How and what to grow in a kitchen garden of one acre

BY E. D. DARLINGTON.

In order to treat this subject in detail, I shall first write on what the kitchen garden should be, where it should be, and how to keep it in the best order to produce the desired results, then take up “What to grow” and “How to grow it.”

SITUATION OF THE GARDEN.

The garden should be situated conveniently near the farm buildings, as it should be visited frequently; a variety of tools are needed in its care, and each should be put away as soon as done with, that it may be preserved in the best order for use. It is often necessary to carry water to help along young transplanted stock that has been overtaken by a dry spell. Where the distance has to be traversed so frequently, it naturally follows that the shorter it is the greater will be the saving in time and the less likely is the garden to be neglected.

The garden should be as nearly level as possible, or, if sloping, not so much so as to be in danger of being washed by heavy rains. If sloping, the slope should lie to the south, or as nearly south as possible. A plantation or hedge of evergreens on the north side of the garden will be found a wonderful aid to the earliness of the garden truck and to the hardiness of the small fruit plants and roots which remain in the ground all winter; if a woods or high hill be directly on the north and northwest of your garden, it will answer nearly as well as the hedge of evergreens. The garden should be so situated as to have good surface drainage; without this or expensive underdraining, it will hardly be possible to raise early or fine vegetables at any profit. These I consider the most essential points in selecting the plot for the garden; of course, a good, rich soil is to be desired, but the gardener can, by the liberal use of manure and thorough cultivation, remedy a deficiency of this kind in a couple of years, while he cannot make a favorable location for early vegetables on a north slope if he should try a lifetime. By a careful study of the varieties in cultivation, and by trials of their merits in your garden and on your table, experience will be gained which will enable you to grow as fine vegetables and fruits on heavy soil as on light, sandy loam, and vice versa.

THE SOIL OF THE GARDEN.

Ground that has been worked in some cultivated farm crop, such as corn or potatoes, is more desirable for starting a garden than fresh sod land, as it is more easily brought into fine condition in the early spring; while grass is one of the hardest weeds to exterminate, especially among small hoed crops, such as strawberries, onions, beets, etc. Sod land is also often full of grubs, which work havoc among the strawberry plants and young melon and squash vines. In either new ground or in the old established garden, it will be of great advantage to put the long, coarse manure on the ground in the fall, and plow it well under as soon as the ground can be cleared of the summer crops. The soil should be left just as it is plowed, without harrowing, leaving the lumps and ridges to the action of the frost. This will be found of especial benefit to heavy soils that are late in drying in the spring; it also adds a great deal to the appearance and cleanliness of the garden, as the weeds, old stalks, etc., are all cut off and burnt before plowing, instead of being left to scatter their seeds with every winter wind.

The gases arising from the decaying of the coarse manure in the soil tend to lighten it, instead of being wasted in the air, as is the case when the manure is in heaps or in the barnyard. By plowing-time in the spring the manure will have assimilated with the soil and will be thoroughly worked through the cultivated surface, thus affording food for the crops in all stages. If such manure is applied in the spring, it will make dry or thin soil still drier, and unless plowed well under, where it would take the roots a long time to reach it, will burn the young plants up if the season should happen to be a dry one. The great value of compost in starting young plants is that it affords rich food in proper form for the tender young rootlets, enabling the young plants to make a quick, tender growth, which is very essential if vegetables of fine quality are desired. By fall manuring and plowing the whole garden is composted, while the action of the frost on the lumps and ridges pulverizes them, leaving the soil in a fine, friable condition.

LAYING OUT THE GARDEN.

It is most convenient to have the garden as nearly square as possible, which in our garden of one acre will be 208 x 208 feet. This makes the length of the rows a very good measure of the quantity to be grown, and affords as many rows to the ground as can be profitably worked, for it is desirable that the rows should be as nearly east and west as possible, and they should be the long way of the plot (if not a square), as it will result in great saving of time in planting and cultivating. Moving the line and drawing the cultivators out of one row and turning into the next, takes nearly as much time as the working of the short row.

