Wholesome are the thoughts and schemes it
suggests; healthful are the blood and muscle resulting from its
products and labor therein. Even with the purse of a millionaire,
the best of the city's markets is no substitute for a garden; for
Nature and life are here, and these are not bought and sold. From
stalls and pedlers' wagons we can buy but dead and dying things.
The indolent epicure's enjoyment of game is not the relish of the
sportsman who has taken his dinner direct from the woods and
waters.
I am often told, "It is cheaper to buy fruit and vegetables than
to raise them." I have nothing to say in reply. There are many
cheap things that we can have; experience has proved that one of
the BEST things to have is a garden, either to work in or to visit
daily when the season permits. We have but one life to live here,
and to get the cheapest things out of it is a rather poor
ambition.
There are multitudes who can never possess an acre, more or less,
and who must obtain Nature's products at second hand. This is not
so great a misfortune as to have no desire for her companionship,
or wish to work under her direction in dewy mornings and shadowy
evenings. We may therefore reasonably suppose that the man who has
exchanged his city shelter for a rural home looks forward to the
garden with the natural, primal instinct, and is eager to make the
most of it in all its aspects.
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