THE VEGETABLE GARDEN: WHAT, WHEN, AND HOW TO PLANT TEXT

NOTE TO THE PPVER AND WWER The tables have been left as a replica of the original because there is no way to ensure a clear reading if the size is reduced. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN [Illustration: A GOOD COLLECTION OF HOME-GROWN VEGETABLES] [Illustration: LETTUCE MATURING IN HOME-MADE COLD FRAME] The Vegetable Garden WHAT, WHEN, AND HOW TO PLANT _Reprinted from "The Farmer's Cyclopedia"_ GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1917 _Copyright, 1912, by_ AGRICULTURAL SERVICE COMPANY WASHINGTON, D. C. _All rights reserved_ TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Its Importance 3 Location 5 Plan and Arrangement 5 Fertilizers 7 Preparation of the Soil 9 Time of Planting 10 Selection of Seed 10 Sowing and Planting 11 Tools 15 Mulching 15 Irrigation 18 Thinning 19 Transplanting 19 Setting in the Open Ground 20 Protection of Plants 21 Harvesting, Packing and Shipping 22 Canning Vegetables on the Farm 23 Storing 27 Early Plants in Hotbeds 29 Handling Plants 30 Frames Used in Truck Growing 31 Ventilation 33 Soils and Fertilizers 34 Watering Crops 34 Garden Products: Anise 35 Artichoke 35 Asparagus 35 Beans 40 Beans, Lima 46 Beets 47 Borage 48 Broccoli 48 Brussels Sprouts 49 Cabbage 49 Calabash 51 Cantaloupe 52 Cardoon 53 Carrot 54 Cauliflower 54 Celeriac 57 Celery 57 Cetewayo 64 Chayote 64 Chervil 64 Chicory 64 Chile 65 Chive 66 Citron 66 Collards 67 Corn Salad 67 Cress 67 Cucumbers 67 Dandelion 71 Dill 72 Egg Plant 72 Endive 72 Fennel 73 Garlic 73 Ginger 73 Herbs 73 Horse Radish 74 Ice Plant 73 Kale 74 Kohl-Rabi 74 Leek 75 Lettuce 75 Lleren 75 Martynia 76 Melon--Muskmelon 76 Melon--Watermelon 81 Mustard 82 Nasturtium 82 New Zealand Spinach 83 Okra 83 Onions 85 Parsley 95 Parsnip 95 Peas 95 Peppers 96 Physalis 96 Potato 97 Pumpkin 116 Radish 116 Rhubarb 116 Ruta-Baga 117 Salsify 117 Scolymus 117 Skirret 117 Sorrel 118 Spinach 118 Squash 118 Stachys 118 Sweet Basil 119 Sweet Corn 119 Sweet Marjoram 119 Sweet Potato 119 Swiss Chard 128 Thyme 128 Tomatoes 128 Turnips 137 Vegetable Marrow 137 Quantity of Seed to Plant 138 Composition of Roots 140 Authorities Consulted 140 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Good Collection of Home-Grown Vegetables. Lettuce Maturing in Home-Made COLD FRAME _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Liquid Manure is One of the Best Acting Fertilizers 8 The Wheel Hoe is the Handiest Garden Tool 16 The Easiest Running Wheel Hoe Valuable for Maintaining a Dust Mulch 16 Temporary Hotbeds in a City Back Yard 30 Showing Vegetables Growing in Hotbed 32 Celery Banked With Earth to Blanch It 62 Japanese Climbing Cucumbers, Nearly Six Feet From the Ground 68 Well-Grown Cucumbers 68 Thorough Cultivation of the Growing Crop is an Essential of Successful Potato Raising 110 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Northern and Eastern farms is the home vegetable garden. Even where no orchard has been planted, and where the ornamental surroundings of the home have been neglected, a fairly well-kept garden in which are grown a number of the staple kinds of vegetables is generally to be found. In many cases the principal interest in the garden is manifested by the women of the household and much of the necessary care is given by them. A small portion of the garden inclosure is generally devoted to the cultivation of flowers, and a number of medicinal plants is invariably present. Throughout the newer parts of the country it is seen that the conditions governing the maintenance and use of the vegetable garden are somewhat different, and, while a number of vegetable crops may be grown somewhere on the farm, there is wanting that distinction so characteristic of the typical New England kitchen garden. It would be impossible to make an accurate estimate of the value of crops grown in the kitchen gardens of the United States, but from careful observation the statement can safely be made that a well-kept garden will yield a return ten to fifteen times greater than would the same area and location if devoted to general farm crops. A half acre devoted to the various kinds of garden crops will easily supply a family with $100 worth of vegetables during the year, while the average return for farm crops is considerably less than one-tenth of this amount. A bountiful supply of vegetables close at hand where they may be secured at a few moments' notice is of even more importance than the mere money value. Fresh vegetables from the home garden are not subjected to exposure on the markets or in transportation and are not liable to become infected in any way. Many of the products of the garden lose their characteristic flavor when not used within a few hours after gathering. By means of the home garden the production of the vegetable supply for the family is directly under control, and in many cases is the only way whereby clean, fresh produce may be secured. The home vegetable garden is worthy of increased attention, and a greater number and variety of crops should be included in the garden.