In plowing, a good, wide headland should be left at each end of the garden; it should be wide enough to allow the horse and cultivator to come clear out from between the rows and to turn into the next row, without damaging the plants at the ends of the rows by trampling and dragging the cultivator over them.

In winter, while there is plenty of time before the spring opens, the summer campaign should be planned—what vegetables are to be raised and what quantity of each will be needed, in what part of the garden it will be best to plant each variety so that the pollen from different members of the same family, such as cucumbers and cantaloupes, will not mix and spoil each other’s fine flavor. If the soil is of different quality in different parts of the garden, it should be planned so that the heavy and the lighter portions shall be occupied by such crops as will succeed best in the respective soils.

Ease of cultivation and the rotation or succession of crops should also be considered. The small-growing plants which require hand hoeing should be together, and likewise those which are to be worked with the horse cultivator. Where the ground is to bear two crops—one planted after the other has matured and been taken off—it will be of advantage to have such crops together, thus making larger plots for the replowing and a consequent saving of time and work.

Beside these conditions in laying out a new garden, when it comes to the second or succeeding seasons, the crop or crops raised in the plot the year before must be taken into account. The situation of the crop of each particular vegetable should be moved to another part, as each draws certain proportions of the food elements from the soil, and those of a different character should occupy the ground in rotation, that the soil may be kept in the richest state. Thus the quality or size of the crop will not be lessened by being planted in a situation that it has depleted, to some extent, of its own particular food the year before. Reference should also be had to the kind of food which the plant requires, as in the case of strawberries and potatoes, which should not succeed each other without special manures, as they both exhaust, to a great extent, the potash in the soil, so that the soil, having borne a heavy crop of one, would of necessity make but a poor return of the other if planted in direct succession. If this cannot be overcome by a change of location, the gardener will know that the proper food elements have been depleted by the previous crop, and must try to supply them with special manure or commercial fertilizers.

It is of great importance to rapid work and good gardening that all this should be arranged and settled in the gardener’s mind, or better, plotted out on paper, before the first plowing is done in the spring. The plan being kept would be valuable in laying out the garden the succeeding year, as it would show just where each vegetable had been grown and where the different kinds of manure had been applied. If, in addition, the success of the various crops and notes of their growth were marked upon it, it would form a most valuable text-book for the study of improved gardening, each garden being an experimental station and each gardener a student in pursuit of knowledge and advancement in his work, feeding at the same time both physical and intellectual needs.

DIAGRAM OF THE GARDEN.

The accompanying plan may be of use to the novice in gardening on the scale suggested by our subject, as it is planned to admit of a proportionate quantity of such vegetables and fruits as are grown in the ordinary garden, while directions for planting and cultivating the various vegetables will be found in the special descriptions of the several varieties. (See p. 16.)

PROCURING THE SEEDS AND PLANTS.

KEY TO DIAGRAM.

