The pressure which the war has brought to bear upon our purses, owing to the increased cost of food, has induced many persons, including ourselves, to put equal pressure on their gardens, and to consume a much larger quantity of vegetables than they have ever been accustomed to eat. So easy is it to reduce the butcher's, fishmonger's, and provision merchant's bills, with the assistance of vegetables, that the subject is worthy of the study of those who have hitherto ignored it.

By a judicious selection of vegetables, and a really careful system of cooking, delightful meals can be prepared direct from the garden. The enjoyment of eating, which is common to the healthy appetite, depends to a large extent upon the flavour of foods. That flavour is chiefly contributed by plants. Meat and poultry, for example, are always more appetising when accompanied by vegetables and savoury sauces. Pork, duck, and goose are eaten with herb-stuffing or apple-sauce or with both, while the popular sausage would be a very poor thing without the flavour of the herbs within it.

Ingenious cooks are able to prepare dishes of vegetables which, skilfully flavoured, are as savoury and appetising as meat, and this is done with the assistance of the onion, the tomato, the pea, the bean, salsify, such herbs as parsley, thyme, mint, sage, and marjoram; and the spices, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and pepper - with salt. There are no soups superior to those made with tomatoes, chervil, spinach, asparagus, and celery, and there are none so cheap as those prepared with potatoes, artichokes, and onions. Stews, fritters, pies, and puddings, are all made and seasoned with vegetables, and where a very little meat is employed some of the most appetising dishes which are known to the writer can be prepared at very small cost. Here is an example of a savoury pudding which would be nothing without the aid of the garden.

Two ounces of finely chopped lean meat - mutton, beef, or pork, as preferred - 2 oz. of chopped suet, and a fairly large onion also chopped fine, are mixed with 12 oz. of flour, and flavoured with finely powdered sage, parsley, and thyme. To this a teaspoonful of baking-powder is added, and the whole mixed with skimmed milk, or new milk and water, for conversion into a large round dumpling. For serving the sauce may be made, from a penny packet of gravy powder or soup, and the dish will be found delicious. If this is cooked for dinner and supplemented with salsify cooked in a baking dish in the following way, the meal will be found fit for a king.

The salsify is washed, cut into small pieces - if it is thick it must be cut down the centre - and boiled in a little water which has been salted, care being taken that the water is not so large in quantity that some will have to be thrown away after cooking. To 1 lb. of salsify add 4 oz. of flour, three eggs beaten up, l 1/2 pints milk, and 2 oz. margarine, with salt, herbs, or spice, to taste. This dish is baked until the salsify is quite tender.

To the gourmand these dishes may not appeal. He believes that nothing less than a joint of meat, fish, game, or fowl - or all - is sufficiently substantial to give him strength and satisfaction. This is all wrong. Domestic animals are provided with digestive organs which closely resemble those of ourselves. The horse manages to extract sufficient nutriment from oats and hay to provide him with strength, while cattle obtain from grass, turnips, and cereal meals sufficient food to produce meat and milk. It is precisely the same with the man who takes pains to compile the ration for his stock with much greater precision and care than he devotes to his own food. I have never met with an instance in which a well-prepared dish of vegetable food, cooked with the assistance of milk, butter, or eggs, has not given satisfaction to the average - if somewhat fastidious - man. The large number of vegetables which are at our command enables a good cook to provide innumerable dishes, not only from a cookery book, but concocted by herself.

By high cultivation, and with the assistance of artificial manures, large and varied crops can be grown in the garden to last from June until the early spring of the next year. In my own case I have still (the middle of February) abundance of leeks, parsnips, salsify, artichokes, beet, onions, turnips, celery, and green-stuff, with some growing lettuce and spinach, which furnish the table with a daily variety. French beans were preserved in the autumn, and these, too, are available. Thus, with bread, flour, milk, butter, margarine, cheese, dried peas and beans, and potatoes, these are a means of reducing the butcher's account to vanishing-point. This, however, is not all - for home-grown apples and pears are still going, while plums, damsons, and other bottled fruits provide for the remaining dishes of the table.