--(F. B. 255.) The development and extension of truck farming in the Atlantic coast States have been coincident with the development of transportation facilities throughout that section. In the beginning the points affording water connection with the great consuming centers of the North were those at which truck farming first became established. The phenomenal growth of the great consuming centers of the country has stimulated a corresponding growth and extension of the food-producing territory, especially that capable of producing perishable truck crops. The demands for vegetables out of season, followed later by the continuous demand for fresh vegetables throughout the year by the great cities, led first to the market gardeners located near the cities supplementing their field operations by extensive forcing-house enterprises. Naturally, the products from the greenhouses were expensive and available only to the few who were able to pay fancy prices for green products out of season. The improvement and extension of the transportation facilities which came with the great railway-building era of the United States made it possible to take advantage of the wide diversity of climate offered along the Atlantic coast of the United States to furnish these perishable products to the great cities of the North and East. Transportation facilities, together with cheap labor and cheap lands at the South, have made it possible to produce in extreme southern locations products out of season at the North in competition with greenhouse products. The greater land area and the smaller amount of capital involved in the production of crops at the South, even though transportation charges were high, have enabled southern growers to produce much larger quantities of the desired crops than could be grown profitably under glass. It was therefore not many years before lettuce, celery, tomatoes, radishes, beets, and bunch beans came to be regular winter and early spring products of gardens located at great distances from the centers of consumption.--(Y. B. 1907.) It is only necessary to look around the village and town gardens in the South to become convinced of the great need that exists for information in regard to the proper care of the garden, and particularly that part which is intended to give supplies to the table. There town gardeners are very active in the early spring, and their enthusiasm often leads them to go ahead and plant a great many things at a season too early for their safety, so that a return of cold often compels the almost entire replanting of the garden. But with the production of the early crops in the garden, the enthusiasm of the gardeners oozes out under the influence of the summer's heat, and the garden that at first looked so neat in its spring dress becomes merely a weed patch. Few people realize the advantage that long summers and sunny autumns give for the production of a constant succession of crops in the garden, and still fewer realize that in this climate the garden need at no season of the year be abandoned to the weeds. One of the greatest troubles that results from the common practice of allowing the garden to grow up in weeds after the first peas, corn, cabbage, and tomatoes are secured, is that these weeds are the places where the larvæ of the cut-worm hide, and are ready to begin their destructive work as soon as the garden plants are set in the spring. If the garden is kept clean and cropped continuously all the year round, as it may and should be here, there will be no cut-worms to bother the early plants. From January to January there is no need in the South for any space in the garden unoccupied by crops. From the time the earliest peas go into the ground in January up to the time it is necessary to prepare for them the following year there can be a constant succession of fresh vegetables from the garden, by the exercise of a little forethought. And this succession can be made still more perfect if there be added a frame with some hotbed sashes for the production of lettuce, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, etc., during the colder months; while all through the winter there can be celery, kale, spinach and turnips.--(N. C. Bul. 132.) LOCATION. The question of the proximity to the house or other buildings is of great importance when locating the garden. Caring for a garden is usually done at spare times, and for this reason alone the location should be near the dwelling. In case the site chosen for the garden should become unsuitable for any cause, it is not a difficult matter to change the location. Many persons prefer to plant the garden in a different location every five or six years. The lay of the land has considerable influence upon the time that the soil can be worked, and a gentle slope toward the south or southeast is most desirable for the production of early crops. It is an advantage to have protection on the north and northwest, by either a hill, a group of trees, evergreens, a hedge, buildings, a tight board fence, or a stone wall to break the force of the wind. Good natural drainage of the garden area is of prime importance. The land should have sufficient fall to drain off surplus water during heavy rains, but the fall should not be so great that the soil will be washed. The surface of the garden should not contain depressions in which water will accumulate or stand. Waste water from surrounding land should not flow toward the garden, and the fall below should be such that there will be no danger of flood water backing up. The garden should not be located along the banks of a creek or stream that will be liable to overflow during the growing season. A good fence around the garden plot is almost indispensable, and it should be a safeguard against all farm animals, including poultry, and should be close enough to keep out rabbits. A tight board fence will accomplish, this result and also serve as a wind-break.