18 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



his neighbor's \Yho is a market gardener, he will very probably fail in some of 

 his main farm operations sufficiently to neutralize the success of the garden 

 test. My impression is quite in accord with that of the essayest when he indi- 

 cates that the farmer can afford to do pretty well in the garden what he can 

 do by horse-power. The garden of the farm can be made to furnish the larger 

 part of an excellent living for the family at a slight expense if deftly managed ; 

 but most farmers do not seem to know how. They seem to think the garden 

 must be a piece of ground set off and dedicated to tliis purpose forever, to be 

 shut in by a high fence, to be entered by a small gate, to be ornamented with 

 beds of short rows lifted up higher than the general level. Perhaps this notion 

 is an imported one from some country where land is iiigh and horses are not, 

 at any rate it does not apply to us, and I commend to the farmer a system of 

 long rows which can be attended by a horse and cultivator like any other farm 

 hoed crop. When once such a plan as this is adopted the garden will not be 

 called an expensive luxury, and making garden will not be the dread of the 

 year. 



Judge Lawton. — I would like to ask the Professor a question of practice for 

 information. How deep should beet, carrot and such seed be sown? 



Prof. Beal. — It depends largely upon the kind of soil and its moisture. In 

 ordinary seasons a seed as large as the beet I should sow from lialf an inch to an 

 inch — smaller seed at a less depth — and very small seed like celery I should get as 

 little soil as possible on and have it beneath the surface, I wish to add just a 

 word about celery : it is a marsh plant naturally and we would do well to re- 

 member this in planning to raise it. It does best in low ground where the 

 water is not far from the surface. 



S. M. Pearsall. — Experience is a profitable teacher I think usually. I 

 got to be a man of considerable age — nearly as old as I am now, before I learned 

 how to successfully make an asparagus bed — I found to make a good one it 

 needed a preparation of soil for 18 inches or two feet in depth and two years 

 time before cutting ; but the success is perfect with such care as this. 



George Taylor, Kalamazoo. — I have profited by mistakes made on both 

 sides of the ocean. I find that the right location has a great deal to do with 

 some plants and right treatment for others. For instance I can not upon 

 high, dry, land compete with any show at all in the growing of celery with my 

 neighbor upon a low mucky soil where the plants can be soaking tlieir feet at all 

 times. In the making of an asparagus bed one needs to calculate for a life 

 time — it will last that time if well done. It requires as has been said a deep 

 soil and tliereafter plenty of fertilizers. Salt is sovereign with asparagus. 

 The plant naturally grows along the sea shore and will stand more salt than 

 any valuable plant I know, one pound to the square yard will be a great benefit 

 — but the same amount will kill ordinary garden plants dead. 



Prof. Whitney. — In answer to the question which formed the title to the 

 essay I wish to say, the farmer can afford to have so good a vegetable garden as 

 Avill supply his table the year round with a generous supply of f resli vegetables 

 in variety, and I do not wish to limit l»ini to the more common ones either; I 

 should certainly include celery which is one of the most health-giving in the 

 entire catalogue, and if one does not like it he should learn to straightway, 

 particularly if he is subject to nervousness in any form. It does not take a 

 lifetime to make an asparagus bed ; upon ground well fitted with a good dress- 

 ing of manure each year, and two year plants to begin with, tlie family can 

 have a supply one year from date of planting, provided discretion is used in 

 the cutting. I should choose plants of Conover's colossal, and I can see no 



