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Title: The garden yard
A handbook of intensive farming
Author: Bolton Hall
Contributor: N. O. Nelson
Editor: Herbert W. Collingwood
Samuel Fraser
Release date: October 11, 2025 [eBook #77032]
Language: English
Original publication: Philadelphia: David McKay, 1900
Credits: Charlene Taylor, A Marshall, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GARDEN YARD ***
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
placed at the end of the chapter.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
THE GARDEN YARD
[Illustration: THE FINEST SUBURBAN FARM PRODUCE.]
THE
GARDEN YARD
A HANDBOOK OF
INTENSIVE FARMING
BY
BOLTON HALL
Author of “THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY,” “A LITTLE LAND AND A
LIVING,” “THE GAME OF LIFE,” “THINGS AS THEY ARE”
_With an Introduction by_
N. O. NELSON
_Revised by_
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD
_President and Editor “Rural New Yorker” and_
SAMUEL FRASER
_Manager Fall Brooks Farm, Geneseo, N. Y._
PHILADELPHIA
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER
610 S. Washington Square
COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY DAVID MCKAY
WHAT IS IN THIS BOOK
AND WHERE TO FIND IT.
CONTENTS-INDEX.
PAGE
PREFACE 9-12
Becoming a gardener 9, 10, 11
Intensive Farm, the 9, 16
Some sorts of critics 10
INTRODUCTION 13-20
A practical offer 14
Co-operation 17-20
Farm for nothing, a 15
How much land is needed 15
Obstacles—how to overcome them 14
The only life 13
What intensive cultivation means 16
CHAPTER I.—THE GARDEN YARD 21-29
Brain value 24
Buildings you need 29
Choosing your farm 27
Fortunes, hidden 22-25
How to grow rich 28, 29
Land and crops 26
Location for field crops 21
Location for garden crops 21
Market importance 26
Mistakes and their cost 22
Money, in what 24
The value of ownership 28
Unknown capacity 21
Work not enough 25
CHAPTER II.—SOIL 30-41
An unusual use 31
Best soil, the 36
Failure your own fault 41
“Good” soil 33
Humus 40, 72, 73, 74, 86
Moisture, how to get and hold it 34, 36
Soil—How it was made 30, 31
“ Its contents 31
“ Texture 34
“ What it is 30
Soils to avoid 37
Surface and subsoil 32
Tillage 37-40
Tilth 36, 37
CHAPTER III.—SOIL FERTILITY 42-48
Soil fertility—what it is 42
Agricultural Department’s crop work 46, 48
Help it offers 48
Limited crops 46
Nature and the abandoned farm 42, 43
Seeds, Bob’s solution 43, 45
Types of soil in the U. S. 46
Whitney’s (Prof.) idea 45
CHAPTER IV.—LOCATION 49-50
How to buy, clear, build 49
Land you can’t afford to use 49
Manure and watering 49, 50
Market 50
To find out where and how 49
CHAPTER V.—SEEDS 51-53
Houses, good seed 52
Ideal, the 51
Planting dates 53
Seed test 52
Use only the best 51
CHAPTER VI.—PLANT BREEDING 54-56
Plant breeding—what it is 54
Good farmers and breeding 54
How to improve 54
Professional breeders 54
Selection and variations 55
“Sports” 56
CHAPTER VII.—PLANT NEEDS 57-61
Plant needs—what they are 57
Foods, three sure 58
Light, degrees of 57, 58
Lime values 59
Medicines 59
Protectors 60, 61
Temperature 59
Under- and over-feeding 58
Water, effect of 57
CHAPTER VIII.—CROP ROTATION 62-65
Farming a business 62
Special crops 62
Value of rotation 63, 64, 65, 81
CHAPTER IX.—WEEDS 66-68
Weeds—how to know them 66
Common weeds 66
“ “ How to destroy them 67
“ “ Their use 68
CHAPTER X.—INSECTS AND DISEASES 69-71
Causes, some 69
How transmitted 70
Preventives 70
Preventing attacks 69
The little we know 69
Weeds as breeders 71
CHAPTER XI.—RE-SOILING 72-77
Best way to do it 73
Cleaning up 74
How to preserve it 76
Lawn, the 75
Misleading term 72
Prepared humus 74
Success, real 77
What we really do 72
CHAPTER XII.—HOW TO WORK 78-89
Grouping 80
How to plant 79
“ “ run rows 80
Keep soil busy 82
Manuring 79
Preparing the plot 78
Rotation 81
Test for acid 78
Transplanting 81
Companion cropping 82
Cellar growing 89
Drainage 82, 83
Drought, protection against 87
How we learn 88
Irrigation 82
Sewage 86, 87
Small area crops 88
Things that pay 88
Tools, keeping them clean 84, 85
Use brains 88
Waste water value 86
PART II.
CHAPTER XIII.—ROOT CROPS 90-105
Radishes 91
Culture 92
Enemies 93
Needs 93
Varieties 93
When to sow 92
Beets 94
As greens 95
Enemies 96
Fertilizers, special 96, 97
Marketing 97
Planting 95
Tillage 96
Where to grow 94
Yield 96
Carrots 97
How to sow 97
Soil preparation 97
Thinning 98
Types 98
Yield 99
Turnips 99
Easy to grow 99
Cowhorn turnip 44
How to plant 100
Root maggot 100
Soil 99
Thinning 100
Parsnips 100
Cultivation 101
Freedom from disease 102
Sowing 101
Thorough preparation 101
Yield 102
Salsify 102
Kitchen use only 102
Returns 103
Soil requirements 102
Types, modified 102, 103
Horse-radish 103
Grown from “sets” 103
How planted 104
Tillage 104
Yield 104
CHAPTER XIV.—TUBER CROPS 106-110
Potatoes 106
Early potatoes 108
Enemies and diseases 108
How to plant 107
Seed, potato 107
Soils, best 106
Spraying 108
Yield, average 106
“ good 106
“ phenomenal 218-225
“ possible 106
Sweet Potatoes 109
Home of 109
Climate 109
Cultivation 109, 110
Enemies 110
Soil 109
CHAPTER XV.—BULB CROPS 111-118
How to propagate 111
Needs, their 111
Seed-bed crops 111
Leeks 111
How grown 111
Product 111
Storage 111
Ciboule 112
Cives 112
Garlic 111
Shallot 112
Onion, Welsh 112
Onions 112
Early crop 114
Enemies 118
Fertilizing 113
Growing 112
Handling and storing 116
“Multiplier” onions 115
New onion culture 115
Season, main 114
Selling onions 117
“Sets” 114
Sorting 117
“Top”-onions 114
Weeding 114
Yields 118
CHAPTER XVI.—COLE CROPS 119-133
Meaning of name 119
Why grown 119
Brussels Sprouts 127
Soil, food and tillage needs 127
Successful growing 128
Cabbage 119
Acre yield, an 121
Crops, two 120
Essentials for growing 119
Fertilizing 120
Field-grown 121
Hot-bed plants 121
Insects and diseases 122
Locality, effect of 122
Marketing 121
Planting 123, 124
Profits in cabbage 123
Protection from insects 125
Quick first crop 123
Second crop 125
Cauliflower 129
Good seed necessary 129
Growing seed 130
Tillage, right 130
Where it grows best 129
Kale 126
Better for frost 126
Collards 127
Cultivation 126
Enemies 127
How sown 126
Southern kale 127
Kohlrabi 131
Best varieties 131
How to thin 131
Insects, diseases and cures 131, 132, 133
Its family 131
“ uses 131
CHAPTER XVII.—POT-HERB CROPS 134-140
Characteristics 134
Needs 134
What they are 134
Chard 137
Dandelion 138
Characteristics 138
Harvesting 139, 140
Tillage 139
Mustard 137
Where grown 137
Soil requirements 138
Purslane 140
Spinach 134
Forced spinach 136
How sown 137
How to sow 135
New Zealand spinach 136
Where and when grown 134
CHAPTER XVIII.—SALAD CROPS 141-160
What they are 141
What they need 141
Celeriac 159
How eaten 159
How to grow 159
Soil and tillage 159
Transplanting 159
Celery 150
Blanching 154, 155, 156
Care in tilling 153, 154
Diseases 158
Early and late crop 153
Fertilizing 153
How to sow 151
Loss in sprouting 152
Marketing 157
Seed-bed crop 150
Soil requirements 150
Storing 157
Thinning 152
Transplanting 152
Varieties 158
Where it grows best 150, 151
Chicory 145
How to grow 145
Salad plant 145
Use of chicory roots 146
Corn Salad 148
Cool-season crop 148
How and where to plant 148
Yield 149
Cress 146
How and where to grow 146, 147
How to plant 148
Varieties 146
Endive 144
Blanching 144
How to sow 144
Season, its 144
Soil and tillage 144
Use, its 145
Lettuce 142
Companion-crop 143
Culture 142
Growing in the open 143
“ under glass 143
Nature 142
Sowing and thinning 143
Succession-crop 143
Yield 143
Parsley 149
Easy to grow 149
Nature 149
Uses 149
Salad Chervil 149
Culture 150
Ready for use 150
Varieties 150
CHAPTER XIX.—PULSE CROPS 161-172
What they are 161
What they need 161
Beans 166-172
Bush and pole beans 169
Enemies 171, 172
Lima beans 167, 170
Ornamental uses 170
Planting 170
Preparing the soil 167
String beans 166
Where they grow 171
Where and when to sow 166
Peas 161-166
Early crops 162
Enemies 163, 165
Pea values 162, 163
Planting 161
Soil requirements 161
Varieties 163
CHAPTER XX.—SOLANACEOUS CROPS 173-182
Crops included 173
Nature and requirements 173
Eggplants 179, 180
Enemies 181
Harvesting 180
Marketing 180
Planting 179
Tillage 180
Transplanting 179, 180
Treatment required 179
Husk Tomato 182
Peppers 181
Cultivation 181
Growth of demand 181
Starting 181
Transplanting 181
Uses 182
Varieties 182
Tomatoes 173
Cultivation 174
Fertilizing 174
Harvesting 178
Racks, cheap 166, 167
Sowing seed 173
Tillage 174
Training and its value 175
Varieties 179
Where grown 173
Yield 179
CHAPTER XXI.—VINE OR CUCURBITOUS CROPS 183-191
What they are 183
“ “ need 183
Why you fail 183
How to succeed 183
When and where to plant 184
Enemies 184
Cucumbers and Gherkin 185
Planting in hills 185
Uses 186
Varieties 186
Yield 186
Muskmelon 186
Enemies 187
Planting 187
Varieties 187
Where grown 187
Yield 187
Pumpkin and Squash 189
Differences 190
Enemies 191
Uses 190
Varieties 190-191
Watermelon 187
Cultivation 188
Enemies 189
Testing 189
Uncertain crop 187
Where and how grown 188
CHAPTER XXII.—UNCLASSIFIED ANNUALS 192-197
What they include 192
“ “ need 192
Martynia 197
Okra or Gumbo 196
Cultivation 197
Enemies 197
Nature 196
Uses 196
Where and why grown 196
Sweet Corn 192
Cultivation 193, 194, 195
Enemies 196
Important crop 192
Marketing 195
Preparation for planting 193
Where it thrives 192
Yield 196
CHAPTER XXIII.—HERBS, SWEET AND CONDIMENTAL 198-200
Varieties 198
Classes 198
Growing 198, 199
Annuals 199
Perennials 200
CHAPTER XXIV.—PERENNIAL CROPS 201-215
What they are 201
“ “ need 201
Asparagus 201
Cultivation 201
Enemies 206, 207
Growing from seed 203
Harvesting 204
Marketing 205
Planting 202
Soil requirements 201
Tillage 202
Winter protection 205
Yield 206
Rhubarb 208
Cellar plots 210
Forced growth 210, 211
Nature, hardy 208
New culture 209
Planting 208
Profitable growing 209
Soil needs 208
Yield 211
Docks and Sorrels 211
Varieties 211
Artichoke 212
Jerusalem and French Globe 212
Sowing 212
Stock feed 213
Uses 214
Ways of the artichoke 213, 214
Winter mulch 213
Yield 214
Sea-kale 214
Blanching 215
Care 215
How it grows 214
CHAPTER XXV.—SPECIALITIES 216-226
Asparagus 218
Celery 218
Chestnuts 217
Mushrooms 218
Onions and potatoes 218
300 bushels to the acre 218, 225
Other specialties 226
Specializing and profits 216, 217
Strawberries 225
CHAPTER XXVI.—WATCHING AND SPRAYING 227-236
Arsenical sprays 233
Bordeaux mixture, what it will do and how to make it 229, 230
Emulsions 235
Kerosene emulsions 234
Manufacture and use 234, 235
Need of watching 227
Paris green 232
Spraying as a remedy 228
Spraying mixture 228, 235
Uses 232
Value of spraying, the 235
CHAPTER XXVII.—FERTILIZERS 237-249
Best are cheapest 241, 242, 243
Care of manure, the 240
Natural and chemical 237, 238
What each contains 238, 239
What fertilizer is 237
Wire basket, soil needs test 244, 249
CHAPTER XXVIII.—MORE ABOUT FERTILIZERS 250-257
Experiments show, what 250, 251
Growing crops and fertilizers 255
Manure contains, what 257
Potassium, kainit, wood ashes and lime 252, 253
Value of “check plats,” the 253, 254
Valuable elements 250
CHAPTER XXIX.—ROOT HOUSES AND VEGETABLE PITS 258-259
How to build one 258, 259
Uses, their 258
Varieties of pits 259
CHAPTER XXX.—SMALL FRUITS 260-266
Cultivation 262
Currants and gooseberries 264
How to grow them 264
Enemies and their remedy 264, 265
Grapes 265
How to grow them 265, 266
Growing new plants 263
Labor and yield 260
Marketing 262
Planting 261
Preparing the soil 261
Raspberries and blackberries 263
How to grow them 264
Strawberry patch, the 260
CHAPTER XXXI.—THE POULTRY RUN 267-279
Branches of the business 272
Care and feed 269
Central hatching 273
Cleanliness 269
Colony plan versus yarded 274, 275
Effort and profit 278
How to succeed 279
Importance of incubation 273
Incubator hatching 271
Indian Runner ducks 277
Intensive hen, the 267
Location of house 270
Modern hen-house, a 270-271
Outdoor brooding 271
Profitable poultry 268
Small companies 269
CHAPTER XXXII.—ORGANIZATION 280-291
Agricultural colleges and books 281
New methods 280
Work of the months 282-291
CHAPTER XXXIII.—A FEW PRACTICAL “DON’TS” 292-298
Deep plowing 292
Department of Agriculture 294
Farmer’s life, the 292
Feed the soil 295
Making seeds comfortable 292, 293
Successful farmers 296, 297
Tools and their care 295
APPENDIX I. 299-300
Island of Guernsey products 299
APPENDIX II. 301-306
French Gardening, etc. 301
APPENDIX III. 307-317
Maylands Gardening Customs 307
APPENDIX IV. 318-321
Agricultural Courses 318
PREFACE.
An intensive farm is only an enlarged garden patch.
This book is not intended as a scientific book on agriculture; there
are many such books which are out of the depths of everyone except
professors and professionals. In a nice experiment station, nice
experiments and scientific calculations are excellent; but I want to
give the plain man or woman who has a back yard or back lot, out of
which he might make part of a living or more than a living, a book that
will show how to do it.
I want to help the man or woman who has to do the cultivation at odd
times and who finds it hard to get the time for the work, even though
this work enables him to do far more work of other kinds. I have had
all sorts of experience with gardening, in spite of telegrams and
people who want “just five minutes for some important business.” So if
you have the same trouble getting the time, do not let that discourage
you. We can get health, happiness and some profit in spite of the
interruptions.
It won’t be enough simply to read this book; that won’t make you a
gardener; but if you study it while you are working on the land and
use your judgment and common sense, in one season you will be able to
teach most of those whom you now have to hire as expert Gardeners at
Three Dollars a Day.
If anybody sneers at your gardening as being “book farming,” let him
sneer; a fool never understands what a wise man is doing: if he did,
he would do it himself. You have here the plain, simple, practical
facts without scientific terms—just the ordinary garden talk. There
are plenty of things you will not find in this book. You won’t find
analyses of fertilizers, nor how to grow “pomatoes,” or anything else
that won’t sell when you have grown it. Nor will you find fairy stories
of poultry profits that make the goose’s golden eggs look like thirty
cents. There is a use for all that sort of thing—it arouses interest
and stimulates the imagination. But you will probably be content to
be a good, practical, every-day gardener who can make things grow and
knows what to do with them after they have grown.
Some critics, who will not read this book, will sagely remark that such
books as Mr. Hall’s are dangerous, because they induce inexperienced
persons to sell out and lose their money trying to get Liberty on Three
Acres or a Living from a Little Land. To repeat for such people my
cautions and advice to learn navigation before buying your ship, is to
blow against the North wind.
If you have skipped the foregoing, just skip again, back to it. You
will see that I have promised to use no scientific terms. This book
will be read by more plain people than by scientists, and so I have
aimed to talk just as I would if I were trying to teach you how to
raise lettuce—or rather trying to teach you to learn for yourself how
to raise lettuce. For we cannot teach anyone anything, we can only give
him the opportunity of learning. So if the experimental agriculturist
thinks that a good deal has been left out that might have been put in,
I hope he will remember that I have had to pick from a measureless
field, and by trying to crowd in too much I might easily confuse the
less experienced and make it hard for him to learn.
And yet no one need think that by reading a book or any number of books
he can be made a gardener. That is done by work of head and hands on
the soil; and the best preparation for a really scientific use of your
own land, is to hire yourself out for a while to a market gardener and
get the practical, every-day experience.
You might as well expect to learn writing without using a pen as
gardening without using a bit of land. You will make some mistakes and
lose some crops, but I can show you how to profit by mistakes and to
lose very little by losses.
If you don’t understand the directions, that is my fault: I should be
able to make it clear to everyone. So just write me (a pencil and a
postal card will do) and I will tell you what you want to know, if I
know it myself or can find out.
BOLTON HALL.
56 PINE ST., NEW YORK CITY.
INTRODUCTION.
A farm is the only proper home. Working for yourself is the only true
independence. Labor on the land in the open gives health and long life.
Raise a living and sell the surplus. Work all the time, but don’t
overwork. Make faces at the cynic who says the farmer and his wife and
children work fifteen hours a day and then starve. It isn’t so. Work
alone is not farming; you must manage. Farming needs intelligence and
care, nothing more so. Everywhere you see good farm-homes and poor
ones; the difference is in the farmer. What the good farmers do, all
can do.
In this book, the author tells how to lay out the land, how to prepare
and plant and harvest, and how to make life joyous. He has boiled down
the experience of himself and his friends and the information contained
in bulletins and books and catalogs. A cobbler or clerk or typo, can
take this book and with his tennis-made muscle and his trade accuracy
can make a bare living the first year, a good living the second, and
start a bank account the third. I know it because I helped do it in my
youth and I have seen it done all my life.
One of the obstacles in the way of town families going to the country
is separation from friends and going among strangers. Another is the
conscious ignorance of the work and a sense of helplessness. These are
real and valid difficulties. They are equivalent to the difficulties
besetting a German or Norwegian farmer coming alone into an American
community in a new state. The hundreds of thousands of European farmers
who came to the states every year from the forties to the end of the
eighties overcame this difficulty by organizing colonies of friends and
neighbors and settling in one spot. They thus had society and they had
the benefit of their best leaders. Then their old friends kept coming
in smaller squads. This is the way for town people to do. Find six
or ten or a dozen and go together. Even if all are not relatives or
friends they may be of the same class or trade.
To any such colony I will furnish the money to pay for all the land
they need and let them begin paying the cost price of it at the end
of five years and finish in ten, with 4 per cent. interest. They may
pick the tract and bargain for the price. Upon their showing that the
agreed number are ready to go and are able to make the improvements and
provide the working equipment, I will advance the money to pay for the
land. They can divide it up to suit themselves.
I have furnished farms already plowed, fenced and housed, and horse
and cow free of charge. But these empty-handed folk, who have saved
nothing out of their former occupation, lack the qualities to manage
for themselves and to succeed at farming. They are too helpless and
dependent. Their best plan is to hire out in the country until they
learn farm work and life, then rent a piece of land, and then buy.
How much land shall each one have, how much can he properly cultivate?
That depends on what he raises, and this governs his location and the
price of the land. With present methods, he will need 20 acres if
he keeps a dairy of ten cows; or, 10 acres if he raises vegetables,
small fruit, poultry and milk; or, four acres is enough for truck
and a horse and cow, while one acre is enough if he raises only
celery, asparagus or tomatoes. The price of land is influenced by
social conditions, speculation, proximity to and quality of market
and agricultural adaptability, all the way from $5.00 an acre to
$250.00. There is plenty of it not above the value of the public and
private improvements. It is useless to buy a farm of 160 acres for
one family. They cannot work it, it is a dead expense, they would be
lonesome, would starve and quit. But a colony, settling as neighbors
on well-chosen land for which they pay only when they have had time to
earn it, will have every opportunity to succeed.
Only in rare cases would I advise town dwellers to go singly to
the country; they are disqualified by their social and industrial
habits. A colony of friends or Co-operative Associations overcome the
difficulties and do in fact assure success to any one possessed of
industry and frugality.
By intensive cultivation is meant, not any particular kind of product,
but farming the land thoroughly, getting the best yield and the best
quality out of every acre, the best seeds and the best breeds and the
best way of disposing of the crop when you get it. The farm or garden
may be in the vegetable or small fruit or corn and hay or dairying
section. In either case, you can cultivate it intensively, which is
thoroughly.
The book will tell you in A, B, C style how to farm. I am asked to tell
what to do with the crop after you have raised it, how to buy what you
don’t raise, and how to make social substitutes for the city crowds and
sights.
_Associate!_ _Co-operate!_
You may not know it, but the world is turning from private trade to
co-operation at a fast rate. In some countries most of the farmers do
all their business by co-operation.
Co-operation is simple and sure and safe, when enough people want it
and are shown how.
I have practiced co-operation in my business for twenty-three years.
I have been intimate with it the world over for twenty-five years. I
have seen it grow and grow until it numbers its millions of workers in
some countries, and is doubling every five years in many countries and
states. Though I am a manufacturer, my chief occupation is to preach
and teach co-operation to farmers—at my own expense.
Co-operative creameries have changed Minnesota from a declining wheat
state to a rich dairy state. Co-operation has saved the California
orange grower from bankruptcy and made him prosperous; it has raised
Denmark’s exports of butter, eggs and bacon from eighteen to eighty
millions a year, and it has almost cut off our supply of policemen
and politicians from Ireland, because over a thousand co-operative
associations have grown up there in twenty years.
After you have undertaken what this book tells you all about, you want
to count on forming co-operative associations with your neighbors to
do all the business that you have. You raise your own crop; but pack
it, ship it and sell it through your association. You use bought goods,
but buy them all through the association. That gives you a saving
in expenses, a saving in price, and a better quality. What is still
more, it makes better neighbors of you, and rids you entirely of the
demoralizing tricks of the trade, and prevents you figuring how to get
the best trade out of the other fellow. You are yourself “the other
fellow.” In the co-operative way, your interest lies in producing the
best stuff, which will gradually improve your motives. Co-operation
fits any sort of business, if there is enough of it.
One hundred and fifty cows are needed to start a cheese factory, 250
for a milk shipping association, 500 for a butter creamery; fewer than
these do not pay.
For co-operation in raising vegetables and small fruits, no fixed
quantity of product is required; two or more persons working together
is better than each for himself.
Talk it up as neighbors and then hold a meeting. Let all who want to
join, sign an agreement to deliver all their truck to the association
and pay a membership fee of $5.00 or over. Each member should have
an equal voice regardless of his acreage. Organize, either as a
corporation or a limited partnership. Elect the best qualified men to
be officers, and then give them unqualified support. Select a manager
and see to the marketing arrangements. If the quantity raised is large
enough, it is best to have your own receiving and selling agent in
the principal market. Every member must make a legal contract with
the association to submit to its rules about condition, packing and
delivering, to apply to his entire crop. Good quality, reliable packing
and regular supply are essential to good prices.
The manager or inspector must have full authority. Each member’s
delivery is graded, weighed, measured or counted and accurately
recorded. Once a month the account from each grade is made up, and the
proceeds, after paying expenses, are paid over.
The manager should be an experienced trucker, competent to instruct and
advise about the work of planting, growing and gathering. The growers
meet each other at the station, and compare notes. They all learn what
is known by the most expert among them. They can arrange to have one
man gather up the crops from several places and make one load to the
packing-house, taking turn about in this service. Small or poor growers
may be admitted with a nominal payment, even as low as 25 cents, the
remainder to be paid by a 5 per cent. deduction from his proceeds.
The association and management can also fill the assembled orders of
members for fertilizer, seed, implements and packing material, at
wholesale prices. In time you will make your own boxes, erect a cannery
for the surplus and even buy your own groceries co-operatively.
You can form a credit society with unlimited liability, to receive
on deposit the members’ surplus and borrow from the city. That money
is lent, for productive uses only, to members of known ability and
honesty, who give two similar members as security.
When you get safely started in one kind of co-operative association,
you will easily go to the next, as the Danes and the Irish have done.
ST. LOUIS, MO.
N. O. NELSON.
CHAPTER I.
THE GARDEN YARD
No man knows, nor can know, the capacity of a yard of earth, for it is
unlimited, just as the speed of the engine is unlimited. Just as with
the engine, the only question is whether it would pay to make it do any
more—it may cost too much. Where land is cheap, labor is high; there
intelligent cultivation will pay, but intensive cultivation will not.
That is the place where the field crops should be raised.
But the garden crops should be raised right round the towns and cities
and it is foolish to get to a distance from them. Stay right where you
are and get the piece of land that is best for your purpose; buy it, if
you can without paying too much for it; if not, rent it for as long a
term as you can; or get permission to use the bit of land, the vacant
lots—there are plenty even in the most crowded cities—and raise your
truck and your income on those lots. Without separating yourself from
your acquaintances or exiling your wife and children, learn to get your
living out of the earth.
Suppose that a man owns his house, even if it be but a bit of a
bungalow, and suppose he has a little bit of land on which he can
raise the most of what the family eats; he may have to work hard,
especially if his family cannot help in the work, but at least he is
independent; at least panics, lock-outs, change of circumstances or
even loss of health will not reduce him to starvation.
If you have a farm, Intensive Cultivation should interest you all the
more. Every farm is full of opportunities to make good money; but you
must not make the usual mistake of half working a big piece of land;
that means that you will always be overworked, always have a lot of
things that you know ought to be done, but cannot find time to do;
always have common grade crops that bring common prices. Everyone that
is overworked is underpaid, for he cannot do his best work.
Use the big fields for pasture, or for raising fine horses, or for pigs
or Angora goats or even for sheep; you had better let the fields run
wild rather than half cultivate them.
Keep accounts and watch your chance to sell all the land that does not
pay well. It may be that you are missing a fortune in the old neglected
orchard, or in the chestnut or hickory grove. The black walnuts or
butternuts, that are usually left for the neighbors’ boys, may be the
most profitable part of the farm.
The wood-lot may have possibilities for barrel hoops, which may be sold
to the improvement of the timber. It may need only thinning to bring
you a steady income while it increases in value.
Fine apples grafted on the old trees that now bear only cider apples,
if properly sprayed and thinned so as to give first-class fruit, may
sell for more than all the corn you can raise.[1]
The “pesky briers” that the farmer struggles with year by year,
may be the raspberries and blackberries that will sell readily for
good prices, when they are cultivated, to the summer residents or
boarding-houses. Your exposure and soil may be just the place for the
fine strawberries with which, when nicely separated from the second and
third grades, no market is ever overstocked.
But if you are always behind with the work and always short of cash or
worried to pull through, you have no time to think of these things and
no means to hire labor nor to develop them.
That pond may be needed, if it were cleared out, for a profitable
ice supply, furnishing paying work in the winter. The stream may be
a valuable water-power or at least may bring a high-priced crop
of water-cress; or it may be the very water needed, when properly
distributed, to make yours the most fertile land in the county. The
bit of swamp land, that raises nothing but mosquitoes, may need only a
few dollars’ worth of cranberry sets to be the best paying acre in the
country side.
There may be a veritable gold mine in a neglected quarry, or brick-clay
pit, or kaolin clay deposit, or in a sand bank, or a vein of marl.
Possibly you could rent the farm house or let camping sites for the
summer to people who would pay city prices for much of your stuff; so
that you could afford to keep help enough to leave only the easy work
of superintendence for you. Brains save more work than machines.
If you are raising the same crops that your neighbors do, harvesting at
the same time, and getting the same prices that everyone else does, you
may be sure that you are neglecting your chances.
The money is in finding things to raise that will sell, and that do not
have to compete with all the others.
Says the _Farm Journal_: “Farmers need more time to plan their work
and look after the business and economic end of their calling. The
employer who makes a full hand in barn and field from 5 A. M. till 8 P.
M., has no other time to devote to the real business of the farm than
the hours in which Nature imperatively calls upon him to rest, and a
man with aching muscles and tired limbs is not in condition to think
clearly or plan intelligently. It is poor economy for a farmer to take
the place of a dollar-a-day man in the field, when in so doing he has
left no leisure in which to work out the details of his operations.”
Think—think—it is true that we ourselves must work with the men if we
are to get the best work out of them; there is a big difference between
saying “Go, do that,” and “Come and let us do this.” But it is not
enough to work; any jackass can do that.
You know the old fable: “A farmer got his wheels stuck fast in a miry
road. The man knelt down in the mud crying to Hercules to come and help
him. Said Hercules, “Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel, I help
only those who help themselves!”
(There is a new part to that fable)—Now the mire was very deep and even
Hercules’ help was not enough; so he called on Pallas, the Goddess of
Wisdom. Said she, “Put this lever under the wheel.” Then the wagon was
easily lifted out.
Since then, some one else suggested using wide tires, so that the
wheels would not sink at all, and another invented a split-log
road-drag to keep the roads hard. But we are still waiting for the
farmers to learn to use them.
Maybe the roses in the bit of garden would bring you bigger money, if
they were made to bloom at the right time, than the potatoes that take
twice as much outlay and ten times as much work.
Pick out as much land as you can attend to without walking your legs
off, and raise on it the best crops that bring the best prices and let
the rest take care of itself.
The market is more important than the crop. Consult the editors of your
agricultural papers about where to sell. Require bank reference from
any commission merchant that you do not know, and write to the bank for
its report on him before you ship to him. Make his acquaintance, if
possible, and talk to him about what he can sell the best; naturally,
he will take more interest in the affairs of a man that he knows than
in a stranger. Don’t go to town or to the boat or railroad with half a
load or with a load of poor stuff. Arrange with your neighbors to take
enough for them to make your trip pay.
If a trolley or a carrier can be brought into use to make regular
shipments, see some merchant or hotel man and arrange to supply him
constantly. Then lay out your plantings so as to have a constant supply
of what he needs.
If you are choosing a farm or have a chance to sell yours, inquire
and look to see if you can find one near a good market where you
will earn your own commissions. The way to find out what you want is
to talk about it to everyone you meet. A good local map will help
you, but of course the real estate agents know more about what is
for sale and the prices and values than you could learn in a year’s
travel. No men, except editors and hotel clerks, are so ready to give
information as the real estate agents. Remember, however, than even
when they are honest (most of them are, like the rest of us, as honest
as circumstances allow), the successful real estate agent must see the
rosy side of the peach and may not point out the worm-hole on the other
side. You will have to look for that yourself.
When you have found what you want, point out that you are buying to
improve, so that the security will be better every day, and fight for
easy terms and for a long mortgage. You can get the privilege to pay
off any time that you cannot use the capital to better advantage.
Let some good lawyer examine the records and see that the papers are
all straight, and guarantee the title. If there is a local title
insurance company its policy is worth all it costs, and will help you
greatly should you want to sell or to raise another mortgage.
Buy your land—don’t rent it; it does not pay to put your work into
another man’s land.
Every improvement in the condition of the earth—agricultural,
mechanical, ethical, educational, political or even religious must
go eventually and mainly to the benefit of the owners of the earth;
therefore get hold of a bit of the earth, so that everyone who does
good will do that good for you.
Get a small bit of land near the market rather than a big bit away from
it, because the more people there are near you the better you can live
and the more money you can make. Besides it is much pleasanter and
better for the wife and children, as well as for yourself, to be near
schools, libraries, proper company, stores, than to be away out among
stumps. A growing town will make you rich when it grows out your way,
because you are in the way and when the land is wanted you must be paid
to get out. Meanwhile, you can get manure and help much easier and
cheaper than if you were at a distance.
Don’t put your labor or your money into expensive buildings: they only
invite the tax assessor; but get proper buildings—they may be only
shacks, but they should be well planned shacks, for you must have room
enough to shelter your tools, wagons and farm machines, to house your
stock, to store your crops, to sprout your seeds, to save your manure
and to do indoor work during bad weather.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] There is only one good way to do this: cut back all the old wood
and work out a new top on which to graft the fine apple scions.
CHAPTER II.
THE SOIL.
If this book is to be of real service, we must be clear about the terms
and expressions, so that, though you may know nothing about gardening
when you begin to read it, you may know enough to earn a living from
the soil when you finish it—and practice a little.
Many talk glibly enough about the soil, though few could tell exactly
what it means. But market-gardeners must understand it, if they are
to live by it. So it will be well to begin with the soil itself. Soil
is that thin layer of earth that covers our globe like a blanket, and
in which all that plants, beasts and men live upon, grows. If it were
washed off, starvation would follow. The scientific explanation of
the origin of this blanket, is, that it was formed by the action of
heat, cold, water, frost, ice, low forms of vegetable life and tiny
animals; sometimes working singly and sometimes all together. It is now
established that the most of the face of the earth was once rock which
was rubbed, crushed and ground by these forces until this surface layer
was made. Then higher forms of life became possible. Not centuries
only, but aeons of time, were necessary to accomplish this. Layer upon
layer of finely crushed particles were exposed to the action of the air
which completed the work the grinding of Nature’s forces had begun.
To follow out the story of the development of the soil is a most
fascinating study, and if you have time from your other interests, you
will be glad that you took it up; for though you may be a good farmer
without this knowledge, you will be a better one with it, because you
will be more intelligent and sympathetic. The soil-blanket holds within
its warm folds all that is necessary for life, and the wonder of it all
increases the more we learn about the millions of years and numberless
forces employed to bring it to this state of perfection. If Nature has
not wearied in her great work, there is poor excuse for the gardener to
shirk or neglect the labor necessary to get the best possible results
from any given piece of soil.
Nobody yet knows what are the best possible results from any given
piece of soil; for since new discoveries are being made every year, we
can show only what has so far been done with the best knowledge and
skill at our disposal. One man in Pennsylvania is selling his soil; not
his crop, at $1.50 per bushel to inoculate other ground.
The fine, fertile layer of earth that is called soil does not go
very deep. It covers another layer which is harder, coarser, colder
than itself, and this second layer is known as the subsoil, or that
soil which is under the surface layer. In all temperate climes the
difference is strongly marked, but in rainless, sun-dried regions
there is often no difference to be noted. The intelligent farmer or
gardener has the opportunity to decide just how much of that subsoil
he will convert into surface soil, and the means of doing this will be
disclosed later under the head of “Tillage.” The more of it he brings
into use the greater his own profit, so that it pays to know how. In
the early days of farming no effort was made to bring the subsoil into
use, and consequently the returns from agriculture were small. Now we
know better than that, and we also know how to get more out of the
soil, whether surface or subsoil.
No soil, no garden; so the new gardener must get acquainted with the
ground he intends to cultivate. It is not to be denied that soil which
is in good tilth will be a great help to the beginner, but that is only
to be had in well-cultivated gardens, which usually bring a good price
when found in the market. Besides, with proper care and attention, any
well situated soil can be made to yield good returns, and the gardener
who is not disposed to give proper care and attention will find nothing
in this book, or in any other, that will teach him how to succeed. The
German idea is that a good soil is merely a place to put fertilizers
(and German ideas on gardening are not to be despised). This is simply
another way of repeating that, with brains and work any soil can be
made to yield good returns. It is not safe, however, to trust to the
“Light of Nature” as to what “proper care and attention” is, so here
are the details.
If you are already settled and are planning to use your back yard for a
garden, you will have to take the soil as it is, and by your own effort
make it what it should be. There is no cause for despair no matter what
it may be. A back yard that was trodden almost as compact as asphalt,
and whose clods when dug had to be broken up with an axe, was made to
yield a large variety of flowers the first season it was planted. So go
ahead and do what you can with what you have. But, if you are hunting
for a garden plot, bear in mind the importance of soil texture. You may
thereby save yourself both time and labor.
The first thing is to examine the soil to determine whether it is
sandy or clayey, dry or moist, light or heavy, well drained or wet;
whether it is warm and live, or cold and dead. You will then learn what
sort of cultivation is best for your particular plot of ground.
Because in your neighbor’s garden a certain treatment has been
successful, is not saying that it will give the same results in yours,
unless all the conditions are the same. For instance, his light, sandy
loam needs little cultivation, and your soil may be hard and clayey. In
that case you would have to make up the difference by careful work.
There are “gardeners” who think it is sufficient barely to break up the
ground, add a little manure or other fertilizer, and scatter seeds.
That they get any sort of results only shows how willing Nature is to
give a return on the slightest labor. But Nature is wise as well as
willing, and therefore gives lavishly to him only, who, by intelligent
labor, deserves the best returns.
Therefore, learn the needs of your soil and supply them, and you will
have no cause to complain of the niggardliness of Mother Nature to
those of her children who feed at her bosom.
Plants often die for lack of moisture in the soil, and this condition
cannot be satisfactorily remedied by the watering-can. The trouble
lies back of such surface treatment and can only be cured by getting at
the cause. The soil should be so prepared by tillage that it will catch
and hold enough water to supply the plants with the moisture they need
even through hot, dry spells. Plants draw their nourishment through
their roots to their stems and leaves, and you need only examine the
fine roots and rootlets of any plant to realize for yourself that
such nourishment could not be taken in in a solid form. Plants are
constantly drawing this moisture from the soil and as constantly giving
it off into the air through their leaves. If you will watch any plant
during a drought, you will see the leaves begin to shrivel before the
stems or branches show signs of suffering. This is Nature’s effort to
sustain the life of the plant as long as possible. The shrivelling of
the leaves prevents the escape of the little moisture the plant can
draw, and retains it longer within the plant’s system.
Deep plowing, the breaking up of the subsoil, the addition of decaying
vegetable matter or humus, fertilizing with stable manure, and the
raising of crops that can be frequently tilled, all help to add
moisture to the soil. If you do these and the dry spell does strike
you hard, so that it seems necessary to bring water, the soil will
suck it and hold it, instead of letting it pass off quickly through
the action of sun and air. Frequent stirring of the surface soil,
to the depth of one inch, will make a little dry layer or top-coat
through which the moisture does not readily escape. This is what is
called a “mulch.” A mulch may also be an added coat of leaf-mould
or stable-litter or any little dry covering which will prevent the
moisture from escaping.
