The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-12-21
BY GEORGE [. Won CARLSON.

y
the business man feels the necessity
of some sort OF recreation that will
answer as well as relax-something
! that will take his mind off the cares
of the Office or the store, and give him
the rest needed by an over worked
| physical system. But rest does not
always mean doing nothing.
The ideal rest, such as the business
| man needs, is that secured by a
change of occupations, which will give
his nerves chance to let UP on the
tension they are under during the day.
| and furnish something for boths hands
and head to do, so unlike the activi-
ties of ordinary business life that new
set of muscles and thoughts are
called into play.
l know of nothing which affords
more healthy recreation than garden
work, and the pleasures of it cannot
| be overestimated. Indeed they can
only be properly understood by the
man who becomes a gardener for an
| hour or two daily
Nine men out Of ten who drop the
pen and the yardstick for the hoe and
spade for little times each day, soon
become so In love with amateur gar
dening in It's various phases that they
catch themselves thinking about 1t
| during business hours, and when the
books In Office are closed, and all
business worry is left behind when
| they HE away to the home where a
bit Of ground is waiting for them to
expend their energies on.
/ know of many hard-worked men
| who have taken up gardening as a
means Of pleasure and relaxation, who
declare that they find in gardening
work a tonic far more effective than
any a physician has ever been able to
prescribe for them. 1t gives their
| weary, cramped muscles just the ex-
ercise 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 grow
! ing rest their tired eyes as much as
the use of hoe, or rake, or spade rest
! their limbs, and they breathe in new
life and strength, and find health as
we'll as pleasure in their new occupa-
ton.
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 it 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 like to dig and wallow in
! the soil, and the full-grown man is
simply going back to first principles
when he began to be a gardener.
| No one has any idea of the possibil.
tiles that lie wrapped up in a little
piece of ground until he begins to dig
after and develo pthem. Then he finds
flowers and vegetables there waiting
to be evolved from the chaos of the
primitive soil by the magic wand OF
the hoe and the spade. He has a
vague idea, when he begins, that a bit
of ground a 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 diversions that are
constantly being made in it, what we
find out today piques our curiosity as
to what will be found out tomorrow
and the fascination of it is like that of
a game which we never know what is
going to happen next.
| Now, / am very we'll aware that
what l have said about gardening as
means of restfull, healthy recreation
| for the business man sounds a good
deal like an essay on the subject, but
did not intend it to be that l want
ed to present some Of the arguments
in it's favor in such a manner that
they would attract the attention of
! overworked business men for whom
am going to write series Of practical,
sensible articles on gardening on a
small scale, knowing that if they can
be interested sufficiently to begin the
work they will hold to it there after,
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 out of doors will give
them; women who have flowers and
would be glad to have them all about
| the home grounds. Let me suggest