868 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



them. It is thus that the market is supplied with cucumbers in June before the field crop 

 comes in. For winter work, however, in raising these crops the green-house is to be pre 

 ferred; it is more manageable, and requires less labor. 



The management of the more remote gardens, where less labor and manure are used, 

 differs considerably from that of the suburban garden. The early crops are here mostly peas, 

 beans, potatoes, sweet corn; the late ones, often upon the same land, are squashes, pickling 

 cucumbers, and peppers, tomatoes, fall cabbage, and turnips. The hotbed is somewhat used, 

 but less than nearer the city. The small fruits, asparagus, and dandelions, are raised in con 

 siderable quantities, and milk raising is generally an important branch of the industry of these 

 more remote farms. The early peas and potatoes are often followed by squashes or white 

 turnips, on the same land. Fall cabbages are also often planted after peas or early greens; 

 and peppers are generally made to follow early lettuce. &quot;Where early potatoes or peas are to 

 be raised with squashes, every third or fourth row of the early crop is left blank for the 

 squashes; the squash seed planted rather late, about June 5th, and the early crop cleared 

 away before July 10th, when the squashes begin to run. There are many of the devices of 

 double cropping in common use in the market garden, which might be easily and profitably 

 imitated by the amateur in his kitchen garden. 



The manure used on the market garden is mostly horse manure, with some night-soil and 

 hog manure Land intended for early cabbages and greens is usually manured in the fall 

 with coarse manure, plowed under. The manure applied in spring is worked as fine as pos 

 sible so as to be available at once for plant-food. When the horse manure is very coarse or 

 strawy, it is used thus for hotbeds in its fresh state; but in summer it should either be thrown 

 into a cellar to be trampled by hogs, or composted with night-soil and loam in the field. When 

 handled in this way it does not heat excessively, and makes a manure that cannot be 

 excelled for forcing a rapid growth of vegetables. 



The preparation of the land for garden crops is a point that requires the application of 

 considerable skill. The best gardeners plow rather deeply, ten or twelve inches; the land 

 endures drouth better when thus handled than when shallow plowing is practiced. Many of 

 them run a subsoil plow after the common large plow every second year, to loosen the subsoil. 

 To make the land mellow and fine enough for most garden crops, it should be harrowed and 

 rolled after plowing, and then plowed, harrowed, and rolled again. The roller is an indis 

 pensable tool in the garden, and is most useful in packing the surface of the soil just enough 

 to prevent excessive evaporation in time of drouth. For this purpose it is often made to 

 follow the cultivator in the celery field, in dry weather. 



Weeds have little chance to be very troublesome in a well ordered garden. The con 

 tinual hoeing and plowing kill the few that come up, and no skilful gardener will suffer them 

 to go to seed on his land, and the manure is suffered to ferment before being applied to the 

 land in order to destroy the seeds it always contains. The only very troublesome weeds are 

 those which grow and mature their seeds very rapidly, such as purslain, chickweed, and the 

 like. Even these will yield to thorough culture. 



Irrigating Market Gardens. The practice of irrigation is profitable, and likely to 

 increase; in some seasons the rain fall is sufficient for the growth of vegetation; but we often 

 get a month or six weeks almost rainless, with hot, dry winds, very trying to the succulent 

 vegetation of gardens. When water is applied, it should be put on in sufficient quantity to 

 soak the ground thoroughly to the depth of the roots; and as soon as it has soaked in, 

 the land should be cultivated or hoed. 



Frequent sprinkling of the surface is objectionable; it makes a crust upon the surface, 

 and draws the tender rootlets to the surface, where they are likely to dry up if not constantly 

 watered. To water land effectually requires an inch in depth applied every five days, or 

 27,000 gallons per acre. To apply this amount of water with an 1^-inch hose and a head of 