Having the plan of work all settled, the next thing is to know what is to be grown, the varieties of each that are best adapted to the situation and soil of the garden, and where they can be procured of the best quality. Under this head come the seeds needed for the vegetables and the roots, tips and runners for the plantings of small fruits. This should be done as soon as convenient, as I have found by experience it is a great saving to have the entire supply of seeds on hand a week or two before it is possible to begin planting. This is an important item, as I have sometimes lost my crop from planting inferior seed purchased at the last moment from the commissioned seeds that are sold in the country stores. It does not pay to economize or try to garden with poor seeds; it is a waste of time and labor in planting, and a waste of ground and manure, as the inferior vegetables raised will hardly cover the original cost of the seed. The gardener who sells his products, unless his crops are of the best, will soon find his trade falling off, and will be compelled to seek new customers each market day. Personally, I have found it more satisfactory and productive of better results to buy each season almost all the seeds needed from some reliable seedsman, rather than to depend on those of my own saving. For instance, such as peas, sweet corn and other vegetables, where the earlier the crop is ready to market the greater the profit; these mature much earlier if the seed is procured from reliable seedsmen who have their supplies grown in the North. Such northern grown seeds retain their instinct to hurry up and mature in a short season, while in one’s own saving they begin even in the first year to grow more leisurely and to accommodate themselves to the longer season. In the case of peas, those grown in Northern New York and Canada, such as are sold by all our leading seedsmen, will mature from one to two weeks earlier than those saved in our own neighborhood. The northern peas are also generally free from the weevil or striped bug, which bores the large round hole in all the home-saved peas and destroys their germinating power. So it is with almost every known variety of vegetable; each has some special locality in which it reaches a higher degree of perfection than in others less favorably situated. While, of course, these facts are of interest to the gardener, they are only learned after years of experience, and it is the seedsman’s business to know the peculiarities of the different varieties, and to raise or procure his stock from the best strains grown in the most favorable localities. It is for the gardener to purchase from a seedsman whom he knows to be thoroughly reliable, and whose interest it will be to serve him with prompt shipments and carefully-selected strains of the vegetables desired. All this is equally true of the nursery-man or small-fruit grower from whom the supply of roots and plants is to be purchased. On no part of the farm is “Pedigree Stock” of more importance than in the kitchen garden. I will speak further on of the saving of seeds, and refer now only to those which it is necessary to buy. First, it is often a saving of several days to have the seed on hand, as it is sometimes impossible to foretell just when you will need the seed to plant a certain plot, how soon the ground will be fit to work, or how soon will come the opportunity, in the press of other work; if you have the seed at hand that part is always ready, and this is quite an item where the garden frequently has to be attended to in the intervals of farm work. Next, it is a cash saving to order all your seeds at one time. If, as is most frequently the case, you have to send to some large city for your supply, by procuring all that you need at one time, you have but one freight or express charge to pay. In making up your order, stick to the old varieties that you know suit your soil and your market; all the more if your market is your own table, for the greatest pleasure in gardening is in testing the merits of your fruits and vegetables with the appetite engendered by their culture. Also take into consideration the preferences of the household department as to the cooking merits of the different varieties. Do not experiment with your main crop of any vegetable, but do not neglect to try such new varieties as seem to possess merit, for the varieties are being continually improved by good culture and selection, as well as by hybridization or cross-breeding. To have a fine garden, the gardener must know the merits of all new and old varieties, and be as progressive as is the successful man in any other line of business. I know of nothing so interesting as watching the growth and development of some new and improved variety that has been recommended to the gardening public in the most glowing terms, and often in glowing colors on a beautiful colored plate. Although I have been “taken in” fully as often as the average gardener of my experience, I have been many times repaid all trouble and outlay by the numerous successes that I have met with and the great improvement in some of the varieties grown. Sometimes I have made quite a nice little sum out of these novelties, when I have been able to sell the selected seed of the new variety to some other seedsman or to my neighbors. In these new varieties, more than in any others, do you need to order early, or, instead of the seed that you desire and which is to make reputation and money for you, “being something superior to anything ever grown before,” you may get one of those provoking little slips stating that the seedsman “regrets to inform you that, owing to the great demand, the supply is exhausted for this season, and hopes that the substituted kind will do as well.”

HOTBEDS AND COLD FRAMES.

With a garden of this size I would have hotbeds, cold frames and rich seed beds of fine light soil; these I would not have in the garden itself unless that be the most convenient place. Where there is time to attend to them, they will be a measure of economy, it being much cheaper to raise than to buy the plants, if you use more than a few dozens, while, if you have the time and room, quite a business can be done by supplying your neighbors who do not garden on such an extensive scale. It is best to locate the frames on the sunny side of a barnyard wall, or against a building that will shield them from the north wind and make a warm nook for them on sunshiny days. They should be situated conveniently near both to the manure pile and to a good supply of water, where they will constantly be under the eye in passing to and from the farm work and will not suffer neglect from being forgotten or overlooked. It is quite important that there should be good drainage from these beds, as they are most needed at a rainy time of the year; dampness is not only injurious to the young plants, but it also takes up a great deal of the heat which should go toward forwarding the growth of the young plants. The sashes can be bought, ready painted and glazed, at the planing mills in most cities, and this is much the cheapest way to procure them, as they can often be bought for what the bare sash would cost in a small order at a country shop. They come 3¼ feet wide by 6 feet in length, and are 1½ to 2 inches in thickness, and if stored in the dry when not in use, and are treated to an occasional coat of paint, will last a lifetime.