--(F. B. 255.) PLAN AND ARRANGEMENT. The garden should be planned with a view to furnishing a large assortment and continuous supply of vegetables through the entire season. Its size will depend primarily upon the amount of land available. On the farm, where any amount of land the owner desires can be reserved, for a garden, vegetables to be stored for winter as well as the summer supply, should be grown. On the village lot, space may be insufficient to grow more than the summer's supply, and it may also be necessary to leave out certain vegetables that require a large amount of space. On a city lot, the space available for growing vegetables is necessarily small, and plantings must usually be confined to those vegetables which produce a large amount of edible product for the space occupied. Whether the garden is on the farm, in the village, or on the city lot, the principles governing its planting and care are the same although the distances of planting, methods of tillage, and intensity of cropping may differ widely. On the farm, the saving of labor is more important than the saving of space; even the small vegetables are planted in long rows rather than in beds; and horse power is substituted for hand power wherever possible. In the village and the city, the vegetables must usually be planted as closely as the nature of their growth will permit, and hand tillage employed almost exclusively. Much loss of time in planting a garden can be avoided by making a definite plan of the garden several weeks or even months before the planting is to begin. After measuring the area to be used for the garden, the next step is to decide what vegetables are to be grown. If space is ample, this will be determined primarily by the personal tastes of the gardener and his family. However, if only a limited amount of time and attention can be given the garden, it may be wise not to undertake the growing of some of the more exacting crops. Whatever the space to be devoted to gardening, the crops to be grown should be decided upon long before the time of planting. In planning the garden, it is well to arrange the vegetables in the order in which they are to be planted. This facilitates the preparation of the land for planting, and makes it possible to maintain the unplanted portion in a good friable condition with the least expenditure of labor. In order that the vegetables may be so arranged, it is necessary to know the proper time for planting each crop. This depends primarily upon the temperature and moisture requirements of the particular crop in question. If any of the small fruits, such as raspberries, currants, and gooseberries, are to be planted within the garden enclosure, they should be included with the permanent crops. The area devoted to the hotbed, cold frame, and seed bed should be decided upon, but these may be shifted more or less from year to year or located in some convenient place outside of the garden. Where there is any great variation in the composition of the soil in different parts of the garden it will be advisable to take this into consideration when arranging for the location of the various crops. If a part of the land is low and moist, such crops as celery, onions, and late cucumbers should be placed there. If part of the soil is high, warm, and dry, that is the proper location for early crops and those that need quick, warm soil. In planning the location of the various crops in the garden, due consideration should be given to the matter of succession in order that the land may be occupied at all times. As a rule it would not be best to have a second planting of the same crop follow the first, but some such arrangement as early peas followed by celery, or early cabbage or potatoes followed by late beans or corn, and similar combinations, are more satisfactory. In the South as many as three crops may be grown one after the other on the same land, but at the extreme north, where the season is short, but one crop can be grown, or possibly two by some such combination as early peas followed by turnips.--(F. B. 255.) FERTILIZERS. The kind of fertilizer employed has a marked influence upon the character and quality of the vegetables produced. For the garden only those fertilizers that have been carefully prepared should be used. Fertilizers of organic composition, such as barnyard manure, should have passed through the fermenting stage before being used. The use of night soil generally is not to be recommended, as its application, unless properly treated for the destruction of disease germs, may prove dangerous to health. BARNYARD MANURE. For garden crops there is no fertilizer that will compare with good, well-rotted barnyard manure. In localities where a supply of such manure can not be secured it will be necessary to depend upon commercial fertilizers, but the results are rarely so satisfactory. In selecting manure for the garden, care should be taken that it does not contain any element that will be injurious to the soil. An excess of sawdust or shavings used as bedding will have a tendency to produce sourness in the soil. Chicken, pigeon, and sheep manures rank high as fertilizers, their value being somewhat greater than ordinary barnyard manures, and almost as great as some of the lower grades of commercial fertilizers. The manure from fowls is especially adapted for dropping in the hills or rows of plants. COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. Commercial fertilizers are sold under a guaranteed analysis, and