The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-09

garden. The smell of the earth was so refreshing as 1t lay up turned, the little grasses and weeds warmed into life by the early spring sunshine being jerked up without any warning. The garden lay along side a fence over which wild rose bushes gave promise of early bloom and on the other side of the fence rambled a country lane between tall trees. At the foot of the garden a little spring so hid den by tall grasses that no one would ever suspect it was there, was filled with pebbles and leaves and far off were the stretches of. meadow and stubble and much field grass.
 Just when the garden was about half ploughed, one of our neighbors stopped by the other side of the fence and in- formed us that we had made bad selec- tion for our garden on account of prob able freshet. The spring rains, he said, sometimes overfiowed the banks of the French Broad river and while this did not happen more than every four or five years 1t was wiser to plant the garden on the high lands and he indicated by pointing with his umbrella several acres on the far side of the cornfield.
 I did not look at the dear old gentle man. So few people, in my recollection, with the possible exception of the fam fly physician, have ever had the temerity to differ with him. particularly on ques- tion of gardening.
 He wanted the earliest potatoes and he did not want to waste a moment longer in getting the ground in readiness. Ther he had selected that particular spot and was anxious to see the results of his spring gardening.
 It was crucial moment-for the gar den.
 Well. MT. Kearns," he said rather dry ly, "when can you plough the other off Tt. ...T. 4I.. 1.... low without saying another word.
 There was a long list of thinks to be planted and a great deal of advice given by those who were considered authorities on mountain gardening. I have given very little attention to growing vegetables. be- Ing far more interested in my plans for an old-fashioned garden But as we are somewhat remote from a market and our nearest neighbor lives nearly a mile away thought 1t was my duty to take a per- sonal interest in the cultivation of veget- ables
 There is no greater delight than to watch the seed shoot mp in your garden and to see row after row of hardy veget- ahles. We have planted long rows of country gentlemen corn and 1t makes fresh, graceful outline for the rest of the garden I should like to keep 1t at it's present height. because if it continues growing 1t will shut off the view of the meadow and unless all the storks are even the garden will have a ragged look
 I have observed that In a flower garden 1t is frequently the most unexpected things that come up first. Tn my veget- able garden I was so surprised to see the green tops of the radshes sticking their heads above the earth quite in advance of the potatoes and tomatoes. And after re- reated visits to see if the cantaloupes were behaving properly I discovered the onions had grown very tall and their 1'recociousness had been entirely over looked up to that very moment.
 It is my greatest ambition to have the tenderest lettuce of any of my neighbors and am sure that I have taken great many unnecessary steps in my anxiety that the beans would not be pronped up at the very moment they needed some thing to lean upon. There is one thing have discovered in my sudden interest In gardening Experimenting the plough ing and reading garden catalouges and watching the spring rains are each im-