The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-04-25

up the cares of the day when the books
in the Office are closed and all business
worry is left behind when they HE
away to the home, where bit Of
ground is waiting for them to expend
their energies on.
I know of many hard-worked men
who have taken up gardening as a
means of pleasure and relaxation, who
declare that they find in garden work
a tonic far more effective than any
physician has ever been able to pre-
scribe for them. 1t gives their weary
cramped muscles just the exercise they
need to rid them of the soreness Of
the days work indoors. 1t takes them
out into the fresh air, where the sight
of green things growing rests their
tired eyes as much as the use Of hoe
of rake, or spade rest their limbs, and
they breathe in new life and strength
and find health as well as pleasure in
their new occupation.
But the best of it all is they soon
become so in love with it that they
never care to give it up after it is
once begun, and the benefits derived
from its increase yearly.
The habit of gardening is easily
formed, and from this fact we might
argue that there is tendency for
us TO revert to the original occupation
of man, which was that of gardener,
we are told, when "Adam delved and
Eve span"
Children liked to dig and wallow in
the soil, and the full-grown man is
simply going back to "first principles
when he began to be gardener.
No one has any idea of the possibili
ties that lie wrapped up in little
piece Of ground until he begins to dig
after and develop them. Then he
finds flowers and vegetables there,
waiting to be evolved from the chaos
of the primitive soil by the magic
wands of the hoe and the spade. He
has a vague idea when he begins that
bit of ground few feet square is
simply a plaything which will afford
him amusement for little while, but
as soon as he gets down to work on
it he finds out that the possibilities
are limitless.
This is one of the chief pleasures
of 1.-THE delightful discoveries that
are constantly being made in it. What
we find out today piques our curios.
ity as to what will be found out to-
morrow, and the fascination of it is
like that of game that is never twice
alike, and in which We never know
what is going to happen next.
Now, / am very well aware that what
have said about gardening as a means
of restful, healthy recreation for the
business man sounds a good deal like
an essay on the subject, but did not
intend it to be that. / wanted to
present some of the arguments in it,
favor in such manner that they
would attract the attention of over
worked business men, for whom / am
going to wrie a series OF practical, SEN
sible articles on gardening on a small
scale, knowing that il they can be in
tercsted sufficiently to begin the work
they will hold to it thereafter, without
anybody's urging.
Most homes have little space about
them which can be given up to flower
beds. And most homes have in them
women who need just the kind of tonic
work ont of doors will give them, wo-
men who love flowers and would be
glad to have them all about the home
grounds. Let me suggest the formation
of a company for the improvement
of homo and the cultivation OF health