Had we bought all the produce of our garden, the value would have more than paid our gardener’s wages.

Nor must I omit the luxury of having beautiful flowers from the greenhouse throughout the winter; these superfluous items did not figure in our accounts.  We should have purchased but bare necessaries, and therefore entered but twenty-five cents a day for “garden stuff” 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 speaking of the pleasure I experienced from residing in the country, and placed health among its many advantages, when I was answered, “It is better to die in London than live in the country!”