Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — Hygiene of the Kitchen Garden. [ARTICLE]

Hygiene of the Kitchen Garden.

Tint value of a good garden, viewed either from an ecooomte or from a hygienic standpoint, is by the great maaa of people very greatly underestimated. A few of the more common vegetables planted and allowad to maintain aa almost unaided struggle with weeds and inaedfe tetbe ideal—or, if not the Ideals the realization—or quite too many family kitchen gardens- And yet, very few who have space forn thinkof doing without a garden, even of thte naprbfiiabfe and unsatisfactory kind, ft furnishes some things to give variety, though bat little to makp up a substantial dietary. And this little often includes an undue proportion of thetaont indigestible and innutritions vegetables. *»•<;.. As compared with a well-stocked and well-cultivated garden, how meager does such a one appear I The true ideal of a garden raises it to a much more important level. It becomes one of the most prolific of the sources from which a welllurnUhed table is supplied. It contributes daily, or almost daily, the whole year round, the most nutritious and wholesome food, and contributes liberally, too. They who keep a good garden, and justly appreciate its value, need not be haunted with visions of tape-worms, or trichime, nr any of the fearful diseases more or less frequency resulting from the use of animai food, and from the liability to which no precautionary or prudential measures can secure us so long as we indulge in the use of such food. To those who have not thought mnch about it the quantity and variety of food ito be derived from a good garuen seems almost incredible. Beginning in early spring, with spinach and other varieties of greens, a succession is kept up with the early, mediuin and late kind of pease, bush beans, beets, earrots, salsify, Irish and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, Lima and Other pole beans, green corn, melons, squashes, pumpkins, the different varieties of the cabbage family, early and late, turnips, parsnips, etc., amongtheannuals, requiring but a single season for their production. Of a more permanent >character aie asparagus and rhubarb, which fill so important places in early spring; and also the delicious strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, grapes, etc. The list might be even mnch more extended. The quantity of ground required to feed a single ox and prepare him for market, would, If cultivated as a garden, feed a whole family for an equal length of time; While the nutritive value of the food so produced is beyond comparison greater than the flesh of. the ox when butchered. And whatever we may think of the necessity for animal food, it must be admitted that the variety and of the products of the garden entitle them to a high range among nutritive -substances.. But the hygienic value of a good garden is not to be estimated alone by the quantity and quality of the food to be derived from it The pleasant out-of-door exercise, with the pure air and sunlight enjoyed for a few hours daily while caring tor the plants, would prove invaluable to men ohdedentary habits, and would do much to strengthen the shattered nerves and bring rosy hues to the pallid cheeks of multitudes of wivesand daughters made invalids by confinement within doors, and by working over Aot cooking stoves where the<air is loaOed'with vapors inseparable from the culinary art as now understood and practiced. The mentaiAygiene, too, is.well worthy of notice. The planning and. the preparation of the ground, the study of the habits of different plants and their,proper cultivation, the selection of seeds,'roots, vines and trees, thescare of them during the season of growth, the harvesting and storing of their products at the proper time and in the best manner, the oerobination of utility and neatness in all these and many other things, afford pleasant employment for the mind, which is otherwise too often burdened with cares and vexations much less favorable to good mental conditions. The satisfaction of supplying the table with the products of one’s own labor and care is a consideration of no-trifling importance. It is objected .that all these are small things. What .if they are small things? Great things, even the greatest things, are but the aggregation of parts, each of which taken alone seems very small. The strokes of an engine ares mall things, but a succession of them drives the. iron horse with its ponderous train, across the continent in a few days. The longest life is made up of a succession of moments. If each of these infinitesimal fragments Of time brings .with it a corresponding amount of p|eaaure, the whole lite will be a happy one, though marked with no specialseasons of .unusual enjoyment. The whole, la made upof its parts, and the character of the whole,'’ whether good or bad, is .but the summing up of the characters of .the parts of which it is composed. Lost health may be recovered .by stepsdio imperceptible that days or weeks may pass before manifest indications of progress are noticed. In many chronic cases this is the rule, and more rapid progress the rare exception. Make sure of being on the road to health, and if but one step is taken at a time, and the .intervals are long, it Is far better than to be making more rapid progress in the wrong ’direction.— I)r. J. 8. Galloway, in Health Heirrm. x