STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1 87 



(next the roadway), may be planted with blackberries and raspberries. 

 The borders next the fence may still be used for tender dwarf fruits, etc. 

 But, says the farmer, " what sball I do with the flower garden.^ I know 

 little or nothing about flowers." Well you are not expected to do any- 

 thing with them but admire them. These, and their culture, may, as I 

 said before, be safely left to the ladies. The flower garden is their natural 

 province. You are not expected to do much about the vegetable garden 

 either, except to furnisli the best man you have, always under the super- 

 vision of the ladies of the household, and enjoy the fruits thereof at 

 breakfast, dinner, and tea. The labor of one man will do it, and it will be 

 the best investment of a one-man-power that you have ever made. It will 

 bring plenty to your household, drive away fever and ague, and megrims, 

 and the various other diseases incident to a diet of "hog and hommy," to 

 say nothing of aftbrding a very pleasant place in which to stroll of a sum- 

 mer evening, after tea, and admire what a little pleasant labor will 

 accomplish. But perhaps you will say, "what has this to do with 

 economic gardening.'"' A part of the economy is in having a compact 

 little place combining the ornamental with the useful, but much more in 

 the renewed health and vigor that a diet composed largely of succulent 

 vegetables will give you. 



But the next thing is how to grow them economically, and this can be 

 accomplished in a well-drained soil, deeply tilled, heavily manured, 

 and watered when diy. The drainage we suppose to be good. If not, 

 make it so by thorough draining with tile, laid at least three feet deep. 

 This may cost you sixty or seventy dollars, but it will be money well 

 expended. It is one of the pre-rcquisites in gardening. The deep 

 tillage may be accomplished by the aid of three horses, or which is 

 better, three mules, abreast. Each and every plat of this garden may be 

 manured from the inain and circular roadway, and the watering 

 may be accomplished by means of a force pump in the center, and a 

 hose. 



The Hot-bed — that sine qua iion of ever)' well-airanged garden — is 

 placed near the entrance at the south of the road way. This will enable 

 you to handle the sash and covers easily, and it will, besides, be near 

 enough to the water to be easily accessible. In cropping a garden, the 

 deeper the tilth, the more manure may be applied; and this should 

 always be thoroughly decomposed if possible. If this is the case, one 

 hundred loads may be safely applied, to start with, and thereafter, from 

 thirty to forty loads annually. But some of you may say, " It is no easy 

 matter to plow under one hundred loads of manure." It is easy enough, 

 however. Spread, evenly, forty loads over the surface and harrow thor- 

 oughly, then with your deep tiller plow this in — a foot deep if you can. 

 Spread forty loads nnore and plow six or eight inches deep. Then spread 

 twenty loads of the flnest manure on top, and in the spring before work- 

 ing the land, harrow it until the tilth is perfect. The other work should 

 have been done in the fall. Upon a soil preparctl in this manner you 

 will not sufler from too much, or from a lack of moisture, and your 

 principal waterings will have to be expended upon yourrhubai'b, aspara- 