For early crops a light, sandy loam is best. A sandy loam is a loose,
sandy soil made productive by good tillage, by mixing in humus and
plant food or fertilizer. But when you haven’t the best, it is for you
to counterfeit it as nearly as possible. The advantages of sandy loam
are that it is early, easy to work, responds quickly to fertilizers and
is readily kept in good tilth.
“Tilth” is really the planting condition of the soil, and good tilth
means the best possible conditions for planting seeds; where the plow
and the harrow have done their work; where the sun has warmed and the
rain moistened; where the fertilizer has sweetened and quickened; where
stones and weeds are unknown, so that the new life finds the best
conditions for sprouting and developing. You will understand why such
soil is not often in the market. It is Nature’s materials plus man’s
intelligent labor; and he who has it, is usually found working it to
his own profit.
Some soils are easily put into condition: others require much time and
labor, but all always repay. It is well, however, to avoid a hard,
cold, clayey soil if possible; it takes so long to warm up, that the
seeds make little progress. Of course, steady persistent effort will
greatly improve even this soil, and if that is the sort you have, you
must do your best with it, but the average gardener cannot afford to
wait.
Compared with agriculture, which has been known in some form ever
since there have been any records, tillage is very new. Like many
another important thing, it was discovered quite accidentally by an
English farmer, named Jethro Tull. He found that by stirring up the
soil about his plants, he got better returns; and gave his discovery
to the world. But he could not explain why it was so; he merely knew
the fact itself. Science has since discovered that it is due to the
action of the air in helping to break up the many compounds found in
the earth containing plant food. It was a simple thing, yet it has
really revolutionized gardening. Before tillage was known the returns
from the sort of cultivation in use were very scanty, and this book had
never been written had Tull’s discovery never been made. So you may be
able to do the world a great favor if you cultivate intelligently, not
fearing to experiment or to make known the results of your experiments.
It may be reserved for you, in your little garden patch, to discover
some new truth that will prove a blessing to the whole world, for no
science today offers so wide a field for discovery as the science of
Agriculture, nor so sure a return for labor expended.
There is a story that illustrates the value of tillage. A man lay
dying and as his four sons gathered about his bed he whispered feebly,
“My sons, there is a great treasure hidden in the garden.” Scarcely
had they laid the body of their father away, when the sons went to
the garden and began digging it up. They dug every inch carefully,
and found nothing for their pains. Then the eldest son, being of a
practical turn of mind, suggested to his brothers that they plant the
garden and thus secure some return for their labor. This they did,
and when harvest-time came the returns were so wonderfully increased
that they said, “Now we know what our father meant. Let us seek like
treasure in all our fields.” And in every garden and field lies hidden
the same treasure that can be revealed only by the expenditure of
intelligent labor.
Tillage is an art in itself, and very important to success. There are
two kinds—the tillage of preparation and the tillage of maintenance.
They are widely different in their purpose and effect. The average
farmer thinks that both may be carried on at the same time, and this
belief may be in part the cause of his failures.
The tillage of preparation includes not merely the breaking up of
the soil by the plow, but pulverizing it for as great a depth as the
roots of the plants will reach. How deep that may be, depends upon the
character of the soil and of the crops. For example, a hard soil with a
subsoil near the surface, must be plowed deep; so that the root crops,
which run deep, may find sustenance. On the other hand, sandy soil, or
one which leaches away, can stand only shallow plowing, as we must hold
the subsoil firm to prevent leaching. So that, even in the tillage of
preparation it comes back to the same point, to learn the needs of your
particular soil and supply them.
The tillage of maintenance should be given as often as once a week or
ten days, and is merely that surface loosening which enables the soil
to drink in the rain and withstand the heat of the sun. The loosened
surface will not cake about the plants, and it makes a layer of mulch
for the protection of the under soil.
By the addition of humus, or vegetable matter, a clayey soil may
be put in condition so that it will respond to further tillage
as satisfactorily as the lighter, sandy loam. This is the way to
“counterfeit the best soil.”
Humus is added by plowing into the land vegetable matter which is in
condition to rot quickly and become thoroughly mixed with the soil.
Rye, clover, cornstalks, vines or other garden waste, and manure, are
commonly used. Manure that contains a large proportion of stable litter
and sweepings, and street sweepings, are especially rich in humus, and
are much sought after by experienced gardeners. By adding them, the
texture of the soil is lightened and improved, made loose and mellow
so as to hold moisture, and is at the same time prevented from caking.
Moreover, humus contains plant food and heat that make seed sprouting
easy.
The amateur gardener seldom recognizes the importance of the physical
texture of the soil, but the best results demand the best conditions.
Unless you want to grow pears and plums—which thrive in clayey
soil—break up the clayey earth and improve its texture in every way.
Your garden will repay you, and you won’t go about denouncing those who
have written books about the possibilities of small areas as wilful
deceivers of the guileless and unwary. Get it firmly fixed in your mind
to start with, that, if your garden does not yield adequate returns
upon your labor, the fault is yours. You are working unintelligently,
and deserve no more than you are getting. To know your soil is to be
able to give it the treatment it needs to make it fruitful.
CHAPTER III.
SOIL FERTILITY.
Soil fertility is the power in the soil itself to produce a good crop
under proper conditions. Man can neither make nor destroy the land.
All that man can do is to make it more or less efficient, according to
how he uses it. Two men may take two pieces of soil of equal fertility
and get vastly different results; by careful study and experiment we
may learn how to take advantage of this fertility; but the real secret
of it, Nature has wisely locked up in the soil itself, so that one
generation of men cannot really rob the next. It has been said that
old-time farmers, of New England particularly, robbed the soil of its
fertility, so that their sons have been compelled to abandon the old
farms and seek new land in the west, or new occupations in the cities
of the country. The real truth is, not that the soil has been robbed
of its fertility by the fathers, but that the sons have continued the
unenlightened methods of the fathers even after their ineffectualness
has been proved.
Since that land was abandoned it has not really been idle. Nature has
been improving it all these years by placing leaves and trees back
upon it, thus providing humus; and also by the action of heat and
cold. Some of this land, overgrown with briers and brush, has been
cleared and found to be better and stronger than ever before. Much of
the soil is sour, but that is easily remedied, and wherever a patch
is burned over, the grass works in well. On some of these abandoned
farms there is an excellent opportunity to combine intensive culture on
the lowlands with orcharding on the hills, for the fertility is still
there. If man could destroy this quality, that clings to all soil, he
would have spoiled it centuries ago, and the race would have starved.
But we are a long time learning how best to use it.
Robert S. Seeds, of Birmingham, Pa., thinks he has solved the secret
of unlocking that soil fertility, and he offers the astounding results
of his operations on an abandoned farm, as proof of his claims. He not
only raises enormous crops, but he sells his soil by the bushel, to his
less enlightened neighbors to inoculate their farms. He tells the story
of his experiments in a lecture called “How God made the Soil Fertile,”
which is published in pamphlet form and sells for 25 cents.
He says “The Lord made all the acres of the land fertile, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and gave it to man to live upon, to prosper
and be happy. In doing so He never hauled a wagon-load of manure or a
load of lime, nor bought a ton of fertilizer—and how did He do it? He
did it with vegetable matter; and I thought if the Lord could do it, I
could do it. This sounds a little conceity, but I mean it.”
As a result of this belief, Mr. Seeds took to experimenting, beginning
with the crops that store nitrogen in their roots, such as crimson
clover, and with purple-top strap-leaf turnip. But the results were
not sufficiently great to please this man, who was after all there was
in the soil. He needed some plant with longer roots, and finally hit
upon the cowhorn turnip, which will grow roots from 9 inches to 2 feet
long, thus making available the plant food locked up in the subsoil.
Finally he combined cowhorn turnip and rape, and now his soil is the
most fertile in his district, and is so profitable as an inoculator of
other soils that he keeps fields free from harvest crops so as to have
the soil for sale.
“Bob Seeds” further says that a field filled with the decayed vegetable
matter and humus from one crop of crimson clover plowed down, will
hold fifty tons more water to the acre than soil that is not. If you
figure how much water you must have to raise a crop of corn, oats,
potatoes, hay, etc., you will see the value of land that has the power
to hold water. There was a farmer in Pennsylvania who got his farm in
such a water preserving condition that he said the spring rains were
a nuisance. Watch the soil and you will see, that soil that is filled
with decayed vegetable matter and humus is warmer in the winter-time,
cooler in the summer-time, wetter in dry weather and dryer in wet
weather.
A mulch which preserves the moisture in hot or cold weather also
unlocks this fertility of the soil.
All of this is of immense importance, not only to the farmer on a large
scale, but also to you, with the limited area of your garden yard;
for in it lies the secret of heavier and earlier crops than your less
instructed neighbors. Professor Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils,
Department of Agriculture, Wash., says that deep plowing and shallow
cultivation are the best means of retaining moisture in the soil,
and he adds, “Strange as it may seem, while we suffer if we do not
get rains, we should actually be better off, as they are in the arid
regions of the west, if we did not have any rain during the growing
season and had a means of providing water when we wanted it. The
trouble with us is that we cannot maintain the dry mulch, because we
have rain on the average every three days. If you knew what was coming,
you could save your crop through any ordinary period of drought,
provided you had the skill, the judgment and the chance which would
lead you to begin your operations at just the right time.”
According to Professor Whitney there are about 400 distinct types of
soil so far encountered in the United States, with varying degrees of
known fertility, and only eight or ten staple crops growing. This,
of course, does not include the special crops like celery; it is the
regular, staple field or garden crops that are unnecessarily limited.
These are grown on all kinds of soil in all parts of the country
without regard to the suitability of the soil to the crop.
The Government, through the Department of Agriculture, has given a
great impetus to plant introduction, and you cannot of course expect to
rival or approach it, with its enormous funds and staff of experts, but
you can experiment with the new crops it introduces. Hitherto, in this
country, where the soil was too dry for corn or wheat, or too moist for
potatoes, it has been neglected altogether; but the present movement
includes finding crops suitable for these lands. The Government has
introduced the durum wheat which yields crops in regions suffering
from drought, and in 1905 the United States exported 6,000,000 bushels
of it; Japanese Kiushu rice is doing well in Louisiana and Texas rice
fields; the Japanese salad plant, the udo, is being tested from Maine
to California and giving good results; Kafir corns from Abyssinia,
India and East Africa are being grown in Kansas and other western
sections; while the English broad bean, Hungarian paprika, and fruits
from all parts of the world, are being tested in all sections of this
country. Those 400 different types of soil should mean limitless
diversifications of crops, and it is fair to assume that the real day
of agriculture, in this country at least, is only just dawning.
The Government is now testing profitable crops for the farms of New
England which have been abandoned to the mortgagees. Areas there are
too small to grow corn[2] and wheat in successful competition with the
great farms of the west, but there are other crops which will yield
even better results and command the market. You, who are now coming
into the great calling of earning your living from the soil, could
not have chosen a better moment for entrance. Keep in touch with the
Department of Agriculture. It is your department, a sort of college or
training school which you maintain, and anything you want to know the
Department will gladly try to tell you. If you want to know what is
best for you to plant on your patch, send a sample of your soil, tell
where your farm is located, what are your means and experience, and
the suggestions made will fit your particular case. If you send any of
your requests, whether for advice or for bulletins, addressed simply
to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., you will get a
reply, and will find out who is the head of the special department your
request was referred to. The Department is doing needed work, and by
corresponding with them and getting advice, you can give proof of your
interest.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] NOTE.—But corn growing is on the increase in New England and at the
great Omaha Corn Show a Connecticut farmer won three first prizes. The
Flint varieties are especially adapted for the New England climate and
soil and open up new possibilities for the New England farmer.
CHAPTER IV.
LOCATION.
How to buy land and why; how to help the poor to keep themselves on the
land and what plain people have actually done; the record yields and
how they have been raised; how much capital can be used by one man, are
considered in “A Little Land and a Living.”
How much of a crop you may be able to get; how much or rather how
little capital it takes; how much labor is needed; where cheap lands
are to be found and how to clear wild land and how to build, are all
treated fully in “Three Acres and Liberty,” now published in fine shape
at fifty cents. So this “hand book” need only show what other things
are included in the term “location.”
If you are thinking of the character of the soil when hunting for a
garden plot, you will more than ever think also about the importance of
location. Any soil, even the best sandy loam, needs some fertilizing
and watering, and you cannot afford to use land where manure can
not be had easily, or where there is not a good water supply. To
pay high for fertilizer cuts the profit from your small area, and
this is more especially true if your soil is clayey and needs much
preparation-tillage. In most cities you will find stable-keepers and
others who will give you manure or street sweepings in the winter in
return for hauling it away. That is a great advantage to you, but if
you locate your garden where truckage amounts to two or three dollars a
load, you have offset the advantage you derived from the free manure.
Also, if your water supply is poor, you will find it difficult to carry
your crops through the hot weather.
MARKET.
You can raise a good crop from good soil properly fertilized, but if
you cannot market it to advantage, you can’t sell it at a profit. A
long railway haul not only injures the garden truck, but it also eats
up the profits. Therefore, get your plot near a town or city where the
expense of selling is reduced to a minimum and where the demand for
garden products will at least equal the supply.
So the good-garden-plot tests are three: first, the character of the
soil, second, the location as regards the market, and third, the
demands of that market. He who must of necessity use the land where he
is, will, if he uses his brains as well as his hands, find his reward
satisfactory, even though it fall below the returns from a plot with
all advantages.
CHAPTER V.
SEEDS.
The expense and labor of preparing and tilling soil is too great to
allow you to plant poor seed. The stock-breeder does not take his
sickliest, poorest specimens for breeding purposes, but rather selects
the best and most nearly perfect specimens; you should be careful to
do the same with your plants. The farmer’s work is just as important
as the stock-breeder’s. It should be the aim of each to improve the
strain and produce the best possible result. Therefore, if you are
growing corn, plant seed only from the stalk that produced the most
and the best ears of corn. It is good to send fine ears to market and
get the best price for them, but if you save only your scrubby ears
for seed, next year you will not have fine, perfect ears of corn to
send. So select of your very best for seed purposes, and if your best
is not good enough, then buy from a better grower who has the best.
Aim to produce an ideal ear of corn. It can be done, and you might as
well do it. Only in this way will you find your corn crop paying you
for your time and labor. If you carefully follow this every year, you
will find your acre annually producing more and more corn without any
additional labor or expense. That is one trick in making farming pay.
It is a trick that holds good with every garden crop as well as with
corn. It won’t do to wait until harvest time to find out if the seed
you have planted is any good, if you have to buy your seed and want to
make a profit from your garden the first season. This simple method of
testing seeds may save you time and money. Get your seed early in the
season, select about one hundred and put them between two moist pieces
of flannel, which in turn are placed between two soup plates. Keep the
flannel moist (not soaking wet with water standing in the dishes), and
as soon as the seeds have sprouted, count the proportion of live ones.
If only a few of them have sprouted, you will know that you cannot
afford to give ground up to the use of such poor seed. The larger the
proportion of your test seeds that sprout, or “germinate,” as this
process is called, the better for your profit, if you plant from this
same stock or assortment.
Be sure you deal with a seed house that has a reputation at stake; and
if possible go there yourself and see the man who really knows about
seed: generally there is only about one man in a concern who does know
his business.
If you answer attractive advertisements and buy at “big bargains” you
may lose your money, or, what is worse, you may be kept waiting from
day to day till your planting days are over, or worst of all, you may
plant poor seed. The dates of planting given throughout this book are
for the latitude of New York. In Northern New England planting should
be about three weeks later. All the middle western states can be
figured the same as New York: but all states south of Pennsylvania may
be figured twelve days in advance for every one hundred miles southward.
This holds good for sowing out of doors or for transplanting out of
doors. For starting seeds in your home, these times will do for the
entire eastern states.
CHAPTER VI.
PLANT-BREEDING.
Plant-breeding is producing plants adapted to particular conditions or
requirements; but the mere production of something new or different, is
not true plant-breeding. The plant breeder has a definite purpose or
aim in mind, and this comes only from a clear idea of his business. The
professional breeders produce the races or groups, but the intelligent
individual farmer adapts them to his own conditions, and may make
modifications of inestimable value to other farmers.
Good farmers have always been plant-breeders, even though they did not
know it. They have always kept the best ear of corn and the best potato
for seed. They have followed the stock-breeder’s plan—only the best
stock for sires and dams. So no common plants should be used for seed;
only the finest is worth planting. Improvement is made by selection, as
Darwin taught us many years ago, but we are slow to learn new lessons.
We know that we do not look to the children of physically, mentally
or morally deformed persons for our specimens of physical, mental
and moral manhood; nor to the cur’s litter for the best type of pup.
Now we are learning that the same holds good with plants, and that
the farmer who keeps the small potatoes for seed will produce poorer
potatoes than he ought to have.
The other day I found a farmer harvesting a measly lot of corn. “Where
did you get that seed?” I asked. “Oh,” he said, “I picked it up ’most
anywhere.” I could have told him that myself without asking.
Selection and breeding are not the work of experts alone, for any one
who gains the simple knowledge that enables him to recognize the plant
or crop that resists prevailing diseases and flourishes best under
his conditions, needs only to preserve the seed of such plants for
propagating. Cross-breeding, on the contrary, is expert work, but new
strains may be secured by straight selection of individual plants, and
this gives enormous results. If one persistently saves the seeds of
those plants that best serve his purpose, he will soon have crops that
are superior to any that he had before. The process is so simple that
anybody can do it. We have talked for years of the “survival of the
fittest,” and this is but helping the best to beat the poorer ones.
What causes the variations that make selection possible nobody yet
knows; but we do know that changes in soil, climate, methods of
growing and in other things have an effect. Some variations come from
“crossing,” and some from no cause that we can see: in those cases they
are called “sports” of nature; learn to look out for them and when the
new variety is better than anything you have before produced, save it
for seed and see what comes of it. You may thereby be doing all mankind
a service.
CHAPTER VII.
PLANT NEEDS.
Plants need water, air, food, light and warmth just as animals do, and
it is wonderful to study the shifts and contrivances to which they
resort to get these, and also to protect themselves against too much of
any of them. If the plant were not able to change itself to suit the
conditions, it would often die where now it fights successfully.
Nothing affects the plant like the water supply; the size of every part
of the plant is increased by plenty of water. It not only helps the
growth of flowers and fruits, but it even changes the character of the
plant. In a moist air, cactus will put out leaf-like organs, gorse will
grow leaves instead of thorns; while where the water supply is very
scanty, the potato will put forth no leaves, but will become like a
cactus.
Yet plants do not grow in soil that is too wet, because they need air,
and too much water suffocates the roots. By proper irrigation—which
means giving just the right supply of water—both the quantity and
quality of the crop can be improved.
While plants need light, all varieties do not need the same amount of
it. You will find that those which need much light can turn towards
it, and this of itself will show you where such plants should be sown.
Plants have various ways to resist the supply of light when they are
getting too much. They droop their heads or close their leaves, which
prevents evaporation.
Different plants need different food and the same soil conditions will
not suit all. Some require rich soil if they are to flourish, while
some do better in poor soil. On the whole, plants, like people, are
better for under-feeding than for over-feeding. In general, starving
a plant makes it flower and fruit more quickly, but less abundantly;
while over-feeding helps to make much stem and leaf instead of fruit,
and also produces monstrosities. Too much nitrogen, especially, makes
too much stem and leaf, though nitrogen is one of the most important
plant foods. (Bailey says too much nitrogen can be corrected to a
certain extent, by potassium put in the soil.[3])
We are sure of only three plant foods—potash, phosphoric acid, and
nitrogen. Then there are lime, stable manure, green manure, clover
and cowpeas to doctor the soil with, when it is suffering from
chemical ills. This gives some idea of the vast unexplored regions of
agriculture which afford you and every other worker in the soil an
opportunity to make some great discovery for the benefit of the world.
No other calling offers such limitless opportunities.
Lime is especially valuable for plant food and also to make other kinds
of plant food available. Crops often fail in soil where there is plenty
of plant food, because it is not in the form that the plants can use.
Lime hastens the decay of vegetable matter, sweetens sour soil, and
greatly improves the texture of clay soils. Besides this it counteracts
magnesium in the soil and destroys its bad effects. But lime may not be
applied carelessly, because, although some plants cannot live without
it, some require a very small quantity. (It is, therefore, wise to send
a sample of the soil, to write what we want to grow, to the nearest
Government experiment station, who will probably suggest what could be
done with it, to make it productive.)
The right degree of warmth is another plant necessity. The best
temperature for plants generally is 86° of the ordinary thermometer
(30° Centigrade). This, however, depends upon the plant. The “best
temperature” varies with the species and variety. Usually, if the soil
is hotter than that, growth stops, and if the greater heat is kept up,
the plant dies. When the temperature is lowered, growth ceases before
freezing point is reached. Some few plants may be frozen without injury
if they are allowed to thaw slowly, but most of them are easily killed
by the frost. Too great heat or too much cold acts the same as lack of
water; the heat causes too great evaporation, the cold prevents the
roots taking in the water.
Shingles stuck in the ground on the sunny side will serve to protect
young plants from sun and rain, while cool soil may be had by using
the shady places, or by sheltering the ground with flat sheds the roof
boards of which have open spaces between them as wide as the boards.
This is done in some southern tobacco fields.
It is the law of nature that living cells must have a constant supply
of oxygen, that is why a tar wash sometimes kills plants by cutting
off the air supply. In the same way, too wet soil or too hard a crust
smothers the roots and the plants die. The surface soil should be kept
loose and sufficiently dry, so that the air can circulate. If this be
prevented, the soil becomes hard and sour and unfit to feed plants.
It is of the greatest importance to keep the soil open and loose by
proper tillage, so as to make plants healthy and vigorous.
Though plants need air they should be protected from draughts and
sudden blasts of air, whether hot or cold. For this reason, the
intelligent gardener will consider the effect of wind upon his crops
and where necessary will plant windbreaks. If you look about you, you
cannot fail to see the ill effects of strong winds in the odd shapes
of forest trees; and in badly arranged gardens you will find the same
effects in the fruit trees and small fruit bushes and in the stunted
crops. Plants shape themselves to their surroundings, and the way they
shape themselves is determined by inherited qualities; so it may be
said that the success of the plant depends upon its surroundings and
upon the seed it came from.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] NOTE.—In regard to muck soils, it is not a case of excess of
nitrogen but lack of potash which makes potash valuable for such.
Samuel Fraser.
CHAPTER VIII.
CROP ROTATION.
In agriculture on a large scale the difficulty is how to arrange the
farm business so as to make it pay. It is only of late that we are
beginning to understand that agriculture is a business, and that to
make it pay one must apply business principles. The best farmer is not
necessarily the one who knows the most “Science,” but the one who is
able to fit his science, his facts and his business in together.
The market value of special crops is so high that the grower can afford
to provide the extra manure and other expensive materials to keep the
land in good condition. This is the chief reason for the use of great
quantities of stable manure in market-gardening, far greater quantities
than are needed for mere food of the crops. So if you find that you are
advised to use more manure on your small plot than some farmer you know
uses on his big field, do not feel that you are being imposed upon. He
could not afford to use so much and you cannot afford to use less. The
farmer on a large scale has to let part of his low priced land rest in
clover once in a while. You cannot afford to let any of your small
area rest, so you must make up to the land by giving it plant food
enough.
In these days machinery has made so many wonderful changes in the
management of crops that the farmer who sticks to the old farming
customs has no chance of making more than a living. When the country
was new, it was the practice to farm one section until it was
exhausted, and then to move to fresh soil. The farmer was saved the
bother of cultivating, as virgin soil needed practically only to be
planted to bring forth a good harvest. But conditions have changed
and the virgin soil left today is not important in the farming
possibilities. Therefore, we have had to look for other means of
getting crops and making every inch of land do its share. We no longer
allow land to lie fallow that it may rest and renew itself. We renew it
by fertilizing and by rotation of crops. Crop rotation is very valuable
because it is a saving of fertilizer and labor, and keeps the soil
in good condition. This has been proved by experiments made without
manure, depending entirely upon rotation for fertilizing, which gave
excellent results.
There are probably a dozen or more good reasons for the value of crop
rotation which have not yet been discovered and formulated, but the
following are well known:
Some crops tend to correct the faults of others. It has been proved
that the continuous growing of one crop injures the soil in some
respect, and the crop falls off both in quantity and quality. Rotation
tends to overcome this difficulty. Then, too, this rotation works out
and evens up the inequalities of the soil, partly through the different
treatment required by the different crops.
Different plants draw different portions of food from the soil and at
different times. By rotation these heavy drafts on the plant food do
not come at the same times, and the seasons get a chance to even up the
inequalities.
Different plant food gets mixed into the soil, so that the roots can
feed on it, by the decay of the parts left in the ground or which
are plowed under. But the greatest benefit comes from the nitrogen
compounds through growing plants, such as cowpeas, crimson clover,
etc.; these “leguminous” plants have little knots or tubers on their
roots with the mysterious power of gathering the free nitrogen out of
the soil or air, and turning it back again to the soil in condition to
be used by other plants. Now nitrogen is the hardest to keep and the
most expensive of all the plant foods that the farmer has to buy, and
to get this nitrogen is sometimes the only reason he has for buying
chemical fertilizers.
This shows the importance of leguminous crops to the farm. They supply
this nitrogen at almost no cost, or at a profit.
Some plants have more power than others to use the contents of the
subsoil, and may draw less on the upper soil, and further, by their
decay may add richness to the earth. Most legumes have this power to
take nourishment from the subsoil.
Well-planned rotation helps to maintain the supply of decayed stuff
in the soil, on which the plants feed. It also improves the soil’s
texture. Moreover, it not only lessens the necessity for much chemical
fertilizer, but it puts those fertilizers to better use. Where live
stock is kept, crops should be raised to feed the stock to make manure.
Rotation is, also, a plan for cleaning the soil. Different weeds and
insects grow after different crops and the succession or “rotation” as
we call it, prevents any kind getting a secure hold.
It enables the farmer to meet the demands of the market, by continuous
crops.
CHAPTER IX.
WEEDS.
It is not enough to know what to grow, you must also know what not to
grow for profit, in a garden patch; and first in this class come weeds.
Study them until you know even their seeds. You cannot expect to get
rid of weeds until you know the nature of them and the best way to
attack them, so that they may be readily destroyed. If you run across
any common ones that you cannot place, send sample to the Department of
Agriculture. They will tell you all about them. Get from the Department
Farmer’s Bulletin 28 on “Weeds and How to Kill Them.” All this will pay.
One of the most common of the weeds of the north is the pigweed. This
is the growth of one year and can be destroyed by simply preventing
it from running to seed. A year or two will clear out even the most
obstinate growth of pigweed.
Mustard, plantain, chess, dodder, cockle, crab-grass and Jimsonweed
are the most disagreeable of the common weeds. The best time to kill
them is when they are small; therefore, you should keep the ground
constantly stirred up that the young weeds may not have a chance to
get a firm hold of the soil. If they do get a start on you, don’t let
them ripen. Cut them down before they run to seed at all. Never let up
in your war upon them. That advice holds good for all weeds, whether
they be annuals, which die every year, biennials that last for two
years, or perennials that can stand the winters. The biennials commonly
found are wild carrot, thistle, moth mullein, wild parsnip and burdock.
These are best destroyed by cutting the roots below the leaves with a
grubbing hoe or spud. Be sure they are cut low enough, else they will
branch out and make new seeds.
Some weeds live more than two years and are called perennials, such
as many grasses, dock, Canada thistle, poison ivy, passion-flower,
horse-nettle, etc. The best thing to do with them is to dig them out
and take them away. Crude sulphuric acid applied to the soil kills
them, or they may be starved by covering them with boards or with
layers of straw. If they come up through the straw, lift it up a bit
and let it fall again. There is yet another method, and if you have
the time and land to spare, you will find it a good one. Smother them
out by a dense growth of useful plants. Some use buckwheat and others
cowpeas. The cowpeas are to be preferred as they enrich the soil by
the nitrogen their roots gather. And that is another story that has its
own time and place. Just now we are considering weeds, and you will
find that they will keep you considering most of the time, for the only
good thing so far known about them is, that they make even lazy farmers
till their crops, if they have any. Left to themselves, weeds shade the
crops, steal their nourishment, waste moisture, and probably poison the
soil. Not even a mortgage can eat up a farmer’s profits like weeds.
CHAPTER X.
INSECTS AND DISEASES.
The wise gardener uses the spray to prevent disease and the attacks
of insects, instead of waiting to fight them after they have arrived.
But if they attack your garden you must fight them intelligently and
without ceasing.
The destruction by insects, is, generally speaking, easily seen, but
diseases of plants are not so plain, and have only been carefully
studied even by experts during the past fifty years. At present, all
we know is how to fight insects and diseases by different substances,
put on or about the plants. As fresh discoveries are constantly being
made, we will some day get rid of all these difficulties. It is always
better to get the advice of an expert when insects or diseases become
troublesome.
Anything in the soil or surroundings of your garden which interferes
with the plants during the growing season, weakens the crop and lays
it open to attacks. Plants are like children. If they are badly fed,
poorly clothed, ill housed or neglected, they are far more likely to
become diseased than if they are kept in a good state. So look after
your drainage, the character of the soil and the sort of cultivation
you give it. All these help the crop to withstand disease. On the big
western wheat fields, it has been found that drainage has a most marked
effect upon blights, wilts and rust. Undrained wheat sections suffer
greatly from rust.
Just how diseases are caught by one plant or section of a garden from
another, is not fully known, but we know that insects often carry
infection from one to another, as in fruit trees to which bees go for
honey. The bee, coming from an infected tree to a perfectly healthy
tree, may bring with it the germs of the disease or the eggs of the
pest. Many scientific men now hold that plant diseases are transmitted
by germs, which are carried not by insects only but also by the wind
and the water in the soil.
The wrong use of fertilizers or barnyard manure may often induce
disease, simply because the unbalanced food supply causes irregularity
in growth, which weakens the plant’s resisting power. What is called
a “balanced ration,” is of the utmost importance to plants. It is not
enough that the soil contain an abundance of some of the elements of
plant food, but that it contain all of them in nice proportion, so that
the plant can draw all it needs, and not be overfed in some ways and
underfed in others. That is why we add humus, why we fertilize, why we
cultivate, and why we take note of our plants while growing. Only in
this way can we supply their wants.
Weeds spread diseases and we should be ashamed of them. Not only are
they usually favorable to the growth of insects, scales and blights,
but some kinds of weeds actually breed these parasites. Moreover, they
rob the soil of nourishment during the dry, hot spells, thus bringing
about various kinds of rots and mildews. And now it is supposed that
they give out a kind of poison, or excrement, which renders the soil
unfit for crops. All this shows the necessity of clean cultivation if
we would help our crops to resist both insects and diseases.
CHAPTER XI.
RE-SOILING.
There is a good deal of talk these days about re-soiling, but the word
is misleading. We cannot re-soil this earth or any part of it. The soil
is there for keeps. It was here before us, and will remain after we are
gone. All we can do is to put back into the soil some of the vegetable
matter of which we have robbed it; and this is really what we have in
mind when we speak of re-soiling. People have the habit of coining
almost meaningless words, and then wondering why everybody does not
know at once what they meant to say.
What we are after is, to put humus, which is really decayed vegetable
matter, back into the soil. Then that natural fertility, of which we
have been talking, will have a chance to get to work.
[Illustration: WINTER RESIDENTS IN A SUMMER CAMP.]
Now, decayed vegetable matter is part of what makes up stable and
barnyard manure, street and stable sweepings; but, in practice, this
does not afford enough humus: that is one reason why crops of clover,
cowpeas, velvet-bean, buckwheat, etc., are often grown only to be
plowed into the ground in the fall. These are the green manures which
decay and become a part of the soil before the next planting season.
Soil fertilized in this way will be richer, moister, darker, than soil
fertilized solely by stable manure or commercial fertilizer. Soils that
contain enough plant food to supply crops for a thousand years to come,
are often barren or yield but a niggardly crop. This may be because
they lack humus, which is the key that unlocks the store of plant food
in the soil, and makes it available for the seeds and tender rootlets.
How much more humus may do, we do not yet know, but every year fresh
discoveries are made, and if we are to be benefited by them, we must
get ourselves ready for the new truths by using those already known.
On his famous farm in Birmingham, Pa., “Bob” Seeds plows his cowhorn
turnips, tops and all, into the earth in the fall, and by spring they
have decayed. He says wherever a turnip has rotted, you can see the
difference in the color of the soil even some distance away, and the
abundance of the next season’s crop shows how quickly Nature responds
when we work with her.
All vines and garden waste may be used for humus if plowed into the
ground in the fall, unless they have been infested with insects or
troubled by diseases. It is well established, that insects and their
eggs manage to live over the winter by the aid of vines and refuse
left lying about, as well as by weeds that the careless farmer has
failed to destroy. It is well to cut all weeds, not only those that
bother you in your garden, but also those that grow along the road,
as often their seeds are carried by the wind or the birds into your
garden patch. Gather them into a heap and burn them, adding to your
bonfire all the sickly, dead, diseased, or insect-ridden vines and
plants, and completely destroy them. You may be sure that the bugs on
those particular plants will not bother you next year. What you lose
in possible humus by this practice, you can make up by growing green
manure, or even by buying some of the prepared humus materials now on
the market.
The _Long Island Agronomist_, in a recent issue, tells of one of these
materials which comes from New Jersey, and consists of innumerable
rootlets, leaf-fibres and vegetable matter of all descriptions. It is
gathered from the peatbogs of New Jersey and is really the wash from
mountains and hills carried down by streams in freshet times, until
some level was reached where this deposit was made. When spread on the
land or mixed with the earth, it is found to hold much moisture, for
each particle swells up as if it were a sponge, and the crops planted
on soil treated with this preparation do remarkably well. It was so
very expensive at first as to be almost prohibitive except for very
valuable crops, but the price is now such that many a man can afford to
use it, especially if he cannot afford the time or space to grow his
own green manure.
Nothing looks nicer about a house than a green lawn, with
smooth-cropped, velvety surface, but nothing is harder to maintain
after a few years of cropping. This is because a well-kept lawn is
carefully raked after each clipping, and is kept free from falling
leaves or other vegetable waste matter. It must be admitted that the
general effect is better, particularly when the lawn stretches from
the front of the house to the roadside. But the lawn is, nevertheless,
being starved, and though watered every day it cannot keep up its
velvety surface indefinitely, unless supplied with the food it needs.
This is Nature’s own secret for replenishing the earth with good crops,
and all you need do is to observe what is going on around you, to find
daily proof of it.
To quote Mr. Seeds again: “Every two years, we ought to sow clean blue
grass or lawn grass seed over the lawn. I prefer to mow often and leave
the clippings on the lawn. It is the blanket and vegetable matter that
will do the lawn good. Every few years I cover the lawn with barnyard
manure, in the fall; let it lie there all winter and that which we rake
off in the spring we put on the garden. This is a little trouble, but I
want to say that I made more money creating my lawn than I ever did in
taking a fat ox from the stall, or a bushel of potatoes from my cellar.
“A man will stand on the public road in front of my place, and give me
more for my property on account of my lawn; but money is not the only
thing in the world. The lawn makes the boys and girls want to stay on
the farm. It is on our lawn that we spend our spare moments on Sundays,
entertaining our friends, in the summer; and there, beneath the shade
of ‘the old apple-tree,’ the smoke curls more beautifully from my
chimney than from any other I ever saw.”
So there is no reason why you should not have a good lawn, as well as
a good garden, if you will supply what the grass roots want. And it
is true that the lawn is a genuine asset. The man who is too busy to
bother with making a lawn, or to sit on it with his family in spare
moments, even though it takes a good deal of contriving to spare those
moments, is the man who, by and by, is going to complain that his
boys and girls have left the old place, and that “farming is mighty
expensive with all hired help.” Unless you have made yourself and your
family happy, you will not have achieved success, no matter how much
wealth you may get. Give your crops and your children what they need
for their best development, and you will find nothing to complain of
either in parenthood or in farming.
CHAPTER XII.
HOW TO WORK.
If you are only just beginning to experiment with gardening, and feel
that a fresh supply of fruits and vegetables from May until Christmas
would satisfy you for the first year or so, you will find a plot 100
× 200 feet quite large enough to feed your family and a little more
besides. If your plot has not been used for a long time, you will have
to do your plowing, if you can, the fall before you plant it. This will
give the frost a chance to sweeten the soil, and it is very likely to
need a good deal of sweetening. Most yard soils have become acid, and
in an acid soil little will grow. It comes from the earth having been
so long packed down that the air has had no chance to circulate, and
fresh air sweetens your soil just as it does your house.
It is not good to put stable manure on an acid soil. What it wants is
a little slaked lime or plaster, to help the sweetening process. Some
scientists claim that we can find out whether or not soil is acid by
the use of blue litmus paper, which you can get at any druggist’s. Open
the soil to a depth of six inches and put in the litmus paper, drawing
the earth close up to it. Examine it in 20 minutes, and if there is
any acid present, the paper will have turned red. This test is still
being experimented on.[4]
If your land is in proper condition to manure, use about twenty-five
heaping wagon-loads to the acre before plowing in the early spring, and
then use a disc or cutaway harrow until you have made the soil as fine
as dust. Then you have good planting conditions.
How much of the discontent with farming and gardening may have arisen
from the old method of planting in beds, it is hard to say. But that
cause for dissatisfaction no longer exists. We now plant in long rows
far enough apart to allow the use of the wheel-hoe in cultivating the
large and small plants alike, without having to readjust the blades.
The wheel-hoe is one of the most useful of farm tools, and has done
away with most of the back-breaking work of hand-weeding.
We cannot use the wheel-hoe on beds; that is why we now plant in rows.
If your plot allows rows one hundred feet long, you will find one row
of any vegetable enough for family use. Let them run crosswise of the
slope of the ground if your patch is not level, else the rain may make
channels of your seed rows. If possible, choose a southern exposure
for your garden; because this gets all the sun, it will be earlier
than less favored exposures. Lay out a plan of your land and work with
a definite purpose. The “rule of thumb” is no more satisfactory in
gardening than in carpentering.
If the slope of your land allows it, run your rows north and south,
so that each row may get the sun from the east in the morning, and
from the west in the afternoon. Put asparagus, rhubarb, sweet herbs
and other permanent vegetables in a row at one side, so they may not
interfere with the plowing of the rest of the garden.
Plant vegetables of the same height together, so far as the tillage
required will allow. Put the tall ones at the back, so as not to shade
the others. If you have a hedge, a building or a strip of woods as a
windbreak on the side where the wind blows worst in winter, you will
get vegetables a fortnight earlier in the spring, and probably a month
later in the fall. The more protected the garden, the warmer the soil,
and warm soil means quick and abundant returns. That is one reason why
we use so much manure. It warms and quickens the soil.
