eeds got above ground? I appeal to any gardening
man of sound mind, if that which pays him best in gardening is not
that which he cannot show in his trial-balance. Yet I yield to public
opinion, when I proceed to make such a balance; and I do it with the
utmost confidence in figures.

I select as a representative vegetable, in order to estimate the cost of
gardening, the potato. In my statement, I shall not include the
interest on the value of the land. I throw in the land, because it would
otherwise have stood idle: the thing generally raised on city land is
taxes. I therefore make the following statement of the cost and income
of my potato-crop, a part of it estimated in connection with other
garden labor. I have tried to make it so as to satisfy the income-tax
collector:--

Plowing.......................................$0.50
Seed..........................................$1.50
Manure........................................ 8.00
Assistance in planting and digging, 3 days.... 6.75
Labor of self in planting, hoeing, digging,
picking up, 5 days at 17 cents........... 0.85
------
Total Cost................$17.60

Two thousand five hundred mealy potatoes,
at 2 cents..............................$50.00
Small potatoes given to neighbor's pig........ .50

Total return..............$50.50

Balance, profit in cellar......$32.90

Some of these items need explanation. I have charged nothing for my
own time waiting for the potatoes to grow. My time in hoeing, fighting
weeds, etc., is put in at five days: it may have been a little more. Nor
have I put in anything for cooling drinks while hoeing. I leave this out
from principle, because I always recommend water to others. I had some
difficulty in fixing the rate of my own wages. It was the first time
I had an opportunity of paying what I thought labor was worth; and I
determined to make a good thing of it for once. I figured it right
down to European prices,--seventeen cents a day for unskilled labor. Of
course, I boarded myself. I ought to say that I fixed the wages after
the work was done, or I might have been tempted to do as some masons did
who worked for me at four dollars a day. They lay in the shade and slept
the sleep of honest toil full half the time, at least all the time I
was away. I have reason to beli