Three or four sash would be amply sufficient for a garden of an acre if used in succession, sowing one lot of seed as the preceding planting is set out in the garden; though, of course, more sash can be handled without any great increase of labor, and the season much advanced by growing radishes, lettuce, beets, etc., to maturity under the glass.

In making the hotbed, dig a trench a few inches short of six feet in width, or as wide as the sashes will cover, about two feet in depth and as long as the combined width of the number of sashes which you wish to use. This is then to be boarded up with rough boards, but they should be neatly joined and plastering laths or building paper tacked over the cracks, so as not to waste the heat. The back or north side of this frame should be 6 or 8 inches higher than the front, so that the rain may run off the sashes. The sashes held at an angle in this manner will also receive more sunlight for the front part of the bed than if front and back were level. The whole frame of the bed should be banked round with the dirt thrown out, or better with fresh stable manure, which will help to keep it warm and will make a bank to drain away any surface water, which, being very cold in the spring, would, if allowed to penetrate the bed, tend to chill the heat of the fermenting manure, and consequently check the growth of the young and tender plants, even if it did not generate that great enemy of all young plants, fungus or mildew, causing them to rot or “damp off.”

Or, if there is plenty of fresh stable manure at hand, it can be corded in a pile two feet high and extending a foot wider than the sash frame on all sides; and when the frame has been put in position on the heap, the manure should be carried up on the outside nearly to the top of the boards, making a warm jacket for the plants within. A portable frame of boards is made for the sash to rest on, twelve inches high at the back and eight inches in front. This style of bed does away with any digging and secures good drainage for the bed. It would probably be the most satisfactory way for the gardener, who is also a farmer, as the bed can easily be removed as soon as it has served its purpose for the season, and the manure, which has become well rotted by this time will make an excellent compost for corn, melons, celery, etc. The frame and sash can also be set on a good piece of ground in the fall and filled with young lettuce plants in the early part of October, which will furnish salad throughout the winter.

The manure and litter which are to produce the heat for the bed should be thoroughly forked over and heaped together a week or ten days before the beds are to be started. While a large proportion of the material should be fresh horse stable manure, where a large quantity of heating material is needed, it can be mixed with any litter obtainable, such as straw, leaves from the woods, weeds, cut fodder, or anything that will furnish bulk and that will decay rapidly, and, by decaying, produce heat; when the material has all been gathered and heaped solidly together, a good sprinkling with water, hot, if possible, will aid in starting the fermentation. In about a week or two, when the heat of the heap has gone down to 95° or 100°, the manure should be placed in the beds and well trampled down; it should come up to within eight inches of the front of the frame and should be covered with about three and a half or four inches of fine, rich soil. It is a good plan to sift the dirt through a coal sieve, as it then makes a fine bed for the seeds and young plants.