Plant vegetables that ripen at the same time as near together as their
size, habits and tillage requirements will permit.
Practice rotation; for instance, lima beans should not immediately
follow string beans or peas. As far as possible, keep the plants
subject to the same insects and diseases together. It is easier to
treat them, and besides, it leaves the other portions of the plot
uninfested, if they get so bad that you have to change the position of
the plants.
If you are growing fruits, you could plant a row of apple trees about
fifteen feet apart on the northern border, plums and pears on the
west, and cherries and peaches on the east side. Then if you could put
a grape-trellis next the apples, and a row of gooseberry, currant,
raspberry and blackberry bushes in front of the grapevines, you will
have a windbreak as a protection against the north winds, which will
prove profitable in itself as well as in its service to the vegetables.
Transplant freely; nearly all vegetables are the better for it,
especially lettuce and other salad plants. Sow seed thickly in the
first place. You can easily thin out or transplant, but you cannot
increase the number of plants if you have sown thinly. Even a small
proportion of weak seed that would not sprout would seriously affect
your crop. Besides, where you sow thickly, you can afford to weed out
all but the best and stockiest, and you are thus doing something to
improve the strain.
Keep your soil busy all the time. Dr. Watts said, “Satan finds some
mischief still, for idle hands to do,” and that might be paraphrased
to read that “Nature has great store of weeds in idle lands to grow.”
“Weeds are the farmer’s best friend, they force him to cultivate.”
But that friendship is only true where it has that effect. The farmer
who lets the weeds grow either in the garden rows or in the walks
and hedges, is going to find them his worst enemy. They poison and
suffocate his crop, and are also regular incubators of insects and
diseases. The best way to fight them is to starve them out with paying
crops. Therefore, as soon as one crop begins to ripen, plant another,
and then another, and so on. To grow but one crop is risky, unless
you are specializing and have prepared the best possible conditions
for that one crop. For a special market this is very profitable. But
usually companion-cropping is best. That gives two crops in the ground
at the same time, one maturing before the other needs the space. Thus
late celery may be planted between the rows of early celery; lettuce
with early cabbage; radishes with beets or carrots; corn with squash,
pumpkins or beans, and horse-radish with early onions or cauliflower.
Irrigation for arid soils and drainage for wet or clayey soils, are
the two opposite methods which bring astounding results. Any sort
of drainage is better than no drainage, but the best form so far
discovered is the tile drain laid about two and a half to four feet
below the surface. This carries away the surplus water and prevents
the roots of the crops being suffocated. On the other hand, irrigation
supplies to the dry lands the moisture they need. The tremendous
irrigation works carried on by the Government in the sandy, hitherto
barren, reaches of the west, are bringing results even more tremendous
than the works.
Hard, wet soil will not grow crops and here is where the advantage
of draining comes in. Drainage deepens the subsoil and removes the
water; it deepens the surface also and makes more of the plant food in
the soil available. Wet soil is sticky and hard for the seeds to push
their way through; but drainage will improve its texture and make it
crumble and fall apart easily, or as the experts say, it will make it
“friable.” At the same time it will prevent it washing or “leaching”
away. But even this does not tell all of the advantages of drainage. It
warms the soil and by making the ground more porous allows the roots to
go deeper in search of their food and moisture. This in turn enables
plants to withstand drought and hot weather better and makes returns
more sure. It also permits working the ground earlier in the spring and
after rains, because, the more porous the soil, the quicker it absorbs
and stores moisture that comes in rain.
There are germs in the soil which change the nitrogen into nitrates,
the form in which nitrogen becomes the real plant food, and drainage
favors the development of these germs. You see how important good
drainage is.
Get the tools you need. You cannot afford to be without implements if
you are cultivating intensively. That does not mean that you must get
all the advertised garden tools, or even all that your neighbor has.
Although a tool may be the best of its kind, that is not reason enough
for buying it. You must have a use for it on your plot. Get whatever
you have a use for, and get only the best. It pays in the long run.
A list of tools and costs is given in “Three Acres,” and in “A Little
Land,” so it is necessary only to note here that the spading fork is a
far better tool than the spade; some gardeners never use a spade. The
spading-fork is easier to use and breaks the soil much better.
The seeder, attached to the wheel-hoe, is also a saver of labor and
of seed: it makes the rows quite straight, so that they are easy to
keep free from weeds; it drops the seeds at even distances and if
your soil is as fine as it should be, it covers them all just deep
enough—provided you have learned to fix the gauges right to start on.
Combination tools, those that do several different things, sometimes
work well, but they usually get out of repair quickly, and are apt
to puzzle the beginner. Get the best and simplest form of the tool
you want, and keep it always in condition for use. Tools that are
not cleaned after use are spreaders of disease. Cleanliness prevents
and cures. See to it that your cultivating tools, your harvesting
baskets and bags, and your storage bins are thoroughly cleaned, and
you will soon discourage the bugs. They will regard you as cold and
unsympathetic, and your garden as a place to be avoided.
Don’t be afraid to use manure, both stable and green, and when you
must, use commercial fertilizer. But this is expensive and is only
profitable under particular crops. You won’t need it, if you keep the
soil supplied with humus.
Don’t waste kitchen slops or any other waste water. It all has
fertilizing qualities that will help your garden. Even in the winter it
is a good plan to pour your slops on the ground, choosing a different
spot each day so that no one place may get too wet and leave surface
pools. Mankind in the lump is stupid, so stupid that we drain our
fertilizing matter into our harbors and then dig it out again at the
cost of four dollars the yard.
But you need not be so stupid as that. Even some of our cities are now
learning the value of sewage, notably San Antonio, Texas. This city,
with its 85,000 inhabitants, has solved the problem of what to do with
its sewage, although the city fathers leased the rights to a private
corporation, instead of providing for the city’s own disposal of it.
This company carries the sewage six miles out of town, and has built
five miles of canal, through which the surplus sewage not used in
irrigating, flows upon a filter-bed where all solids are removed, and
the water runs into a big basin which covers about 1000 acres. This
basin being very shallow, the sun’s rays reach the bottom of it, and
purify the water, so that, though it enters one end of this basin as
sewage, it flows out of the other as pure water. Chemical analyses and
tests have proved this many times over, and we might take a hint from
this at home to “raise our darkened windows and open wide our doors, to
let the blessed sunshine in.” It is the best destroyer of disease and
impurity yet discovered.
The company’s acres along the line of the canal profited so much from
this irrigation, that farmers soon began to purchase the irrigating
sewage water for use on their forage crop fields, and for root crops
particularly. The solids are spread on the surface of the lands upon
which the clear, purified water is to be used, and the results have
been most satisfactory. San Antonio really makes a profit out of that
which is costing other cities millions every year, and in doing this
has shown us another way to work, in bringing into use all lands that
are available in any way for intensive cultivation.
Plenty of manure and thorough cultivation are almost a complete
protection against drought. If you have plowed deep, manured
thoroughly, added humus and maintained tillage, you can laugh at the
drought that would once have spelled ruin for the farmer in any part
of the country. You have been told this before in this very book, but
that is no reason why it should not be repeated. It is of such great
importance, that the average farmer would make no mistake if he had it
made into a motto printed in large and striking type, and hung it where
he could see it a dozen times a day. It is part of the “How to Work,”
and a mighty big part, as you will learn, whether you practice it or
neglect it.
Use your brains; that’s what they are for. After you get your farm
started, you can get cheap and unintelligent labor, to keep it going,
if you wish; but you can only reap a profit from intelligent labor,
and you must furnish the intelligence yourself. Plan your work, and
make the most of your soil, your climate and your market. Things that
everybody grows bring low prices, but things that you alone grow, or
that you grow better than your neighbors, bring good returns all the
year round.
We have to learn, you know, and if we won’t learn by doing right
and profiting by it, then we shall have to learn by doing wrong and
suffering for it—“the way of transgressors is hard.”
If you have very little time or very little land, you will probably get
the best return for your time and money by growing radishes early in
the season with lettuce, followed by bush-beans or tomatoes and then
sweet corn.
Put some nasturtiums in any odd space and climbing nasturtiums and
morning-glories on your fence, and you will have a very creditable
looking garden—big returns for little expenditures.
If you haven’t got any land, don’t let that discourage you: grow
some things in a window box and learn how, so that you have learned
something when you do get some land.
You can grow mushrooms in half a barrel in the cellar. The thing to do
is to get started growing something.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] NOTE.—Another way is to mix a little soil with rain water, stir it
well, and put the litmus paper in it. Pure rain water is the only water
that can be successfully used in this test.
Part II.
CHAPTER XIII.
ROOT CROPS.
Root crops are usually grown in drills and are not ordinarily
transplanted. They are hardy and require little skill in the gardener,
but they need a cool season and deep soil so as to grow long, firm and
well shaped. The quicker they grow the better the quality, so that
in the north it is necessary to warm the soil with stable manure and
have it in good condition. Good tilth helps quick growth and therefore
improves the quality; so that it rests with the gardener to make his
root crops among the first and the best in the market. The price of a
root crop depends almost entirely upon its looks, so have as few side
roots as possible, and cut off those that may develop in spite of care.
Forked or branched roots should not be mixed in when we market, for
even a few such specimens lessen the price of all.
Early crops, such as radishes, beets, carrots and turnips, are sold in
bunches of 6 to 12. All in the bunch should be of the same size and
shape and tied neatly around the leaf-stalks with a cord. The leaves
are left on these early vegetables, so they should be kept cool and
moist, as wilted leaves also spoil the sale price. Beauty may be only
“skin deep,” but it commands the market.
Late root crops sell in bulk, and harvesting them is the hardest work
connected with root crops. It is well to plow them out, cut off the
tops, and allow the roots to lie in the sun only until the soil is dry
enough to shake off. They are then ready for storing in pit or cellar,
and are easy to keep.
RADISHES.
The radish is the earliest root crop, and the quickest growing. It is
ready for market in three to six weeks after planting the seed; so it
is a great financial help to one who is just starting a garden. It is a
hardy crop requiring rather cool weather or shade. The radish responds
well to hot-bed culture and the earliest spring varieties are usually
grown that way. But even for planting in the open garden you need not
wait long. Soaking the seeds will save several days. As soon as you
can work the ground, even before all the frosts are over, radishes may
be sown, provided there has been good preparation-tillage. To secure
crisp, edible radishes, the growth must be continuous. Any interruption
in development, or an overgrowth, makes the root stringy, bitter and
often hollow. See that those in each of your bunches are even-sized and
bright and clean, so that they will look like the delicacy that they
are. A prime bunch of radishes is as pretty as a bouquet.
The radish is a partial season crop, and is, therefore, suited for all
sorts of double-cropping. It is often sown shallow in the same drills
with the other vegetables of later growth, because it matures so early
that it breaks the earth crust for the slower seeds. Radishes may also
be sown between rows of cabbages, beans, peas, etc., or broadcast in
beds by themselves. One ounce of seed will sow about 100 feet of drill
or eight to ten pounds to the acre.
Sow the seeds one-half inch deep (better sow too shallow than too deep)
in rows 6 to 12 inches apart, if you have only a little plot; or in
long rows a little farther apart if you use a wheel-hoe. Drop two or
three seeds to the inch; this can be done only with a seeder attached
to the wheel-hoe frame: later, thin out the seedlings to about two
inches apart. Only large seeds should be used, the small ones being
too slow maturing. They may be sown at regular intervals of seven to
ten days all through the spring. It is usually difficult to grow good
radishes in summer, unless you can select a cool spot and keep the soil
cool, but some sorts of radishes do well in the hot weather. Although
in America the radish is best known as an early spring crop, it may
also be grown for winter use if planted in July or August, and stored
like turnips or other root crops. The tops make good greens for boiling.
The radish is the easiest of crops to grow, and has only one serious
enemy, the root maggot. This insect is one of the cabbage enemies also,
and can be destroyed by injecting bisulphide of carbon in the soil,
but that treatment is too expensive for the returns from radishes. The
most effective way is to sow the radishes where the maggot has not been
breeding, and thus starve the pest out.
The most popular varieties of radish are the French Breakfast,
Olive-shaped, Scarlet Short-top, Chartier, Wood Early Frame, and White
Box. Those that grow well in summer are White Naples, White Vienna,
Strasburg and Stuttgart, while for use in winter Scarlet Chinese, Black
Spanish and White Spanish are best.
BEETS.
Beets, like radishes, are a hardy crop requiring a loose, rich soil
and continuous growth to reach their best and quickest development.
They are easy to raise and respond readily to good tillage. The early
or garden beet is usually a succession or companion crop, because it
may be planted early and matures quickly. Although most kinds require
two or three months for maturing, yet with some of the early varieties
roots large enough for bunching may be had in six weeks to two months.
The quickest sorts are the round or nearly round varieties, which may
almost be called surface feeders. For this reason they require soil in
excellent tilth and the richest, well-rotted barnyard manure. Indeed,
the wise gardener will plow his land in the fall, and plow it deeply,
too; then as soon as it can be worked in the spring run the cultivator
and harrow over it, and plant the seed about 1½ inches deep in rows
from 12 to 18 inches apart. The land must be kept well tilled and free
from weeds, especially during the early part of the season. The long
field-crop beet is now very little grown, as the early varieties may
be sown late in the season for fall and winter use, and the Southern
grown beets cost less in the late winter than it does to grow and store
them. Even in feeding cattle, the beet has been largely superseded
by the mangel, so that few are grown except the short round sorts for
table use. The sugar beet is a field crop.
The seeds (which are really fruits, containing within a hard shell four
or five seeds each) require a great deal of moisture to germinate. Some
gardeners advocate throwing them into hot water and allowing them to
soak for six or eight hours before planting. This makes them sprout
more quickly. Beets come up in clumps and must be carefully thinned,
until they stand 6 to 8 inches apart, although this is not done until
the tops are sufficiently grown to sell for “greens.” In this way there
is no waste, since top and root alike are used as a pot-herb. The
contrast of the green leaves with clean roots attracts customers.
If you plant beets early in the season, say as soon as the ground can
be worked, they may be followed by celery, late potatoes, cabbage or
cauliflower; or they may be grown at the same time between the rows
of some main season crop like cabbage. If planted in hot-beds or
cold-frames it will not pay to transplant them, as they mature very
early under such conditions, and may be bunched and sold without that
labor. In July or August, and in some places even in September, the
turnip-rooted variety may be sown for fall and early winter use, but
special attention must be given to tilling them so that the soil may
not be too dry. The best and firmest of the roots may be stored for
winter use, and for better prices.
Early beets are sold in bunches of six, but late crops are sold in
baskets or barrels. Five to eight pounds of seed are needed for each
acre; one ounce will sow from 75 to 100 feet of drill. The average crop
is from 300 to 400 bushels to the acre.
Beets have three serious diseases: root-rot, for which apply lime to
the soil; leaf-spot, kept in check by spraying with Bordeaux mixture;
scab, for which the only cure now used is not to plant where the land
is infested.
Beets respond to special fertilizers, which may be used if the soil is
already rich in plant food, and the market will afford enough profit
to pay for the extra expense. At the New Jersey Experiment Station
from 400 to 700 pounds of nitrate of soda well-worked into the soil
before the plants were set out, increased the yield from 10 to 23 per
cent.; and the earliness all the way from 17½ to 135 per cent. In the
“Farmer’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture,” Messrs. Wilcox and Smith of the
Department of Agriculture, say that “where earliness is of primary
importance, nitrate of soda can be used with profit with this crop even
on the richest of soils.”
If you can’t get your root crops early, get them late. When the mercury
goes away down, the prices go away up.
CARROTS.
Besides being a hardy crop that may be planted in the early spring as
soon as the ground can be worked, carrots have the advantage of having
no serious insects or diseases. They require a clean, mellow soil,
that will not “bake” over the seeds, and the best of surface tillage.
Carrot seeds are so small and so slow in sprouting, that it is good
practice to plant radishes or turnips or other quick seeds in the
same row, to help break the crust for the tender seedlings. The young
carrots have such a slight hold upon the soil, that they need petting,
only the shallowest, surface tillage being possible, yet scarcely
any of the garden crops need tillage more. But once let the carrots
get established in the soil, and they are easy to grow and give good
returns. They are sown thickly about one inch deep in rows from 12
to 18 inches apart. When they are well up, they should be carefully
thinned so as to stand two to three inches apart in the row. The early
varieties will bear forcing and respond to hot-bed culture, but they
are slower of growth than radishes or beets, requiring from two to two
and a half months to be ready for market. They are tied in bunches of
six with the tops left on, and are in great demand in the early season
when small and bright and tender.
Carrots are of two main types, the early, small variety and the large
sort grown in the field for winter use. The large kind is not much
grown, because the smaller varieties may be planted late for winter
use, and as feed for stock, carrots are no better than the larger
root crops. If you grow the early variety for winter use, you will
need to be sure that the soil is in good tilth, as dry or weedy soil
would be fatal to carrots. Maybe you are tired of reading that all
these crops need good tillage; but you will be much more tired if you
neglect it. This crop may be sown as late as the middle of June in the
Northern States, and the ground should be sown with some early crop,
like radishes, to keep it in good condition until needed for the late
carrots.
Carrot seed is sown thickly, about two pounds of seed being required
for an acre, or one ounce to about 300 feet of drilled row, if the
seed is fresh. A good crop of carrots is from 200 to 300 bushels per
acre.
The best varieties are the Early Forcing, which may be grown in
hot-beds, cold-frames, open garden in the spring, and also in the fall
for home use; the half-long Danvers for a good, reliable mid-season
crop and the Long Scarlet for a good late crop.
These root crops are among the prettiest “fancy goods”—where they can
be sold directly to well-to-do people they bring fancy prices.
TURNIPS.
The turnip is such an easy crop to grow that the gardener would have
a snap with it if it were not for the snap that the root maggot has.
It is a hardy, quick-growing crop, requiring a cool, short season
and a moist soil. The turnip is so hardy that the herbage can bear
considerable cold without real injury, so that when grown for winter
use it is left standing in the field until the black frosts; but the
roots will not stand such hard freezing as parsnips or salsify.
Turnips should be planted in moist, rich soil to insure quick
sprouting, because their chief value as food is the result of rapid
growth. Like the radish, the turnip, if it grows slowly, is likely
to be tough, woody and stringy. True turnip has soft, white flesh
(sometimes the boys eat it raw) and the roots are flatly rounded, while
the leaves are rough and hairy. The seed is sown as soon as the soil
can be got ready in the spring for the early crop, and as late as the
last week in July in the Northern States, or the middle of August in
the Middle States, for a fall crop. They are ready for the table in six
to ten weeks. Turnips are planted from 1 to 1½ inches deep in drills
from 10 to 18 inches apart; one ounce of seed for every 200 to 300
feet, or one pound to the acre. Plants should be thinned until they
stand three or four inches apart, and later, as the roots are pulled, a
foot of space will allow of full development.
Turnips suffer so from root maggot, that where the land has become
infested with this pest, it is better not to try to grow them until
the insects are starved out, because the only effective treatment that
we have found so far is to inject bisulphide of carbon into the soil,
which costs too much for turnip crops.
PARSNIPS.
Unless your preparation-tillage has been thorough, there will be no
good parsnips for you. They require cool, very deep soil in excellent
tilth to make good roots a foot long, straight, clean and tapering. A
lumpy or shallow soil makes the roots branchy, and of little market
value. Parsnips are usually sown in drills, far enough apart to let the
wheel-hoe in; sow thickly and then thin out the rows, leaving plants
about six to eight inches apart. We have to sow thickly because some
seeds may be bad, for parsnip seed does not retain its life for more
than two seasons. An ounce of fresh seed will do for 200 to 250 feet of
drill, or about four pounds to six pounds to the acre.
The seeds sprout so slowly that it is well to plant some quick-growing
seed with them to break the soil, else it may have to be broken by
hand. The parsnip is hardy and the seeds may be sown as soon as the
ground can be put in condition, but it must be the main crop, for it
takes the whole season to grow the long roots. The roots may be left
in the ground until the next spring, as the hard winter freezes do not
injure them. In that case you must store a large part of the crop in
cool pits or cellars, because the best price is obtained in the late
winter or very early spring when the ground is often frozen so hard
that you can’t pull the roots up. It would not pay to blast them out,
you know. There need be no waste where stock is kept, because the
ragged roots make excellent feed. The Hollow Crown and the Student
varieties are the standards. A good crop is 500 to 600 bushels to the
acre, but under good conditions, this can be bettered. No serious pests
or diseases consume the parsnips, so men and stock get all that grow.
SALSIFY.
The salsify plant tastes so like an oyster that it is called the oyster
plant. It is grown for kitchen use only, not for stock. Like its
cousin, the parsnip, it must be sown in deep, rich soil and given the
whole season to mature. Salsify can be left in the ground all winter,
unless it is needed for the late winter or early spring market. The
seeds sprout quickly and may be sown as early as the soil is ready.
Like beet seed, the salsify seed is really a fruit, long and hard
like a stick, and it is somewhat difficult to use a seed drill in
sowing them. An ounce of seed sows only about 70 feet of drill; an
acre requires eight to ten pounds and a good yield is from 200 to 300
bushels per acre. There are no serious insects or diseases.
There are two important modifications of salsify known as Black Salsify
and Spanish Salsify. The regular type is a biennial, though cultivated
as an annual, becoming wild and losing its fleshy root if left in the
ground longer; but the Black, which is grown just the same as the main
type, is perennial, and the roots continue to enlarge, yet to remain
edible, though left in the ground more than one year. It has broader
leaves than the regular salsify and a long black root, yellow flowers
and light seeds.
Spanish salsify is not generally known in this country. Its root is
much lighter in color and not so strong in flavor, but with careful
cooking it develops other qualities of its own that are most agreeable.
Moreover, it is easily cultivated and yields larger returns than the
regular salsify and the average person would not know the difference.
It is sown and cultivated just as salsify is, and when bleached the
young leaves are eaten like cardoons, that is, as a pot-herb.
HORSE-RADISH.
Although horse-radish is a perennial, it gets woody the second year, so
that the market gardeners grow it from fresh cuttings, called “Sets,”
every year. These cuttings are taken off the side roots, from three to
seven inches long, and from the thickness of a lead-pencil to that
of a little finger. The cuttings are made when the roots are dug in
the fall and may be stored all winter. Horse-radish grows very easily,
but as it is a late season crop, and needs cool soil, there is nothing
gained by planting it early. It requires very deep soil if the roots
are to grow straight, long and tender. Only long, large, even shaped
and uniform roots bring any price in the market. It may be planted with
early cabbage or beets, and when they are harvested, the horse-radish
takes the land. It will grow until freezing weather and is the better
for being left in the ground as late as possible. Sets are planted
either upright or slanting, three to five inches below the surface
and from twelve to eighteen inches apart in rows. If they grow too
fast they may be cut down two or three times, as horse-radish stands
considerable ill-usage, if it is planted deep and in good soil. Before
sending to market, wash the roots and trim them of all side shoots; tie
them in bunches of six or eight; or they may be sold in bulk or by the
barrel. The price ranges from ten to fifty dollars a ton, and in good
rich soil four tons can be raised to the acre. The usual yield is only
two tons. The extra two come from knowing how.
But horse-radish can easily become a bad weed, for weeds are only
plants misplaced. So plow the roots out as soon as you have dug your
crop and have them removed. Although it is next to impossible to get
them all out, they cannot do much harm if the ground is kept thoroughly
busy with some other crop. There is a good deal of the Old Nick in
Nature, and wherever she finds idle land she sets to work to grow
weeds. She would just as readily help your crops; so it is for you to
profit by her willingness.
CHAPTER XIV.
TUBER CROPS.
POTATOES.
A heavy yield of potatoes may be simply a matter of moisture and
frequent tillage. The potato likes Scotland[5] and Nova Scotia because
it thrives best in deep, cool, moist soil, finely pulverized and
containing much potash. Knowing the conditions under which any crop
grows well, is equivalent to growing a big crop, to the careful farmer,
so if you want some potatoes, you may as well get the most possible.
The average farmer raises 75 bushels to the acre, but it pays to be
above the average. You ought to be ashamed to grow less than 200 or
300 bushels even taking 75 as a starting point, for, when you consider
that by the exercise of brains and labor, all the way from 600 to 1300
bushels per acre have been produced, you may well decide to prove what
you can do. You have a chance to beat the record.
Potatoes should be planted deep and early. If they are planted too near
the surface they will ripen before they are fully grown or maybe get
sunburned and unfit for eating. Choose your best potatoes for seed,
if you plant from your own crop; or buy only the best varieties, if
you must buy. But it is well to remember that there is always danger
in potato seed raised elsewhere than on your own patch where you can
watch conditions. Don’t use a potato for seed if it has a black thread
running through it; a roughened or irregular circle on the skin, or a
hollow center. Burn all such; else you will have diseased crops and
give yourself no end of trouble and expense. Plant the seeds at least
four inches deep and plow them in. The surface should be harrowed two
or three times before the plants come up, and the crop should have
light, surface tillings five to eight other times during the season.
Potatoes are planted in “drills” or continuous furrows, 27 to 42 inches
apart, at intervals of 9 to 18 inches, and it requires from 8 to 18
bushels of potatoes to plant an acre. Most farmers plant too sparingly.
There has been much book discussion as to the size of seed cuttings,
but the most economical size is one weighing about three ounces or
the size of a large hen’s egg, with at least one good eye. The potato
cutting is food; therefore the larger the cutting the more food, and
the more food the better early growth, and the better the early growth
the better the yield. Bailey claims that a piece containing too many
eyes means too many sprouts contending for that food and each weakening
the other in the struggle for its own existence.
For early potatoes, the only ones that can pay in a small plot,
remember five different things: (1) good site and an early soil; (2)
land prepared either by special plowing the fall before, or by growing
late-tilled crops, that the soil may be in good tilth; (3) free use
of concentrated, quick-acting fertilizers; (4) early varieties of
potatoes; (5) sprouting the sets, so that the short, thick, firm,
colored shoots are secured. To secure these, light and a moderate
degree of warmth, 40°-50°, is needed. Nothing pays better than
sprouting.
No crop needs spraying more. Unless it is frequently sprayed, it is
almost certain to be attacked by the potato bug, the flea-beetle and
blight, and the yield cut down. Dry Paris green puffed on while the
leaves are damp with dew, ends the troubles of the bug, and Bordeaux
mixture can be sprayed for blight. No specific has yet been discovered
for the flea-beetle, but it does far less damage where Bordeaux mixture
is freely used. I have heard of letting the chickens loose on the
flea-beetles.
SWEET POTATOES.
The common or Irish potato does badly in the South, except as an early
crop, because the climate is too warm, but where the common potato
suffers, the sweet potato thrives. It requires a warm, sunny climate,
a long season, and warm, loose soil, with plenty of moisture during
growing time, and less during ripening. It is very tender and cannot
stand frost. It is grown extensively as far north as the sandy lands of
New Jersey.
The soil must be rich, loose, and well drained and liberally fertilized
with well-rotted manure. Wood ashes will help the growth of the tuber
most satisfactorily.
Only one variety of sweet potato, the Spanish, is cut and planted like
the common potato. All other varieties are grown from “slips,” or, as
they are sometimes called, “draws.” A whole potato is laid on a hot-bed
and covered with a couple of inches of loose soil or leaf-mould. Very
soon it begins to sprout and when the shoots are from three to five
inches high, they are broken off next the tuber, and planted. Their
roots have already begun to form and these are the “slips.” The same
potato or tuber, will give another set of slips if allowed to remain in
the ground. In the extreme south no hot-bed is necessary to start the
sprouting.
Another method of obtaining slips is from cuttings from the ends of
the vines. Take cuttings from 10 to 12 inches long, from the earliest
planted or the most vigorous vines. Having removed all the leaves
except those at the very tip, plant the cutting lying down with only
an inch or two of the tip showing. The rows should be about three feet
apart and the slips in the row 18 inches apart. The average yield is
from 200 to 400 bushels per acre.
Sweet potatoes suffer from several fungous diseases which are discussed
in New Jersey Experiment Station bulletins on Sweet Potato Culture.
Leaf blight may be checked by the use of Bordeaux mixture, but rotation
is the cure for tuber crop diseases.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] Ireland is not really the land of the “praties”; the average yield
of Great Britain is higher than of Ireland.
CHAPTER XV.
BULB CROPS.
All bulb crops are hardy, liking cool seasons and moist rich soil with
a loose top. As a rule they are seed-bed crops, but are sown early in
the open field. They grow from seeds or bulbs and may be raised as main
or secondary crops and treated like onions. Their tops are often used
for seasoning.
LEEKS.
To the average American, there is but one important bulb crop, the
onion, but the foreign-born use garlic, leek and others also. Of these
the leek is the mildest flavored and the best worth knowing. It is
grown from seed sown in the early spring, and requires the whole season
to reach full development. It produces soft bulbs and thick leaves,
both being used for seasoning. The leek is stored green, as celery is,
being set in earth in a pit or cellar.
GARLIC.
The garlic is the strongest of all the bulb family in flavor. It is
grown from “cloves,” as the separate sections of the bulb are called,
and is planted early. It does not fully mature until the end of the
summer or early fall.
SHALLOT.
Shallot is much like garlic, only it is milder, and is grown in the
same way. There is one interesting difference, however, between the
two. The “cloves” of the garlic are all encased in one outer skin,
those of the shallot grow separately.
CIBOULE AND CIVES.
The Ciboule or Welsh onion, and Cives, are grown for their leaves which
are used for seasoning. The Ciboule is the most like the common onion
and grows the same way and requires the same cultivation. Cives grow
in dense tufts and are propagated by separating the tufts and planting
a section. They are perennial, and make a good border for the garden
walk, combining grace and toothsomeness.
ONIONS.
It pays to grow onions intelligently. They take lots of care, but they
repay the time and trouble.
You cannot get the best results from onions by beginning now, at the
moment you start your garden, to sow your seed. Onions require that
you should begin last year, so to speak. The ground should be well
plowed in the fall, after having been in use with good tillage all
the previous season, and the surface soil must be in super-excellent
condition. The onion is practically a surface feeder, and as the seed
sprouts slowly, and the baby plants are delicate and slender-rooted,
conditions must be absolutely right for a good growth. In fact, no
other vegetable crop, grown on a large scale, requires such fine
surface soil. Hard or baked soil is sure to give a poor crop. The
surface must be kept loose and in good tilth, and low, level land is
the best place for your onion patch.
When the ground has been plowed, go over it carefully and break up all
the clods or lumps, and remove all stones and weeds. Do not use coarse,
fresh stable manures, as that leaves the ground too coarse in texture,
and moreover increases the probability of weeds, and weeds are death
to onions. Only fine, old, well-rotted stable manure may be used, and
this must not be plowed under, as it is the surface soil which must be
rich. Commercial fertilizers, especially the sorts rich in potash, are
of great value in growing onions, and, because of their potash, wood
ashes make an excellent top dressing for the onion patch. Keep the soil
finely pulverized and you will then have ideal conditions for planting
your crop. Next get good seed. Good onions often give poor seed, but
cheap seed always means poor onions, so buy the best seed always.
Reclaimed marshes, freed from roots and peat, and thoroughly
fertilized, are ideal places for growing onions. The rows or drills,
which must be 14 inches apart, must also be perfectly straight, else
the necessary cultivation cannot be given. The crop often needs
two weedings by hand when the plants are very young, and frequent
cultivation by the wheel-hoe. Now the wheel-hoe cannot do good work on
rough or uneven ground, and its best work is none too good for onions,
so you see where you are at.
The onion crop is divided into two classes, the early crop and the main
season crop. Early crop onions are immature, green, and are tied in
bunches for market; main season crops are dry and are a staple product.
Early onions may be grown from seed, but are usually grown from bulbs.
There are three kinds of bulbs for planting: “top” onions, potato or
“multiplier” onions and “sets”; the first two are distinct types,
but “sets” are only partly grown onions. “Top” onions are really
small bulbs which grow on the top of the plant instead of fruit;
“multipliers” are onions with several hearts or cores, each of which
may be planted and will give rise to another bulb, which, in its
turn, will develop two or three more cores. The process is continued
indefinitely.
“Top” onions start quickly and soon give edible onions. If the bulb is
planted out the following year it will send up a stalk and produce a
new crop of tops.
To raise “sets,” seeds are sown thickly on dry, light ground, where
they soon crowd each other, and by midsummer anyway, the tops die for
lack of room, food and moisture. The bulbs, which should then be from
one-half to three-quarters inch in diameter, are picked, cured and
stored as ordinary onions are. When planted in the spring they start to
grow again and soon produce eatable bulbs.
The new early onion culture is growing onions from seedlings raised in
the hot-bed or forcing house, and transplanted as soon as the weather
permits. By this method the large, quick-growing Southern varieties,
Gibraltar and Prize-taker, come to perfection in the North. Our season
is too short for this by the ordinary open planting. This “New Onion
Culture,” which is not so new, after all, except in the middle East,
is fully described by T. Greiner, in his book published by the Orange
Judd Company, N. Y.
In the main season crop, earliness is not so necessary, and less
fertilizer will do, so long as it is the right kind. Seed is sown as
early as possible, as the onion likes a cool season. In the garden, it
is sown thickly because the onion often fails to sprout, but in the
field, it is sown more carefully, waste of seed and the thinning in the
big field being expensive.
On some land the onion runs to tops, particularly where there is too
much moisture, or the ground is too new, or coarse manures have been
used. If the tops are still rank and green in late August or early
September, it is a good thing to break them by rolling a barrel over
the rows, that the growth may go to the bulbs.
The trouble with onions does not end with growing them. They are a
difficult crop to handle and store, unless the fall is warm. After they
are pulled they must dry a day or two, either in the field or under
cover—cover is more expensive but the bulbs have a better, brighter
color. The bulbs must be free from dirt and the tops cut off about a
half-inch above the bulb, neither more nor less, else the bulb will
suffer in marketable value. It must be a clean cut without ragged ends,
and the outer skin or covering must not be broken. If the crop is
uneven in size, as is quite apt to be the case, sort them over, because
one misshapen or under-sized onion in a dozen, will materially lessen
the price received for the crop. There are so many good vegetables
on the market today, that the consumer is growing finicky, and wants
only the best looking as well as the best tasting. Be careful to give
him what he wants, and he will give you what you want—good prices—in
return. The sorter may be a very simple contrivance, consisting of a
rack or trough with a slat bottom through which small onions will drop.
When raised to a convenient height on a slant it is easy to work the
bigger onions over the end of the rack into boxes or baskets below.
Most farmers prefer to sell their onion crop in the fall, because it is
difficult to house it. Mature onions will not stand freezing, unless
they can be kept frozen all winter and allowed to thaw gradually in the
spring. But this is a risky process and often results in heavy loss.
They need a steady warm temperature, and many store houses are heated
to ensure safety from frost.
It takes an ounce of onion seed for 150 feet of drill, or from 3½ to 5
pounds to the acre. A good crop for an average farmer is from 300 to
400 bushels per acre, but an average crop for a good farmer is 600 to
800 bushels per acre; and some have grown as high as 1100 bushels to
the acre. You can choose your own class.
The root maggot is the worst enemy the onion has, and there is no
really successful method of fighting it. Infested land should be used
for other crops that the root maggot will not feed upon, until he is
starved out. Rust and smut which also affect onions, may be practically
cut out, or at least held in check, by the use of Bordeaux mixture, but
rotation is the best remedy for smut.
CHAPTER XVI.
COLE CROPS.
Cole crops are among the hardy plants of the garden and field,
requiring plenty of moisture at the roots, a cool season and cool soil.
Hence their name, Cole meaning cool. They are mostly seed-bed crops and
need considerable space in which to spread. They are grown for their
tops, rather than for their roots or fruits.
CABBAGE.
Cabbage culture needs a cool deep soil that will hold moisture, and
continuous growth from start to finish. Its other essentials are:
extra care in the selection of the seed; frequent and thorough surface
tillage; avoiding the root maggot, club-root, and rot, by proper
rotation of crops, and by destroying the cabbage worm as soon as it
appears. “A cabbage head” may mean a stupid man, for “a cabbage head”
can’t take care of cabbages.
The demand for cabbage has increased more rapidly during the past ten
years than for any other vegetable in the market. For sauer kraut alone
the demand is enormous. Where a few hundred barrels would supply all
the demand twenty years ago, tens of thousands of barrels are now
needed annually. Its use was at one time largely confined to the German
in this country, but that is no longer true. So there is always a
market for cabbage, and if you are willing to take the pains necessary
to grow good cabbage, you will find it a paying crop. Cabbage is also
largely grown for stock-feeding, and all the animals, from the horses
to the fowls, are glad to get it.
There are, of course, the two sorts of crops now so usual in
market-gardening, the early and the main season crops. The early crop
is started under glass either in the hot-bed or forcing house, while
the main season crop is sown in seed-beds or in the open.
The best soil preparation begins the fall before, with deep plowing and
from 10 to 20 tons of manure to the acre. Then, if the land is at all
acid or has not recently been limed, it is well to apply lime at the
rate of 1000 pounds to the acre, and plow that in along with 50 pounds
of nitrate of soda. This will supply the food for the cabbage, which is
a gross feeder, and won’t thrive without plenty of food. Farmers who
raise it in large quantities, give it three applications of nitrate of
soda after it is quite well grown. They use about 50 pounds to the
acre each time, about ten days apart.
If sown in hot-beds, care must be taken to harden the cabbage sprouts
by gradual exposure to the air before transplanting, so as not to
cause any serious delay in growth. In field-grown cabbage, likely to
be used in part at least for stock feeding, the plants should stand
from 24 to 30 inches apart, in rows not less than 30 inches apart. This
gives room for the heads to increase in size and weight. Under these
conditions an acre will produce from 7500 to 9000 plants. But on small
areas, where the crop is intended for market, the plants may be crowded
somewhat, to keep down the size and to secure an average weight of
four to six pounds each. In this way an acre will bear 10,000 plants.
Cabbage should be cultivated once in a week or ten days until the heads
touch in the rows. If your cabbage is uniform in size, has few outside
leaves, very little stump or core when cut open, closely packed leaves
lapping in the centre, freedom from disease or insect injury, and is
true to name and type, you should secure the uniform price of five
cents a head in good markets.
Cabbage suffers from many diseases and insects, and the gardener needs
to be on the watch constantly if he is not to lose his crop after all
his labor. The cabbage worm makes its appearance early, and should be
destroyed at once; while for club-root, black rot, etc., rotation is
our only usual remedy.[6]
Different varieties thrive better in different localities. You must
experiment in a small way, or find out what your neighbors have done,
keeping a record of the sort that does best under your conditions,
and then plant only that. Near New York City the Bergen Drumhead does
wonderfully well, but in some western parts of the country it has
less success. The Newark Flat Dutch, on the other hand, for an early
cabbage, does well both east and west. For a late season variety the
Premium Flat Dutch is excellent.
