212 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



started out with a late season, very late. You remember the storm 

 of the 21st and 22nd of April was the severest storm we had, and 

 by the time we got our crops in, it was very late. We started out 

 with pretty fair success, but, you remember, about the first of June 

 our dry season conimenced, and it cut our crops short in manj' in- 

 stances. Of early cabbage, our crop was very light. Our peas were 

 almost a failure, especiallj' those on sand}' land, which were an en- 

 tire failure. Our onion crop was a very fair one; they matured very 

 nicely. I think we had a better crop than we had the year before in 

 quality, but not in quantity. The later crops of the season from the 

 latter part of May up to the 10th of June, such as beets, beans and 

 one thing and another, were almost an entire failure. We had to de- 

 pend almost entirely upon our later crop, unless the crop was sowed 

 early. Those that sowed earlj' got a fair crop. In our late cabbage 

 we were detained in planting; where we ought to have put in our 

 late crop from the 15th to the latter part of June, the majoritj^ of the 

 crop was put in as late as the 10th of July; the effect was that it inade 

 a very late crop that was not good enough to keep, and there was 

 scarcely any cabbage on the market that would keep through the 

 winter. 



I have a little idea in connection with this subject; I made a little 

 list of what we would call a "farmer's garden." I have heard two or 

 three mentioning the fact that the}' thought a crop of small fruits 

 was a great promoter of harmony in the household, and I think the 

 farmer's garden is a success in that direction, also. My idea is to 

 take an acre of ground and lay it out twenty rods long and eight 

 i-ods wide, and plant the coarser varieties from two to three feet 

 apart, such as peas, etc.; and I want to say right here that a farmer's 

 garden is not a garden until you have a bed of asparagus and pie- 

 plant in it. Starting with that, you can carry a farmer's family in 

 nice shape through the season, from that down to peas, radishes 

 and everything of that kind, which can be raised very easily with an 

 hour's work each day. And I venture the ladies of the house will 

 learn to highly appreciate it in getting up a meal for their hired 

 help. 



TOMATO CULTURE IN THE MARKET GARDEN. 



J. A. SAMl'SOX, EXCELSIOK. 



Tomatoes are both fruit and vegetable. The vast amount of to- 

 matoes grown and marketed show how staple they are as a food. I 

 retail my first tomatoes of the season at ten cents per pound. I 

 generally plant or set out about an acre of tomatoes each season, 

 and figure on an income of one hundred dollars from them. My cus- 

 tomers buy green tomatoes to cook into pies mixed with green ap- 

 ples; they buy them ripe to use on the table sliced and served with 

 vinegar and sugar, or with sugar and cream, or with pepper and 

 salt; they buy them to fry or to stew with broken pieces of bread; 

 they buy them to make into catsup or to can for winter; they 

 buy them green to make into piccalilli or to make into straight to- 

 mato pickles; they buy them ripe to eat from the hand, as one would 