Place the sashes on as soon as this is done; handling the manure and repacking it will produce some fresh heat and it will still be too warm to sow any seed, but the heat will destroy such weed seeds as may be in the soil, and the steam and gases arising from the manure will tend to put the soil in the finest possible condition for forwarding the growth of the young plants. A thermometer should be placed in the soil of the bed every day or two, to see if the temperature has fallen sufficiently to admit of sowing the seeds. As soon as the temperature has fallen to about 75°; or, if no thermometer is at hand, as soon as the top sod is only perceptibly warm to the palm of the hand, the bed should be sprinkled, and as soon as this has dried off a little, rake it up thoroughly and sow the seed. The seed will produce finer and stockier plants if sown in drills about six inches apart, which will admit light and air to the roots of the plants, and will permit a weekly hoeing. In planting seeds, the depth of their covering should be about five times the diameter of the seed, and this covering should be firmly packed around them after planting. The starting and planting of these beds must be calculated, so as to have the plants ready to set out as soon as the garden can be worked. In this vicinity (Philadelphia) the first sowing of cauliflowers, lettuce, beets and early cabbage should be made about February 15th, or even earlier, depending on the forwardness of the season or of your own particular garden. The plants will then be of a suitable size for transplanting by the time the early part of the garden has been plowed. If the sashes are covered with old carpets or straw on cold nights, it will be a great saving of the heating power of the manure and will prevent the young plants from being chilled. The young plants should be treated to fresh air whenever the outside temperature is not too cold, that they may not become “drawn,” or “spindle up” into long, slim stems. As planting-out time approaches, the young plants should be left uncovered as frequently as is safe, that they may become sufficiently hardy not to miss the covering when removed to the open ground.

Tomatoes, peppers and egg plants and a second sowing of early cabbage should be sown in the same manner about the middle of March. If a few extra early plants are wanted, they can be transplanted into the earliest beds when the cabbage and other plants have been set out in the garden, and the sash again put on. If some sweet potatoes are buried about two inches deep in the dirt of one of the cabbage frames, and kept warm, they will produce a fine lot of sprouts, or, as they are called, “sets,” which can be broken off and planted in the garden when the weather has become sufficiently warm. If a number are wanted, or there is danger of their growing too large, they can be taken off and “heeled in” in another sash until planting time, and the potatoes put back again, as they will produce two or three crops of the sets. Or a hill of cucumbers can be planted in the centre of each sash as a second crop, and by the time it would be warm enough to leave them uncovered, these will have filled up the frame with bearing vines, gaining at least a month on those planted in the open ground.

While the cabbage, cauliflower, beets and lettuce may be planted out as soon as all danger of frost is over, the tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, etc., should not be set out until the thermometer stands at over 60° all night, or until the oak leaves are as large as a five-cent piece. In a small hotbed it is best to have a partition between each sash and the one next to it, so that such as are tender varieties may be kept warm and the more hardy cabbage may have plenty of fresh air, for if the latter should become “drawn,” all the advantages of an early start will be lost and the plants may become entirely worthless.

Sowings of seeds for early plants may be made in the same manner as above described for hotbeds, in cold frames, which are the same without the artificial heat germinated by fermenting manure, depending solely on the heat of the sun and the protection of the sash to forward the plants. They can be planted about two weeks later than the dates given for the respective vegetables in hotbeds, and the plants will be ready for setting out about the same length of time later than those raised with the artificial heat. These frames can also be used for wintering over a few fall-sown cabbage plants, which are useful in a very early season and can be kept full of parsley, lettuce, etc., making a pleasant variety of greens for the table during the winter.

As soon as it is warm enough to dig them and bring them into fine order, seed beds should be made in a sheltered spot of the garden, for the sowings of late cabbage and celery, which will be spoken of in detail under the special directions for growing these vegetables.

TOOLS.

Although not positively necessary, it is of great advantage to have a variety of tools for thoroughly working the soil and to facilitate the labor of planting and harvesting the crops, and exterminating weeds. If, however, the garden is as well cultivated as it should be, there will be no chance for weeds to start, as they will all be destroyed in their earliest stages.

While there is a general assortment of tools on every farm suitable for use in the garden, I will give a short list of some especially adapted for use in the kitchen garden and the modes and purposes of using them.