To show the possibilities of profit in cabbage, Professor Bailey, in
his “Vegetable Gardening,” quotes from an expert cabbage grower in
Green Bay, Wis., as follows:—Assume that you have first-class land
worth $200 per acre:
Interest and taxes per year will cost, say $15.00
Forty loads manure at $1.00 per load. 40.00
Plowing and fitting the ground 3.00
10,000 plants at $4.00 per thousand 40.00
Setting and watering 5.00
After-cultivation 10.00
Harvesting and marketing 50.00
--------
Total $163.00
8000 heads sold at $3.50 per hundred 280.00
--------
Net profit $117.00
If you get only 8000 plants out of 10,000 set, it is a little below
the average return, and as the market price is estimated at only 3½
cents per head, there is no trace of exaggeration in these figures. The
estimate was made ten years ago.
A crop of cabbages can be grown and harvested in 100 to 110 days, which
makes possible two crops from the same piece of ground in the one
season. There are two ways of planting the first crop. One is to use a
good rich seed-bed and sow the seed in November, the favorite variety
being the Jersey Wakefield. When the plants are three or four inches
high, transplant them to cold-frames in a protected spot and let them
winter there. In the spring they will soon start growing and be ready
for transplanting to the field early. The only drawback to this method
is, that the plants being really old when spring comes, you are apt to
lose a good many by their running to seed. For this reason, another
method is rather to be preferred. Use the same variety of seed, but sow
in hot-beds in February, and as soon as the plants are three or four
inches high, transplant to cold-frames. If they are not too crowded,
they will be ready for planting in rows in the field by April 1. But
you must remember that the cabbage is a heavy feeder and that your soil
must be rich and full of humus.
One noted cabbage grower in New Jersey says he plants his cabbage with
a potato planter, which makes the rows 3 feet apart, distributes the
fertilizer, and makes the ridges for the plants all at one time. He
levels down the ridges with a plank drag which covers two rows at a
time. The fertilizer is of high grade, applied at the rate of 1000
pounds to the acre. If plants are set 20 inches apart, it will require
10,000 for an acre. He cultivates thoroughly until the cabbages begin
to head; then while cultivating once more, he applies nitrate of soda
at the rate of 150 pounds to the acre, putting it on the row close to
the plants, but not on the plants. This makes the cabbage head up
quickly and uniformly, and makes the heads crisp and tender, besides
increasing the yield enormously. This crop should all be marketed by
July 4, and the yield should be from 8000 to 9000 heads per acre.
For the second crop, sow the seed in a good bed in the open, about the
last of May and by July 15 at latest, the plants can be transplanted
to the field. Between marketing the first crop and transplanting the
second, the ground should be again thoroughly prepared by the addition
of 1000 pounds of fertilizer to the acre and 150 pounds of nitrate of
soda. Plant the same as in first crop. The variety most used is the
large, early Dwarf Flat Dutch.
In growing late cabbage there is much more danger of maggots and other
insects destroying your crop. The New York Experiment Station has
tried a simple device which has given satisfaction so far as tested.
This consists of screening the bed completely with cheesecloth which
protected the plants from maggots. From 1800 square feet of screened
bed 50,000 plants were transplanted to the field, while from an
unscreened check plat intended to plant 40 acres, only enough plants
for four acres were secured. The plants were “hardened” by removing
the screen one week before transplanting. There was no more wilting
than with plants grown in the open. This is cheaper than any form of
insecticides.
KALE.
Kale requires much less care than cabbage, and is usually sown where
it stands. It is probably nearer the original type of cole plant than
any other, and even in cultivation produces no heads, but very large,
heavy foliage. It is a very hardy plant, and is grown especially for
spring and fall crops, and is much used as greens at seasons when other
greens are not to be had. In the Northern States the seeds are sown
in the spring and the plants are ready for use in the fall. When the
crop has been thinned, the plants that are to reach maturity should be
from 10 to 20 inches apart, and the distance between rows may depend
upon the sort of cultivation to be given. In large areas of kale,
horse-cultivation is best, but in a small plot the usual 12 to 18
inches will allow of wheel-hoe work.
Kale is such a hardy plant that frost will not hurt it, and the crop
is often allowed to stand in the field until very late in the season,
or even all winter. The large outer leaves are improved by frost. In
the South and Middle South, kale seed is sown in the late summer and
the young plants allowed to stand in the field unprotected all winter,
but this cannot be done in the North. There the young plants need
cold-frame protection. For this reason there is little winter-grown
kale in the North, and the extensive supply that comes from Virginia
from January until late spring makes it unprofitable to force it for
early spring in the North.
There is a form of kale called collards, which is much grown in
the South, especially where the climate is too hot for successful
cabbage-growing. The seed is sown very early in the spring in protected
seed-beds, so that the crop may get its growth before the hot weather
sets in. It is much like cabbage, and sometimes young cabbage plants
are raised for greens, and are called collards. Kale is subject to the
same enemies as cabbage (which see), and requires the same sort of
cultivation.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS.
Brussels sprouts are closer kin to kale than to cabbage, although
not exactly like either. All cole crops have similar needs in soil,
food and tillage, so what holds for one may be taken as true for all,
except that kale and Brussels Sprouts do not exact so much care as
the others. In the Northern States, the seeds are generally sown quite
late in the season that the crop may not come to perfection too early,
as the plants are most prized in late autumn and early winter. A large
part of the crop’s growth is made in the cool weather of early fall.
If the seed is sown in seed-beds in June, the plants will be ready to
set out late in July or early in August. Where the winters are mild
the crop is often left in the field until used, but in the North it is
usually dug and placed in pits, like leek or celery.
The stalk of the Brussels sprouts may be from two to three feet high,
although where the season is short, the dwarf or half-dwarf varieties
give surer crops. All along this stalk, from the root to the crown of
leaves at the top, grow tiny baby cabbages, each of which is called a
“sprout,” and averaging from an inch to two inches in diameter. When
the sprouts are small and tender they are the most delicately flavored
of any of the cabbage family. In many places, however, the demand is
very limited.
Success in raising a good crop depends chiefly upon careful selection
of seed. There is no crop which runs down so quickly, and in which
greater care is necessary in choosing only the best for seed. It is
subject to the same diseases as other cole crops.
CAULIFLOWER.
The cauliflower is more particular than cabbage, both as to climate and
cultivation. It won’t head up in the heat and must have a cool, moist
climate to reach perfection. It also needs a constant water supply
and therefore demands the best of tillage. It will grow only from the
best of seed, and as it is easily sunburned, it is grown chiefly for
early and late crops. For early crops the seeds are sown in hot-beds or
forcing houses, and transplanted as soon as the weather is settled, so
that the crop is off in late June or early July. The best varieties for
this early cropping are the Snowball and Paris, variations of the Early
Dwarf Erfurt. The fall crop is started in seed-beds in the summer and
transplanted to the garden. For this crop some of the larger and later
growing varieties may be planted.
Cauliflower is grown to best advantage along the northern sea-coast
States, Long Island, the shores of the Great Lakes, and in the Puget
Sound region, and wherever irrigation is practiced. Where the climate
is at all inclined to be sunny it is well to tie leaves over the
young heads to blanch them, otherwise they will brown in the strong
light and bring a lower market price. It is necessary, too, to save
all the moisture there is in the soil by the most careful tillage.
Tillage should be shallow but frequent all through the growing period.
“Buttoning” or the throwing up of irregular growths which spoil the
evenness of the head, comes from poor seed, or dry soil, or too great
heat; and also from allowing the plants to be checked in their growth
and then started again by renewed cultivation. The crop requires steady
and persistent care, rather than occasional energetic care, and will
repay you for all your effort.
The best cauliflower seed—and that is the only sort worth using—is
expensive, often running as high as $3 to $5 an ounce, and you may be
tempted to choose the cheaper sorts. But the best seed is of vital
importance in growing cauliflower, the cheaper kind being given to
“buttoning,” which lessens the price you can get in the market. The
best seed in the market has so far come from Denmark, but the Puget
Sound growers are beginning to rival the Danes. There is a family of
long-season, late-growing cauliflowers, called broccoli, but they are
little known in this country. Things that are little known are all
right to eat and to show, but they are usually hard to sell.
KOHLRABI.
Although of the cabbage family, kohlrabi looks and tastes more like
turnips and is cultivated like turnips. It is grown for the thickened
stem or tuber which grows above the ground, and if eaten when young
is very tender and more delicate in flavor for early spring use than
turnips. It is also excellent for stock feed and is grown extensively
for that. The best variety for garden use is the White Vienna, and
the tubers should be eaten when from two to three inches in diameter.
Like all cole crops they need continuous growth, otherwise they become
bitter and stringy. Successive sowings of the crop may be made and when
thinned the plants should stand from six to ten inches apart. They
require from two and one-half to three months to mature and may be
planted and tilled just as turnips are.
Cole crops all suffer from the same insects and diseases and it is well
to get the latest advice upon how to deal with them. For root maggot, a
most troublesome pest, read Cornell Bulletin 78 (published at Ithaca,
New York), though the only really effective remedy is well-planned
rotation. In this bulletin, Slingerland recommends placing tarred
paper cards close to the young plants to protect them against the
maggot; rubbing the eggs of the maggot off the base of the young
plants, and injecting bisulphide of carbon or carbolic acid emulsion
into the soil about the plants. It is necessary to use a syringe made
specially for this purpose.
The Cornell Bulletin 104, deals with cut-worms, and New York Bulletins
83 (p. 657) and No. 144, tell about the cabbage worm or butterfly, the
common yellow butterfly. Better look them up. They recommend persistent
use of Paris green on the first crop, and a mixture made of five pounds
pulverized resin; one pound concentrated lye; one pint fish oil or any
cheap oil except tallow; five gallons water. The same treatment does
for the cabbage looper.
For aphids, or lice, read the New York Bulletin 83 (p. 657) and Florida
Bulletin 34 (p. 270). The injection of bisulphide of carbon in the
ground, or the application of kerosene emulsion to both sides of leaves
when young and small; tobacco; pyrethrum; Persian insect powder—any of
these will prove more or less effective.
New York Bulletin 83 (p. 683) will tell you about methods of dealing
with the Harlequin Cabbage Bug. Hand-picking is effective, and with
clean culture, should eradicate this pest.
Club-root is really cured only by a thoroughly planned system of
rotation, although air-slaked stone lime, applied in the proportion of
75 bushels to the acre, does good work. Read New Jersey Bulletin 98.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] NOTE.—Some experts think that lime is the one great soil doctor,
especially in a garden where crops are plowed under, lots of manure is
used and there is not much chance for crop rotation. Heavy doses of
lime will destroy many fungous diseases and also kill off a good many
insects, especially the soft-skinned kind which gather as crops are
grown in the same place year after year. It would scarcely be possible
to grow good cabbage in the same spot for a series of years without
heavily liming the soil. It prevents club-root.
CHAPTER XVII.
POT-HERB CROPS.
Pot-herb crops are “greens,” grown for their leaves. Unless the growth
be quick and continuous, the leaves will not be crisp and tender. Quick
and continuous growth can be secured only by having the soil in good
condition and giving the crop careful tillage. Furthermore, greens are
mostly surface feeders, so that the surface soil must be in excellent
tilth, and contain much plant food. They demand cool weather and are
usually grown as succession- or companion-crops, because they do not
require the whole season to mature.
SPINACH.
Spinach is a spring crop and a fall crop, because spring and fall give
the cool, moist temperature it needs to come to perfection. Spinach
belongs to the pigweed family and is a cousin to the beet. There are
two varieties, the prickly seeded and the round seeded. The prickly
seeded is the hardiest, and is most commonly used for fall sowing.
Farmers in the North used to grow spinach extensively under glass, but
of late years the large out-door crops grown around Norfolk, Va.,
have spoiled the profit in that, and the Southern product takes its
place. The spinach for early spring is sown in the field or garden in
September and should be thoroughly established before winter, with a
spread of leaves at least three or four inches.
As far north as New York State it is left out uncovered all winter and
does not suffer unless the frost causes the ground to “heave.” If straw
or litter can be had without trouble or expense, the spinach can be
covered lightly as that often prevents “heaving.” If all goes well, the
plants resume growth early in the spring, and may even continue growing
during the winter if the season is mild. It is ready for market in
April or May and should be off the ground in June to make room for the
main crop. Southern spinach is marketed from late November until April
or May.
Although spinach is a comparatively easy crop to grow, it needs certain
conditions for perfection. The land must be rich and well drained, and
liquid fertilizer must be applied after the crop gets started. Some put
manure on the plot in the fall, and, as it leaches during the winter,
it fertilizes the plants and starts them growing in the spring. Hen
manure may be used. But the best way is to apply nitrate of soda or
sulphate of ammonia in a weak solution so that 50 to 75 pounds will be
sufficient for an acre. This is generally used in a sprinkler and is
applied two or three times at intervals of a week or ten days, using
each time, 50 to 75 pounds of fertilizer.
Spinach is sometimes sown in the spring in the place where it is to
grow. But in that case, the position chosen must be a warm one, and
even then, although a better stand is often obtained, the crop does
not mature quickly. It is still occasionally started under glass and
transplanted to the garden, and sometimes it is grown in frames all
the way through to maturity. Gardeners who want to hasten their crop
frequently cover it with glass during February and March, and it
responds well to this treatment.
A variety known as New Zealand spinach, which is hardly a true spinach,
thrives in summer, but as greens are not greatly in demand in summer,
it has not become very popular in this country.
An ounce of spinach seed will sow 150 feet of drill, or 10 to 12 pounds
to the acre. It is so necessary to have excellent drainage for spinach,
that the land is usually plowed into low ridges or beds six to nine
feet wide. The spinach is sown lengthwise of the beds 12 to 18 inches
apart, according to the sort of tillage to be used.
CHARD.
One of the best of the pot-herbs, though not so generally known, is the
chard or leaf-beet, which usually requires the whole season to mature,
although it will give a succession of leaves from early summer until
fall. The leaf-blades and midribs of the chard are very broad, and are
usually white or slightly tinted, instead of green. Gardeners often
blanch them further by tying the leaves together while growing. The
seeds are sown in the spring as thickly as the ordinary beet is sown,
and the plants are thinned until they stand six to twelve inches apart
in the row.
MUSTARD.
Mustard is cultivated more extensively in the South than in the North,
as it will grow where the climate is too hot for other greens. In the
North it is usually grown only in home gardens for family use; the
plants run to seed in midsummer, so seed must be sown very early in
the spring. They are ready for use in May or June. Some of the new
improved varieties of curly-leaved mustard are among the best of
pot-herbs. In the South, the Southern Giant Curled Mustard is much
used, taking the place that lettuce and spinach fill in the northerly
sections. The Chinese Broad Leaved is a vigorous variety which gives
a large amount of foliage. It is easy to grow, and even in the North,
if the soil is warm and sandy, seed may be sown in the fall and the
plants will be ready for use early in the spring, even though the
seeds do not start sprouting in the fall. The seed escapes easily and
sows itself in unoccupied areas and spreads rapidly. So, if it is not
carefully watched to prevent too general seeding, it can readily become
a troublesome weed.
DANDELION.
Everybody knows the wild dandelion, and almost everybody likes it as a
pot-herb, but only those who have eaten the improved garden varieties,
know its real possibilities. Although the dandelion is perennial, it
is treated as an annual for the best results in cultivation, and the
seed is sown in early spring and the crop either harvested that fall
or allowed to remain in the ground until the next spring. It will
grow anywhere, and often persists in growing in its wild type where
you don’t want it; but if you want plants with large, cut or frilled
leaves, you will see that the soil is rich and deep, and that the
plants have good tillage all the season through. The leaves of these
varieties are not only good to eat, but they are extensively used for
garnishing. If they have been properly cared for, the plants will
often measure 12 to 20 inches across, with a crown or rosette of dense
foliage.
Dandelion seeds are usually sown where the plants are to stand,
although occasionally they are sown in seed-beds and transplanted. As
soon as they have made a fair growth they are thinned to about one
foot apart: the distance between the rows will depend upon the sort of
cultivation the plants are to receive. Hand tools require less space
than horse tools, and hand-hoeing less than wheel-hoeing, with more
labor and less returns. If the plants are allowed to stand through the
winter, they are ready for the market very early in the spring when the
demand is briskest and the prices best. In harvesting, the plant is cut
off just below the rosette and the roots must then be plowed out so
that there is no danger of the herb becoming a weed. It is not worth
while to try to sell the small plants, but they should be cut off,
to prevent them going to seed and becoming a nuisance. Some growers
take the roots up and put them in forcing house or hot-bed for growing
greens; or, they may be forced in the dark, which gives white or
blanched leaves. This same effect may be obtained in the field by tying
up the leaves, thus securing a blanched crown just as is done with
endive. We owe much of the improvement of the dandelion to the French.
PURSLANE.
Purslane, or, as it is more generally called, “pusley,” is another herb
that the French growers have greatly improved. The common pusley weed
is a weak, trailing plant, but the French, cultivated variety stands
up stiff with large leaves and juicy stems. It grows easily in any
good garden soil, matures quickly and is not hurt by warm weather. The
seeds are sown early in the spring and there is little danger of the
cultivated sort sowing itself and becoming a pest.
There are some other varieties of greens; but this book aims only to
treat of those which are generally grown and for which there is a sure
market each year.
CHAPTER XVIII.
SALAD CROPS.
Salad crops are close kin to pot-herbs. But a salad is eaten uncooked,
while pot-herbs are boiled. Some plants are used both ways, but they
are then classed according to their most general use. Salad crops need
a cool, moist soil and quick continuous growth. As has been frequently
said before, (but not too frequently,) this can only be obtained
by having the soil in good condition and plenty of plant food in a
shape that the crop can eat. Salad crops need plenty of water, clean,
thorough culture, and a good deal of prompt attention, but they mature
so rapidly, that the demands are not really excessive. Having supplied
their needs, you must, thereafter, depend upon the weather to help you
perfect your crop. If you get dry, tough, wilted salad crops, you need
not take the trouble to harvest them, for nobody wants that sort; and
that is the only kind you can raise if you neglect them.
There is no pleasure like the ever-new exultation and joy of seeing
the things we ourselves have planted come up; and these lovely colored
shoots, springing from the brown earth, serve to renew our faith in the
bounty of Nature and the loving order of the world—as well as to fill
our pockets.
LETTUCE.
The most popular salad crop is lettuce, a hardy, short-season,
companion- or succession-crop requiring moist, rich, mellow soil, and
plant food in quickly available form. It is easy of culture and is
chiefly grown in the open, though the demand for it has increased to
such an extent that it is started in hot-beds or forcing houses that
it may be earlier on the market. You can get it in about five weeks.
Coolness and continuous growth are necessary to prevent toughness and
bitterness. It is little grown in the summer, though the Cos variety
can stand the hot weather very well, if the soil is moist and cool.
Lettuce does better if transplanted and for that reason it is usually
sown in seed-beds; in transplanting, it is usual to cut off the top
third of the leaves, unless the seedlings are very stocky; but the
mid-season and later crops may be sown where the plants are to stand.
Fall lettuce should be sown in late August or early September, and, as
it is easier to control soil conditions and to get quick sprouting in
a seed-bed than in the field at that dry time of year, it is better
to use the seed-bed. At any time lettuce does best in a soil that is
loose and “warm,” that is known to gardeners as “quick.” Heavy, clayey
soils are not adapted to lettuce, so see that your soil is pulverized
and well fertilized before the seeds are sown. It has been found to pay
well to treat the soil with nitrate of soda after the plants are set,
because of the more rapid growth. The soda is applied dry, at the rate
of two or three hundred pounds to the acre, and then raked or tilled
in. Lettuce seed is sown thickly and the plants thinned, as they become
edible, to about a foot apart. The thinnings make excellent “greens.”
The rows are usually 8 to 12 inches apart.
When grown as a succession-crop, lettuce may be followed by cabbage,
early cauliflower, celery and other things. Or, it may be grown between
the cabbages and cauliflower as a companion-crop, since it matures
before either, and leaves the land to those plants when they need all
the space. Seed may be sown successionally until warm weather, and you
may count upon 1000 plants for each ounce of seed. There are three
well-known tribes: head lettuce, cut or curly-leaved, and Cos, and a
fourth variety little known, called narrow-leaved lettuce. There are
about 100 varieties. Field-grown lettuce has few enemies.
ENDIVE.
Endive is a summer and fall crop, thriving at a time when it is not
easy to grow lettuce to perfection.[7] It is, therefore, a good
addition to lettuce, and its culture is largely the same, though endive
takes longer to mature than lettuce does. Endive matures under proper
care about fifty days after the seeds are sown. If seeds are sown in
June the plants will be fit for table use in August or September.
Endive requires about the same sort of soil as lettuce, the same
tillage and the same general treatment. The plants should stand about
a foot apart each way to make cultivation easier. It is sometimes sown
in cold-frames, but just as often in the open field, and successive
sowings will give successive crops, but that which gets its start
during hot weather is not satisfactory. The inside leaves of the crown
are usually blanched by tying them together near the tops for two or
three weeks before the plants are ready for market. The blanched sort
brings a better price. The disadvantages of blanching are that the
plants fade and decay quickly unless used at once, and if rain or damp
weather follows the tying-up, there is great danger of decay while in
the ground. So the plants must be examined occasionally to see that
they are doing well. When endive is used as a pot-herb, as it sometimes
is, it is better to pick the new young plants before they have time to
head or can be blanched. The coarse, outer leaves of the plant are apt
to be bitter and tough, so that only the leaves of the crown are used
for salads.
With all these crops you can see why nearness to market is so
important—even though the land is higher priced.
CHICORY.
Chicory has various uses and is now quite largely grown in gardens. As
a salad plant only the tender, blanched leaves of the crown are used.
The outer, green leaves are often used for “greens,” like dandelion.
Chicory is not a surface feeder like most salad plants, but is grown
as a root crop the same as carrots or parsnips. The soil must be deep,
that the roots may come to perfection by fall; cuttings of leaves may
be made during the season. The roots may be left in the ground over the
winter. Chicory is really a perennial, but under cultivation it is
better to grow a new lot of plants each year. When wanted for winter
use, the strong roots are taken up in the fall, and buried in a sloping
direction in a pit or cellar, with the crown of the plant showing an
inch or so above the sand or earth. The growing-place must be kept
dark, and in a few weeks the small, prized leaves begin to show. When
chicory plants are covered, crowns and all, with about two feet of
manure, they develop heads resembling lettuce heads. The young, tender
roots of chicory are eaten as beets or carrots are, while the dried
root is extensively used in place of coffee. This accounts for the
increased area devoted to chicory in this country of recent years; it
is less injurious to the nerves than coffee.
CRESS.
There is a delicate “bite” and piquant flavor to cress, that makes
it a favorite for salads and for garnishings. Of the three kinds in
general use, the water-cress is probably the best liked, but to bring
it to perfection it is necessary to have a running brook of clean, cool
water. To grow it in a drain is a good way to get typhoid fever. It
is a perennial, and readily propagates itself when once it has got a
start, while the grower can increase its spread by scattering seeds
along the brookside, or by planting bits of stems in the mud. When once
established it will care for itself, and gives the grower no trouble.
Although it does best along the sides of running streams, water-cress
will grow anywhere if it can get moisture enough, even though not
covered with water. Any moist, shady garden spot will do, if it is
frequently watered, and gardeners often use abandoned hot-bed pits,
where the hose can be turned on the plants daily.
Two women made a nice profit by sending fine water-cress, packed in
oiled paper and cardboard boxes, to select customers by mail.
Common garden cress is a cool-weather, short-season annual, whose
seeds may be sown early in the spring in a cool, rich soil, as its
whole value as a salad plant depends upon its quick, vigorous growth.
The plant runs quickly to seed in hot weather, or if left in the
ground until late in the season. It is easily grown in pots or boxes
in the house in winter; or, if wanted for fall use, the seeds may be
sown in late summer and in early fall. Under ordinary conditions, the
leaves are ready for use about six to eight weeks after seed is sown.
There are a number of varieties of the garden cress; the sort with
curled leaves being most in demand. It is not so well known here as
in Europe. The third variety, known as the upland or upright cress,
is perfectly hardy and common to all parts of the United States.
In cultivation it is usually treated as an annual or as a winter
perennial. Seeds may be sown late in the season, when the young plants
will be ready for use early in the spring; or, they may be sown in
the earliest spring and will be ready for use about fifty-two days
after sowing. If grown through the summer they are apt to be bitter
and tough, unless grown in a shady place. The upland cress resembles
water-cress in flavor.
CORN SALAD.
Corn salad is not so well known here as in Europe, where it is
highly prized as a fall and winter salad and as a pot-herb. It is a
cool-season crop, grown as lettuce is. It is hardy and may be sown as
early in spring as the soil can be worked. It comes to maturity in six
or eight weeks, producing a bunch of leaves something like spinach.
It may also be sown in the fall and protected in winter the same as
spinach, so as to have very early plants in the spring, or, if sown
late in the summer, it will give edible leaves in the fall, and in
a mild, open season, will nourish all through the winter. In warm
weather or dry places, it soon runs to seed. It is very easy to raise
corn salad in any cool soil, and an ounce of seed will give from 2000
to 3000 plants, which should stand about six inches apart in the rows.
PARSLEY.
Parsley is the most popular of all the garnishing herbs, and requires
no special care from the gardener, so long as it is planted in a cool,
moist soil. The leaves are used for salads and for flavoring as well
as for garnishing. Parsley seed is slow growing, and unless the garden
soil is in excellent tilth and moist to the very surface, it is better
to start the plants in a seed-bed. Although the plant is biennial, the
foliage is usually gathered the first year and the plant destroyed,
unless seed is wanted. In all these green things, it has been found
better to adopt the annual treatment rather than let them develop into
biennials or perennials, though that may be their natural habit: we can
improve the nature of plants, animals and men.
SALAD CHERVIL.
Although salad chervil closely resembles parsley and may be used the
same way, it is very little known in this country. It requires about
the same culture as parsley, and is easy to grow in cool, moist soil
in spring or fall. It does not thrive well in our hot summers, but
with very little protection from cold-frames or even from brush, it
can be carried safely through the winter, if the weather is not very
severe. The curly-leaved variety is the most popular, whether used
as garnishing or seasoning. The salad chervil grows nearly two feet
high when it reaches full maturity, but the young foliage is the most
prized. It will give leaves for cutting in six or eight weeks after the
seed is sown.
CELERY.
All garden or field crops are divided into two classes, those whose
seeds are sown where the crop is to grow; and those whose seeds must be
planted in special conditions, such as seed-beds, hot-beds or forcing
houses. Celery is always a seed-bed crop, and occasionally a hot-bed
or forcing-house crop, according to the time when the grower wishes
it to mature. It requires a cool, rich, very moist soil, in excellent
tilth, where surface tillage is maintained throughout the whole season.
Although good celery may be grown on uplands by means of extra care
and attention, it usually grows best in rich, moist, bottom lands.
Reclaimed marshes, whose soil has been pulverized and fertilized,
are ideal celery plots, because there the moisture is sufficient even
during the heat of summer. Celery cannot stand exposure to the direct
heat of the sun, and on exposed places many growers find it necessary
to shade the crop.
Celery seeds are very small and slow to sprout and are sown broadcast
or in rows. If in rows the sowing is very shallow. The seedlings are
tender and delicate, so that it is only in a well-prepared seed-bed
that the plants can be satisfactorily raised. The site of the bed
should be selected with great care, so as to protect it from hot or
dry winds, and to make it convenient to water it every evening. Celery
requires a great deal of moisture. The soil must be in such excellent
tilth that it will hold moisture up to the very surface without the
help of a mulch. Some growers do use a mulch in growing celery, but it
makes the delicate seedlings so much more delicate that the loss from
sun-scald upon transplanting is likely to be heavy. If you do use a
covering of any sort, be careful to begin to remove it as soon as the
plants begin to grow, and take it all off before they are up enough to
be transplanted. But if you make your seed-bed carefully, you will not
need a covering for it.
Even when you have taken so much pains to start your celery crop, the
work is by no means done. To secure good, strong, stocky plants, they
should be transplanted once or twice in the seed-bed before the final
transplanting to the garden. It is essential in North Carolina, says
Prof. Massey, to transplant celery once before setting in field or
garden. This entails so much labor, that many growers are now using the
thinning process in place of these various transplantings, and even in
the seed-bed the young plants are thinned to stand two to three inches
apart and the tops are sheared if they grow tall too soon. The plants
may be safely cut back a third or even a half of their growth. In small
garden plots, shears or a sickle may be used, but, in the large fields,
growers generally use a scythe.
There is usually a good deal of loss in celery seed, so it is well to
sow it very thickly, and then you may reasonably expect from 20,000 to
30,000 plants to the acre. An ounce of seed will plant about 200 feet
of row, and if good, should give from 5000 to 10,000 plants, although
where losses are very heavy the yield is frequently only 2000 to the
ounce of seed. One pound of seed should give plants enough to set out
four or five acres.
Celery is grown both as an early-season and as a late crop, depending
upon the location of the plot. On the higher lands, it is either an
early or a succession-crop, following early cabbages, lettuce or other
short-season crops. But on rich, bottom lands, it is a whole-season
crop, as the land there is too wet to be worked early in the spring.
Some growers raise two or three crops of celery in a season from one
plot, the later or main crop being planted between the rows of the
early crop. As celery may be set out as late as the middle or last of
July, even in the Northern States, the main crop does not interfere
with the early crop, which may be set out as soon as the ground is
ready.
For two crops, the soil needs more attention than where only one is
raised, because cultivation and fertilizer must add and preserve the
moisture which is natural to the lower levels. Celery needs potash
and nitrogen, and these foods are supplied by unleached wood ashes
and well-rotted stable manure. Coarse, new manures must not be used,
as they make the soil coarse and also cause weeds. Only old, fine,
well-rotted manure will do for the celery bed.
When tillage is given the growing plant, care must be taken not to
disturb the roots. The soil may be stirred only at the extreme end of
the tiny rootlets, and if fertilizer is applied it must be placed at
the same point. Some growers make tiny trenches between the rows and
cultivate and fertilize there. Celery is one of the crops that call for
thoroughly intelligent care. In many localities where the weather is
hot or dry, sub-irrigation, by means of tile-drains, has supplied the
needed moisture for this thirsty crop.
There is an entirely new celery culture in the sterile sand of Florida
by commercial fertilizer; but that is a subject by itself. The Florida
Experiment Station will give particulars.
The plants should be four or five inches high when transplanted and the
stems stocky and green. They are set from 10 to 12 inches apart in the
rows and the distance between the rows depends mainly upon the method
of blanching. To bring a good price in the market, celery must always
be blanched, although many growers prefer it in its natural condition
for their own use.
Celery is blanched in three ways: Blanching by boarding; by banking
up with earth, or by blanching in storage pits. Boarding is generally
applied only to summer celery, as it does not afford protection enough
for plants left in the field after early October. It is the simplest
and most economical method of blanching, and where used, the rows may
be two or three feet apart to admit of horse cultivation.
For blanching by boarding, planks 12 to 14 feet long, one foot wide
and about an inch thick are preferred. These planks are set on edge
on either side of the row close to the root crown of the plants, and
tipped until they rest against the tops of the plants with their edges
only two or three inches apart. Either wire hooks or cleats nailed
across the tops are used to keep the boards in position. This boarding
or blanching process is begun as soon as the plants are tall enough to
show a few leaves above the board. As the stalks shoot up in search
of light, the leaves fill the spaces between the boards and exclude
light from the stalks. Great care must be exercised in warm weather
that the plants do not rot at the heart because of too great moisture.
Experience will teach you that it is well to get good lumber that may
be used many seasons, rather than cheap boards which will warp or crack
in one season.
Blanching by banking with earth, often gives a better quality of
celery, but it is much more expensive and cannot be so safely used
in summer, as it tends to rotting at the heart. It usually requires
two or three bankings or “handlings,” as they are called, during the
season. The first is given when the plant has spread so as to make a
head about eighteen inches across. Then it is gathered in the hand
and held, while earth is banked up around it about two-thirds of its
height. In ten days or a fortnight this is done again, and in the very
tall varieties once again. When this method is used the rows are from
three and one-half to four feet apart. Of late years large growers use
a “celery plow” for banking.
When celery is to be blanched in storage it is usually “handled” once
while in the field, so as to start the process of blanching. Afterwards
the plants are placed so close together in pits or sheds that the
blanching goes on until the crop is ready for market.
There is another method of blanching celery which is particularly
successful in small areas. It consists of growing the plants so close
together that the light is excluded and the crop blanches as it grows.
It is then grown as close as six or eight inches apart either way. This
is called the “new celery culture,” and is successful where the hose
can be freely used to supply the necessary moisture.
_Storing._
But the care necessary for growing celery does not end even with the
blanching. It extends to storing, which is also important to the crop.
There are several well-known methods, chief of which are storing in
outside pits or cellars and storing in celery houses. Usually the
outside pit or cellar is a temporary affair and a very satisfactory one
is built like the regular vegetable pit: the way to make that is given
in another chapter.
If celery is to remain crisp and juicy, it must make a very slow growth
all the time it is in the store-house, and should be kept just above
freezing point.
When you prepare your celery for market, be sure to clean it
thoroughly. This may be done by washing, or it may require scrubbing,
but be sure to have it clean. Remove the outside leaves and trim the
roots down to a point, then pack in boxes or trays. And right here
comes in another reason for studying your particular market, because
the number of bunches of celery packed in a box or tray—and even
whether you use a box or a tray—depends upon the market you supply. It
varies with different markets.
In the “new celery culture” where the plants are set so closely
together that they blanch themselves, it takes 150,000 plants to an
acre. This method of growing requires greatly increased quantities of
fertilizers or results will be very unsatisfactory. The dwarf varieties
of celery are most in demand, and the favorites for summer and fall are
White Plume, Golden Self-Blanching and Kalamazoo; while for late winter
and spring, Boston Market and Arlington are standard sorts.
The chief diseases are leaf blight and leaf spot and the fungi that
attack the plants in storage. For leaf blight, dip young plants in weak
solution of copper carbonate, and treat the young growing plants twice
a week. It is well to read up on diseases; and for blight read the
Department of Agriculture Report, 1886, pp. 117-120; Cornell Bulletin
132, pp. 203-205. To avoid leaf-spot, select seed carefully, treat it
with Bordeaux mixture while in seed-bed, and continue its use if you
fear an attack. Read New York Bulletin 51 and Cornell Bulletin 132. For
dealing with the diseases that develop during storage, read Cornell
Bulletin 132, and Bailey’s “Vegetable Gardening,” p. 229. If you wish
to know all that celery specialists have discovered about this crop,
read Greiner, Hollister, Rawson, Vaughan, Stewart, Von Bochove and
Crider. These books may be found in some good public libraries or will
be supplied by our house.
Understanding all this attention and care, you can easily see why there
is big money in a successful celery crop, and why Florida’s flat sand
lands are making their owners rich raising celery—or raising rents and
prices.
CELERIAC.
Celeriac is a form of celery, or at least is a very near relation to
the real celery, and requires about the same soil preparation and the
same conditions and tillage. Celeriac is frequently sown where it is
to stand, but as the seed is as slow to sprout as celery, this is not
really a wise plan. Sown in a seed-bed and transplanted, the crop gives
far better results. In celeriac it is not the stalk but the enlarged,
tuber-like root which is eaten, and the plant requires no blanching. It
may be eaten raw in a salad, or cooked, as you like. Good roots should
be from three to four inches in diameter and they may be kept through
winter by packing in sand or moss as many other vegetables may be kept.
Celeriac is sown in the same quantities as celery seed, the rows being
only far enough apart to allow of cultivation, and the plants from six
to eight inches apart in the rows. Being of a dwarf nature the close
planting does not cause the plant to over-shade itself.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] NOTE.—Fullerton says that the narrow-leaved, deeply serrated plant
called endive in this country, in France is the chicory or succory
known to all Americans as a roadside weed with beautiful blue flowers
like a very open aster.
CHAPTER XIX.
PULSE CROPS.
Peas and beans are the pulse plants, and although they are cousins they
are widely different in their requirements. In this respect peas and
beans resemble children, who though in the same family, do not always
thrive under the same conditions or do best with the same treatment.
Both these crops are leguminous, and, therefore, capable of storing
the nitrogen from the air in their roots, and thus enriching the soil
where they grow, yet it is often necessary to apply nitrogen to secure
a quick start for early crops. This is especially true where the soil
has not before been used to grow leguminous crops. The more we study
plants the more we learn about children and the more likely are we to
recognize the close relation between all forms of life.
PEAS.
Peas are a partial season crop, and do not require very rich soil.
They are so hardy that the seed may be sown where it is to stand, even
before frosty weather is wholly gone. It is best to plant the seed
from three to five inches deep, which allows the roots always to be
in cool, moist soil. A very rich soil tends to make the crop run to
vines and leaves, so that a light soil is necessary, particularly where
the crop is to be an early one. Peas should be early or late, because
they like cool weather, and are apt to mildew if carried over into hot
summer days. The fall crop may be planted early in August even in the
Northern States. The plants should be from three to four inches apart
in the rows. It takes a pint of seed, of the small varieties, for 100
to 125 feet of row, or one to two bushels to an acre. Where peas are
grown in large quantities in a field, for canning, the seeds are sown
broadcast and then it requires from two to three bushels to an acre.
For early crops the dwarf varieties are preferred as they mature so
quickly, and the tall, climbing varieties are planted for late crops.
Planting and tillage for both kinds are the same. Peas should be
planted in double rows only six or eight inches apart, so that the
one row of supports, either brush or chicken-wire, preferably wire,
may serve both rows in tall peas, while the dwarf plants support each
other. Between each two pairs of rows the space should be wide enough
to admit of tillage.
Very few farmers understand the value of peas to the soil or as stock
feed. This is especially important for farmers of the Northern States,
for peas will grow where corn will not, because of the cold; they do
not need much soil preparation or after-tillage; they yield a good
crop of forage that is excellent for fattening; they take any place
in a good system of rotation of field crops, although it is most
satisfactory to follow them with wheat; they may be sown at intervals
of ten days, from very early in the season to very late, and when the
crop has been harvested the ground is in better condition than before
it was planted.
In Europe they grow peas with delicate pods, called edible-podded or
sugar peas, which are eaten as string beans are, but these are almost
unknown here. The two kinds of peas used here are the wrinkled-seed
pea and the smooth-seed pea. The wrinkled variety is the best, but it
is more likely to decay when planted very early. Both sorts of seed
are found in dwarf and tall varieties of pea. The most popular of the
very early peas are First-of-all, American Wonder, Philadelphia, McLean
Little Gem, Daniel O’Rourke, and Blue Peter. Among the late peas the
Marrowfat, Champion of England, Stratagem, Telegraph and Telephone are
leading favorites.
Peas start so early that they do not suffer much from weeds, unless
the land is infested with the annual wild mustard. This will choke the
peas, but it may be destroyed by a spray made of eight to twelve pounds
of copper sulphate dissolved in 50 gallons of water, when the plants
are only a few inches high. This solution will not materially injure
the peas.
