in our housekeeping book.

Those only who have lived in the country can appreciate the luxury of
not only having fruit and vegetables in abundance, but of having them
fresh. Early potatoes fresh dug, peas fresh gathered, salad fresh cut,
and fruit plucked just before it makes its appearance at table, are
things which cannot be purchased by the wealthiest residents in a
great city.

Not far from our residence there were large grounds, which were
cultivated with fruit and vegetables for the London market. I have
frequently seen the wagons packed for Covent Garden. The freshest that
can be procured there would be considered "stale" in the neighborhood
in which they were grown. Any fruit or vegetables in that far-famed
market must have been gathered twenty-four hours before they could
find their way into the kitchen of the consumer; and it is not only
the time which has elapsed, but the manner in which they are packed,
which so much deteriorates their quality.

Have any of our readers ever seen the densely-loaded wagons which
enter that market? The vegetables are wedged as closely together as
they can be pressed, which very soon causes, in warm weather,
cabbages, greens, &c., to ferment and become unwholesome. I have often
seen them so loaded in the middle of the day before they reached
London. They are left in the hot sun till the time arrives, when the
horses are placed in them, and they begin their slow journey towards
town. This is seldom till late at night when the distance does not
exceed a dozen miles.

The finer kinds of fruit such as peaches, grapes, etc., do not injure
so much by being kept a few days before the are eaten; indeed, _ripe_
peaches and nectarines are seldom gathered for sale: they would spoil
too quickly to enable the fruiterer to realize much profit. They are
plucked when quite hard, and then placed in boxes till they gradually
_soften_; but the flavor of fruit thus treated is very inferior to
that of a peach or nectarine ripened by the sun. Seed-fruits, such as
strawberries, come very vapid in four or five hours after they have
been picked, if they were then quite ripe.

I know that the last few pages have nothing to do with "the money we
made" by our farm, but I wish to show the reader all the advantages
which a country residence possess over a town one. Some persons, who
cannot live without excitement, think that nothing can compensate for
the want of amusement and society.

I was once sp