First is the Plow. For the first plowing in the spring, and for the general plowing in the fall, I use a large two-horse plow, which takes a generous slice and will put the manure down as may be wished and return the enriched soil to the surface in the spring, again turning in another coat of manure, if it is to be had in sufficient quantities to do so. So long as the fresh manure does not come in direct contact with the young plants, I do not think it is possible to put in too much, at least in the first three years of the garden. In my soil, which is rather heavy, I plow six to eight inches deep; in light soil I would plow deeper, as the roots penetrate it much more rapidly. For working among the strawberries and permanent rows of small fruits, I use a light one-horse plow, with a swingle tree just wide enough to permit the horse to move freely; this plow is also used in plowing out the potatoes and in preparing the ground for a second crop. If the share is kept sharp, as it always should be, it will be found very useful in the cultivation of the berries, melons, etc., as with a good plowman it will go deep or shallow, or will slip around some point to be missed much easier than the cultivator.

When these plows are not in use I give the mould-board and all bright parts a coat of thick whitewash; this keeps them from rusting, so that plowing a single round leaves them bright and shining. A coat of this on all bright tools, spades, hoes, etc., in the fall, will keep them in the best order through the winter, so that no time will be lost getting them into good working condition in the spring.

A good companion to the light plow is a one-horse Harrow, of a V shape, with long, slender teeth. It is a splendid tool for making a good, deep bed of fine earth for seed sowing or setting out small plants. Where more land has been plowed than is needed for immediate planting, I run over it with this implement when working the balance of the garden, so keeping it clear of weeds and in fine condition for planting. It is especially convenient to have the ground in this shape for planting cabbage, celery, tomatoes, etc., as you can take advantage of a good shower to set them out while the ground is thoroughly wet. My plan is to commence planting when the rain begins, the fresh plants having the full benefit of the shower.

The Roller and the Harrow generally go in succession, and a light one-horse roller will be found very convenient, but the large farm roller will do equally good work where one is at hand and there is room for it to be used. A small hand roller, about three feet in width, for rolling in small drilled seeds, such as beets, onions, turnips, etc., and by which the dirt can be settled over a row of peas or corn when only a few rows are planted at once, will many times repay the labor of making it. A piece of six- or eight-inch drain pipe, with the bell knocked off, an iron bar run through the centre for an axle, and the whole inside filled with mortar or concrete and allowed to get perfectly hard, will make as fine a hand roller as need be, or one can very easily be made from a smooth section of a tree trunk. This implement would probably be much more useful than the one-horse roller. It always pays to roll ground every time it is plowed, and too much stress cannot be laid on the value of firmly compacting the soil around freshly sown seed.

The Cultivator is the most important and most frequently used tool in the garden, and should be of the best make obtainable. I consider the Iron Age or Planet, Jr., the best, they having a light iron frame which is very strong without being clumsy; the spreading bars close inward, so that they do not catch or interfere with the plants in narrow rows, and admit of working rows not more than two feet apart, so that the ground can be cropped to its full capacity. They have a variety of adjustable and reversible teeth, including plow, shovel and cutting teeth, which will throw the soil to or from the row, or leave it loose and level; in light soil this cultivator will loosen and let in the air seven or eight inches deep. These adjustable teeth are all sharpened at each end so that they can be turned around, so saving the number of times that they will need grinding, as both ends can be used and one grinding suffice where it would take two in the ordinary style of teeth. When worn out, the whole set can be taken off and new ones purchased at a very moderate cost. This part of the implement should be well watched and the teeth kept in good cutting condition, as it will not only kill the weeds a great deal more thoroughly when sharp, but will also be much lighter of draft.