The insect enemies are the “pea weevil” or “pea bug”; the pea moth,
and the pea louse. The pea weevil lays its eggs on the outside of the
pod, and the grub, on hatching, eats its way into the pea and while
hiding there changes into a beetle of a brownish-grey color, and about
one-fifth of an inch long. It does not come out until after the seed
has been sown in the spring. This beetle spoils the pea for seed and
even to a large extent for stock feed. Where the weevil has attacked
the peas, it is the custom to place the seed in air-tight vessels or
rooms and fumigate with bisulphide of carbon for several days. The
proportion is one pound of bisulphide for every hundred bushels of
peas. Great care must be exercised in using bisulphide, as it is highly
explosive and very poisonous. But only the careless or stupid need get
hurt; so there’s no danger for you. Get explicit directions from your
nearest Experiment Station, and follow them closely.
The pea moth attacks late varieties of peas most severely, and as
no remedy yet used has succeeded in destroying the pest, or even
in materially reducing its ravages, the best thing is to sow early
varieties of peas and so escape its worst effects. It is seldom seen
in moth form, but is common enough as a “worm,” or small, whitish,
somewhat hairy caterpillar, about a half-inch long. It lives inside the
green pods and eats ragged-edged holes in the peas, which it then fills
with excrement or waste matter.
The pea louse is pale-green in color, and clings in great numbers
to the tips of the shoots, and sometimes covers the whole plant. It
attacks whole areas of peas sometimes, and becomes a serious pest.
However, its hold is slight, so that it may be easily knocked off. In
small garden patches they are brushed off in pans and burned, while in
large fields of peas what is called a “brush-and-pan” device is used,
followed by the cultivator, which buries the lice or aphids.
To find out more about the culture of peas, get Farmer’s Bulletin
No. 224, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and for
the best methods of dealing with the crop’s enemies read Delaware
Experiment Station (Newark, Del.) Bulletin No. 49.
Pea cultivation was recorded two thousand years ago.
BEANS.
All the well-known varieties of garden beans are tender to frost,
needing a warm season and a sunny exposure. The seed is not sown until
the weather is thoroughly settled and the soil in excellent tilth;
then it is sown where the plants are to stand. The favorites in this
country are the dwarfs; the chief advantage of the dwarf types is the
saving of expense in supports, and the greater ease of cultivation. The
early crop is usually eaten as string beans, though the best “string”
bean is the kind that has no “strings to it.” This variety breaks off
with a clean snap and is often known as “snap” bean. Beans that are
well suited to be eaten as string beans have thick, fleshy pods and
very little fibrous tissue. In order that string beans may be of the
best quality, the crop must make a quick and uninterrupted growth. A
succession of beans may be had all summer by planting at intervals, and
late in the summer season a new crop may be planted for late fall use.
String beans are always in demand; and now, because of the southern
crops, the markets of large cities are seldom without them all the year
around.
Beans, like peas, are nitrogen gatherers, but if the ground where they
are to be planted has not been used for peas or beans within a year
or two, it is well to apply a little nitrogen at first to start the
growth. The land should really be prepared for beans the season before
you plant them, because new, fresh or coarse stable manure applied
when planted, will make the crop rank, without increasing the yield.
This is especially true of Lima beans. Spread the manure the fall
before, so that it will have done its work before the spring planting
begins; if more fertilizer is necessary, use some of the quickly
available commercial fertilizers, those rich in potash or phosphoric
acid being the best. The soil should be harrowed at least twice before
planting and thoroughly pulverized. This puts the soil in good tilth
and prevents the growth of weeds. Through the whole season tillage
should be frequent enough to prevent weeds getting a footing or a crust
forming about the roots, but the plants should not be cultivated while
wet with dew or rain, as that renders the crop liable to spore diseases.
LIMA BEANS.
Late Lima beans demand such a long season and such continuous growth,
that it is not always advisable to try to grow them in the Northern
States, especially not the true Lima beans. The Sieva or Carolina bean
is a Lima that may be successfully raised in the Northern States if due
attention is paid to soil and exposure. It is not so high a climber as
the large, true Lima, and therefore matures before the nights get too
cool. It is a comparatively early crop, quite hardy for a Lima bean,
truly annual, with thin, short, broad leaves, and a lot of papery pods
much curved on the back, which burst open when the beans are ripe.
These beans or seeds may be white, brown, or marked with red, but are
always small and flat. Challenger is the favorite brand of Sieva bean.
The true Lima is larger, whiter, and may be speckled with red, brown or
black. The pods are fewer, thicker, and do not split when the seeds are
ripe, and the vines are more easily injured by a touch of frost. Both
the true Lima and the Sieva Lima may now be had in dwarf varieties.
String and Lima beans are not the only sorts in common use. The others
are not picked until fully ripe, when the pods cannot be used. They are
known as “shell” beans, and there are several kinds, all in high favor.
These are mostly of the pole variety and mature late in the season. The
preparation of the soil and the general culture are the same as for
dwarf beans, the Scarlet Runner and White Dutch Runner.
There are more than 100 varieties of beans and no one book could give
in detail all that is of interest concerning them, but the gardener
who wants to know more of his bean crop may read Bailey, Bulletin 87
Cornell Experiment Station, and Cornell Bulletin 115.
Bush beans are sown in drills, 18 to 20 inches apart to admit of easy
and frequent tillage, which is necessary to preserve moisture and
destroy weeds; the plants stand from five to ten inches apart in each
row. One pint of seed will sow from 75 to 125 feet of drill, according
to the variety of bean used, or at the rate of one bushel up to five
pecks of seed to the acre, when sown in drills. Fall, or climbing
beans, and all Lima beans, are sown in hills, four or five seeds to a
hill, and the hills are three to four feet apart.
Pole and Lima beans need supports and when poles are scarce you may put
strong stakes in the ground at distances of 10 to 12 feet, and then run
two rows of wire from pole to pole, one row near the ground and one
near the top of the stake. Then from the top to the bottom wire, run
cords, up which the beans may climb. In small, home gardens, growers
often sow Lima beans in a semicircle of hills around one stake and
then run cords from each hill to the top of the stake; but this method
is not suitable for a large area.
But climbing beans, especially Lima and Scarlet Runner, can be
ornamental as well as useful, and the wise gardener looks out for all
such possibilities in his crops. If you have an old fence or unsightly
building, plant your climbing beans against it, feed them well, and
they will make a good growth of green vines, which will be a pleasure
to look upon, at the same time that they give a good yield. This is
true intensive farming, as you are getting all there is out of your
ground, and at the same time making your place more beautiful at no
added expense, save the use of additional intelligence.
There is still another point to remember in planting Lima beans, and
simple as it may seem, it is really one of those tricks of the trade
which make all the difference between profit and loss. Plant your
Lima beans _eye down_. Other beans will stand for anything in the way
of planting, but Limas are particular and insist upon having their
peculiarities considered. You have seen people just like that, and
you know that a little special attention brings its own reward. It is
the same with Lima beans—or indeed with any other crops—give them
what they want and they will give you what you want in return. That
is nothing more than a fair bargain, and the love of a bargain is
ingrained in the American nature.
Commercial bean growing is a comparatively recent business, dating back
only to 1839, although beans have been used for human food for many
centuries. This branch of farming in New York State alone means the
annual production of several millions of bushels of dried beans for
commercial distribution.
The Northern States, Canada and California, are the chief bean-growing
sections; in warmer sections the crop suffers severely from pests,
so that it is not profitable to raise it. Southern bean growers use
northern-grown seed to avoid the ravages of the weevil. Even in New
York State some sections suffer more from this pest than others; beans
grown in the northern counties being practically free from attacks.
If you mean to grow beans by the acre, you will do well to read up
more fully in Department of Agriculture Bulletins and in Bailey’s
“Cyclopedia of American Agriculture,” Vol. II.
The chief disease from which beans suffer is anthracnose, which even
the beginner may recognize when it has reached the stage where sunken
brown spots appear on the pods; and when these spots have a tiny pink
centre, you have seen the spore at work. The best known means of
fighting it, is to select clean healthy seed, carefully hand-picked; go
over the field as soon as the plants come up and weed out the affected
ones; spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture[8] to which has been added
resin soap. The compound should be as follows: Bordeaux mixture:—1½
pounds vitriol, 1 pound lime, 12 to 15 gallons of water. Resin soap:—½
pound resin, ¼ pound crystallized salsoda, 1 pint water (boil until
clear brown solution is secured, then add to Bordeaux mixture). Apply
first when the third leaf of the seedlings is opening, and repeat at
intervals of ten to twelve days or after rain has washed the mixture
off.
[Illustration: THE RENT PAYER.]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] NOTE.—Unless the under surfaces of the leaves as well as the
upper surfaces be kept coated with the spray, Bordeaux will be of
little avail. For the commercial grower of dry beans, spraying is not
advised.—Samuel Fraser.
CHAPTER XX.
SOLANACEOUS CROPS.
This is a big word, but it means only that these plants belong to the
nightshade family.
This division takes in tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and husk tomatoes.
These require all, or nearly all, the season to mature, and they keep
on making growth, particularly in the North, until killed by frost.
They are all seed-bed crops requiring a great deal of quick-acting
fertilizer, especially when they are young, and to secure a heavy crop
you must give them an early start.
They are really of the same family as the potato, yet they are not
grouped with that crop, because the parts eaten are the fruits which
grow on their stems and branches, rather than the thickened stem or
“tuber.” They are hot-season plants and are usually grown in hills.
TOMATOES.
In almost all parts of the United States the tomato is easily grown;
yet it requires a long, warm season, and soil in excellent tilth for
best results. The seed is sown in a seed- or hot-bed, and the plants
are allowed to grow from four to eight weeks before transplanting to
the garden, although they may be transplanted once or twice in the
seed-bed to secure free and stocky growth. For the small home garden
the plants are usually handled in pots, but for commercial purposes
they are planted in small flats not more than 12 inches square, holding
about two inches of soil. The earlier they are started the better,
because they are less likely to suffer from fruit-rot and frost if they
fruit early.
In the North, you must have vigorous, stocky plants, well in advance
of the season, and a warm quick soil, to get a good crop of tomatoes.
Too much fresh stable manure will cause rank vine growth and delay
fruiting, so that the soil should be fertilized a season in advance and
the manure thoroughly rotted. At the time of planting it is well to
apply a light dressing of nitrate of soda, as this gives better results
than twice the application when given later at intervals up to August.
At the South, tomatoes are grown in frames covered with unbleached
sheeting by night and during cold snaps, but in the day this covering
is rolled up and the plants are hardened by the air. Although tender to
frost, the tomato vine is a fairly hardy plant, and will stand earlier
field planting than is sometimes given it, if it does not get frost.
We have proved by experiment that the yield is greatly increased by
early transplanting. There is a profit in that.
Tomatoes give earlier and better results where the vines are trained,
but that is only possible in small gardens. Where the plants are grown
for canning, little attention is given them after transplanting to the
field. Losses from rot are of course much larger there, but this cannot
well be avoided.
In small gardens they are pruned to a single stem. Strong stakes
are driven into the ground and cords are stretched between them
horizontally at top and bottom. From these horizontal cords you may
run perpendicular strings, to one of which each plant is tied. Plants
pruned and tied up in this way, may be placed as close together as 18
inches, while if left to spread they require from three to four feet of
space.
By pruning is meant the pinching out of each side branch as it appears,
compelling the plant to put all its growth into one parent stem. Some
growers even go so far as to cut off the tops of the plant as soon as
three clusters of fruit are formed. I have cut off whole branches where
the vines were too thick, without apparent injury. All this decreases
the quantity of fruit that each plant will produce, but it greatly
increases the earliness of ripening, and the size and quality of the
fruit. Besides, the plants may be grown so much closer that the loss in
quantity is not so great as would at first appear.
Henry Jeroloman of New Jersey, known all over the country as the
“Strawberry King,” has a tomato-planting trick that is worth noting.
Mr. Jeroloman, by the way, raises about $5,000 worth from his eight
acres annually, and he plants tomatoes at the foot of his grape-trellis
posts and trains them to climb up the posts and along the trellis. And
right here is where the real trick comes in: by training the tomatoes
to climb up instead of sprawling all over the ground, he is able to
plant his low-growing crops, like beets or turnips, close up to the
vines and lose no space. That is one of the reasons why his eight acres
bring in more than the average farm of 100 acres. Your profit will
depend upon similar devices for “working” the soil.
The best rack for supporting unpruned vines, is a cheap, rough and
simple affair, constructed by the grower himself as follows:—Run a row
of stakes on either side of your tomato bed and nail a light board to
each row about a foot from the ground, so that the distance between
the two rows will be about three feet. Across this lay narrow slats,
loosely. The plants lop on the slats, the fruits ripen uniformly, and
usually with a smaller percentage of rot than where they lie on the
ground.
If your garden is situated where frosts are apt to come as early as
August, you should plant your tomatoes against the south side of the
house or out-building and cover them at night,—a point worth noting for
all tender plants.
In “Vegetable Gardening,” Green suggests an ingenious yet simple method
of raising enough tomatoes for family use where the season is too
short to raise them in the field or garden. Get three or four barrels
about the size of a coal-oil barrel, bore several holes in the bottom
of each, then sink about one-third their depth in the ground in the
warmest corners of your land.
When this has been done, fill each barrel about half full of fresh
horse manure well tramped down, and pour over it a bucketful of hot
water to start fermentation. On top of this put eight inches of good
soil, then a mixture of well-rotted manure and good black loam in equal
quantities up to about twelve inches from the top of the barrel. Heap
manure up around the outside of your barrel. Plant, say three stocky
plants in each barrel, trimming them to two shoots each. Tie one shoot
from each plant to stakes or some nearby support, and let the other
grow naturally over the side of the barrel. Give a gallon of water a
day to each barrel and you will raise enough tomatoes in the season for
a family of four or five persons.
The Iowa Experiment Station showed that untrained tomato vines gave
the smallest yield and the largest percentage of decayed fruit; that
staked vines gave a much larger percentage of sound fruit and the least
percentage of decayed fruit of the whole experiment; that hilling up
did not give any striking results in any direction; and that, while
mulching enormously increased the yield, it also greatly increased the
tendency to rot.
Because tomatoes suffer so from frost, it is wise to hasten fruiting by
every means, but if frost strikes before the fruits are ripe, the large
green ones may be picked and placed in drawers or other dry, close
places to ripen. Generally they color well and develop a good quality.
If the fruits have not reached full size, the whole plant may be pulled
with the fruits on, and hung upside down in a barn or dry building, and
they will continue to draw nourishment from the plant and sometimes
ripen.
From one ounce of seed you may expect from 2000 to 2500 plants; if
planted in hills three by four feet apart, an acre will require 3630
plants. A large yield of tomatoes is from 12 to 16 tons per acre; the
average is much below this. The favorite tomato in the American market
is large, round and smooth, the Angular and other irregular-shaped
varieties bringing a much lower price. Varieties run out so quickly
that it is not advisable to give the names.
The friend that you make in the seed store will be able to keep you
posted about such things—you can look in his eyes and tell if he
is lying, which you can’t do with a catalogue. Or you can ask the
Agricultural Editor.
EGGPLANT.
You treat eggplants just as you do tomatoes, except that they need even
greater care that the young plants are not checked in their growth, and
a longer season. Eggplant is really a hot-climate crop, and so requires
especial attention for early ripening in the Northern States. It grows
best in the South, but does well as far north as New Jersey and Long
Island. Further north it is seldom grown for more than home use.
Eggplant needs a long season, sunny exposure, a warm, loose, and rather
dry but rich soil. It is started in the hot-bed and not transplanted
until from six to ten inches high. It is such a finicky crop that if
the plants are crowded or stunted even in the hot-bed, the yield is
seriously reduced. For this reason, growers often start it in two-inch
or three-inch flower pots, or in old, small berry baskets, as it
is less likely to suffer a check when transplanted to the garden.
Eggplants do not need so much moisture as peas or cool-season crops,
and whatever fertilizer is applied must be quickly available. Perfect
tillage is necessary from first to last.
Eggplants are set in rows far enough apart to admit of horse-tillage,
from 3½ to 4 feet apart, and two to four feet apart in the rows,
according to the variety of plant grown. The fruits are fit to eat when
they have reached one-third their full size, and are desirable until
they are fully ripe, when they lose their value as food.
Although the fruit may be left on the plant until fully grown, a larger
crop is secured by picking before their full size is reached. For
market, however, they must be well colored. The large varieties such as
New York Improved and the Black Pekin bring the highest prices in the
market, but it is difficult to grow them to perfection in the Northern
States because of the short season. Some of the dwarfs, notably the
Early Dwarf Purple, are more desirable. White eggplants are not
popular, because they are usually an ugly yellow, while the striped and
coiling fruits are regarded more as curiosities than as staple market
products.
The eggplant is subject to several obscure fungous diseases,
particularly in the South, and the only known remedy is rotation and
destruction of the diseased vines. For the potato bug, which sometimes
attacks eggplants, it is best to use Paris green, about one-quarter
pound to 20 to 25 gallons of water, and plenty of lime. For leaf spot,
use Bordeaux mixture. Get New Jersey Report 1890, p. 355.
PEPPERS.
Peppers are started in frames and when transplanted are set from eight
to twelve inches apart in the row. They are cultivated just as tomatoes
are, and, as they do not suffer from pests or diseases, the crop is
more sure.
Peppers will thrive in a cooler season than tomatoes, and will
even endure slight frost, but in all other respects they require
the same treatment as tomatoes. They have only recently acquired
any importance as a crop, and even now, their use in cooking being
only semi-occasional, they are not very staple. Italians use them
extensively, and as Italian communities grow, the demand for peppers
will increase. We use them mainly for making pickles, for which
purpose the small Cayenne, Chili and Cranberry varieties are grown.
For stuffing, the favorite sorts are the large sweet peppers, Sweet
Mountain and Ruby King. These peppers are not at all similar to the
pepper-berries of commerce, which belong to other families.
HUSK TOMATO.
The husk tomato is an herb which produces a kind of papery skin
containing a yellowish, glutinous berry. It is often spoken of as the
strawberry tomato. It is very easy of cultivation on the tomato plan,
although some varieties, notably the Cape Gooseberry, do not ripen well
in the far North; the Dwarf Cape Gooseberry, however, does well as far
north as Ontario. The soft, sweetish fruits may be eaten raw or cooked
and are often used for preserves and pickles. There are several native
species, some of which are called Ground Cherry.
CHAPTER XXI.
VINE OR CUCURBITOUS CROPS.
“Cucurbitous” is a fine large word, but you don’t need to learn it.
All vine crops are annuals and are tender to frost, although all do
not need a hot-bed start. They are warm-season crops, and in the
Northern States most of them need a quick start so that they can ripen
before the summer is past. Well-prepared soil and a sunny exposure are
desirable. They transplant with such difficulty that they are usually
sown where they are to grow, but if not, it is best to start them on
sods turned upside down, or in pots or boxes. They are always a main
crop and are planted in hills. There is very little difference in the
cultivation of any of them, and if you know how and where to grow one,
you will generally do well with the rest.
Where you fail, you may usually lay it to the fact that your soil was
not in condition to give the young plants a good hold and to get a
quick start. If your soil is well prepared, well drained and properly
fertilized, you will have little trouble, unless it may be from pests.
The way to fight those is to sow seed freely, and be content to lose
the greater part of your possible crop.
Some growers who make a specialty of melons or cucumbers, plant squash
and pumpkin seed very early in the field that the young plants may
attract the striped beetle and give the farmers the opportunity to kill
the pest before the real crops are taken from the frames. That is a
method of deceiving the creatures, but the end justifies the means.
Unless you live where the climate is cold and the season short, you may
plant squash, pumpkin and cucumber in the open fields where they are
to grow. Otherwise start them in frames, as muskmelons are started.
The land should be given the best of surface tillage, and every effort
should be made to start the plants so well that the fruits will have
set before midsummer. All these vine plants need much moisture in
the soil and if the preparation-tillage be neglected, no amount of
after-tillage can make up for the first loss.
Watch the vines carefully so as to prevent one fruit setting much in
advance of the others. It is better to pick the first one off if it is
much ahead of the main crop. Otherwise there will be no uniformity of
size or quality. If your plants run too much to vine, pinch off the
shoots and let the vigor go to fruit-making.
These crops often succeed as early crop and main-season crop, by
starting one about two weeks after the other. Spade up the ground
loosely for a space of a square foot or two, and mix light, loose earth
or barnyard scrapings with it to make the hill. It is well to add a
handful of fertilizer to the earth; but if it seems cold and hard,
remove it altogether and replace it by light, warm soil. Of course in
the warm, light soils of the South this is not necessary.
CUCUMBER AND GHERKIN.
There are almost no special directions for growing cucumbers if the
general directions for all vine crops are carefully followed. Cucumbers
are planted in hills, usually four by four feet apart, though for the
large, late varieties they may be as far as four by six feet apart. An
acre contains 2722 hills when the distance is four by four feet, and it
requires two pounds of seed to plant an acre, or one ounce to 70 or 80
hills. That will allow four or five plants to a hill. Remember to plant
freely if the striped beetle is at work near your patch.
As cucumbers are eaten when young, it helps the yield immensely if each
fruit is picked as soon as it reaches the table state. You should go
over the entire patch every two or three days at least, to see that no
fruit is ripening at the expense of the growth of its little brothers
on the vine. If you want to keep some for seed, reserve a whole hill
for that purpose.
For the early-season varieties which are planted in flats or seed-beds,
the Early Russian, a small-fruited sort, is the favorite. For the later
sorts the White Spine, in various strains, is the standard.
Gherkins are simply immature cucumbers, very small in size; they are
used solely for pickles, usually sweet pickles. The fruits of the West
Indian or Bur cucumber are also called gherkins. The treatment is the
same as for cucumbers, but the fruits are pulled as soon as fully
formed. It is quite profitable to pickle them yourself.
On the average, an acre will yield 100 bushels of cucumbers for
pickling, but this yield can be greatly increased by proper care and
attention. Under the best conditions, 400 to 500 bushels to the acre
are possible.
MUSKMELON.
The muskmelon is native to southern Asia and was grown by the ancients.
The melon grows best in light, sandy soil in warm, sunny spots,
although it is raised for market in many parts of this country, and as
far north as parts of Canada. New Jersey is an important melon-growing
State.
Melons are planted in hills from four by five to four by six feet
apart, according to whether early or main-season crop. The early crop
may be planted a little closer than the main crop, and is in the field
two or three weeks ahead. The quantity of seed is about the same as
that used for cucumber planting and the same treatment is necessary.
There are about 1185 hills to an acre, and two or three good fruits
to each plant is a good yield. The most important varieties are the
cantaloupes, which have hard, warty rinds, and are little grown in this
country; the nutmeg or netted type, extensively grown here, and the
winter melons, which ripen late in the season and are as yet little
known here. The leading varieties to be found in the American market,
are Rocky Ford, Osage, Montreal Market and Hackensack, but the melon is
so variable that only types, not varieties, are constant. Diseases and
insects are the same as in cucumber.
WATERMELON.
Watermelons are even more uncertain than muskmelons, because of their
need of a long, warm season; therefore, they are but little grown in
the northernmost States, except a few varieties which will ripen as far
north as southern Ontario, if both soil and exposure be warm enough.
Watermelon needs such a long season, such a warm, well drained soil,
such attention to detail, to come to perfection, that it is not a
very profitable crop for the average gardener. In the past, the south
Atlantic and Gulf States have held first place as watermelon centres,
and are likely to continue in that proud position even though the
mid-continental States have taken up the industry.
Seeds are planted where the plants are to grow, but all danger of
frosts should be past. The best soil preparation includes fall plowing
that the winter frost may help powder the earth. The hills are made
by mixing several shovelfuls of well-rotted manure with the soil and
then covering the mixture with some inches of fine, soft earth. Plant
the seeds in this and see that the soil does not bake or crust. This
can only be avoided by careful surface tillage. The cultivation of
watermelons must be done solely with hand-tools, as the vines are very
tender and the least injury to them affects both quantity and quality
of crop. The hills are usually ten feet apart each way, and there are
only 435 hills to the acre. It takes four pounds of seed to sow an
acre. When grown in the Northern States, plants may be started under
glass, but great care must be taken to avoid any injury or check to
the growth, during transplanting.
Beginners often find it difficult to tell when a watermelon is ripe.
There are three recognized methods, but to the practiced eye none of
these tests are necessary. If a melon “thumps” right, that is, if it
gives out a dull, flat, dead sound, it is ripe, but if it rings hollow
or musical it is not yet ripe. The next test is the yellowish cast to
the side that has lain on the ground, along with a hard, rough, warty
skin in that place; and the third is the way the melon “gives” under
pressure of the hand. The last test should never be applied to melons
intended for the market, because it bruises them inside.
What is called vegetable citron in this country is nothing but a
variety of watermelon with flesh too hard to be eaten. It is not the
true commercial citron, which is the fruit of a tree like the orange or
lemon.
Insects or diseases the same as in cucumber. If you must know more of
watermelon culture, get Bulletin 38, Georgia Exp. Station.
PUMPKIN AND SQUASH.
Although so closely allied, pumpkins and squash do not usually cross,
despite the common notion to the contrary. They are distinct types of
the same family. The standard variety of pumpkin in this country is
the Connecticut Field. The fruits are large, orange-colored and smooth
furrowed. They are used to make pies for man and as food for stock,
while to the small boy they are chiefly useful as “jack lanterns.”
The pumpkin is often grown in corn-fields and in England they have a
summer variety called vegetable marrow, which is in great demand, while
our summer squashes, Crookneck, Scallop and Pattypan are also forms of
the pumpkin. These are called bush squashes, and may be grown as close
as three by four feet in the garden, while the regular pumpkin and
squashes require to be planted eight to ten feet apart. It takes three
pounds of seed to the acre for each, and a yield of two or three fruits
to the vine is a large crop.
There are several leading types of winter or field squashes such as the
Hubbard, Marblehead, Boston Marrow, Essex Hybrid, and Turban. To keep
them through the winter they should be free from bruises or cracks,
be fully ripe and have the stem on. A touch of frost injures them.
They should be stored in a dry place with a temperature above 50° and
placed on shelves or in shallow bins. Large growers have specially
constructed, stove-heated houses for storing them.
A third type includes the Winter Crooknecks, Dunkard, Tennessee Sweet
Potato Pumpkin, and some others. The culture of both squash and pumpkin
is the same as for cucumber.
The insects from which they most suffer are: the squash bug and the
melon louse. To rid the fields of the bug, keep them free from rubbish.
Trap the bugs with bits of squash leaves and every day in spring pick
off the old bugs. Read New Jersey Bulletin 94; New York Bulletin 75,
and Florida Bulletin 34.
For melon louse read Kentucky Bulletin 53 as well as those already
mentioned. Get lice in their winter quarters and destroy at first
appearance. Use bisulphide of carbon as the bulletin directs.
Powdery and Downy Mildew are the worst diseases. For powdery mildew,
spray with ammoniacal copper carbonate, and read Massachusetts State
Report, 1892, p. 225, and Cornell Bulletin 31. For downy mildew,
use Bordeaux mixture every eight or ten days, until frost, and read
Massachusetts State Report, 1890, p. 211, and New York Bulletin 119.
CHAPTER XXII.
UNCLASSIFIED ANNUALS.
In this division of garden crops come sweet corn, okra and martynia,
which have no relation to the other crops, and none to each other,
except that they require about the same cultivation. They are all
warm-weather crops and are grown for their immature fruits. They
require “quick” soil, are not usually transplanted and demand little
care, except good tillage.
SWEET CORN.
Although almost unknown in any other part of the world, in America
sweet corn is one of the most important crops. One hardly ever sees
even a small backyard garden without a few stalks of sweet corn, while
the canning industry has grown to such enormous proportions as to
require thousands of acres of corn every year. Sweet corn cannot be
grown in the South unless the seed is gotten from the North every year.
It thrives best in the crisp climate of the Northern States and of
Canada.
This is the crop that gave rise to the famous joke at the “World’s
Fair” in Chicago. The Englishman asked the girl in charge, “What do you
do with so much corn?”
“Oh,” she said, “we eat what we can, and what we can’t we can.”
Afterwards Johnny Bull tried to tell the story. “So funny,” he said;
“she told me that they eat what they can, and what they can’t they put
in tins—why don’t you laugh?”
Sweet corn requires more attention than field corn, both as regards
earliness and the proper development of each plant. For this reason it
is planted in hills rather than long drills, and in warmer and quicker
soil, with quickly available fertilizer. Ground that has been plowed
deep the fall before, and fertilized with well-rotted manure makes
a good soil; if the ground be hard or cold, a handful of commercial
fertilizer may be added to each hill.
Although corn is a hot-season plant, it is practically a surface
feeder, so it cannot withstand drought as well as potatoes or
other crops. That is why it is well to plow deep and make a good
moisture-holding bottom in order to get good corn of any kind. That
is also the reason for the frequent surface tillage given the growing
plants.
Seed is planted for the early crop as soon as the ground is warm
enough, and as corn rots quickly either in cold or damp ground, it is
well to plant freely. Coating with tar perhaps preserves it, at least
from the crows. The idea is to get as many ears as possible from each
plant, so give plenty of room, the rows being three to four feet apart,
and each hill from two and a half to three feet apart. For early crops
use Early Minnesota, Early Vermont, Cory and Crosby and other popular
brands. The Stowell Evergreen is the standard for late crops. Corn may
be sown successionally, at intervals of a week or two, either for the
home garden or for market supply.
In growing for market, earliness should be borne particularly in mind.
The whole profit in corn may hinge upon even one or two days’ delay.
In fact, where you are competing with many other gardeners, a half day
may make a big difference. You can get ahead only by having quick and
well-prepared land, planting the earliest varieties and giving the crop
good tillage after it has begun to grow.
Some gardeners force early sweet corn by placing a handful of fine
manure in each hill, stamping it down hard with the feet. Loose dirt is
then kicked over it and sprouted seed planted—that is, seed that has
been soaked in warm water until germination has really begun within it.
This is a good method where the soil is moist so that the seeds may get
a quick start, but it is no good in dry soil. The manure acts like an
individual hot-bed for each hill of corn.
Where this plan is used, thorough culture must be given, or the corn
roots will remain in the manure during growing time and suffer from
drought.
Corn is not the only crop that is benefited by the use of the feet in
planting. Wherever the soil must be compacted about the newly planted
seed, the feet can be used to advantage. So true is this, that Peter
Henderson, the well-known New York gardener and seedsman, wrote a
pamphlet called “The Use of the Hands and Feet in Planting,” which is
sent free upon application. It is well worth reading.
When it first comes into the market, sweet corn usually brings 25 cents
a dozen ears; that is the time for the wide-awake gardener to sell his
crop. Later it may fall to five cents a dozen, and usually sells as low
as 10 cents; there is no profit in that.
If you pick the first ears as soon as they are well set, the second
setting will be much better for it. (Very small, immature ears are fine
cooked or raw, to eat, cob and all, but our people are not used to
that.) It takes about a peck of corn to plant an acre in hills, and, if
well attended to, the plants should yield from 8000 to 10,000 ears to
the acre.
The insects and diseases include wire-worms, cut-worms, chinch-bug and
corn-stalk disease. Short rotation, including fall cultivation of the
land, will check the wire-worms. See Cornell Bulletin 107. Treatment
for cut-worms is fully described in Cornell Bulletin 104. Ditching,
plowing and harrowing are bad for the chinch-bug and good for your
corn. Read Ohio Bulletin 69, Kentucky Bulletin 74, and New York Report
15, pp. 531-533.
It would be fruitless to take up your time with a discussion of
corn-stalk disease here, when you can get it all by simply sending for
Nebraska Bulletin 52.
OKRA OR GUMBO.
Although okra is really a Southern States perennial, it is cultivated
as an annual, the seeds being sown every spring. It is grown for its
pods, which are cut while still young and tender, and are much used for
soups and stews. Of recent years the pods are also canned and dried for
use in winter.
Okra takes about the same treatment as sweet corn, the seeds being sown
where the plant is to grow, except in the Northern States. There the
seeds are often planted in boxes, pots or sods turned over, simply
because the season is not long enough to ripen the plants. The real
okra is a large-growing plant that must be planted from one to three
feet apart in rows that are three to five feet apart, but the dwarf
and early-maturing varieties that are grown in the North, may stand as
close as one foot apart in the row. There are no important insects or
diseases.
MARTYNIA.
Martynia is grown solely for its half-matured pods which are used in
pickles. The plant needs a warm soil, sunny exposure, and much room,
as it spreads over three or four feet. It thrives under the same
cultivation as is given corn and okra, and may be planted in frames or
in the open as soon as the weather is warm enough. It is annual and
native from southern Indiana to the Gulf.
CHAPTER XXIII.
HERBS, SWEET AND CONDIMENTAL.
A great variety of plants, medicinal, flavoring and decorative, are
herbs, but we will consider only those used for cookery and usually
called “sweet herbs.” The very name brings memories of fragrant smells.
If we cannot all say, “I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows,”
yet few who have ever known a garden are unacquainted with the odorous
bed of thyme, sage and mint. Although there is not such heavy demand
for them in this country as in Europe, yet their use is growing, the
favorite being sage.
Sweet herbs may be divided, both as to culture and as to products,
into two classes:—the annuals and the perennials: those grown for
their foliage, and those for their fruits. All are easily grown and
demand little attention, and though they may be bought at any drug
store, yet they who have once raised their own herbs find a pleasure
in them that they will not like to miss. Annuals and perennials may
be grown together and a very little plot of ground is enough to grow
them all. Choose a place where they will not interfere with plowing
and cultivating and let them stay, planting the annuals in the same
place each year, and renewing the perennials as soon as they begin
to lose their aromatic qualities or otherwise to fail. The annuals
should be sown every year, but perennials may be propagated by division
of clumps. Discard all the older clumps and replant only the newer,
younger portions.
Those that are prized for their foliage, such as sage, thyme, hyssop,
mints, tansy, horehound and wormwood, are usually cut when the plant is
in full growth before the stalks have become woody. Cut the stems near
the ground, tie them in bunches and hang them to dry in the attic, if
you are fortunate enough to have such a treasure-hole, or in some cool,
dry place. You may also cut the herbage from time to time during the
season, but this weakens the plant and necessitates replanting. Those
that are grown for seeds, such as caraway, coriander and dill, are
allowed to ripen, but are picked before the seeds begin to fall. They
are dried in-doors and the seeds threshed out for winter use. Bailey,
in his “Vegetable Gardening,” has a list divided as follows:—
ANNUALS (OR GROWN AS SUCH).
Anise
Sweet basil
Summer savory
Coriander
Caraway (biennial)
Clary (biennial)
Dill (biennial)
Sweet marjoram (biennial or perennial)
PERENNIAL.
Sage
Lavender
Peppermint
Spearmint
Hyssop
Marjoram
Balm
Catnip
Pennyroyal
Rosemary
Horehound
Fennel
Lovage
Winter savory
Tansy
Wormwood
Costmary
Tarragon.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PERENNIAL CROPS.
The vegetables in this group have little in common except their
cultural wants or requirements, but these are so different from the
needs of annuals that it is convenient to group them together. Because
they occupy their places more or less permanently, it is necessary to
choose a spot that will not interfere with the regular plowing and
tilling of the farm or garden. Perennials need tillage in the spring
and fall and are fertilized by top dressings, at both seasons.
ASPARAGUS.
The chief of the perennials is asparagus, which requires a deep, rich,
moist, cool soil, with a warm exposure. It originally grew in rotten
sea-weed on the shores and is a gross feeder, so the soil cannot be
too rich. Sub-soiling to the depth of two feet is good for asparagus.
It used to be thought that a layer of salt at the roots made a good
fertilizer, but salt is no longer used in that way. It is, however,
used to keep down weeds in the asparagus bed, especially the German
salt known as kainit. This kills out weeds, saves cultivation, and adds
potash to the soil.
If the land you have is hard and coarse, you should prepare it by
planting it with some crop that needs a great deal of tillage, such
as potatoes, for two seasons before you plant asparagus. During this
time you should apply all the manure the land will carry, because, as
the bed will last for twenty years, in the Northern States, you will
have no other opportunity to put the soil in proper condition. Don’t
be afraid of making the soil too rich. Asparagus can take all you can
give, and will repay your generosity.
As you make your asparagus plantation practically for a lifetime, you
must exercise care and judgment in choosing the site. In a family
garden a long row, say 75 to 100 feet, if you have the space, at the
rear of the garden, is a good place. This not only puts it out of the
way of other crops, but it also gives you a good background in summer
and fall, for the herbage of asparagus is ornamental. Asparagus used
to be planted in beds, but under new methods of farming, this plan has
been abandoned. Rows are more satisfactory. When grown as a field crop
this allows of horse-tool tillage and saves much labor.
Asparagus roots are wanderers and reach out for food in every
direction, even more horizontally than perpendicularly, which is why
it is unwise to have rows closer together than four feet. Seedsmen
sell asparagus plants, but it is usually better to grow your own
plants, although they take so long to mature. Seeds may be soaked in
warm water for a day before planting and are then sown in drills and
covered about an inch deep. The plants should be thinned to stand three
or four inches apart in the row.
Give frequent tillage throughout the entire season, and in the spring
following they will be ready to plant in their permanent place. Here
they are set deep, in a furrow or trench, say six to ten inches, so
that the young crown of the plant is covered two or three inches deep
with loose earth or good fine compost. As the plants grow the trench
is gradually filled. If filled at first, the young plants might not be
strong enough to push their way up.
You will see from this that the asparagus plot must be deeply
sub-soiled, for if you do not have the land properly prepared at the
first, you will never have good results. Besides, unless the soil is
rich in humus, asparagus cannot thrive at all, for it requires a moist
soil at the roots all the season.
When you have planted your yearling seedlings you must give them
another year before you do any cutting. A few stray shoots may be
picked off, but it is advisable to wait until the plants are in their
third year before cutting. To cut earlier may permanently injure your
crop. It is also possible to injure it by continuing it too late each
season, although every stalk should be removed even if it be too poor
for use. The crop should be cut clean, and all cutting should be over
before July 4th, in the middle Atlantic States. After that the tops do
the growing and the more they flourish the better your asparagus will
yield next year, for it is from the foliage which springs up that the
roots and crown secure energy for the next season’s work.
The tops should be mowed late in the fall, and generally speaking it
is better to burn them than to allow them to rot on the bed as some
growers do, because when the asparagus berries are plentiful you are
apt to have trouble next season with seedlings; and even when this is
not so, it interferes with the fall tillage which is so necessary.
Just as the young plants were covered with earth and manure the first
year and thoroughly tilled in the spring, so must spring and fall
tillage be carried on every year. The manure put on the plants in the
fall, serves not only as a winter protection, but if not too coarse,
may be cultivated under in the spring and afford that much more
fertilizer to feed the crop. If it is too coarse for that, rake it off,
cultivate thoroughly and then cover again with litter or manure, to
afford nourishment and to preserve the moisture of the soil as well as
to protect the young shoots in case of late frosts.
