From Rude Rural Rhymes by Bob Adams, New York: The Macmillan Company; 1925; pp. 109-110.
ADVICE TO GARDENERS
The original garden, eastward in Eden,
Had every kind of fruit and seed in.
When man left Eden for Eden’s good,
He lost this old-time wholesome food.
But by some thousand years’ selection,
We now have made a new collection.
First are the leaves like spinach and chard
And lettuce, which fill this hard-eating bard
With plenty of iron and vitamins.
With strength and grace and healthful grins.
The leaf crops too will furnish roughage
Required by tender age and tough age.
The snappy snap bean in the diet
Has varied use and all should try it.
Sweet corn we eat with some restraint —
If we have sense, which this bard hain’t.
Your time on carrots is well spent,
But catch them young and innocent.
So also beets, best when they’re small
And better eaten tops and all,
Since all the leaves beneath their skins,
Are full of iron and vitamins.
Let onions too perfume the air
[110]
And plant tomatoes everywhere.
Your cabbage should be eaten raw —
More vitamins are found in slaw.
Eat onions also raw and free,
And then, gosh sake, steer clear of me.
I urge such foods at every season,
And as the ad says, there’s a reason.
We all would be a happier nation
If we were free from constipation.
There’s nothing so rare as a day in June,
Because that month is a garden moon,
And all our livers are in tune.
Yet any month would be as good
If we were careful of our food.