Next to the cultivator comes the Wheel Hoe or hand cultivator. By the use of this implement, roots and small growing vegetables, such as onions, beets, parsnips, lettuce, radishes, parsley, etc., may be planted and thoroughly worked in rows from six to twenty-four inches apart; thus more than doubling the amount that can be raised by horse cultivation. A good implement will not throw dirt over the small plants as the larger cultivator does, so that the rows can be worked closely enough to avoid having to be gone over with the hand hoe after the thinning out has been done. In my experience, I have found that a man can hoe more ground and do it twice as deep and well in one hour with one of these implements than he could do in a day with the old style hand hoe. There are numerous styles of wheel hoes on the market, but the only good one that I have ever seen is “Lee’s Wheel Hoe,” which is made in Philadelphia under the patent of the inventor, who is himself a prominent trucker. It is strong, light and well built; it has five sharp, finger-shaped teeth back of the wheel, which loosen and pulverize the soil, and a broad hoe blade behind, which travels beneath the surface, turning the soil over and cutting off under ground any weeds which may be in its track. When the soil is in good order, it leaves it as smooth and fine as would a steel rake. To obtain the best results with this tool or with the cultivator, you should go through each row three or four times, so as to pulverize and work over the soil thoroughly. The hoe blades are of different widths, for working rows of different widths, a set of three going with each implement. These hoes can easily be sharpened by any blacksmith. Keep them well sharpened, and it will be surprising to note how much less muscle it takes to push them and how much better the work is done. I have tried several different makes, as I work an acre or more each year with one of these hoes and a “Fire-fly” hand plow, which is run before the wheel hoe when the ground is very hard, and Lee’s is the only one that works satisfactorily. When the ground is in the best condition a man can hoe the acre in a single day, so that it will readily be seen what a labor saver it is.

The Fire-fly Hand Plow just spoken of is a very convenient tool for making drills, and will plow out a furrow from one to four inches deep, for sowing peas, corn, beans, etc., and coming back alongside of the open furrow will cover them nicely, not taking one-quarter of the time necessary to make the drill with a hoe and cover with a rake, as it is ordinarily done. It is also very handy to strike out a furrow in this way when planting strawberries, cabbages, tomatoes, etc., especially where two are employed on the same work, as one can strike out the furrows, and drop a plant where each one is to stand, while the other, following, sets the plant with one hand and with the other pulls in and places the loose covering dirt, and finally tramps the soil firmly round the new-set plants with his feet. These two last-mentioned tools are very useful in the ordinary small garden; they enable the work to be done much more quickly and very much more thoroughly than is often the case, the spring spading being generally the only good stirring the soil gets in the season.

A Seed Drill is a very handy tool, but it is quite expensive. In the kitchen garden there is seldom more than one or two rows across the garden to be sown with any one kind of seed, and this can be done almost in the time it would take to adjust the drill, although the drill works a great deal more evenly than the seed can be sown by hand. On a farm where root crops are raised for soiling, the drill will be a measure of economy, even for a single season, and can readily be used in the garden. The combined implements, with plowing and hoeing attachments, are “a delusion and a snare;” if you want a tool that will do good work, and will not get out of order or break, do not have it “combined” with anything else.

Of Hand-hoes, Steel Rakes, Trowels, Spades, Shovels, etc., there should be enough to furnish each man employed, as it is frequently desirable to have all hands working on the same job. Of these, the hoes, spades and trowels should have an intimate and frequent calling acquaintance with the grind-stone. It is much easier to work with a sharp hoe or spade, and the work is much better when done.

There should be a good stout cotton Line, long enough to reach across the garden, and a reel to keep it on is a great convenience, as it takes such a short time to wind it up that there is not the same temptation to leave it out all night. A good cotton line, carefully housed, will last for years, and is one of the most important requisites in the garden. Neatness is one of the essentials of good gardening, and I have never known a gardener successful who was “hit or miss” in laying out his rows; every plant must be squarely in the row to admit of close working with the cultivator. If it is necessary to keep a few inches away from the row to avoid cutting the stragglers, either the soil is not loosened around the plant as it should be, or it has to be gone over with the hand hoe, which consumes time in a large garden.

PLANTING THE GARDEN.

It is common in most gardens to plant blackberries, raspberries, currants, etc., around the fences. This is not only a waste of half the fruit, as it can only be borne on one side, but involves much needless labor in keeping the plants trimmed and worked, and unless hoed frequently the plot becomes a harbor for weeds. The only advantage in so planting is the protection the fence affords in winter, as it catches the flying leaves and weeds in the fall, and these with the shade afforded by the fence and drifted snow make a natural protection for the roots and canes. It is not the severity of the frost which determines the hardiness of a plant, so much as its ability to withstand freezing and thawing in rapid succession. For this reason I would have the small fruits planted at the north side of the garden, especially if it be the highest part, and if there is some kind of wind-break or protection, as this will cause the snow to drift and lie longer, making a natural covering, while the slope will drain the surface water quickly away, so that it does not form hard ice around the crowns.