The whole value of asparagus lies in its tenderness and succulence, and
the large shoots are most apt to have these qualities. The plant cannot
grow large shoots unless it has plenty of food. Only rich soil and good
tillage can supply the food needed.
Usually asparagus is cut off three or four inches below the surface
with a long sharp knife, but one noted asparagus grower objects to this
practice for two reasons. First, it increases the temptation to cut too
low so as to get the stalks of uniform length as the market requires,
whether or not of uniform quality; and second, it tends to waste and
to the injury of the plants. He would substitute for this practice,
careful hand-picking or breaking. The gatherer takes two rows at a time
and breaks off the shoots just beneath the ground at the lowest point
where the shoot will break with a clean snap.
When set at the proper distance of three by four feet apart, it
requires 3630 plants to the acre, and 1 pound of seed should furnish
that many plants. But seedlings vary so much, that some growers
recommend sowing from four to five pounds of seed to every acre, so
that only the best need be kept. A good yield is about 400 dozen
bunches to the acre. Asparagus is always sold in bunches, the stalks of
uniform size and length, and tied near the tops and butts either with
bark or string; though many growers are now using rubber bands as being
better for the stalks and a saving of time for the gardener.
Asparagus is usually sold green in this country, although if
artificially blanched it is just as tender. When asparagus is grown for
blanching it should be planted deeper than ordinarily. It is hilled
up with a furrow plow just as celery is hilled up, and blanches as it
grows. Blanched asparagus is in higher favor in Europe than here.
Asparagus is a native of Europe and Asia, and has been cultivated for
more than two thousand years. It belongs to the lily family and several
of its very near relations are cultivated in greenhouses for their
graceful foliage.
The asparagus beetle is the worst enemy and must be steadily fought.
In young beds, apply fresh air-slaked lime as soon as the larvae
appear. It should be put on while the plants are still damp with dew,
and only the greatest thoroughness can accomplish anything. Destroy all
volunteer shoots. As the beds are cut, leave some small trap-shoots
upon which the beetles will gather; cut these twice a week and destroy.
In hot weather brush the insects off and they will bake on the soil in
the sun.
It is so risky to use poisons on asparagus that is to be eaten, that
Paris green may be used only in very rare instances; then the mixture
consists of one pound of the poison to fifty pounds of air-slaked lime.
Two applications are made, about a week apart.
Some gardeners turn a hen with chickens, or a number of young chickens,
into the asparagus field as soon as the crop is cut. This is one of the
best ways of keeping down the beetles, and the scratching of the fowls
cultivates the crop. This will lessen your own work and increase the
value of your chickens to you.
Rust is the chief disease, and for this there is no sovereign remedy.
Every effort should be made to secure only vigorous plants, and in very
dry weather irrigation should be practiced, if possible. Early in the
autumn, cut, carefully gather together and burn, all affected stalks,
and all asparagus brush whether garden or wild. Read Massachusetts
Bulletin 61; Iowa Bulletin 53; Farmer’s Bulletin 61, p. 30.
RHUBARB.
Of all the perennial garden plants rhubarb is the easiest to grow, and
the most inexperienced may be sure of success. It is very hardy and the
roots remain in the garden all winter, even in climates where the frost
is heavy and the cold quite severe. But in spite of its hardiness and
willingness to flourish under ordinary conditions, rhubarb responds
quickly to good care and gives such enormously increased returns that
it pays to attend to it.
Rhubarb likes a deep, rich soil, thoroughly cultivated and fertilized
before the plants are set out. It is usually more satisfactory to
propagate by roots than by seed, although some growers prefer to raise
their plants from seed. Like asparagus, rhubarb will last twenty years,
if given a good start and if the roots are occasionally separated. All
this time it will yield large, tender, juicy stalks if the soil be in
good condition, and if a little tillage is given to the plant in fall
and spring.
Set out the plants in rows where the soil has been fertilized, is deep
and in good tilth. The best strains of rhubarb will not produce good
stalks if the land be hard or the subsoil high and hard. The rows
should be four feet apart to allow of horse tillage. The plants may be
from three to four feet apart in the row. During the growing season
they require the same sort of surface tillage that you would give to
corn or potatoes. If you are making the most of your rhubarb bed, you
will give it quite a heavy coat of manure in the fall, to act as mulch
to keep the soil from freezing too deep, and also to preserve its
texture. During the storms of winter, the manure leaches away somewhat
and fertilizes the roots, so that they are prepared to make an early
growth in the spring.
The season for selling is short, as early in the summer the demand for
rhubarb gives place to strawberries and other small fruits. It is the
grower who has it early in the market who reaps profit from rhubarb.
By means of the New Rhubarb Culture, rhubarb may now be forced for
market out of season, and then it brings the best prices of all.
Roots are left in the garden until they have been frozen and are then
transplanted to specially prepared beds and forced for the Christmas
trade. These beds may be in the open field if one has a system of
heating by steam forced through trenches, or they may be in specially
constructed forcing houses; or, simplest of all, they may be in the
house cellar, even though the floor be of concrete.
Rhubarb requires but little moisture and when it is being forced, it
need not go deep to find its food, if the soil it has is rich enough.
Three inches of earth will give it all the hold it needs, and if the
light is completely excluded, the growth will all go to stalk.
If you have a cellar bed, screen it off from the rest of the cellar so
that no light can reach it; a small kerosene-oil lamp with a chimney
that has been thoroughly smoke-blackened, will give all the heat
necessary to start growth. The stalks begin to shoot up looking for
light and will do almost nothing in the way of leaf-growth because
of its lack. In this way the whole energy of the plant is diverted
into profit-making stalks.[9] The roots that have been forced for the
Christmas market cannot be used again the following season. They need a
season’s rest. (Read J. E. Morse’s “New Rhubarb Culture.”)
But this absence of leaf, which is so desirable in forced rhubarb,
would be injurious to the garden rhubarb. In out-of-door growth, the
vigor and fruitfulness of the plants in any growing season, are largely
determined by the spread of leaves in the preceding season. For this
reason, after the cutting season is over, the plants are encouraged
to develop leaves; the smaller and weaker ones being cut off that the
large ones may grow still larger, but all seed stalks should be cut, so
as to preserve the vigor for next season’s growth of stalks.
When ready for market, rhubarb is tied in bunches of two to five stalks
and an acre will produce about 3000 dozen bunches. That is a pretty
good return when it requires only about a pound of seed to sow an acre
in the first place.
Rhubarb is native to eastern Asia and has no serious insect enemies or
diseases.
DOCKS AND SORRELS.
Those who are fond of very early greens will be glad to know of the
garden varieties of docks and sorrels which come earlier than any other
pot-herbs. They were originally imported from France where they are in
general use.
The best varieties are the Spinage Dock and the Large Belleville,
really a sorrel. The Spinage Dock is a week or ten days earlier than
the Belleville, has larger, crisper, greener leaves and a less acid
taste. Cornell Bulletin 61 says: “All these docks are hardy perennials,
and are very acceptable plants to those who are fond of early greens.
Some, at least, of the cultivated docks, can be procured of American
seedsmen.”
ARTICHOKE.
The Jerusalem artichoke, the variety best known in this country, and
the French Globe or true artichoke, have little in common, yet both
are used for food. The eatable part of the true artichoke is the
flower-head, which should be cut before it has fully spread, else it
will be woody. It is a strong-growing, upright, perennial, reaching
a height of four or five feet, with large leaves. It is not always
satisfactory to plant from seeds, as they cannot be guaranteed to
reproduce truly. But when seed is sown it may be where the plants are
to stand or in hot-beds.
The advantage of hot-bed sowing is that the plants may give heads the
first year, while those planted in the garden require two seasons to
produce eatable heads. The best means of propagation are the suckers
which grow freely about the root crowns. Suckers are planted where the
plants are to mature and give heads the second year.
Although the artichoke is perennial, it weakens after yielding two or
three crops, so that it is well to replant part of the bed each year,
thus keeping a succession of vigorous plants. In cold climates the
heads are protected during the winter with a mulch of straw or litter.
When boiled tender and served with Hollandaise sauce, made of melted
butter and flour, the artichoke is a delicious vegetable, but it is
comparatively little known in this country.
The Jerusalem artichoke is grown for its tubers, which are underground
as in potatoes, and it needs much the same preparation and tillage as
potatoes. It is usually fed to stock, especially pigs, but of late it
is coming to be recognized as a good food for man, too. “If you will
feed the pig, the pig will feed you,” but we need not go through that
troublesome process; for a varied vegetable diet alone is healthy for
most persons—and much cheaper.
Artichokes are really more nourishing than potatoes, and the improved
varieties may be used in place of potatoes. The plant is perfectly
hardy, being native to the Northern States and Canada, and will
take care of itself when once started, although it is better for
having its roots divided, by digging them up. It will run wild, if
wholly neglected, and become a troublesome weed, propagating itself
indefinitely by means of its straggling, far-reaching, tuber-bearing
roots. The only way to cure this damage is by thorough tillage, the
first of which consists of fall plowing and the turning of pigs into
the patch to root up the tubers.
The artichoke is more prolific than the potato, and will yield all
the way from 250 bushels to 1000 bushels per acre with only ordinary
care. For eating, the best variety is the Improved White French. The
Jerusalem artichoke is not likely soon to supplant any other garden
crop in this country, but it might well become a regular garden crop,
as it will grow on land too poor for most other plants, requires little
care, yields heavily, and is good food for man and stock.
SEA-KALE.
Sea-kale is one of the least known of the perennial garden
crops, although where it is known it is well liked. It is a low,
fleshy-stemmed plant whose shoots and young leaves are blanched and
eaten as asparagus is. The plants may be grown from seed; in which case
all but one main stem are to be cut off as soon as they appear; or it
may be grown by division of roots. In either case, it is well not to
cut from the plant until the second season. The shoots are blanched
either by covering the crowns with fine, loose soil for a foot or even
more, in the early spring, or by covering the crowns with a box and
allowing the shoots to grow up in the dark.
After the young shoots have been picked off, the plants are allowed to
grow as they will; for, like asparagus and rhubarb, the vigor, size
and yield of the next season depend upon this season’s growth of leaf
and root. It flourishes best in deep, rich and rather moist soil. The
plants should not be less than three feet apart each way, and they are
much benefited by an autumn dressing of light manure or straw.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] NOTE.—You can get long stalks in the garden by putting a small
cask, or half-barrel, with the ends knocked out, over the plant. The
stalks will grow to the top and blanch some while growing.
CHAPTER XXV.
SPECIALTIES.
It is well to grow a variety of crops for your own experience and your
own table. But for profit, it is best to specialize, because if you
read up all you should know about several crops, you will have no time
to raise them.
Specialization is the rule now in all lines of business, and as the
farmer gets to be more and more a business man, he will adopt business
methods, and push ahead. The big farm, partially cultivated, and
covered with a great variety of crops which require as many varieties
of cultivation to give good results, is a thing of the past, except
where some individual farmer is too stupid to read the handwriting on
the wall. It never paid as it ought, and it entailed tremendous labor.
Now big areas are only cultivated where lots of help is employed, and
diversity of crops can only be successfully practiced under the same
conditions.
Today the custom of cultivating small areas is increasing, and where
it is done for profit, the grower more and more tends to specialize.
Secretary Critchfield, of the Pennsylvania State Department of
Agriculture, said some years ago that “the greatest amount of money in
farming was to be made in specialties,” and that the country boy in
deserting the farm was “running away from opportunity.” This has since
been proved true, and today it is possible for either girl or boy to
make a good living from even a small piece of land, if she or he will
only give intelligent attention to the matter.
It requires labor, to succeed in farming, but so does any other
calling, if one wishes to master it, and there is no calling that
assures so much independence. People must eat, and the food must be
grown for them, whether the times be hard or easy; and even should
times be so hard that you can’t sell your product freely, you can eat
it freely, and you can not be sure of food and room if you are in a
shop or in an office. The American farmer and gardener are the nearest
to free workers in the world.
The most unlikely things may bring profits when grown as specialties.
One man who has a farm in Lewisburg, Pa., is making a good living from
raising chestnuts. His profits on their sales average several thousand
dollars a year. He made a study of chestnut growing, until he knows a
lot about it, and has grafted young trees with Japanese and Paragon
chestnuts, thus increasing the quantity and improving the quality of
his crop. He has done so well at this, that the Pennsylvania State
Agricultural Department has issued a bulletin setting forth in detail
Mr. Sober’s method of chestnut culture. If you are interested you can
get the bulletin by writing to Harrisburg, Pa., for it.
Mushrooms offer a pretty good opportunity to make money, if careful
attention is given to detail, but they are still mighty uncertain
wild things. It is impossible to give the details of cultivation of
specialties within the limits of a book, but if you apply to the
Department of Agriculture you can get much information.
The Department publishes three bulletins which cover the
subject:—Cultivation of Mushrooms, No. 204; Food Use of Mushrooms,
No. 279; and Growing Mushrooms for Home Use, No. a233. Some mushroom
farmers near Wawa, Delaware, according to a report in the Philadelphia
_North American_, are clearing from $2000 to $3000 a year from four or
five acres.
Asparagus, celery and many other garden crops lend themselves readily
to special cultivation and yield a good profit. So also do onions and
even potatoes. One man at least claimed to have produced as many as
3000 bushels of potatoes from one acre in one year. He published a
pamphlet setting out his method, but it is now out of print. So big
a yield entails too much labor for the average grower, but a third of
that number of bushels would yield a handsome income. But, ordinarily,
it does not pay to raise potatoes in a small garden.
Mr. C. E. Ford, who lived in Cherokee County, northeastern Texas,
tells of raising two such incredible crops of potatoes annually from
his land, and his method seems simple as set out by Finney Sprague of
Chicago in a small book which was published in 1905.
Mr. Ford had a sandy soil with a clay subsoil three feet below the
surface, which he says he ridged up into dykes; then he used immense
quantities of cotton-seed for fertilizer as well as liquid manure.
One of the important features was his rich fertilizing, and though it
sounds expensive when compared with the ordinary quantities of manure
used, it is really cheap if anything like such results can be had.
Commercial fertilizers suited to potato growing may be used in place of
cotton-seed, and the grower claims that the method may be followed from
Canada to Texas successfully, securing at least two crops of potatoes a
season.
According to his method, the seed used must be of uniform size, running
about 80 potatoes to the bushel, and averaging about ¾ of a pound
each in weight, smooth and bright. Half of such a potato is used to
each hill, or if the potatoes weigh only six ounces, a whole potato is
allowed for each hill. For intensive cultivation the potato must be
sprouted before planting and for this purpose you need a “sprouting
room.” Any room, say 10 × 12 × 7 feet, if warm, dry, double-walled and
lighted will serve the purpose; or you can construct such a house with
sawdust filling between the double walls and double ceiling, having two
windows, and a roof over all: an old ice house would do.
Lay two rows of two by four inch scantling on the dry earth floor,
near the sides and across the end of the room opposite the door, and
place on them a double row of barrels, each filled about three-quarters
full of potatoes, or about three bushels to each barrel. When these
have been filled this way, lay scantling across the barrels so as to
accommodate other tiers of barrels, until you have about 50 barrels in
the room. No earth or water must be used in the barrels; just the plain
potatoes. In the centre of the room place your heating apparatus, which
may be a small “bake oven” in which one barrel of charcoal will supply
all the necessary heat during the four to six weeks of sprouting; or a
small stove burning coal or wood so that a _low_ fire may be kept
day and night to maintain a temperature of 80° to 90° Fahr., or, even a
small oil-stove may be used.
[Illustration: A SHELTERED SUBURBAN GARDEN PATCH.]
Here the potatoes will sprout and send out rootlets having thousands
of small tubers upon them, from the size of a bird’s eye to that of a
marble. If you start this sprouting four to six weeks earlier than the
ordinary time of planting, you will get your crop just that much ahead
of the regular season.
Only the best of seed potatoes are used, and Early Rose is the favorite
variety, but Mr. Ford says, “that sort is best which is known to grow
best in the section of the country where you live.” In the ordinary
culture of potatoes, it requires about 30 bushels of seed to the acre,
and 300 is a large yield. By Mr. Ford’s method, it takes 140 to 150
bushels to the acre, and the returns are claimed to be 3000 (three
thousand) and more bushels. That is, using four or five times as much
seed, you get 10 or more times as large a yield.
If you intend to experiment on this way of planting an acre, let it be
as nearly square as possible, which will give you about 70 rows, each
about 209 feet long. Ideal potato land is so light that the soil offers
little resistance to the growing of the tuber; so thoroughly tilled
and filled with humus as to be quite moist without being wet, and so
richly fertilized as to contain a very large quantity of plant food.
Starting on the left side of your acre, with a narrow plow, turn a
furrow to the left the whole away across; then turn and go back,
turning a furrow to the left as you go, far enough from the first to
leave a ridge about four to six inches across between them; then go
round the whole thing once more, inclining the plow to the left all
the way, and guiding it so as to leave the ridge. This will use up the
three feet allowed to each row. Continue across the field after the
same fashion, seeing that each row is three feet from each other row,
and that the unplowed ridges or “balks,” as they are called, are also
three feet apart.
Mark the places for the hills on the top of those ridges, placing each
hill 18 inches from each other hill. The plowed earth between the
ridges is what is turned back to cover seed, to make the hills and to
cultivate with afterwards, while the wide ridge affords a good surface
for depositing the seed and for the expansion and growth of the tubers.
Two or three days before you intend to plant, harden off your potato
sprouts by putting out the fire and opening door and windows until
the temperature is as nearly as possible that of the outside. Then,
all being ready, have the barrels carried to the potato field, on a
hand-barrow by two men, not wheeled on a wheel-barrow. Knock off the
hoops and staves, so that the sprouted mother potatoes may be freely
but carefully handled.
Separate the mother potatoes with a wooden paddle, as it will do less
injury than an iron one. The loss need not be more than 10%. Lift out
one mother potato, being careful not to break the sprouts or rootlets.
If the potato be a 12-ounce one, cut it in halves lengthwise, not
crosswise, so that each portion shall have as many as 15 little tubers
on it, so far as you can estimate quickly by counting with the eye. Lay
each portion where the hill is to be, on opposite sides of the ridge,
with the roots spread down the sides of the ridge, thus making a double
hill, planted with anywhere from 40 to 60 little tubers, ready to
resume growth at once.
Never plant less than 15 tubers to each hill, and if the half mother
has less than that number, add a portion of another mother until you
have that many. Only in this way can you estimate how many bushels you
will have. If each half has more than 15 tubers plant them all. If you
use 6-ounce potatoes for seed, plant the whole mother in each hill.
Cover the seed with two furrows of the turning plow.
If the ground has been properly prepared, cultivated and irrigated
during drought, practically every one of these tubers will grow to a
uniform-sized potato, and 75 to 80 of them will make a bushel. Thus
70 rows with 140 double hills to each row, every hill containing 25
matured potatoes will, he says, give 245,000 potatoes, which at 80 to
the bushel means 3060 bushels; if 30 potatoes to each hill, there will
be 294,000 or 3675 bushels.
If a second crop is desired, have the mother potatoes ready when the
first crop has been marketed and the ground once more thoroughly
fertilized. Of course, whether it is first or second crop, the best
tillage is none too good. Anything that stops the growth of the tuber
at any stage, is fatal to your hopes of a uniform-sized crop, so be
sure that there is no danger from drought.
In the case of the second crop, do not allow the potatoes to remain in
the ground until touched by frost. This means pretty close watching, as
the ripening of the potato is largely a matter of the last three weeks
of growth, so they must not be dug too early, any more than too late.
Although this method will give far larger results than any other yet
reported, it may not be practicable, nor may it give such phenomenal
crops always; still, it is not the only case of enormous crops. As far
back as 1828 crops from 900 to 1340 bushels per acre had been grown in
England, and in 1884 the Editor of the _Rural New Yorker_ reported a
yield of 1391½ bushels from an acre on the paper’s experimental farm.
In the light of such figures, the average of 100 bushels looks too mean
to be considered. Why not grow more?
Potatoes cease to grow when they become dry, so the grower must see
that the land is irrigated, and liquid manure is the best material,
although plain water will do, if the soil is richly fertilized. Many
growers now plant on flat land and hill up only to counteract too much
moisture.
Then there are profits in small fruits if intensively cultivated.
Strawberries will always find a market if they are large, ripe, sweet
and clean. Anybody can grow small, sour ones, and they will sell, but
there is no profit in the price. The market is never so glutted that
fine, large fruit will not bring a fancy price. Be sure in picking, to
have three baskets on a board, and have the picker assort the berries
as picked. Usually, this will about double the price that you can get.
A good yield is 6000 quarts per acre, but they have been known to yield
all the way from 21,000 to 35,000 quarts per acre. (See “A Little Land
and a Living,” pp. 141-143.)
The good price is for the garden product that is better than its kind,
and specializing on one thing helps to make you grow the best of that
thing. You naturally try to find out all you can about it, and if there
is an improved method, or somebody has grown a larger crop than you,
you are going to know how he did it. Grow your family vegetables on a
portion of your plot, but if there is room at all, save the rest for
some specialty.
If you cannot grow crops at all, perhaps you can specialize on raising
animals. You have a considerable variety to choose from, because, as I
have shown in “A Little Land and a Living,” and also in “Three Acres
and Liberty,” there is a market for everything, from bees and poultry
to fish and silver foxes. (The foxes were sneered at, first off, but
the Department of Agriculture has just published a bulletin on breeding
foxes.)
CHAPTER XXVI.
WATCHING AND SPRAYING.
Now suppose you have prepared your soil properly, and planted your seed
carefully; that your transplanting has been done, and your crops are
growing; do you think your work is done, and you have only to wait for
sun and rain to do the rest? If that is your idea, you are not cut out
for a farmer. Get out of the business as soon as you can. There are
no “soft snaps” in farming or gardening, on either a large or a small
scale. But the man in love with his job, no matter what it is, is not
looking for soft snaps, nor does he find his work hard. There is a
reward in tilling the soil and in watching “the green things growing,”
as Riley has it, that is not excelled by the rewards of any other
calling.
It is absolutely necessary that you should watch your growing crops,
for only in that way can you keep in touch with their needs. The parent
who neglects to watch his children and to look out for their physical
needs, generally has doctors’ bills and anxiety. A little watchfulness
would have revealed the first stages of decay in the teeth; the early
signs of adenoid growths; the symptoms of eye-strain, or the irritable
state of the digestive organs, and the trouble could have been stayed.
To be sure, the ounce of prevention costs something, but not nearly
so much as the pound of cure. It is a question of business foresight,
as well as parental affection, to watch the child, and the crop, and
forestall disease.
Crops need careful watching, and to forestall most diseases there is
nothing better than spraying. Once upon a time the man who sprayed his
crops was a rarity, and his neighbors were not sure that he had not
taken leave of his senses, but now the man who does not use the spray,
is the notable exception—a monument of foolishness.
If you take the pains to find out what your soil will grow, you will
know what insects and diseases are likely to attack your crops, and you
can plan your campaign against them with intelligence.
Begin at the beginning, which is in the winter. First find out what
spraying mixtures are best for dealing with the pests you are to meet.
This can be done by writing the Department of Agriculture or by the
study of books. Then study agricultural papers and Department bulletins
as to the best spraying machines or nozzles on the market, and buy what
you need.
Where any doubt about the quality of seed exists, it is often a wise
precaution to spray it before planting, but you must spray your growing
crop on the very first sign of insects or diseases. Remember that bugs
do not like poison, and will not go where it is; therefore, you must
take it to them in good quantities. Partial spraying is little better
than none. Do the job thoroughly, when you start in to do it at all.
See that the whole plant from root to top is thoroughly saturated—stem,
branches and leaves. One spot untouched by the spray makes a sure
refuge for the bug. Don’t sympathize with his homeless condition at the
expense of your crop.
Bordeaux mixture is a cure for almost every variety of plant disease.
It consists of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) and lime, diluted
with water. The principal use of the lime is to make the mixture stick
to the plant and to render the copper sulphate less caustic, and
one thorough spraying, if rain does not come for a day or two, will
cling to the plant for a couple of weeks. This mixture can be safely
used even before there is any sign of disease, and it then acts as
a preventive. But where disease is severe, apply it every few days,
because the new leaves and shoots offer so many breeding places for the
disease spores.
To make 12 gallons of Bordeaux, use one pound of copper sulphate and
one pound stone lime. Be sure to use wooden vessels, as vitriol eats
tin; an oil barrel, sawed in halves, makes good tubs for dissolving
the vitriol and slaking the lime. Put one to one and a half gallons
of water in the tub and hang the vitriol over night in a piece of
burlap, which just touches the water. Slake the lime in the other tub
by adding water as fast as the lime takes it up, and no faster. When
both are properly dissolved, fill the spray barrel about one-eighth
full of water and add the solution of vitriol. Add enough water to the
lime barrel to make 2½ or 4 gallons and then strain the slaked lime
into the spray barrel through a wire fly-screen or two thicknesses of
potato burlap. Fill the barrel with water enough to make 12 gallons of
mixture, and stir thoroughly for some minutes. If your spray has an
“agitator” attachment, you need not trouble further, but if not, you
must stir the mixture thoroughly every few minutes while spraying.
Bordeaux mixture should be made fresh for each spraying, but the
vitriol and lime may be prepared ahead in large quantities, if they
are not mixed, and are kept covered to prevent evaporation. Thus forty
pounds of vitriol may be dissolved in 40 gallons of water, and forty
pounds of lime slaked in 40 gallons of water. Four gallons of each
will make a basis for 50 gallons of Bordeaux mixture.
The only disadvantage to Bordeaux mixture is that it discolors the
plant, it being a “blue whitewash”; and those who object to the
discoloration often use the ammoniacal carbonate of copper, rather than
the sulphate. But this is not so sure a remedy, neither does it stick
so well. It is made by dissolving an ounce of carbonate of copper in a
pint of water and adding it to a quart of ammonia. If the ammonia is
strong, use only enough to thoroughly dissolve the copper, otherwise
it will injure the plants. Cork the mixture tightly and when wanted
for use, add from 8 to about 20 gallons of water to each ounce of the
copper. This is used principally on fruit that is nearly grown, or upon
purely ornamental plants, to avoid discoloration.
Bordeaux cannot cure internal diseases of the plants. These may be
caused by insect borers at the roots, or by some incurable bacterial
trouble, and in this case there is nothing you can do but root up
the affected plants and destroy them, and then study out how you can
prevent its happening again.
Sprays for insects usually consist of some form of arsenic or of
kerosene emulsion, and occasionally whale-oil soap is used. The most
common form of arsenical poison is Paris green, of which about 2000
tons are used annually in this country; this is mixed in the proportion
of one-half pound of Paris green to 100 to 150 gallons of water and
one-half pound of fresh burnt lime.
However, where the insects are very bad, as potato bugs often are, the
same amounts of Paris green and lime may be mixed with only 50 gallons
of water. Paris green is too caustic to apply stronger than that,
except in very rare, specified cases. The Paris green should be mixed
with a little water till it is smooth, before it is added to the larger
quantity of water. Sometimes it can be sprinkled on, but the only sure
results are secured by using a spray, either hand or power.
Sometimes Paris green is added to the Bordeaux mixture, and the crops
sprayed for insects and diseases at the same time. When this is done,
you regard the Bordeaux as water, and add the Paris green in the same
proportion as you would add it to water. In this case you need not add
the lime, because the lime in the mixture is sufficient. London purple
is sometimes used in place of Paris green for the same purposes, and in
exactly the same proportion and ways, but it is not so easy to know
how strong it is as with Paris green, and it is being used less and
less each year.
Another preparation is arsenite of soda, which is made of white
arsenic, two pounds; carbonate of soda (washing soda) eight pounds;
water two gallons. These must be boiled in an iron kettle, which should
not be used for any other purpose, for about fifteen minutes, or until
the arsenic dissolves. Some water will evaporate during boiling, so,
before bottling, add enough to make the full two gallons. This will
keep a long time if tightly corked. To make a spraying solution add
one-half pint to 25 gallons of water. The quantity given is, therefore,
enough to make 8 barrels of 50 gallons each. Unless mixed with
Bordeaux, add two pounds of slaked stone lime to each barrel. Be sure
to mark your bottle of solution plainly, “POISON.”
Arsenate of lead clings to foliage better than any other arsenical
poison, and since it does not burn foliage it can be used alone, in the
proportion of from one to five pounds to 50 gallons of water. It was
first used in 1892 against the gypsy-moth and is annually growing in
favor.
All insects which feed on the outside of plants are divided into two
classes—the chewing or biting insects like beetles and larvae (worms),
and the sucking insects, which include the various scales, plant lice,
and squash bug. The chewing and biting kinds are killed with the Paris
green solution, but the sucking sort need kerosene and preparations
which kill by contact.
There are many ways of making the standard kerosene and soap emulsion,
but Bailey recommends the following method as the best:—Put one-half
pound of hard soap into a gallon of boiling soft water; as soon as
the soap is dissolved, add two gallons of kerosene or coal-oil. This
mixture should be of a milk-like consistency, which can only be secured
by running it through a pump vigorously for fifteen minutes or more.
For use on plants or trees, it is diluted with ten to fifteen times
its bulk of water. It can be used stronger than that on trees in the
winter. It is sure death to scales and plant lice if applied early
enough; this is another proof of the value of watching your growing
crops.
Within a few years, pumps have been invented which will perfectly blend
water and kerosene without the addition of soap, and this is by far
the better remedy. Without soap, the proportion of kerosene can be
increased to even one-fourth the quantity of water, without injury to
the plants, if the application is made while the sun is shining. This
emulsion is fatal even to the dreaded San José scale. As experiments
are constantly going on along this line, the up-to-date farmer or
gardener will keep in touch with the latest discoveries.
Whale-oil soap, one pound of soap to four or five gallons of water,
used to be a popular remedy, but it is rapidly giving place to kerosene
emulsions, which are more easily prepared and less offensive. Tobacco
dust will drive away cucumber and melon beetles, if liberally applied,
and will lessen the ravages of the flea-beetle. But Bordeaux mixture
well applied will do the same.
For treating cabbages or other crops late in the season, white
hellebore is often substituted for Paris green, which is a deadly
poison. It may be applied dry, alone or mixed with half as much flour;
or in solution, one ounce to three gallons of water.
Spraying enormously increases the yield of any crop, and indeed
sometimes makes all the difference between good crops and no crops.
So long as insects and diseases exist, any patch in any part of the
country is liable to attack. Because you have escaped so far is not
to say that you always will escape, so be ready for emergencies.
Timeliness and thoroughness are two essentials, and these can only
be secured by combining watching with spraying. It pays. Six years of
potato spraying at Geneva, N. Y., increased the yield 122 bushels to
the acre when sprayed five times during the season. Where only three
sprayings were given, the increase was 93.6 bushels per acre.
You may be discouraged by these infinite details of care and
management: but if you have not the time or the inclination to attend
to them, that is not a reason for neglecting the study of Intensive
Farming.
It is a reason for not undertaking a greater variety of crops than you
can master; a succession of well-chosen plants will fill all the time
you choose to give. I am showing how the best results can be obtained,
but the most ordinary farmer will find his returns vastly increased by
applying as much of these methods as he can manage.
For instance, at the South, the uneducated negro finds that his cotton
crop is often increased, from half a bale per acre to two bales on each
acre, by merely putting in a clover crop before the cotton.
Apply what you can learn, as far as you can: the power to learn more
and to use it will come by use.
CHAPTER XXVII.
FERTILIZERS.
A fertilizer is something added to the soil in order to increase
the crop yield. Chemical fertilizers are very valuable when very
intelligently used—but look out for them. People seem to have a great
love for all sorts of complicated ways of doing things that nature
will do naturally, and any one who proposes unnatural processes like
vaccination, or like medicining the soil, should be required to make a
very strong case for it.
Besides, you remember the story about the darkey who has been playing
poker. He said: “Tell you, boys, I dun los’ a heap o’ money las’ night.”
“How much, Mose?”
“A hunnerd and eight-seben dollahs an’ fohteen cents.”
“Golly! dat wuz a heap o’ money.”
“Yas, siree, and de wust ob it wuz, de fohteen cents wuz cash.”
So it is with the boughten fertilizers. Sooner or later they have to be
paid for in cash. The outgo is certain, but the income not so certain.
Therefore, be sure you know just what you are doing, and why, before
you buy. Of course there are times when commercial fertilizers are
absolutely necessary if only to start the growth, but we should be sure
what we are getting.
When we try to find out something about fertilizers, we get such
technical and complicated explanations about phosphates and nitrates
and other “ates,” that the ordinary amateur or beginner just takes some
one’s advice; while the professionals mostly stick to what they have
been doing. But the subject is clear enough if it is clearly stated.
Nitrogen and potash are about the best elements in artificial
fertilizers and perhaps the hardest to retain. We have learned that
nitrogen can be best and cheapest added to the soil by means of certain
cover crops, or crops sown only to be turned back into the ground as
green manure. It is also present in large quantities in stable manure,
if it has not leached away before being put on the field. But this book
could scarcely tell you all about the best ways of handling manure
to get the best returns. The Government, however, has done this, in
Bulletin 192, and you cannot do better than send for it and study it
carefully. You will learn from it the immense importance of taking
proper care of the manure you have, and how to get the best possible
results from its use. Also, what sorts of manure are best for what
special purposes.
If the manure is carefully handled, that which is obtained from stock
fed for soiling purposes—that is, especially to provide manure—is the
best. It contains almost all the elements that the growing crops took
from the soil.
One well-fed dairy cow will produce 12¾ tons of manure in one year,
says Prof. E. B. Vorhees, and this manure will contain about 117 pounds
of nitrogen, 77 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 89 pounds of potash.
This much stable manure, if all the constituents are saved by housing
and careful handling, will grow about 70 bushels of wheat and the
accompanying straw. As all this nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash
have been drawn from the soil first in the crops fed to the cow, the
only way to keep up the fertility of the soil is to return them to it.
In the form of commercial fertilizers these would cost more than $30,
or 20 cents per pound for nitrogen and 4½ cents per pound for potash
and phosphoric acid.
So if you keep one cow and feed her well, she will return to you almost
her value in manure each year, to say nothing of the milk and butter
your family can have. The family horse, as well as the cow, will give
you valuable returns in manure, if you know enough or care enough, to
preserve it properly.
When immediate spreading on the fields is not possible, the manure,
both liquid and solid, should be kept in a tight pit, or under cover.
If too much litter has not been used, the liquid part will prevent loss
from too rapid fermentation. But if there is litter enough to make the
manure very dry, some water should be added from time to time to let
fermentation go on without loss. Manure thus cared for will be ready
for use on the land at any time that it is needed, and will contain
practically all the necessary fertilizing properties.
A German proverb says: “The manure pile is the farmer’s bank.” All
farmers these days know the value of good manures, which accounts for
their buying so much commercial fertilizer, but some day they will know
the value of saving the whole of the stable and barnyard manures, so as
to avoid the cost of commercial fertilizers. Then there will be less
of that unscientific talk of “depleted soils,” and no grumbling about
“decreased yields.”
Sea-weeds, ashes, “mucks” and bones are all valuable as manures if
handled properly. The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, at Orono,
Me., has published a bulletin, No. 74, on the manurial values of
these, which will be sent upon application, and is well worth the
reading.
The farmer should remember that commercial fertilizers are only to be
used to supplement manure, not to take its place, and that when he buys
any, it must be the best. He cannot afford anything else. The man who
says, “I know my land needs potash, but I cannot afford to buy it,” is
making a mistake. Suppose he should say “I know my children need bread,
but I cannot afford to buy flour!” His neighbors would think he had
gone crazy.
It is just as foolish to deny his land what it needs. He should get
whatever it needs; for if a soil needs any certain ingredient, whether
potash, phosphoric acid or nitrogen, it is cheap at a high price, while
anything else is dear at a low price. Your soil must be fed as surely
as your children must. You can get credit at the store or at the bank
to buy fertilizer, when you could not get it to buy an automobile.
Potash is really one of the cheapest fertilizer elements on the market,
but farmers get the idea that it is high because it is present in
large quantities in all high-grade fertilizers, and almost absent
from cheap grades. Just as a man’s wages cannot be estimated by the
number of dollars he gets each week, but rather by the amount of the
necessities of life that he can buy in return for the number of hours
he has worked; so the price of fertilizer must be judged by the amount
of plant food it contains, rather than by the money cost per ton. That
is what makes high-grade fertilizer really cheaper than the low grades
which cost less money.
For example, take the most popular of the $25 a ton fertilizer,
“2-8-2.” This contains 12 per cent. of plant food, or 240 pounds to
the ton, made up as follows: two per cent. nitrogen, eight per cent.
phosphoric acid, and two per cent. of potash. This brings the cost of
this cheap fertilizer to 10½ cents per pound of plant food to the ton.
Now if the farmer bought a ton of plain muriate of potash, it would
cost him $50 per ton, but he would get 50 per cent. of plant food, thus
making the actual cost only five cents per pound of plant food, less
than half the plant food price of “2-8-2.”
Few farmers want to buy the potash separately, and they complain that
the manufacturer charges high for it in fertilizer where it is present
in large quantities. But a little investigation will prove that this is
not so. Take for example, the “2-8-10” grade which sells generally for
$30 per ton. Here you have 20 per cent., or 400 pounds, of plant food
to the ton. That brings the cost of plant food per pound to 7½ cents
instead of 10½ cents as in the cheap grade. The manufacturer has added
$8.00 worth of potash to the mixture and has taken out some of the
worthless filler, so that the extra cost in money to you is only $5.00.
The increase in yield more than offsets that extra cost. There are
still other potash fertilizers that contain no nitrogen, the lower
grades selling for about $16 per ton, and the higher grades for $20 per
ton. The plant food in the lower grade costs 6⅔ cents per pound and in
the high grade only a tiny fraction over 5½ cents per pound. If you are
spending your money for commercial fertilizers, you will find that the
best is the cheapest. No matter what the mixture, if you figure it out,
you will find that the high grade costs less per pound for plant food
than the low grade. And it is plant food you are after, not worthless
filler.
The New York Experiment Station in one of its bulletins offers the
following comment on this point: “The high-grade goods sell on an
average nearer to their actual plant-food value than do the low-grade
goods. In general, the higher the grade of the goods, the lower the
cost of each pound of plant food.”
Before you raise any crop you must know your soil, not by chemical
analysis which is interesting and often helpful, but by finding out
what it will grow by nature and what is the easiest way that nature can
be helped; and the quicker you can find out these things the better
for your prospects. The simplest and quickest method of finding out
what fertilizers your soil needs to grow your crops, is by using the
paraffin basket. This is a very pretty experiment and one in which you
can readily interest the children so that they may get their knowledge
early.
