THE FAMILY GARDEN AND ITS PRODUCTS.

BY A. J. FOGG, ESQ., OF NORTHWOOD.

It is a common saying in country, town, and village, "My garden furnishes half the living for my family through the summer and fall."

While this may be an exaggerated expression, nevertheless it cannot be denied but the products of a well cultivated garden furnish a large portion of the most palatable and healthful food that comes to the table of the rich or poor man through the warmer months of the year. A dinner-table in the summer or fall, devoid of the products of the family garden, is about as enjoyable as a religious service without singing. In fact, through the year, a well supplied table is represented by the products of the garden to a greater or less extent. The cabbage, beet, turnip, squash, parsnip, onion, etc., belong to the dainties of the table of the epicurean through the winter and spring as well as in the warmer months.

There are in the United States not far from five million farms and twelve million families. Twenty-five per cent of these families live in the cities and large villages, leaving seventy-five per cent or nine million in the country; and it is safe to state that there are nine million family gardens (not to say anything of "market gardens ") in this country.

The managers of our national census at the various decades. have neglected to prepare any tables to furnish an approximate value of our family garden products, but only the amount sold as market garden products. As rendered by the census of 1870,

the amount of garden vegetables sold the year previous was $20,700,000, and in 1880 about the same value, owing to the depreciation of values in currency. The value of market garden products sold at the present time is not far from $35,000,000, or nearly half the value of the orchard production of the country, which includes apples, pears, peaches, oranges, etc. The value of the products of the family garden has never been considered by our statistical officials, but there is no doubt if the true figures could be obtained, it would aggregate the large sum of $150,000,000 annually. It is also a noted fact that the agricultural department at Washington has not given that attention to the garden which it deserves. A few garden seeds are annually distributed, but that is about all, except now and then a paper on some kind of insects affecting garden vegetables, accompanied by an indefinite remedy.

There is no use in disguising the truth, for, as a rule, the family garden of the farmer does not receive that attention which its importance merits in aiding the support of a family if rightly managed. The farmer is too apt to think that two or three acres of corn must be attended to, if many of the wants in the garden are neglected. He forgets that a half acre of garden ground well cultivated will yield in all its various products more value toward the support of a family, over and above expenses, than any two acres of corn or potatoes ever grown. The garden is one of the principal sources from which springs a large portion of the luxuries of our tables, yet it is one of the most neglected plots of ground, considering its value, that the farmer possesses. Rainy days and odd hours are usually all the time the farmer spares to cultivate his garden, and it is a lamentable fact that in many gardens the rankest crop is the grass and weeds which are suffered to grow through neglect, and thereby check the plants and exhaust the fertility of the ground. But such neglect by many farmers must be expected as long as public men neglect to investigate the importance and value of the garden and give statistical facts.

While we acknowledge the supremacy of gardens, as now cultivated, over other lands the farmer tills, yet their value could be doubled if properly attended to or as is the well managed market garden. We know a market garden of sixty-five acres, with com

mon seasons as to wet or dry, that yields an annual value in the various kinds of garden products of $10,000. Thirty years ago this same land, then under the ordinary farm cultivation, did not yield an annual value of $500, "all told." It is not to be expected, or even desired, that all farm lands should be cultivated under the market or family garden process, but as far as the family garden is concerned, its product is not overdone, and double the amount could be raised and used to advantage in families that pretend to cultivate gardens for their own use. But we commenced this article to speak more particularly of

THE CABBAGE, ITS CULTURE, PROTECTION, AND USES. This is one of the most important and useful vegetables raised. A dinner-pot in almost any family in the fall, winter, or spring, with a supply of corned beef, pork, bacon, and potatoes, is considered rather barren if the cabbage is not boiling beneath its lid. Owing to our varied climate in this country, north and south, and quick mode of transportation, together with keeping the cabbage five or six months after it is harvested, it is usually found in the markets of all our northern cities and large villages in every month in the year.

