer who thinks it
Just as we'll to let his garden go with
out tillage, and buys vegetables of the
huckster, is doing a good thing for
the huckster, but not for his own
family There is health and strength
in the fresh, crisp vegetables of our
own growing that cannot be found in
the wilted, decaying product of dis
tant markets. Even if it costs as
much to raise them as to buy them,
you are the gamer in the quality and
in having them at hand, fresh and
nourishing, whenever you need.
A young farmer in bis haste to gel
in spring crops often hunts up excuses
to keep out of the garden. He shuts
the eyes of his young, confding wife
sometimes, by saying he don't care
for garden truck, and that mostly
settles it, but it plunges her into the
deepest anxiety and extra work tc
contrive something that he does care
for. What she likes, and what would
be convenient to cook and healthful
to eat, do not enter into her consider.
alton. It is what he likes that she
wants to provide. hope the deaf
young wife will do some thinking OF
her own account, and cater to the
best interests of all the family, rather
than to the distorted appetite of the
head Of the house. If he doesn't
like vegetables and fruits it is hel
business to make him like them. She
should learn how to cook them appe
tizingly and let them be prominen
in every dinner. The same with
fruits. Half the indigestions an(
oh-dear-me's are owing to impropel
food.
When the spring comes natura
appetite demands greens of some sort
Half the beauty of spring is in th'
fresh food it brings. Asparagus i
an important early garden sauce. 1
you have no asparagus bed, lose M
time in getting one. 1t will take tive
years, at least, to get one into goot
using order. Asparagus is thing
that not all know how to raise, and
is expensive to buy. know youns
farmer who planted three beds of /
before he had a yield. The trouble
was he planted the roots too shallow