The requirements are galvanized wire netting of one-eighth inch mesh;
paraffin, which can be bought cheaply at any druggist’s; and a pair of
scales which will weigh accurately to one-fourth of an ounce.
Cut your netting into strips 10 inches long and 3½ inches wide; fasten
the ends of strips together by hooking the end wires into the mesh or
with small rivets. Then cut the wire at the bottom of the cylinder so
as to make lugs about a half inch deep and bend the cut pieces under to
form a partial bottom. Cut a circular piece of netting that will fit
inside and drop it in, thus completing the bottom of the basket. Melt
the paraffin, and while hot dip the top of the basket into it for about
one inch. Draw it out, that it may cool, and dip again until a solid
rim of paraffin is formed. Number each basket, as it is easier thus to
keep a record of it. Place them on a tray, or in a shallow box, for
greater ease in handling.
Gather the soil in small quantities from different parts of your field
or garden and mix it together. If you took it from one spot it would
not be representative, any more than a Congress elected entirely
from one section of the country could rightly be called a House of
Representatives for the American people. Divide this whole amount of
soil into equal parts, having one more part than you have fertilizers
to test, because you should have one basket of untreated soil to act
as a check to judge results by. Eleven sorts are usually tested, which
makes it necessary for you to make twelve baskets altogether.
1. Untreated soil.
2. Soil with dry manure, at the rate of five tons per acre.
3. Soil with lime, one ton per acre.
4. Soil with nitrate of soda, 200 pounds per acre.
5. Soil with sulphate of potash, 200 pounds per acre.
6. Soil with acid phosphate, 200 pounds per acre.
7. Soil with nitrate of soda and sulphate of potash, 200 pounds each
per acre.
8. Soil with nitrate of soda and acid phosphate, 200 pounds each per
acre.
9. Soil with sulphate of potash and acid phosphate, 200 pounds each per
acre.
10. Soil with nitrate of soda, sulphate of potash, acid phosphate, 200
pounds each per acre.
11. Soil with nitrate of soda, sulphate of potash, and acid phosphate,
200 pounds each per acre, with lime, 2000 pounds per acre.
12. Soil with cowpeas, 5000 pounds per acre, with lime, 2000 pounds per
acre.
It is important that the small portions of earth be fertilized in the
same proportion as is here given for the field, so to 7¾ pounds of dry,
finely pulverized soil, add one ounce of any one of these fertilizers.
Mix very thoroughly and pass it through a sieve at least twice. This
is still much too strong for use, so take one ounce of this fertilized
soil and add it to five pounds more of soil, mixing and sifting as
before. Then you have soil and fertilizer mixed at the rate of 200
pounds to the acre. For testing larger applications, make your first
mixture with proportionally larger quantity of fertilizer.
For mixing lime with soil, take only 11½ ounces of soil to one of lime
for the first mixture; for cowpea vines, four ounces of soil to one of
vines, and only 1½ ounces of soil to one of manure. One ounce of each
of these mixtures to five pounds of soil will give the right proportion
of each to the acre, or, one ton of lime, five tons of cowpea vines,
and ten tons of manure to the acre.
After you have added the fertilizers to the soil, it is left standing
in pans or boxes for several days, being watered with rain water or
melted ice water and frequently stirred. Do not use well or hard water,
for those contain lime or salts, only rain water. Moisten the soil at
the end of a few days until it is in the best condition for planting
seeds. You soon learn to judge this.
Divide the soil in each pan into five equal parts and put one part in
each of five wire baskets, pressing it down at the bottom and sides.
After this is done, brush off the soil that has been forced through the
mesh of the netting. The basket should be filled to within one-half
inch from the top. The baskets are now ready for planting.
A couple of days before planting, put wheat grains between moist
cloths, cover with wet sand and place in a warm spot to start
germination. Take from these sprouted seeds those that are of the same
size and development, and plant six in a straight line in each basket,
being careful to plant all to exactly the same depth. Then cover the
soil in the basket about one-fourth inch deep with clean, dry sand, dip
the whole basket, down as far as the rim you have already coated with
paraffin, into melted paraffin; cool, and dip again and again until it
is completely covered with hardened paraffin for about one-sixteenth of
an inch, and you have nearly completed your task.
See that the pots have the best possible conditions of light,
temperature and moisture, as nearly as you can make it like what they
would have in the field, being careful to keep all the baskets of one
set together. Water them frequently. If you have weighed some of the
baskets as soon as planted, you will know how much water to supply,
for you must keep weight as close as possible to what it was at the
beginning.
Fifteen or twenty days are enough to show you what fertilizer your soil
most needs, and you can then go ahead and get it ready for crops. This
is a test solely for soil needs, not for plant requirements, so it is
not necessary to grow the plants any longer than just to show which
basket flourishes best. It holds good in the field as well as in the
basket.
One thing must be borne in mind, that weight must be accurate. If the
farmer hasn’t time or patience probably his wife would make the test.
She has time and patience for everything that is put upon her.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
MORE ABOUT FERTILIZERS.
In the past we believed that fertilizers acted as plant foods and that
the substances to be applied must contain one or more of four elements
which are probably the most important to the plant, namely: Nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium and calcium. Several other elements go to make up
the plants; but these are considered most difficult for the plant to
secure from the soil and were therefore of the most importance for the
farmer.
Trials, by experimental work with different plants, soon showed that
the forms of combination of these elements make a great difference. For
example, nitrogen is now applied either in the form of nitrate of soda
and of potassium, which is called saltpetre, or in the form of sulphate
of ammonia; or, it may be applied as organic matter in dried blood,
tankage, hoof- and horn-meal and even muck.
Both the nitrate and sulphate forms are readily dissolved, but the
nitrate form is the one in which plants take up their nitrogen, so that
either nitrate of soda or saltpetre is specially valuable for forcing
a quick growth. The effect may be seen upon plants in a very few days
after it is first applied. But sulphate of ammonia, although it will
dissolve, must be changed into a nitrate, in the soil, before the
plants can use it, and this probably takes several days, hence, it is
not quite so quick acting.
The organic forms of nitrogen vary much in their usefulness. The
nitrogen of dried blood or tankage is the most easily absorbed. These
substances are sometimes sown at seeding-time, and become useful later
in the season when the soil becomes warm. Other forms, however, as
muck, leather parings, etc., are used considerably in making some
low-grade fertilizers. Notwithstanding the tradition that you must bury
an old shoe at the foot of the vine, the nitrogen in these may never be
of very much value.
The phosphorus is found in fertilizers both in forms that will dissolve
and in forms that won’t. Acid phosphate and dissolved bone contain a
large portion of phosphorus in the form of a soluble phosphate of lime;
this is often marked on the bag as being equal to 12, 14, or 16 per
cent. of phosphoric acid. Ground phosphatic rock, also called “floats,”
and raw bone-meal contain phosphorus combined with lime in the form of
an insoluble phosphate.
Basic slag is still another form of phosphate of lime, which, although
insoluble, readily becomes available as plant food in the soil.
Potassium occurs in various forms of combination, one of the most
common being muriate of potash; another form is sulphate of potash.
Kainit is another fertilizer which contains potassium, and wood
ashes contain a small percentage. In all of these the potassium is
generally spoken of as potash and the first two are said to contain the
equivalent of 50 per cent. potash. Kainit usually contains 12 to 14 per
cent. Wood ashes may contain about 3 to 6 per cent. Kainit and muriate
of potash have an acid effect upon the soil, and it is wise to apply
them some time before the crop is to be sown, even the fall previous,
if the soil retains plant food fairly well.
The commonest kind of calcium is quick-lime or lump lime. When this is
“air-slaked” it becomes what is called carbonate of lime. Fifty-six
pounds of lump lime contain the same amount of calcium as 100 pounds
of air-slaked lime, and in using these it makes very little difference
whether we apply the quick-lime or the air-slaked, provided we apply
equal amounts of calcium and that the particles are equally small in
both cases. In other words, 56 pounds of quick-lime or 100 pounds of
air-slaked lime may be used, but both should be in as fine powdered
form as possible before they are sown.
Like every other fertilizer, lime is of no use until it is dissolved,
and the finer it is ground before it is applied the further it may be
spread and the sooner it will dissolve. It is seldom wise to apply more
than from one-half ton to a ton of quick-lime per acre at any one time;
and it is safer to apply this quantity every three or four years rather
than larger quantities at shorter periods. Lime should be applied to
the land when there is a crop upon it which can use it with advantage.
A crop like clover or alfalfa, which covers the land completely, will
make the best use of lime. It may injure potatoes, because it makes the
land more favorable for the growth of scab, a disease which attacks
potatoes.
Much money can be lost by the unwise use of fertilizers, and the best
way one can positively know whether it is wise to use them is to try
it thus, say, with radishes, lettuce, or beans; a patch containing two
or three rows may be fertilized in one way, the next one in another,
others with various mixtures and, in order to determine the values of
these it will be wise to leave untreated “check plats” between some
of the strips. The following outline will show how to make such an
experiment on about half an acre:
Plat 1.—Nothing[10]
·
· 2.—200 pounds nitrate of soda per acre in
· two or three applications.
·
· 3.—600 pounds acid phosphate.
·
· 4.—Nothing.
·
· 5.—100 pounds muriate of potash.
·
· 6.—100 pounds muriate of potash and 200
· pounds nitrate of soda in two or three
198 feet.· applications.
·
· 7.—Nothing.[10]
·
· 8.—100 pounds muriate of potash and 600
· pounds acid phosphate.
·
· 9.—100 pounds muriate of potash.
· 600 pounds acid phosphate.
· 200 pounds nitrate of soda.
·
· 10.—Nothing.
··············································
144 feet.
One hundred pounds per acre is one pound for 48 square yards, a strip,
say, one yard wide and 48 yards long.
It may be necessary to repeat the experiment several years, before we
can be sure what will give the best results; but we shall learn much
that will help even during the first year.
In mixing fertilizers, care must be taken not to mix those which
injure one another; thus nitrate of soda and muriate of potash, both
take up moisture from the air quite readily, and when mixed with other
substances are liable to make the whole mass pasty, or even to run
together and bake in the bag; these should be mixed but a short time
before they are to be applied. Nitrate of soda and acid phosphate, when
they are mixed and allowed to stand, become damp and act chemically
upon each other, and the result is loss of fertilizer elements into the
air; the same is true when basic slag and sulphate of ammonia are mixed
together.
We are frequently advised to apply fertilizers to the crop while it is
growing. Nitrate of soda is generally used in this way, and to aid in
spreading it, it is often mixed with acid phosphate. Now both of these
substances, as well as muriate and sulphate of potash, are likely to
burn the foliage of plants with which they come in contact; hence,
broadcasting these over growing plants on a damp morning is liable to
do serious injury to the foliage; it is safer to apply them with a
drill.
_Value in Fertilizers._—In estimating the value of fertilizers it is
the custom to speak of the unit of valuation. A unit is one per cent.
of a ton, or, in other words, 20 pounds. For example, if kainit
contains 12 per cent. of potash and is sold at $12.00 per ton, then
there are 12 units and they cost $12.00; therefore one unit costs
$1.00, and since the unit is 20 pounds, the actual cost of the potash
is 5 cents per pound. If muriate of potash, guaranteed to contain the
equivalent of 50 per cent. of potash, is selling at $40.00 a ton, then
we find that 50 per cent. potash is 50 units; if 50 units cost $40.00,
one unit will cost 80 cents, or in this form 20 pounds cost 80 cents;
therefore one pound will cost 4 cents.
Now, if these are prices free on board the cars at New York, and potash
is the thing we need, we must remember that in order to get equal
amounts of potash delivered to our own farm, we must pay freight and
haul four tons of kainit instead of one ton of muriate of potash. In
other words, with these figures the higher-priced fertilizer, counting
in dollars per ton, is really the cheaper article, counting in value.
Any one who will secure the latest fertilizer bulletin from the
nearest Experiment Station will usually find the approximate values
of one pound of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in the different
fertilizers worked out in some part of the bulletin. These may be
used in deciding whether it is better to buy and mix the fertilizers
at home; then one may know what is going on the land and the form of
combination it is in.
Manure contains all of the elements we have discussed in more or less
fixed forms. The liquid manure from animals contains a large amount of
the nitrogen passed from the body and is of particular value. The most
useful parts of the manure are the ones which are easiest lost; hence,
if manure is piled and allowed to ferment, or if the water from the
roof of the barn is allowed to wash it, serious loss occurs.
A ton of fresh manure has all the value it ever will have, and if there
is a piece of land upon which it can be spread, it should be done at
once. The liquid manure should be soaked up by the bedding, and applied
at once to the land. The holding of manure in piles or pits always
causes loss of valuable elements. Sometimes we may have to hold it,
but every effort should be made to arrange the crop so that it can be
applied somewhere each day as made. Manure has a special value because
it furnishes humus, which greatly helps the physical condition of the
soil, and the bacterial and other microscopic life in the soil.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] NOTE.—If the yields of plats 1 and 7 do not agree closely, the
effect of the fertilizer can be closely estimated by comparing the
yield of each with the check plat nearest to it. Another interesting
experiment is to lime one-half of each plat.
CHAPTER XXIX.
ROOT HOUSES AND VEGETABLE PITS.
In the North, we have to protect our gathered crops and to store them
safely for a profitable market, but we do not need an expensive barn or
cellar for that. A root house or vegetable pit will do instead.
This is the way to make one: in a warm, sandy or gravelly soil a pit
is dug from one to two feet deep and sixteen or more feet wide, the
length depending upon the crop you have to store. The sides of the pit
are lined with one or two planks placed edgewise and held in place by
stakes driven into the ground. Stakes are then driven into the bottom
of the pit throughout its entire length; these support the ridge-pole
four or five feet above the floor of the pit. Boards are laid from the
edge of the pit to the ridge-pole to form a sort of gable roof. The
support of these is strengthened by another girder carried by stakes
driven half way between the margin and the ridge-pole. Then longer
boards, from twelve to fourteen feet in length, are laid from the edge
of the pit to the ridge-pole, slightly overlapping each other, and
nailed lightly in place at the top ends. The pit being only a temporary
structure, the boards are not securely nailed, as the same lumber will
do for another pit next season. At distances of about ten feet some
boards are left without nailing to serve as entrances, and at each
place a stake is driven to mark the opening.
Such a pit will protect crops until severe freezing weather. After
that, the board roof should be covered with straw, grass or other
litter, and where the weather gets very cold, manure and earth are
often added as the outer layer. The advantage of this pit is that it
contains a large body of air which secures uniform conditions from
day to day, and celery, leek, Brussels sprouts and even cabbage may
be stored by setting in compact rows, so that they may make a slight
root-hold and avoid shrivelling.
But there are many varieties of pits used for storing vegetables, and
in Kalamazoo, the American celery centre, the favorite celery storage
house is a permanent structure with windows at regular intervals along
the roof, to give the necessary light for the workmen. These houses
have wooden ventilating chimneys, and are usually heated with stoves so
that the temperature may not fall below freezing point.
CHAPTER XXX.
SOME SMALL FRUITS.
The home garden would scarcely be complete without a strawberry
patch, and hardly anything gives better returns. Strawberries grow
in various kinds of soil, but a light, sandy loam gives the earliest
berries, because that is the earliest, warmest soil. It takes only
a few well-developed, well-cared-for plants to supply a family with
berries enough, and the care is no greater than would be given corn.
But you should make a careful selection of your plants. Small, weakly
plants, or plants that have already been in bearing, are no good for
your purpose. Therefore, buy from an honest dealer. Plants for setting
should have been grown for that purpose purely, and not have been
allowed even to blossom, as the important thing is to have a vigorous
root growth, and well-formed crown.
This sort of strawberry plant will yield large, delicious berries
about ten to fourteen months after setting out, and although a plot
containing 100 plants requires not more than a half-hour’s work a week
to keep the plants in condition, after they have been well started, yet
the yield will be about a quart to each plant.
To get such a return, you must first put your soil in good condition
for planting. Have the soil finely pulverized and thoroughly fertilized
with well-rotted manure, ground bone or wood ashes.
Having prepared your bed and got good strong plants, it is now time to
set them out. Before doing so, trim the roots even, and cut off all
but a leaf or two on each plant. The easiest way is to take them in
bundles of 25, fasten together and cut the roots of all at once. But do
not expose the roots to sun and air during planting. Keep them covered
with a damp cloth. Lay the roots carefully in the ground, spreading
them out fan-shape, and see that the crown of the plant is level with
the surface of the soil, and firm the soil well around the roots. A
properly set plant begins to grow at once, becomes larger and has more
fruit crowns than a carelessly set plant. So be careful to start right.
Set the plants out in rows 18 to 24 inches apart, and 15 inches apart
in the row. If each plant is set in a little hill by itself as you
would set corn, you will find it easier to cultivate and also to keep
the weeds down. It is as necessary to keep strawberries clear of weeds
as it is any other crop.
Cultivate as soon as all the plants are set, and continue to do so once
a week during the whole season. Pinch off all blooms the first year
and cut off the runners. By so doing the plant will spend its energy
on root growth and in producing more fruit crowns for bearing the next
year. It never pays to crowd strawberry plants. Give them room and
keep them in hills with cultivation and you will get both pleasure and
profit from your patch.
It pays to mulch strawberries. As soon as the first hard frost has
come, cover the bed with about three inches of litter of salt hay or
straw. This prevents the ground freezing and thawing during the winter.
In the spring you clear a space over each plant for the leaves to come
through, but leave the mulch on the ground. It not only keeps the soil
from drying out, but it also keeps the fruit from getting dirty from
sand or mud.
From the first ripening, pick your berries as soon as they redden,
every day if necessary, and let the picking be done in the early
morning, before the sun has dried them. The berries keep longer and
have a better flavor.
As soon as the plants cease fruiting, remove the mulch and cultivate. A
handful of bone-meal mixed with the soil between each plant will have
a good effect. In a few days the plants will put out runners. Allow
one runner to grow from each plant, and layer this between the old
plants in a straight row. “Layering” is covering the runner at one or
more points with earth, or really planting it. It will develop roots
at these points and become a strawberry plant. In from two to three
weeks it will have got a good start, and then you can take up the old
plants. In this way you can renew your own strawberry patch every year
at little trouble or expense, if you get good plants to start with.
Some reference to the possible yields of strawberry beds has been made
elsewhere in this book, so it will not be necessary to repeat here, but
you will be making your own records soon, if you follow these simple
rules.
Raspberries and blackberries succeed in any soil that is not too wet
and heavy, and there are good profits in their growing. If you intend
to take up the culture of these fruits, you will do well to read “Bush
Fruit,” by Prof. F. W. Card. The bushes of both should be cut back and
pruned in the spring, the raspberry being easy to handle with ordinary
hand-shears, but a blackberry hook is better for dealing with the sharp
thorns of that bush.
As soon as the fruit is gathered the fruiting canes of the season
should all be removed; then in the spring, cut back all canes. This
makes them stockier and stronger. They should be supported by wires
stretched on either side and fastened to crossway pieces attached to
stakes driven at each hill, for these fruits should be planted in
hills, too.
Plantations are generally renewed every five or six years, although
with good care yearly, they last longer. The yield varies from 1200 to
10,000 quarts an acre; the difference lies partly in the canes, and
partly in the cultivation.
The home garden would scarcely be complete without currant and
gooseberry bushes. They are easily grown, the gooseberry, in
particular, requiring very little care and yielding large returns. It
can be grown in clayey soil, though like the currant, it prefers a
deep, moist, rich soil, especially a rich soil.
Strong one-year-old plants are the best to set out, and two- or
three-year-old canes yield the best and largest quantity of fruit. All
wood older than that should be carefully pruned. The same cultivation
applies to both—well-rotted stable manure and shallow spring tillage.
The worst pest is the currant worm, which eats the leaves almost as
soon as they unfold. Dust the bushes with powdered hellebore when the
leaves are wet, or mix the hellebore with water and apply. Then there
is the leaf blight, which attacks the leaves as soon as the fruit is
ripe, and almost strips the bushes of foliage. This should be sprayed
with Bordeaux mixture to stop its ravages, because if allowed to
progress it weakens the bush, and the fruit next year will be small and
of poor quality.
The grape-trellis is a common sight in the gardens of the New England
and Middle States, but not so common as it will be when the gardener
understands how comparatively easy it is to grow this fruit. A well
drained, thin soil, with a warm southern exposure will provide for
starting a good grape-vine.
The vine needs a trellis support always, and the pruning must be looked
after, else the numerous runners will draw from the plant so that it
cannot fruit properly. Keep the runners pinched off during the fruiting
season, and in the fall cut off the old canes, leaving only the new,
vigorous canes for next season. It may be two or even three or four
years before much pruning is needed, but after that it must be attended
to regularly.
Each new cane must have plenty of space, light and air, to prevent rot
and mildew of the fruit, so that the number of canes you can allow to
grow, depends upon the strength of the vine, the space to be covered
and the root growth.
You may fancy other small fruits that you have room for in your garden.
Any good agricultural paper will give you the information or name the
book you need. Fruits are another means of making your plot pay, so you
might as well grow a few at least.
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE POULTRY RUN.
Even the hen is intensively cultivated these days, and that makes room
for her and her chicks on the small patch. It is perfectly amazing how
little the ordinary farmer knows about poultry, although he has raised
some, more or less, from time immemorial. The modern farmer is too wise
to be caught with the extravagant stories found in some poultry papers,
of the profits to be made from a hennery, though at the same time he
is not wise enough to believe that with careful attention and improved
methods, the hennery can be made to pay well.
It is for the benefit of the farmer who is neither too wise nor too
ignorant to be taught, as well as for the villager and the intensive
farmer, that this chapter is written.[11]
One of the new systems, Philo’s,[12] extensively advertised, makes it
possible for people with but little room to keep a small flock. By this
system, the hens are always kept in confinement; but with some extra
care and proper treatment they do well and yield great results; which
is in harmony with the modern theory of intensive culture.
The first thing to be decided is what kind of poultry to keep. Chickens
are the most popular of the various domestic animals suitable for the
intensive farmer. Turkeys and guineas do not thrive well in confinement
and are difficult to rear in a commercial way. Farmers who have free
range, especially if they are adjacent to woodland, may do well with
a few of these less domesticated birds. On the other hand, ducks and
pigeons do even better than chickens in confinement, but there is less
demand for the product.
The first essential for success with poultry, as with crops, is to
secure good stock; the very best possible. To buy fowls simply because
they are cheap is poor economy. Much better buy well-bred stock at five
dollars and upwards, for they will not only give more eggs, but their
brood will be worth more, so that in a year you can build up a fine
flock of your own.
The second essential is to keep them in small companies, not more than
six hens in a pen; still better results can be had with four. These
are the days of intensive culture and chicks will respond to it as
surely as field crops. Like the crops, they need abundance of food, to
force growth and vigor and egg production. Care must be taken in the
selection of food, but you are always safe on lots of oats, wheat-bran
and green stuff, with some lean beef now and then. Corn should be fed
sparingly to heavy fowls, but is an excellent diet for Leghorns or for
any chickens on free range. Running water, or plenty of fresh water
should be furnished. An open water vessel is best, although almost any
self-feeding fountain is good. Place it about ten inches from the floor
that no dirt may be scratched into it.
Fresh air and sunshine are necessities, but drafts should be avoided.
Cleanliness is vital; if only a few hens are kept, all droppings should
be removed every morning, and sand or lime or ashes sprinkled on the
roosts and boards. If the food is good and well balanced, the premises
kept scrupulously clean, and the fowls protected from storm and wind
you will not be greatly troubled with disease or weakness. Daily care,
never slackening, is the price that must be paid for success.
The poultry house should be in a sunny spot, on a hillside sloping to
the south, if possible; but no one need be kept from chicken raising if
such a spot cannot be had, for many successful plants are not so well
situated. A light sandy soil offers the same advantages as a southern
slope. Such locations or soils are not only much dryer but also much
warmer, for the snow melts and the frost leaves the ground earlier in
the spring than on northern slopes or in clay soils. The advantage of
this earlier season is just as real as in a more southern latitude.
One of the main defects of poultry houses has been that they were built
for people, rather than for hens; being too high, they are not easily
kept warm in winter. The house itself should be well built to exclude
storm and wind, but the southern side should be largely enclosed with
muslin, which is much better than glass, as it affords an entrance for
air without draughts, and furnishes plenty of light.
The roosting room may have a ceiling close above the roosts; this can
be made of round poles or narrow boards, laid an inch or more apart,
and over these there should be spread a covering of hay or straw. This
will give ventilation, and yet retain most of the heat, especially if a
thin muslin curtain is placed before the fowls during the night.
In the warmer localities, on the Atlantic coast from New York south,
and in the Mississippi Valley anywhere south of St. Louis, curtain
fronts are not necessary, but, instead, a part or all of the south side
of the poultry house is made of poultry netting.
If chickens are to be raised in large numbers, incubators must be used;
those holding two to three hundred eggs are most commonly used. After
the chicks are hatched, comes the serious question of brooding them,
especially during the winter. All kinds of little chicks need air and
sunshine even more than older folk, and not many buildings allow of
either; consequently, we must consider brooding out of doors, where air
and sunshine can always be had. Fortunately, the experimenting has been
done by others, so now we may avail ourselves of the knowledge they
have gained, as many successful people are doing.
With properly constructed brooders and brooder coops, it is perfectly
practicable to care for chickens from hatching to full growth, out of
doors, at any time of the year, without artificial heat. This does
away with all danger from fire and over-heating, and gives the chickens
a vigorous constitution that will enable them to withstand all the ills
to which chickens are liable.
These suggestions are not given as great discoveries, but they are a
brief summary of the practical points of chicken raising, and are all
workable. Some of them are given by the Rev. W. W. Cox, as the results
of years of personal experience in the business. He is now making a
specialty of raising White Orpingtons, and is brooding out of doors,
with success.
There are many branches of the “chicken-tree,” the more important ones
being breeding stock, or fancy poultry; egg farming, broiler farming
and roaster growing. Running a public hatchery, and selling day-old
chicks, is the latest development, and is indeed so intensive that
it links manufacture to farming, for the building site is the only
ground required. These branches are recommended to the inexperienced
poultryman in the following order:—1st, Egg farming; 2d, roaster
growing; 3d, fancy poultry; 4th, broiler production.
Egg farming, properly conducted, is profitable in almost any locality.
Roaster farming has proved a great success near Boston, but has not
been largely introduced into other localities. Fancy poultry is a
money-making game for those who are successful in winning prizes at the
show, and getting well advertised as breeders. The broiler business,
seemingly the most profitable branch, has in practice been a source of
loss to many investors. The cause of failure in the broiler business,
lies chiefly in the difficulties of artificial incubation, especially
in the winter season.
Incubation is to the chicken raiser what the hot-bed is to the tomato
raiser. If incubation is a failure, the whole business must fail.
For the poultryman with a few dozen, or even several hundred fowls,
hatching with hens is to be recommended, unless he keep Leghorns
or Minorcas; these varieties not being good brooders. Convenient
arrangements for setting hens in large numbers will be a more
successful investment than incubators. For duck farms or Leghorn egg
farms, or any poultry business on a large scale, artificial incubation
is a “necessary evil.”
The Central Hatchery, only now being established here, although in
use in Egypt for centuries, promises to solve this difficulty. The
advantage of centralizing the hatching is that it admits of better
methods than are available on a small scale, and also allows one man
to devote his entire energies to this feature. Such hatcheries may
be handled either by private individuals, or, as in the case of the
creameries, may be co-operative institutions run for the good of the
whole community.
A continuous house can be built with small compartments for each flock,
and separate runs for summer use, though the colony plan is preferred
by some, and has its advantages, among them being the fact that the
flocks are more widely separated, so there is less danger of any
disease spreading; and if any particular house becomes infected, it can
be cleansed without disturbing the whole plant.
The colony plan requires considerable less expense in housing and other
equipment than the yarded plan. The expense for food is also decreased,
because of the greater number of insects and green food that the hens
get from the range.
The following plan of poultry keeping is, perhaps, the simplest known,
and for that reason, the most successful. By “successful” I do not
necessarily mean the most profitable, but the surest of paying a
reasonable profit. The plan is that of using inexpensive colony houses,
which are located in a large yard or small field. These houses are
built very light; they are floorless, and are moved frequently, either
by team or by a pole-pry. By this method the droppings are distributed
directly on the soil without the usual laborious work of scraping the
dropping-boards.
In the poultry field some green crop is kept growing as much of the
year as possible. As a general rule a crop cannot get a start in a
poultry range, and so a plan of rotating the chickens in two or more
fields, is desirable. No more profitable combination of “small” farming
can be found than that of rotating poultry with the leafy vegetables
(lettuce, spinach, cabbage, etc.) which utilize to the greatest
advantage the rich, nitrogenous manure. Under this system, the hens
are fed grain, chiefly corn, and beef scrap in hoppers, and water
is supplied in the simplest way possible, preferably from a running
brook. The chief point to be kept in mind is to cut down the number of
necessary visits to the poultry houses, thus reducing the labor cost.
The custom of raising chickens on fresh ground every year is of value
to the farm, but the one disadvantage has always been the expense of
fencing. In a recent issue the _Rural New Yorker_ told of the plan of
one wide-awake chicken raiser which can be followed by anybody. His
plan is to sow sunflower seed with a drill, at the earliest possible
moment in the spot where you wish the fence to be; then drive stakes at
intervals along the row and stretch two-foot chicken wire over them.
Even the wire will confine the chicks when they are small, and by the
time they have grown big enough to get over that, the sunflowers have
grown up and made a “chicken-tight” combination. Hens are too stupid to
think of flying over such a barrier, yet the poultry raiser can come
and go as if there was no barrier.
This is not only a cheap fence, but it affords the necessary shade for
the fowls in hot weather. They lie about among the stalks scratching
in the cool earth and getting a dirt bath at any time in the day. Then
late in the season the sunflower heads are cut down and the pullets do
the harvesting of that crop in short order. No other variety of fence
can be used for food when its usefulness as a barrier is past. You
could easily put up this sort of a fence yourself, and as the sunflower
is a very hardy plant, you might even try sowing the seed in the fall,
so as to get an early start in fence building in the spring.
You must be willing to give your time and attention if you are to
succeed. One man who has had a good deal of experience writes me
about the new method of chicken raising as follows:—“No doubt it is
a valuable contribution to the subject of intensive cultivation of
poultry. It involves, however, the most intensive and persistent labor,
to which very few men are willing to subject themselves, and I am
one of that class. I have had enough. Still, I need more income, and
I am thinking, just a little, of Indian Runner ducks, which demand
cheaper buildings and less care than chickens. Yet I cannot raise much
enthusiasm on the subject, and I shrink from the constant attention to
details which even they require.”
But even if you are not prepared to raise fowls after this fashion,
there is no reason why you should not keep a few hens and raise a
few chickens for your own family use. If you hatch in incubators,
use eggs that are laid the day you put them to hatch, and with good
management practically all of them will produce vigorous chickens that
can be induced to lay early, if pullets, and can be fed for market, if
cockerels.
Eggs are more profitable than chickens, especially if you can produce
them out of season, and this depends upon the time of hatching, the
feed and care. A flock of 25 fowls will produce eggs and chickens
enough to add a tidy sum to the income, if you feed and house them
right. And the feeding need not be much of an expense, if you save the
table scraps and give corn, cabbage and other green stuffs, buying
whatever wheat and oats you can’t raise. In winter, change their
drinking water frequently and see that it is slightly warmed. If you
cannot provide running water, then you must give them clean water many
times a day all the year around.
As a matter of fact, the amount of effort expended is pretty closely
related to the profits to be derived. Whether you raise hens, ducks,
geese, squabs, or any of the many animals now raised for profit on the
home acre, you must study their needs just as you must study plant
needs, if you are to succeed. Only by the use of intelligence can you
expect to reap profits, and to natural intelligence must be added
study. A man could not expect to be a successful teacher of mathematics
unless he had studied all the authorities in his special line, and kept
himself in touch with all the new theories as they were advanced. So it
is with the farmer. If he does not read the papers that deal especially
with his calling, he cannot keep in touch with the improvements and
discoveries constantly made in his line. He should take in at least two
standard agricultural papers. In a community where there is no public
library, the farmers might agree among themselves to take one or more
different papers each, and then exchange. In this way they could keep
in touch with all, at the expense of only one or two.
It will not be worth while for anybody to take up this work with any
hope of success, who expects to go at it with “a lick and a promise”
idea. It is only by thorough, careful, intelligent and persistent
effort that anything worth while can be accomplished. For the person
who will undertake the task in that way, there is an opportunity; but
he will need to have patience and some money while getting started and
learning the business. By all means, start in a small way, and find out
a lot of things which only experience can teach you; after that you can
gradually increase your plant with comparative safety.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] NOTE.—This chapter has been specially revised by Milo M.
Hastings, the author of a new and thorough work, “The Dollar Hen.” Mr.
Hastings was formerly the commercial poultry expert of U. S. Dept. of
Agriculture.
It will be impossible in the brief space available to go into detail
concerning all the up-to-date methods of poultry production. I can only
call attention to the system by which the industry is being modernized
and by which, also, it may be made to yield handsome profits to the
intelligent and aggressive poultryman.
[12] NOTE.—These systems mean small numbers together. A few eggs in
the incubator; a few chicks in a brooder; a few youngsters in a colony
coop; a few layers in a small house. The Philo poultry plant covers 40
× 40 feet.
CHAPTER XXXII.
ORGANIZATION.
We hear a great deal about the farmer waking up to the fact that his
calling is a business that must be conducted upon business principles,
if it is to pay. Anybody who knows anything about the farming methods,
or lack of methods, of the past, will recognize that this awakening has
not come a moment too soon. Neither is the farmer wide enough awake
even yet. But the feeling is growing, and much of the credit is due to
the farm papers, the agricultural colleges and the writers of books on
farming and gardening on a small scale.
Somewhere, hidden in the heart of almost every man, is a longing to own
a bit of land and grow vegetables or fruits; and it is to this man that
the new order of things means most. He has had business experience, and
will naturally apply business principles to anything he takes up.
It is not many years since agricultural colleges were looked upon
with amusement, if not with scorn, by the very people whom they were
intended to help. The “scientific” farmer was classed with that other
hopeless being, the “book farmer.” But the colleges and books kept on
doing their work, and the college-bred and book-made farmer kept on
doing wonderful things with soils and crops, and now there is scarcely
a farming community that does not number among its leading members a
farmer of one or both sorts. So does time work changes.
Boys who intend to be farmers are now sent to agricultural colleges,
and the wise farmer takes in good agricultural papers and reads
agricultural books. He has organized himself into granges and other
associations and is fast learning the value of co-operation. All
this tends to elevate his calling, a calling which is naturally more
dignified than any other, and to make himself and his labor of more
real value to himself and to his fellows.
But even yet there is too much haphazard arrangement of the farmer’s
work, and for this reason he is always struggling and finding little
leisure. It is partly due to the lack of organization in his work. If
he has not too much land, and if every month has its appointed tasks,
the farmer will move along from task to task, with at least as much
leisure as his city brother. So get your work mapped out, and attend to
things as they need attention, instead of leaving a lot of small things
to pile up and in the end cause hurry and confusion.
Plan your work and work your plan.
In the month of JANUARY prepare for spring work in your garden. Whether
you devote your plot to vegetables or fruit, lay it out now in your
own mind or, better still, on paper. Get catalogues from seedsmen who
advertise. Most of them get their catalogues out in January. They are
business men and know the value of an early start. Make up your mind
what you want to grow, being sure to plan for plenty of the things you
eat,—and then select the things you mean to experiment with during
the coming year. Follow a well-arranged planting-table, such as was
published in _Suburban Life_, of New York City, in March, 1908.
If you have fruit trees on your plot, this is a good time to begin to
spray them. If you don’t get ahead of insects and diseases, they will
soon get ahead of you. If you intend to do any grafting, secure the
scions now and keep them buried in sand in a cold cellar, or even out
of doors, until the sap begins to rise in the trees. Then you are ready
to work without loss of time. If there are holes in the trees, clean
them out and fill with cement. You won’t have time for this in the
spring, and the gypsy-moth, or some relative of his, will select the
hole as a ready-made breeding-place. Paint all wounds or breaks in the
bark with good paint or tar. On warm days do the necessary pruning.
Look out for your live stock, even it if be only the family horse and
cow. They will serve you better for careful attention. Warm the bit on
cold mornings before putting it in the horse’s mouth, and look out for
signs of possible toothache. He suffers from that as well as you. Have
him sharp-shod for slippery weather. If the barn is cold, blanket your
cow as well as your horse, give her plenty of warm bedding and see that
she and the horse have salt at hand at all times. Don’t give either
animal ice-cold water to drink. Take the chill off it. A hot mash will
not do either of them any harm on a cold day. You like hot food in
winter.
Look after the comfort of your poultry. Dust them well for insects.
Give them fresh, slightly warmed water every few hours during the day.
Vary their food somewhat and give some corn and meat-scraps. Be sure
the meat is good, as spoiled scraps lead to disease. See that they have
green food, and as much exercise as possible; keep their house clean
and well ventilated, but free from draughts. If you are going to raise
broilers, get your incubator busy, but it is too early for hatching
chickens for layers. If you have no incubator, but mean to get one
later, read up all about them now. Don’t buy blindly.
Get out your fencing stuff, if you have fences to build; and read up
all you need to know about your soils and the value of fertilizers,
etc. Don’t wait until spring to know what it is best to do with your
plot. Learn that in advance, so that when spring comes you may put your
knowledge into practice without delay.
* * * * *
The same general instructions hold good for FEBRUARY. Give constant
care to your stock whether many or few. See that your tools, planters,
sprayers, plows, etc., are all in order. Many valuable hours are lost
in gardening-time because of neglect of this precaution. Repair those
that need it and are worth it, and consult catalogues for the new
machinery you must buy, and buy only the best of its kind.
If you are using hot-beds or even cold-frames, you can prepare them and
begin to plant some seed during February, such as radishes, lettuce and
early cauliflower.
* * * * *
MARCH is still too early for out-door planting in the North, because if
the seeds get chilled, they will be slower in growth than those planted
later; but well-made hot-beds are getting in their good work at this
time. Eggplant, tomatoes, early cabbage, onions, parsley, peppers,
etc., are all to be started before this month is out.
If the ground softens up so that you can go out on it at all for
working, you may sow your grass seed and spring oats and barley that
they may get the advantage of spring rains and be well grown before the
dry, hot weather sets in. You find many farmers neglecting their stock
at this time of year, but it is bad policy. Keep up their rations.
If the storms of winter have strewn your plot with branches of trees
and other wreckage, clean it all up; the wisest plan is to burn it.
Clean the out-buildings; sort over your seed, and see if any insects
have got at them during winter; test them between moist papers or
cloths as described, to see which are worth planting; clean out
vegetable bins, burying all decayed vegetables. Be ready to take
advantage of the very first of the out-door-planting weather. Every day
of preparation now counts for three in results.
