The Colorado statesman., 1914-03-28
OUR RAcK YARDS.

low me space, | Will write short ar
ticle on the back yard. | have had
the opportunity to visit quite a few
of our people upon several occasions.
find that we have as nice homes as
you can find in any city. But there is
one thing would like to impress upon
the minds of great many of our
people-that is the value of the back
yard.
see some very careless as to that.
In some cases it is of no advantage
to the place. ] would like to influ-
ence everybody with a home, whether
rented or not, to put the back yard in
garden and flowers. Most any of our
yards are large enough to raise garden
truck enough for a family of three or
| four people if properly cared for.
| | was raised a farmer boy and
farmed until the last nine years in the
state of Kansas; but never did | see
ground that would produce as much
as the ground in Colorado If properly
cultivated and watered. | often Won
der if housewives ever stop to count
the money they spend for vegetables
during the summer months; If not, it
would be surprising to keep account,
am sure they would say it cannot
| be possible. With a little work each
] day you could have all the fresh vege-
tables that you wanted, which would
| even be better than you could buy
and to think of eating anything that
has been hauled all over the city in
the dust-enough to make any thought
| ful person change their mind.
Also a few flowers in the yard make
home look cheerful. While there is
not so much profit to them as the back
yard garden we spend each spring SO
| to s12 for flowers for our flower beds
and boxes We find a great comfort
| in them, and gives us something to
| do in our leisure hours to keep us in
terested in beautifying our home; and
our vegetable garden is an amazing
sight; we buy nothing in the line of
vegetables during summer months;
also we raise a great many things that
we can keep for winter use, such as
| cabbage, beets, carrots, turnips and
pumpkins-any of them beats raising
weeds.
Besides, it keeps the women from
parading the streets and the men
from the clubs. which probably is the
! reason for so many dissatisfied homes.
Some people will say, MY yard is
SO small, why, what could | raise on
it," Here are a few things that can
ishes, of which as soon as your first
planting is gone, you can plant again
and have them fresh and nice all the
summer. We have planted and raised
them for four different times during
the season. Also, most any yard Is
large enough for two dozen cabbage
plants, half dozen tomatoes, few
| beets. asparagus bed, cucumbers and
small awberry bed, which YOU
would be surprised the berries it will
produce: and if you have as much
ground as lot and a half or two lots,
you can very easily have a few hills
of corn. one dozen chickens in the far
corner of your lot which is of no dis
advantage, but profitable if handled
right
But we hear so many of our wom-
| en-also men-say that they do not
| have time to care for them, and they
made so much litter in the yard, but
nine times out of ten these very peo-
Pile have their yard full of weeds ana
other refuse of no advantage what
ever and the woman is working every
day to get vegetables and eggs for
the table, when she could work half as
hard at home and it would amount to
twice as much as her days work
would bring home. But no. it seems
as though we are not educated to the
fact that work for ourselves is of any
value: but my belief is, so long as
we go out by the day to work, and
never try to do something at home
towards. making a living, we will not
prosper very fast; also raising up chill
dren without any knowledge whatever
of tilling the soil and poultry-raising-
two very important things of life.
Take our youngsters in the North
ern states, as a rule, if we were to put
them in country where they had
to make a living by tilling the soil,
most of them would starve to death.
So with a little teaching for our
| youngsters towards raising a garden
| and poultry. will be of no disadvan-
| tage. We are all poor as a rule, and
in many instances the man and wife
are compelled to work from home, and
yet they have children at home large
enough to raise garden for the fam
| lily use: but for the lack of teaching
they have never become interested in
| such work.
We would not have half the trouble
keeping them at home and out of mis-
chief, besides the improvement of the
place with flower gardens and eggs
| for the table. | think it would be a
great thing to organize club and Of
fer prizes for the hoy or girl raising
the best flowers and garden; also for
the grown-ups for the best-kept places
among our people.
WALTER II. PRITCHETTE.
| II. c. Radclff has opened a nice,
neat barber shop at his old stand, 1926
18th street. The shop has been re-