430 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 





INTENSIVE FARMING. 



T^jH^^IP AST fall I became convinced that I had been trying to farm 

 .^WM® J!^ on too extensive a scale ; that I had spent a great deal of 

 ^^^JF^^^ time, labor and money in cultivating a large area rather 

 V ^UterJjlf ^ indifferently, and I determined to see what I could do this 

 year in the way of intensive farming. I selected a piece of 

 land about as poor as any on the farm — which, by the way, 

 is saying a good deal — but chose it because it was sheltered 

 ^^***" V ▼ by a cedar hedge from the north-west winds, and had a 

 slight slope toward the south-east. On this piece, 250 feet by 70 feet (about 

 four-tenths of an acre) I spread manure from my cow stables — rich from feeding 

 cotton-seed meal, bran and corn meal — covering the land at least three inches 

 deep. I plowed and harrowed it carefully, and September 20, sowed it all to 

 spinach in rows 36 inches apart. This did not grow well enough to sell any in 

 the fall, but all through January and February I sold it at $1.20 per bush., using 

 only the thinnings. 



March 8, after giving the bed a very careful harrowing and raking, I sowed 

 18 rows (250 feet) each, of Eclipse beets, putting two rows between each two 

 rows of spinach. I also sowed two rows, same length, of potato onion sets ; 

 and again March 12, ten rows more of Eclipse beets and four rows of onion 

 sets. March 22, I sowed two rows of radishes ; March 31, two rows of radishes : 

 April 5, four rows of lettuce and four rows of turnips. May 14, I had cut out 

 all the spinach in the bed, and on the rows thus left vacant, I gave a dressing of 

 200 pounds of superphosphate, working it well into the soil with my Planet Jr. 

 wheel hoe. In these rows, we set out lettuce transplanted from the four rows 

 mentioned above, and Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage raised in the hothouse — 

 13 rows of lettuce and 10 rows of cabbage. All the onions, beets radishes, 

 carrots and turnips, were sold bunched, cabbage and lettuce, of course, by the 

 head, and the spinach by the bushel. The returns from the " salad patch," as 

 we call it, to date are as follows : 



Spinach $61 60 



Onions, in bunches 28 51 



Lettuce 44 00 



Radishes, in bunches 21 69 



Beet tops, for greeus 8 47 . 



Total S2.39 52 



Beets, bunciied $21 84 



Cabbage 31 76 



Carrots, bunched 1 3 00 



Turnips, bunched 5 60 



1 think there are enough beets, carrots, cabbages and turnips still in the 

 ground to bring this amount up to $500, and I am sure, from this experiment 

 that, could I have given this " patch " all the time needed, I could have 

 increased these returns by at least one-half. I am also sure that the returns 

 would have been much greater had I given the bed a dressing of nitrate of soda 

 early in the spring. The cold, wet spring prevented the nitrification of the 



