1056 Rural School Leaflet 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



Paul Work 



A garden is a source of good fun because every day there is something 

 new to be seen and learned in it. Every year the crop can be made a 

 Httle better, new combinations can be planted, and new results can be 

 achieved. 



Besides being good fun a garden is worth while for its products. Fresh 

 vegetables for the home table go far toward making living better, and 

 good vegetables may be sold so that they will yield a ready return of cash. 

 The young gardener is, moreover, learning tilings that will be useful to 

 him throughout life and that will enable him to enjoy life better. Best 

 of all, he is learning to love plants and the out-of-doors. 



In considering garden work for 191 5, you must first decide whether you 

 are to have a home garden to supply vegetables for your family, or whether 

 you are to have a market garden. The former will be of help to your 

 mother and \vi\l give pleasure to the whole family ; the latter will give you 

 business experience and ready cash. If your garden is to be a money- 

 making proposition, you must keep account of the cost as well as of the 

 income, and you must handle the garden so well that it will pay for itself 

 and yield a profit besides. 



Whether you start a home garden or a market garden, do not undertake 

 it on too large a scale. A small garden well tilled is much better than a 

 large one neglected. Do not try to plant all of the kinds of vegetables. 

 For a market garden do not plant more than three kinds. For the home 

 garden ten or twelve kinds of vegetables should be enough for the first 

 year. If you are successful with these, you may include more the next 

 year. It is better to regulate the size of your garden according to the 

 amount of weeding and hoeing you are willing to do in the hot sun of next 

 July rather than according to your enthusiasm for looking at catalogues 

 by the fireside in January. 



Begin work on your garden early. The plan should be made and care- 

 fully studied, so that time may be saved during the planting season. 

 Seed should be bought well in advance and should be tested. Too much 

 care cannot be used in the spading and raking of the soil. If the garden 

 plot is large enough to work with horse labor, your results will be achieved 

 with less cost, and the profits will be greater. 



Above all, give the garden good care from the day the spade is first 

 driven into the soil until the last bit of refuse is cleared away in the fall. 

 Hoeing, weeding, thinning, and training are absolutely necessary. Every, 

 neglect is followed by loss in the crop, and poor crops mean discouragement 

 and failure. They spoil the fim. It is better to have no garden than a 

 poor one. 