The people living in New England, in proportion to the population, do not raise or consume as many cabbages as they do in many other sections of our country where there is a large element of foreign population. As a general rule, the manner of cooking cabbage in the eastern states, and especially in the rural districts, is to boil it with some kind of salt meat; but in many sections of New York and states west, where the German population is quite a per cent of the whole, the cabbage is served in various styles,such as boiling with salt and smoked meat, chopping fine and frying, seasoned with butter, pepper, and salt to suit the taste. It is used as pickled "slaw" in soups, and largely in what is called by the Dutch of Holland "sour-crout." We well know that this Dutch food is ridiculed by nearly all New Englanders who have tasted it (and by those who have not), owing to its peculiar smell; but let any Yankee go west, and take up his abode where there is quite a sprinkling of Germans, and he will soon learn to relish "sour-crout" and will frequently "hold up his plate for more."

It may not be amiss to state to New Hampshire people, and especially the housewives, how "sour-crout" is made. Late in October take solid cabbage-heads and chop them fine with a chopping-knife, sprinkle some coarse salt in the bottom of a barrel or any other tight vessel, and then place in a layer of the cabbage and press or pound it down solid, and then more salt, and so on until the desired quantity is obtained; then put the barrel in a cool place, and the salt and cabbage will soon create a brine which in a short time will work or ferment, and cause an acid taste to the cabbage, and it will become quite tender. It will take some four weeks for the compound to go through this process, but if that is too long to wait, the vessel can be placed near a stove and it may be ready for use in about ten or fifteen days. But if the barrel is placed in a dry cellar, the contents will not emit such an odor, and the "crout" will keep good till late in the spring.

The "crout" is served by frying in butter, and may be used with vinegar when eaten, or it is very good cold as a relish. When living in Washington we boarded in a New England family, and through the spring it was on the table nearly every morning, and we noticed that the eastern boarders did not "pass it by." It is generally used by many families living on the Hudson below the mouth of the Mohawk, where there is a large foreign population. On the Hudson flats between Cohoes and Albany, the average crop of cabbage is estimated at over 1,000,000 heads annually, and upon the Mohawk as many more, besides the market gardens in the vicinity of Albany and Troy back from the river flats. the immediate vicinity of Washington, D. C., the market gardens raise from five to twenty thousand heads annually, and in the northern section of Prince George's county, Md., market farmers plant from 25,000 to 160,000 heads, and much of it is used in "sour-crout.”

In Albany or Troy it is not considered an extreme quantity for a person to purchase one hundred heads of cabbage for family use through the winter, and this four dollars' worth of cabbage, they say, will go further toward supporting a family than twenty dollars expended in any other way. In the time of the late war, in 1864, the Soldier's Aid Society at Cincinnati thought they would

send their "boys at the front " some dainties for the holidays, and among the viands selected were two hundred barrels of "sourcrout." These facts furnish sufficient or conclusive evidence that what is termed a Dutch food is considered a luxury by many people in this country. Let our New Hampshire housewives put up a jar of "sour-crout," and while they may not become Dutch women in every sense, still they may become lovers of one of the Dutch modes of cooking cabbage. In the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, with an area not as large as Massachusetts, and a population of less than 2,000,000, our consul reports the average annual yield of cabbage at over 50,000,000 heads.

Owing to the thick leaves of the cabbage, it retains its succulent nature for a longer period after harvesting than almost any vegetable whose nutritious qualities grow above the ground. If properly cared for, it will retain its green, succulent state for five or six months. Cattle are fond of cabbage, and it is not expensive; besides it is beneficial to feed a few heads to them every week through the winter for a change. The same can be said of fowls. They are as herbiverous as the cow or ox, only they require their vegetables green and juicy. Nothing is more healthful and beneficial to hens, turkeys, geese, etc., than cabbage fed two or three times a week through the winter and spring. no more expensive than corn or potatoes if farmers would think so and act accordingly.

It is

The best kind of soil to grow cabbage is moist, sandy ground. But almost any soil (if not dry and sandy) well manured will grow a fair crop if properly attended to. With the exception of clear hog manure, almost any kind of manure well rotted and mixed with the soil will answer for cabbage. But it is better to spread on the coarser manures in the fall and plow it under and again plow the ground in the spring and apply the finer fertilizers in or around the hills of cabbage, such as phosphates, guano, night and hen manure compost in the cabbage hills, and ashes, lime, etc., on and around the cabbage; refuse salt is also good to spread on the ground. The more ammonia in the ground the better for cabbage, - to prevent club-foot and to promote their

general growth.

Cabbage for fall or winter use should have its seed sown about