* * * * *
APRIL is a busy month in farm and garden. Preparation-tillage is in
order, if the ground is not too moist. Too much stress cannot be laid
upon the importance of thorough preparation of the soil before the
planting begins. What you neglect in this line cannot be made up later
in the season, and you will suffer in field and pocket. Be sure that
your soil is neither too wet nor too dry when you begin operations, and
when you are through, be just as sure that it is thoroughly pulverized
and fertilized, so that it can retain moisture and afford the right bed
for the tender seeds. Then plant all the hardy crops as directed in the
chapters on crop raising in this book.
Get your neighbors to co-operate with you in clearing out neglected
roadside corners and in destroying weeds. It will pay. All the crops in
the neighborhood will profit from this action. Don’t turn the stock out
to feed until the grass has made some growth. You don’t want the roots
gnawed out.
* * * * *
Even in the northernmost parts of the New England States, much of the
out-door planting is done in early MAY and the rest a little later
in the month. Now is when you begin to realize the value of having
done all your preparation work early. Planting potatoes, peas, beets,
cabbages, turnips, to say nothing of beans, corn, pumpkins, squashes,
cucumbers, etc., will take all your time every day that is not spent
in cultivating and using the wheel-hoe. Besides, your strawberry beds
will be needing a good deal of attention, and your chicken-run should
have its location changed for awhile.
* * * * *
There are no idle times for the intelligent farmer, but the beautiful
month of JUNE is generally the busiest. Indeed, it is often so busy
that the farmer does not have time to know how beautiful it is. But you
can have time. Arrange your work; drive it instead of letting it drive
you, and you will be surprised how much time you have to look up and to
realize that it is a glorious thing just to be alive. But this cannot
be if you have neglected your work from month to month. The smell of
ripening strawberries, of new-mown hay fill the air before this month
is gone; the sky is the bluest, the grass the greenest, the trees the
freshest of any month in the year. Don’t lose those delights without
having known that they have come. Cultivate yourself as well as your
soil, and life will be better worth the living.
* * * * *
JULY is the real haying month in the Northern States. There are scores
of things to do. Many of the fall-crop vegetables are to be sown this
month, and the ground must be put in good condition as soon as the
early crop is off. But busy as you are, it is good to take a day off
occasionally and see what your neighbor is doing. Perhaps he has some
scheme by which he has forced his crop ahead of yours. If so, compare
notes and learn what you can.
* * * * *
In New England they sow the winter crop of turnips in the early days
of AUGUST. Be careful that the root maggot has not got into the ground
where you plant them, for, if he has, you would better save yourself
the labor of planting in that spot. You want to starve the maggot, not
to feed him. Cultivate all your crops carefully this month. Perhaps
they didn’t get all the attention they needed during haying, and as the
weather is apt to be pretty hot and dry, you must do all in your power
to keep the moisture. Therefore, good maintenance-tillage is in order.
Cut down the weeds on the roadside that have escaped you before. It is
a costly mistake to allow them to go to seed. You will have to work a
good deal harder and get less for it next year if you let them go to
seed this year. “One year’s seeding is seven years’ weeding.”
* * * * *
If you have fruit trees, SEPTEMBER is one of the finest months in the
year, both for the looks of your place, if it has been properly kept,
and also for your profits. The early fruit brings good prices, and if
you have shown foresight in planning out your garden, you have planted
some fruit trees that will pay you. Harvesting begins this month, and
you want to be sure that everything is in readiness. Have your bins and
cellars thoroughly cleaned and aired, so that there may be no delay
when crops are ready to be stored.
* * * * *
OCTOBER calls for extra care for your fruit trees, because frosts are
to be expected. Winter apples should be picked before they are fully
ripe and kept in a cool place, but where they cannot freeze. If you
intend them to last all winter and into the spring, you should sort and
pack them carefully, seeing that no bruised fruit gets into your barrel
or box. One bruised apple in a barrel may cost you half a dozen or more
of the finest.
* * * * *
Although in some places it may be necessary to begin fall plowing
earlier than NOVEMBER, yet, generally speaking, this is the month for
that work, and unless frosts come early, you can plow about all through
the month. It is the month for finishing up the fall work and getting
ready for winter. There is no better time for gathering up whatever
rubbish may have accumulated—all the vines and garden waste that you
cannot use for plowing under—and making a bonfire of it. That is a
work the boys will delight to help in, and if you will save the actual
burning for evening, you will make them extra happy, and glad to do
some more cleaning up. Work is best done in the way that brings the
greatest amount of pleasure.
* * * * *
DECEMBER has its joys and its work as well as June. The stock are
almost always shut up now and get only what you give them, either to
eat or drink. Be careful to keep their troughs scrupulously clean, and
occasionally feed both horses and cows a little molasses. To keep the
stable well ventilated, take out a window and fit in a frame covered
with muslin or cotton sheeting. This will help out the ventilation and
shut out the draughts. If it is hinged at the bottom, so that it can be
opened on clear days, it will be all the better.
And now just a word for man’s other faithful friend, and the children’s
guardian, the dog. He feels the change in the weather, too. If he
should begin to scratch his ears or rub them on the ground, clean them
carefully with lukewarm water in which bran has been boiled, and add a
little white castile soap. When you have rinsed and dried them dust a
little dry boric acid into them. He’ll be more comfortable and so will
you. Stonehenge or Youatt “On the Dog” will tell you all about him.
See that your farming tools are all well housed where neither rain nor
snow can get at them. If you were too busy to thoroughly clean and oil
them before putting them away, do it now. The long winter evenings will
afford you plenty of time to read up on any matter in which you are
interested. At the end of the year you will be astonished to find how
much you have accomplished without being rushed or overworked, just
because you organized your work and followed a definite plan. Like all
other good things, it pays.
When we are exhausted or rushed, it shows that either we have been
doing the wrong thing, or doing the thing wrong.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A FEW PRACTICAL “DON’TS.”
Don’t imagine that you cannot do anything with a bit of ground. You can.
Don’t run away with the idea that the farmer’s life is all fun or all
labor. It isn’t. It is a mixture of both, and fun and labor are equally
healthful and profitable.
Don’t think that breaking up the surface soil for an inch or two is
the same as plowing. It is not. The old proverb is good advice for the
farmer—“Plow deep while sluggards sleep.” To plow in the fall is to
lessen your spring work by at least a third. Spring plowing is easier
because of it, and the work of the harrow is lighter.
Don’t begrudge manure. All forms of life require food. If you want your
plants to grow, feed them.
Don’t plant tiny, tender seeds in hard, cold, lumpy soil and expect
them to grow. They won’t. Pulverize your soil, warm it with sun, air
and manure; make a cosy little bed for your seeds, and while they
snuggle into it, they will be sending out little sprouts all the time
to see what the rest of the world is like. Just as it is good business
policy to treat your hired help as if they were human beings with
feelings, instead of mere tireless machines, so it pays to make your
seeds comfortable.
Don’t forget that your plants like air, and that what they get by their
stems and branches is not enough. The roots have to breathe. So keep
the earth about them stirred somewhat, that the air may get to them.
Don’t skimp the supply of moisture. Although you don’t want to drown
out the seeds by soaking the ground, yet you must so till it that it
holds all the moisture the plant needs. You find your craving for water
greater in summer than in winter, especially if you are working hard.
Well, the plant is working hard, if it is growing. See that it has its
drink of water always at hand.
Don’t decide to let the weeds on the roadside grow, just because they
seem “nearer the other fellow’s plot” than yours. There are no “other
fellows” in a matter of this kind. It does not take long for the weeds
he has to get to you. If he doesn’t know the importance of cleaning
even the road, and you do, just set him the example. He’ll soon ask you
why you did it. After that, he’ll probably do his share. At any rate
you will have done yours.
Don’t try to grow more and better crops than your neighbor, just for
the “fun of getting ahead of him.” Grow them to prove how much can be
done with your facilities, and to show him, as well as yourself, how
much more pleasure and profit he can find in gardening than he has
known before. Next year he’ll probably show you a thing or two.
Don’t think you have to emigrate to some far-away spot to make a living
from the earth. All soil can be made to produce if you use brains as
well as labor. Begin where you are, no matter how small the plot.
Learn to do it in little before you try it in large. If you have no
plot where you live, try to get the use of a vacant lot in your town
or city. Put up a tent and live in it. You and your family will be the
better for roughing it a bit. There’s lots of fun in camping if you go
about it in the right spirit.
Don’t be afraid to ask advice from the Department of Agriculture. They
are conducting their experiments for your sake, if that’s the sort of
knowledge you want. If it were not for you and thousands like you, they
would not need to discover so many of Nature’s secrets. Get the benefit
of their discoveries.
Don’t think you can farm without proper tools, any more than a man
could print a paper without a printing press. The old-fashioned, small
hand-press, would stand a poor show beside the new power presses. So
with old-fashioned, hand-gardening tools. You can do more work with a
wheel-hoe than with ten hand-hoes, and it isn’t so painful either. Get
only the tools you need, but be sure to get them, and get the best of
their kind.
Don’t let your tools stand out in all weathers, and don’t forget to
clean them and see that they are oiled. A dirty farm implement may mean
the spread of disease; unoiled bearings may mean injury from rust or
breakage. Save time and expense by a little care.
Don’t expect eggs from dirty or ill-fed fowls. The natural returns from
such conditions are vermin and sickness; and you’ll get them.
Don’t expect to take everything out of the soil and put nothing back.
The soil is like a bank account, so long as you keep adding to it, you
may draw from it. But if it is all “draw” and no “add,” then you will
soon come to the end of your resources. Feed your soil and it will feed
you.
Don’t plant poor seed. You can’t afford it. The best is cheapest. If
you have poor seed on hand, throw it away—or perhaps it might do for
the chickens. No loss can be so great as the loss of planting it.
Don’t forget that women are apt to make good gardeners, because they
are willing to “fuss over” necessary small matters. If you do not like
to attend constantly to “little things,” if you “hate details,” you
will be unlikely to make a big success of intensive culture. The man
who does best is the one who loves to compare soils and fertilizers and
seeds, and to try how many seeds sprout and how long they take; who is
interested in the temperature of every hot-bed; who watches for just
the day to use the wheel-hoe on this row and the hand-plow on that; who
finds the time only too short while he sets out onion seedlings; who
enjoys putting up nice bunches of vegetables or packages of fruit. In
short, the man or woman whose interest is in watching the crops instead
of the clock, is the one who succeeds in garden work.
Don’t delude yourself into thinking that you must have a fine house
before you can take up gardening. A shack is as good as a palace, and
better, if you can afford the one and not the other. Anything that
can be ventilated and made weather-proof will be enough. After you
have made your fortune, if you have not in the meantime learned the
value of simple living, build your fine house, and be as splendidly
uncomfortable as even the worst Philistine could desire. But while you
are earning your fortune, be comfortable. It pays.
Don’t think you must throw up your job and rush into farming for a
living, unless you have had some experience, or have a snug little bank
account to depend upon while you are learning. Get your experience on
a small piece of land first, while still holding down your present
job. Be sure you like the work and that you are willing to give all
necessary time and attention to it.
Don’t think that this list exhausts all the “don’ts,” practical
or otherwise. There are dozens of others. But it is well to leave
something to the imagination and to experience. You’ll learn them for
yourself and remember them better for it. Nevertheless, it will do no
harm to attach the rules for farm buying submitted to the American
Jewish Association. They run as follows:
Don’t think about buying a farm if your wife won’t live in the country.
Don’t believe in agents when they tell you gold-brick stories.
Don’t chase after big farms.
Don’t buy a farm unless you have money enough left to buy a cow.
Don’t run too much in debt when you buy your farm.
Don’t pay a deposit on your farm until you have consulted a lawyer.
Don’t forget to insure your farm buildings in a reliable company.
Don’t buy a farm unless you are able to meet the mortgages.
Don’t buy a farm unless you have consulted those who know.
Appendix I.
The island of Guernsey in the English Channel, only from four to
seven miles long, and three to four miles wide, supports a permanent
population of 41,000 and an additional visiting population each year
of about 30,000 persons. Only 11,623 acres are under cultivation, but
if the glass houses and frames were placed in line they would extend
for twenty-eight miles, or all around the island, and up the centre for
almost its entire length, and would average about 10 feet in width. The
farming lands are valued at twelve hundred dollars ($1200) an acre, and
are rented at 10 per cent. of their value. The exports of this land in
fruits, vegetables, flowers and cattle, amount to more than two and
three-quarters millions ($2,752,000) annually. In addition to this,
the farmers produce all that the 71,000 persons consume, as well as
hay, oats and forage for horses and cattle; and about $500,000 worth
of butter, poultry, eggs, pork and beef. At a conservative estimate,
the island produces about four and a half millions’ ($4,500,000) worth
of farm and garden stuff each year, or a little less than four hundred
dollars’ ($400) worth to the acre.
Don’t you think we Americans, with our improved machinery and
intelligence, can get much more out of our land—when we try?
If the State of New York were all cultivated and populated at that rate
it would produce nearly $15,000,000,000 worth annually and sustain
233,641,473 people, or about three times the population of the entire
United States. So we are not going to suffer from “over-population” or
“pauper labor” just yet.
Appendix II.
French Gardening, and Other Gardening Under Glass.
Intensive cultivation reaches its climax for the present in what is
called the French System, in vogue in and about Paris, and in some
parts of England, where rents are so enormously high that even an
inch of space counts, and must be made to produce its utmost. It has
not been in favor in this country, because, so far, the pressure of
rent has not compelled people to look so much after the inches. But,
if the present land-tenure system continues, there is no telling when
the French system of cultivation will become a necessity. In its
simplest terms, the French system is hot-bed cultivation with perfect
fertilization and irrigation, usually without artificial heat. The
secret of it is—manure, unlimited quantities of it, of the finest
quality and rotted to about the condition of leaf-mould. The beds are
made on the top of the earth, the foundation being fresh stable manure
that has been turned several times and thoroughly sweetened. Cover an
area sufficient to accommodate the number of frames you intend to use,
with great quantities of manure, so that after it has been tramped,
pressed and rolled flat, it will be from 6 to 8 inches deep at least.
Sometimes it is made two feet deep. The frames are then placed on
this bed, the manure extending well beyond them on every side, and a
distance of 18 inches is left between the rows of frames. A layer of
fine, rich, dark soil, mixed with manure that has been rotted during
the previous season, is then spread on, to the depth of six inches,
pressed down and raked. The bed is then ready for planting. Generally
four crops are grown in each frame, radish, lettuce, carrots and
cauliflower being the usual combination.
The radishes are sown first, quite thinly, then a thin layer of
carrot seed. These are covered with about half an inch of fine soil
well pressed down. Cabbage-lettuce is next set out, the plants being
placed nine inches apart, and, so far, three crops are growing at the
same time. The fourth, cauliflower, is not planted until the radishes
are off,—in about three or four weeks,—the lettuce has been cut and
the carrots are showing well above the ground. Then three or four
cauliflower plants are set in each frame between the carrots.
But one of the most interesting parts of this work is the growing of
the lettuce and cauliflower plants for transplanting to the hot-bed
frame. These are grown under “cloches” or bell-shaped glasses 17 inches
across the bottom and 15 inches high, on a seed-bed prepared just as
the hot-bed was prepared, except that the manure foundation is anywhere
from 12 to 15 inches deep after being pressed down. These beds are not
covered with frames, but the cloches are placed on them in two rows,
and within the circles made by them the seed is sown.
As soon as they come up, they may be transplanted from the cloches
to the hot-bed direct, or they may be pricked out under other
cloches, four plants to a glass, usually one Cos lettuce and three
cabbage-lettuce. These are again transplanted to the hot-bed where
the radish and carrot seed were sown, and follow the radish in being
picked. Lettuce seed is also sown in cold-frames about the first of
October and successive sowings are made until the end of that month.
Immediately after the lettuces are picked the bed is watered and
weeded, and among the growing carrots the cauliflower is set out.
Cauliflower is grown under cloches, the seed being sown as lettuce seed
is, under the glass or in the open seed-bed, from October to November,
and pricked out under the cloches as soon as the plants are well up.
They can be planted out in the hot-beds in February, and are ready for
market between the middle of May and the first of June. About April the
process of hardening begins, and by the end of that month the frames
and sashes are removed and the beds stand in the open. During the time
the crops are growing under glass, they need a great deal of attention,
that neither the sun nor the frost may injure them. For this reason
they are covered, uncovered and recovered several times during each day
with mats or frames.
When the cauliflower is off, the bed is forked over and planted with
endive, spinach, celery or other garden crop. When the season’s crop
has been harvested in October, the soil is gathered up in a great heap,
and the beds are topped with decayed manure in the leaf-mould state.
This is the best thing to plant in, and if one had enough of it, the
crops could be grown on a concrete floor; because in such soil plants
find all that they need.
To bring it down to the fine point, the French system consists of
manure, more manure, irrigation, availing of every ray of sunlight, and
unremitting care. It requires three years to get the system in good
working order, and here such intensive cultivation seems unnecessary.
It shows what man will do in the way of developing the possibilities of
nature, when by law or custom he is debarred from free access to the
land, and must needs make a very small portion yield a great return.
We are not in much danger of Malthus’s over-population, and the
much-talked-of “pressure of population.” Where so tiny a piece of soil
can be made to support so many and give them a good living, too, it is
foolish to argue that the cause of poverty is found in the increase of
population. This country alone could support many times the population
of the whole world today if natural opportunities were free. It has
been said that 80,000,000,000 could then be more comfortably supported
here than 80,000,000 now are. To find the cause of most of the poverty,
and even crime, in the world, we must look beyond the population
statistics to the restrictions and monopolies that prevent population
from providing for its own needs from natural sources. And when once
you begin to investigate monopolies, you will find the mother of them
all—Land Monopoly.
* * * * *
A new sash for use in hot-beds and cold-frames has been placed on our
market within a year or two, for which its makers claim many desirable
things. It seems as if their claims were being well sustained by the
experience of those using the Sunlight Double Glass Sash, as it is
called. The frames are made of red cypress and are fitted with rustless
springs and stops to hold the glass in the grooves and thus do away
with the expense and bother of glazing. There is a space of dead air
between the two layers of glass, which resists the cold from without,
and prevents the escape of heat from within. The sash are sufficiently
air-tight for ordinary weather, and when the thermometer falls, the
moisture which has gathered between the two layers of glass, freezes
and seals the sash practically air-tight.
The makers claim that Sunlight Double Glass Sash save more than half
the labor, worry and expense of growing plants in cold-frames and
hot-beds, and insure better plants, and, therefore, better crops, than
can be secured under the same conditions from single-layer sash. They
do away with the necessity of covering the frames with mats or boards,
being warmer than the single-layer sash even though covered with mats
or boards. Frames or beds filled with half-hardy plants, such as
lettuce, cabbage or cauliflower, need no extra covering even in zero
weather; and as far north as northeastern Ohio, with the thermometer
nearly down to zero, even tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have been
raised without additional covering, although this may not always be
done. Light is never excluded from the growing plants by night or day,
and in the short winter days of this climate, there is some advantage
to that. Even when snow and ice lie on the sash, there is some light
getting to the plants, and in clear weather the heat from the sun’s
rays during the day is stored up in the bed and held by the double
glass with the air-space between. That is why even in zero weather the
half-hardy plants need no extra covering.
It is quite possible that the gardeners of this country may make a
system of their own for intensive cultivation, to equal and perhaps
excel the French system with its repeated covering and uncovering of
the frames. The sash are made in Louisville, Ky.
Appendix III.
At Maylands, Mr. Joseph Fels’ “colony” in England, all the land is
under intensive cultivation, and the rules for getting the best results
from hot-beds are simple enough for anybody to follow. They emphasize
the advice given in this book and are, therefore, printed as an
appendix, so they may be easily consulted. They are furnished by the
superintending gardener of Maylands, Mr. Thomas F. Smith, Maylands,
Essex, England, for this book, and are as follows:—
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO MAYLANDS SMALLHOLDERS.
“It is possible to put the frames to a variety of profitable uses
during the winter and spring, but under the special circumstances of
our community, and the arrangement for co-operation, it will be best
for all to follow one plan, and the produce can then be handled in
bulk. To this end, I suggest that the frames be used for radishes
and cabbage-lettuce, then cleared for pricking out tomato plants;
afterwards, during the summer, used for cucumber or melons.
“During the last week of September, prepare a bed of about a square
yard by digging. Break it up fine; cover it with two inches of
prepared, sifted, well-rotted manure and soil in equal proportions.
Sow broadcast, thinly, a few inches of cabbage-lettuce seed—Watkin &
Simpson’s Early French Gold Frame will be very suitable. Cover with ¼
inch prepared soil and press evenly all over. Place a wooden framework
round the bed and cover with a sash. Do not water. If the sun shines
brightly in the middle of the day, cover the sash, and uncover as soon
as the sun’s power is gone. In 4 or 5 days the plants will be up, and
as soon as they can be handled they must be pricked off in frames
standing on beds prepared in a similar way to the seed-bed, except
that the soil inside must come half way up the board. Prick them out 2
inches apart, and do not water. They will stand here during the winter
and the work now is to watch them carefully, remove any decayed ones
or any showing mildew. If any mildew shows, dust over lightly once or
twice with flowers of sulphur. Keep as dry as possible. In hard, frosty
weather cover the frames with mats, but remove these whenever possible,
and give air on very mild days.
“Towards the latter end of January prepare the hot-beds, by mixing
well together equal quantities of old, dry manure and fresh manure.
In both cases this must be ‘long.’[13] Shake out the lumps and lay
the manure down to the depth of 18 inches. Keep level and beat down
gently with the back of the fork. Make the beds wide enough to extend
at least 9 inches beyond the frames. Tread the manure down and level
up any hollows. Lay the frames on straight and level. Fill up inside
one-third the depth with similar manure to that used for the bed, then
add 2 inches or so of the prepared soil. Rake the soil well, to leave
it level and remove lumps. Put on the sashes and cover with mats. Any
of this work must be finished the same day it is begun and covered up.
This is of importance, as frost, snow, or rain might set in, and spoil
the bed. The remaining beds must be made in the same way, all joining
up so as to form one entire bed without any spaces between. The frames
are butted together at the ends, and are set 1 foot apart between rows.
“Two or three days after finishing the first bed, it will begin to get
warm, which may be seen by the damp inside the glass. Now sow radishes
(French Breakfast Radishes—white-tipped) thinly broadcast. Cover them
up lightly with dry prepared soil, well sifted; press down evenly.
Set out the whole bed with lettuces at 9 in. apart. Before planting,
the lettuces must be carefully examined, all decayed leaves removed,
and doubtful plants rejected. Use only the strongest plants. Handle
very tenderly, so as not to bruise them. Cover the bed every night
with mats. When the radishes are up, give a little air on the opposite
side to the wind, but be careful not to overdo this, as the lettuces
thrive better with very little air. If any decayed leaves are seen on
the lettuces, remove them. If the heat in the frames slacks, as may be
seen by the radishes not moving quickly enough, place littery manure
all round and between the frames up to the lights. The radishes will be
ready for gathering the fourth week from sowing, and should be cleared
off a bed within 10 or 12 days. When they are all gone, water the bed
well between the lettuces with a fine ‘rose’-nozzle hose. Choose a
dull, mild day for this, between 11 and 12 o’clock. The lettuces will
be ready for marketing five or six weeks after planting, which will be
about the middle of March.
“About the beginning of March, make up a hot-bed for one frame of three
lights or sashes. Make it two feet thick, and at least a foot beyond
the frame all round. Fill up the inside as before, and pack round
outside. When the heat is steady, sow the tomato seed, thinly, in rows
about 1½ inches apart, keeping at least ½ inch between the seeds. Cover
and press down, then scatter lightly all over, a sifting of fine rotted
manure. Water well, cover up, putting mats on. In seven or eight days
the seed should be germinated. Keep a watch on it and remove the mats
the moment it is seen to be breaking through. Water gently with a fine
rose, using chilled water. Give all the light possible now, and water
as required, keeping the soil just nicely moist. As soon as the first
pair of rough leaves show, begin to prick off; if the pricking off is
not commenced early the plants will be getting ‘drawn’ before it is
finished.
“After cleaning the beds from which the lettuces were taken, fork over
lightly and add 3 inches more soil; press all down very firmly and
prick out tomato plants 3 inches apart. Do not water. Keep close for a
few days until the plants begin to move, and cover at nights. As the
plants show growth, water gently and give air on mild days, gradually
giving more water and air until the first week in May, when the lights
may be taken off on all mild, genial days. By the middle of the month
leave air on at night, and the last week the lights may be removed
altogether. The weather must be carefully watched, as May is a very
changeable and treacherous month; it is very usual for frosts and cold
weather to return about the middle of the month, and protection must be
given if necessary.
“The ground where the tomatoes are to be set out, should have been
prepared during the winter by digging or deep ploughing; a moderate
dressing of natural manure should have been added if the ground is
poor, but the ground which has previously been heavily manured and
cropped with vegetables will be preferable, no manure being added for
the tomatoes. After digging, give a dressing of basic slag 10 cwt. to
the acre. Have all finished not later than end of February.
“About the middle of May, if the ground is dry, dress with sulphate
of potash 1 hundredweight and sulphate of iron, ground fine, ¼
hundredweight to the acre, then go over all with a hoe and chop down
all weeds and level all hollows; do not rake. At each end of each row,
where it is intended to plant the tomatoes, drive in a pointed stake
of 2 by 4 in. broadway to the row, at a slight angle away. The stake
should enter the ground 2 ft. and stand out 1 ft. 9 in. Then in direct
line with the stakes, at intervals of 10 ft. drive in studding boards
¾ inch × 2 in. × 2 ft. 6 in. long, to stand out of ground 1 ft. 9 in.
The narrow way of the board should be in the line of the row. Now fix
16s gauge galvanized wire to the stake at one end, and draw tight and
fix to stake at the other end. Fix wire to top of stakes by small wire
staple. This should all be done before the plants are set out.
“During the last week in May and first week in June, the plants should
be set out. Water well in the frame, then gently pull the plants and
place as many upright in a basket as it will hold. Drop about twenty
at 18 in. apart; then one person with a small, thin graft, or a garden
trowel, should insert it about 4 in. into the ground at an angle, and
press upwards, slightly raising the soil without disturbing it. A
second person should insert the damp roots of the plant in the nick
and tuck them carefully to the bottom, into the damp soil; remove the
tool gently and press the soil firmly on to the plant with the heel. Do
not water. I have tried many ways of planting tomatoes in the fields,
and this I found to be the best method where large numbers have to be
planted. Where only a small quantity are being handled it is best to
grow them in strawberry baskets or pots, and put the plants out with
the roots undisturbed.
“In a week or two, if the weather is genial, growth will be observed,
and then a dressing of nitrate of soda may be given, about 2
hundredweight to the acre. It should be crushed fine and mixed with
three times its bulk of dry earth or ashes. At the end of June the
plants should be thoroughly sprayed with strawsonite. After spraying,
it will be time to go over the plants, and remove all the side shoots,
keeping the plants to one stem only. When the plants have grown long
enough to reach 6 in. above the wire, they should be again trimmed of
shoots and tied to the wire, resting the stem of the leaf on the wire
before tying. Leave the tie rather slack for expansion of stem. After
trimming and tying, spray again with strawsonite. This work should all
be completed by the beginning of August, if the season is suitable to
growth. If rain falls immediately after spraying, repeat it.
“The fruit should begin to show color by the middle of August, but this
varies considerably with the season and the age of the plants when set
out.
“As soon as the fruit shows pink, it should be gathered and taken to
the packing shed. Do not gather the fruit green if it can be helped,
but wait for a change of color. These gatherings should be continued
at least twice a week so long as the fine weather continues. If the
weather changes to wet after a long dry spell, it is very probable that
many of the fruit will crack, and then it is advisable to gather the
fruit green, if quite fully matured; this will save them from cracking.
If the weather is cold and dull, the plants should be sprayed with
Evans’ Aseptic Spray. This will not leave a stain on the fruit. After
the second week in August, the plants may be topped, as this will help
the fruits to swell, and fruit setting after this date will probably be
useless. Keep the side shoots removed, and remove and shorten bottom
leaves to let the sunlight into the plants. Remember this: plants
allowed to grow close and crowded are much more liable to disease,
and spraying does not thoroughly cover them; also plants with many
shoots make less fruit, of a smaller size, and take longer to ripen;
therefore anyone taking the trouble to raise plants and set them out,
and neglecting them afterwards, is acting very foolishly.
“Continue to gather the fruits as ready, keeping a sharp look-out after
the end of September for signs of frost. When this is feared, gather
all the full-grown fruit on the plants whether green or not—they will
ripen in-doors; but exercise some judgment, and do not gather fruit
which is not full grown. This may color, but even if it does, it will
be shrivelled and a bad color, and will spoil the market for better
fruit. It is better to leave the immature fruit on the plants, as
the frost may pass without doing any material damage, and there may
be several weeks more of mild weather, which will give several more
pickings of full-grown green fruit. I have picked in this way until the
first week in November, some years.
“The fruit must be graded into ‘best smoothing,’ ‘small smooths,’—which
description does not include very small fruits, but only those just too
small for an even sample,—‘seconds,’ and ‘thirds.’ Seconds are good
sound fruit, but include all the misshapen ones. Thirds are sound odds
and ends—it is better to avoid the grade if possible. The fruit is sent
to markets in baskets.
“Tomatoes may be obtained from the open in July by sowing the seed a
month earlier, and growing on with more room in pots. If each plant has
9 in. square of space, and is properly attended to, it will have small
fruits set when planted out, and ripe fruit can be gathered in July.
“_Ridge Cucumbers._ Prepare a good hot-bed as for tomato seed, and on
the last day of April, sow the cucumber seed, two together, at 1½ in.
apart all over the bed; cover with soil, press down, do not water,
close up and cover with mats. The seed will be up in 2 or 3 days. Give
water, plenty of light, but no air; cover at night. Have ready a mild
hot-bed—the bed the lettuces were removed from, if forked over, will
probably do. As soon as the rough leaves are showing, lift each pair
of plants gently with a little soil and pot into large 60s, burying up
to seed leaves. Water as required. Harden gradually by end of May, and
plant out first week in June at 2 ft. apart in rows, and 4 ft. between
the rows. A bed into which a heavy dressing of manure has been dug
during the winter will do very well. As soon as set out, the plants
must be protected by some means, such as placing a flower-pot at night
over each plant, or with paper cones pegged down. It is also advisable
that hurdles covered with straw be run down every 3 or 4 rows to break
the wind. If the plants are helped in this way for a week or two, they
will repay it later on. After planting they should be watered, and this
should be repeated if the weather continues dry. Before they begin
to run, mulch all down each side of the rows with long straw stable
manure. Fruit should be ready middle of July.
“For using the frames after the above plants have been removed, I
recommend Frame Cucumbers. Melons would do equally well, but are
rather more difficult to grow, and I advise cucumbers for a year or
two until experienced. Make up a hot-bed precisely the same as for
Ridge Cucumbers. Fill as many 60s pots as are needed half-full of
prepared soil after covering the drainage hole with broken china. Put
one seed of Telegraph Cucumber on the soil in each pot, fill half the
remaining space with soil and press down with the bottom of a pot.
The soil should be of a nice dampness when used, as the seeds are
better unwatered; the pots, if new, should be soaked in water before
use. Cover up close and keep mats on until seed is up, then only mat
at night. Give no air, water with tepid water as required, shade from
strong midday sun and keep interior of frame moist by dewing over early
each morning. Give the plants room for the leaves to spread. As frames
are emptied of the tomatoes and ridge cucumbers, without waiting for
all of them, fork them over lightly and raise slightly in centre; on
this mound put half a bushel of prepared soil, which should consist
mainly of chopped sod with the grass removed, a little decayed manure,
and a little finely sifted burnt earth or old mortar rubbish. Cover
up close for a day or two for the sun to warm the soil, and then put
two plants in the middle of the light, about 6 in. apart. Pinch out
the centres, allowing only one shoot to grow from each plant. These
should be taken from one plant upwards and the other downwards in the
frame. Keep the growth thin; remove old leaves, one now and then; avoid
overcrowding; if this seems likely, cut some of the shoots right out.
Keep the frame moist, give plenty of tepid water, whiten about half the
glass in the centre and splash the remainder. If these instructions
are carried out, there will be an abundance of cucumbers to cut for
market.
“The frame cucumbers are packed in flats, numbered according to size,
but usually 3 to 4 doz. Put a little hay at the bottom, then cover with
paper, put one layer of fruit very carefully on this and a sheet of
paper over, a little more hay, another sheet of paper, then a layer of
fruit and so on. Three layers generally fill the flat.
“Ridge cucumbers are generally sold by count or in bushels, but when
grown especially fine may be sent in flats as above.”
FOOTNOTES:
[13] NOTE.—“Long” manure contains a good deal of litter that has not
decayed, so that the manure does not break up into fine particles as
“well-rotted” manure does.
Appendix IV.
The _Farm Journal_ for November, 1908, gives the following condensed
list of the short courses offered by the various State Agricultural
Colleges:
Specialized knowledge is the keynote of modern farming success. Why
not give your boy or girl a chance to acquire some of this knowledge?
In winter there will be a let-down of farm activity, and many of Our
Folks could, if they tried, attend one of the short agricultural
courses provided free by nearly every State. In many cases the only
expenses are for board, books, etc., and the total cost of a few
weeks’ course is thus very small. Many grown farmers attend these
courses; there is no age or citizenship limit in most States.
For catalogues and full information write to any of the addresses
given, mentioning this book. For instance, if you live in Alabama,
direct your letter as follows: “J. F. Duggar, Alabama State
Agricultural College, Auburn, Ala.”
Alabama. J. F. Duggar, Auburn: Offers a nine-month course in
agriculture, and a two-year course.
Arizona. R. W. Clothier, Tucson: Offers a two-year course in
irrigation, engineering, farm management, dairying and vegetable
gardening, designed especially to equip students for farming under
Arizona conditions.
Arkansas. John N. Tillman, Fayetteville: Short winter course in
agriculture begins first Monday in January, lasting two weeks.
California. E. J. Wickson, Berkeley: Five different short courses
covering special branches of farming. Write for particulars.
Colorado. B. O. Aylesworth, Fort Collins: A short practical course in
agriculture and domestic science is offered by this institution.
Connecticut. C. L. Beach, Storrs: Dairy and creamery short course of
twelve weeks. Pomology course of twelve weeks. Poultry course of six
weeks. All courses open Tuesday, January 5th. A six-week forestry
course begins November 2d.
Delaware. H. Hayward, Newark: Offers a six-week special course, from
January 4th to February 15th; and a special “Farmers’ Week” from
January 4th to 8th, inclusive.
Florida. Andrew Sledd, Gainesville: A two-year course specially
adapted to the farmer’s boy. The instruction is of an applied nature
with sufficient technical research to lead the student to question
well the reasons for the various farm operations. College moved from
Lake City to Gainesville.
Idaho. H. T. French, Moscow: Short courses are offered in dairying,
extending one year; and farmers’ short courses in dairying and
horticulture, extending six weeks, beginning about middle of January.
Illinois. Eugene Davenport, Urbana: Offers a two-week course in
agriculture, and also in household science, beginning January 13th.
Indiana. J. N. Skinner, Lafayette: Four courses of eight weeks each,
beginning January 18th, as follows: Agriculture and horticulture;
animal husbandry; dairying; household economics.
Kansas. E. R. Nichols, Manhattan: Offers a ten-week farmers’ short
course, beginning January 5th; a ten-week short course in dairying,
beginning January 5th.
Kentucky. Clarence W. Mathews, Lexington: The college is now
occupying its new building; offers a ten-week business course in
agriculture, beginning January 4th. Tuition free to residents of the
State.
Maine. W. D. Hurd, Orono: Offers an eight-week course in dairying,
farm crops and horticulture; a special poultry course; and a
“Farmers’ Week.”
Maryland. R. W. Silvester, College Park: Ten-week course in
agriculture begins Tuesday, January 5th. Terms: Board, $40 for whole
course; tuition free.
Massachusetts. J. A. Foord, Amherst: 1, dairy farming; 2,
horticulture; 3, general agriculture; tuition free; begin first
Wednesday in January and continue ten weeks. Bee culture; begins
fourth Wednesday in May and continues two weeks.
Michigan. R. S. Shaw, East Lansing: Eight-week courses in general
agriculture, horticulture, creamery and cheese making, beginning
January 5th. No charge for tuition; board and lodging cheap.
Minnesota. E. W. Randall, University Farm, St. Paul: Farmers’ short
course opens January 15th and continues four weeks. Dairy school
opens November 16th and continues four weeks.
Nebraska. A. E. Davisson, Lincoln: The winter course opens January
4th and closes February 20th.
New Hampshire. Fred Rasmussen, Durham: A ten-week course in dairying
begins January 5th.
New Jersey. E. B. Voorhees, New Brunswick: Offers three short
courses, beginning December 1st and closing March 5th, as follows:
General agriculture, dairy farming, market gardening and fruit
growing.
North Carolina. C. L. Newman, West Raleigh: The seven-week course in
agriculture begins January 11th; the one-week course in agriculture,
January 4th.
North Dakota. J. H. Worst, Agricultural College P. O.: Winter short
courses in cooking and sewing are offered for the young ladies. Also
winter lecture courses for the men about farming, stock raising, etc.
New York. L. H. Bailey, Ithaca: Five winter courses, in general
agriculture, in dairying, in poultry husbandry, in horticulture and
in home economics. These courses begin December 8th, close February
24th. (See also New Jersey.)
Ohio. H. C. Price, Columbus: Offers a ten-week course in agriculture,
and a similar course in dairying; both begin January 11th. Also a
four-week course in domestic science, beginning February 1st.
Oklahoma. J. H. Connell, Stillwater: Several instructive short
courses are offered. Write for particulars. Five hundred students
attended these courses last year.
Pennsylvania. Alva Agee, State College P. O.: Five winter courses in
agriculture, beginning December 1st and continuing for twelve weeks.
Write for particulars.
Tennessee. H. A. Morgan, Knoxville: An excellent series of short
courses are planned for the new year. Write for particulars.
Texas. S. E. Andrews, College Station P. O.: A two-year course in
practical farm work. Send for details.
Utah. Registrar, Agricultural College, Logan: Offers winter courses
in agriculture or forestry, domestic arts or mechanic arts, beginning
January 5th.
Washington. E. E. Elliott, Pullman: Offers an eight-week course in
dairying and a twenty-week course in agriculture.
Wisconsin. H. L. Russell, Madison: Offers a twelve-week dairy course,
beginning November 4th; a general course (fourteen weeks), beginning
December 5th, and a ten-day farmers’ course, commencing February 2nd.
Wyoming. J. D. Towar, Laramie: The winter course of eight weeks
begins January 4th.
Information regarding the short courses of several State colleges
was not received in time for insertion here, and so such States are
necessarily omitted from the foregoing list.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
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