If it were possible, I would prefer to have no fence around the garden, as it makes it much easier to keep clean. A fence is always a nuisance and waste of ground unless absolutely necessary; but if a fence is needed, have one that will not only keep out stock, but also the gardener’s most aggravating enemy, the poultry. A scratching hen seems to have an instinct which tells her as soon as the seed has been planted, and which are the hills containing the choicest varieties.

In plowing the ground in the early spring, I think it is best not to plow more than is needed for the first planting, and to plow the remainder somewhat later, when it has become more dry and friable, as it will not then become packed and hard again by the heavy spring rains. For the first planting the ground should be plowed and planted as soon as it can be got in order; the hardier vegetables will even stand a light frost, and while adapting their growth to the weather, will be ready to take advantage of the first warm spring days. I shall speak of the time of planting and sowing in the chapters devoted to the separate treatment of the different vegetables.

The following simple test will be of use to the novice in determining not only when to plow, but also when to cultivate and hoe the ground. Take a portion of the soil in the hand and try to press it into a ball; if it makes a ball and sticks to the hand it is too wet, while if it crushes hard it is too dry. In both cases, if worked in this condition, it will be left in a hard and lumpy state, that will take a long time to bring into good order. To be in good working condition the soil should crumble easily and finely in the hand, and should leave no dirt adhering to the fingers. It will not only give the best results when worked in this state, but it can also be done in half the time. Sometimes we cannot wait until the ground is in the very best order, as in a drought in summer, when it is needed for the second crop. In such a case it must be brought into as fine condition as possible by repeated harrowing and rolling; the latter is an operation too frequently neglected in the ordinary garden; every farmer knows the value of having the soil firmly compacted round the fresh-sown grain, and it is of equal value in every variety of seed sown in the garden. Where there is not room for the roller to be used after sowing a row, I always have it pressed in by the broad sole of the gardener’s boot, which nature usually provides shall be of generous size. It is even more important that the soil should be firmly pressed around the roots of newly-set plants, as if this is not done the first heavy rain uses the roots as water courses, and deprived of contact with the soil, the roots rot off and the plants are stunted or die.

Among the first things to be planted in the spring are the small fruits, such as grapes, blackberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, etc. These should all be in the kitchen garden, and with them the rhubarb and asparagus beds, where they can and will be cultivated as well as the vegetables, the soil kept loose and free from weeds, that they may devote their energies to making strong canes and bearing fine fruit, instead of wasting their strength in a continuous battle for life with grass and weeds, leaving them an easy prey to insects and disease. Those who have never given them this thorough cultivation will be surprised at the large crops and superior quality of the fruit that can be raised under these favorable circumstances. These fruits, when once planted, with the exception of strawberries, last for many years if well manured, trimmed and cultivated. They should all be at one side of the garden, where they will not be in the way of working the garden with the large plow in the spring and fall, but should have their own plowing with the small plow, two to four inches in depth, spring and fall. In the fall plowing the furrows should be turned toward the row, which will bank them up slightly and afford additional protection through the winter. In the spring this ridge can be worked down level again with the plow and cultivator, the dirt from around the crowns being drawn away with an ordinary hand hoe.

In planting the rows in the spring, the width of the cultivator and swingle tree must be taken into account. If the ground has been heavily manured the vegetables can be planted as closely as will admit of working, and allowing a good supply of light and air to the roots, excepting melons, and other vines, which should have plenty of room in which to spread and sun themselves. Thus, peas, beets, bush beans, etc., can be sowed as closely as two and one-half feet apart, while corn, pole beans, etc., which grow as high as the horse’s sides and the cultivator handles, should have the rows four or four and one-half feet apart, not only to allow of working but to admit of the sunshine and air penetrating to the roots.