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GLEANINGS IN BEi: CULTUKE. 



105 



SPECIAL DEPARTMENT FOR A. I, ROOT, AND HIS 

 FRIENDS WHO LOVE TO RAISE CROPS. 



That ait on which a thousand millions of men are dependent 

 for their sustenance, and two Imndrcd milliims of men expend 

 their daily toil, must be the most imiiortant of ull— the parent 

 and precursor of all other arts. In evi ry countiy, then, and at 

 every period, the investigation of the principles on which the 

 rational ])ractice of this art Is founded ought to have command- 

 ed the principal attention of the greatest minds. 



James F. W. Johnston. 



IX WHAT 8H-APE SHALL WE MAKE OUR 

 GARDEN ? 



This question comes to me over and over. 

 I suppose the market-gardener, or he who 

 raises garden-truck solely for the money 

 there is in it, is not expected to pay very 

 much attention to the looks of the premises. 

 Well, even if this be true,a great deal depends 

 on how the garden is laid out. Not only for 

 looks, but for the sake of economy, there 

 are certain things that must be carefully 

 considered. For instance, early cabbages, 

 early peas, early sweet corn, and quite a lot 

 of these things, come off the ground at 

 about the same time. Xow, if you could 

 put them all together side by side, and clear 

 the ground of them all at once, cover it with 

 manure, plow it, harrow it, furrow it, it 

 would be a great deal cheaper than if you 

 were obliged to take a team and the tools on 

 to three or more separate strips. I have 

 sometimes had a little strip of ground va- 

 cated ; and as I did not wish to lose the use 

 of it, it was prepared all by itself for an- 

 other crop. Ikit the strip was so small, that 

 getting out the team and tools to get it 

 ready was more bother than it was worth ; 

 therefore we wish to have these things, that 

 mature about the same time, all together as 

 much as possible. A good many will be 

 very much averse to fussing with little 

 patches, at all ; but one of the hardest les- 

 sons I had to learn was to avoid getting too 

 much of a thing all at once. For instance, 

 for three successive seasons we had more 

 early peas than could be disposed of profit- 

 ably. The price went away down to ten 

 cents a peck, or less, and everybody got 

 tired of them. When we get our ground all 

 ready to sow peas with a grain-drill, it seems 

 a hard matter to go just the length of the 

 ground once and back again, and stop. J>ut 

 in our locality that is just about enough for 

 the time being. Our nice ground is about 

 HO rods long. Last season we found a strip 

 on one side that was dry enough to work 

 fairly by the first of April. We prepared it 

 nicely, with great pains, then took our seeds 

 to the field with the grain -drill, and sowed 

 as follows : With .Vlaska peas first, we went 

 up and back again. The same thing with 

 American Wonder, and the same with Strat- 

 agem. As a result, we had just enough 

 Alaskas to su])ply the demand, at 40 cents a 

 peck. Just as the boys began to say they 

 would have to sell them cheaper, the Amer- 

 ican Wonder was fit to pick ; and as the 

 quality was so much better, they went off 

 readily at the same price. When the 

 American Wonders were gone, the Strata- 

 gems came in ; and as these were fully as 

 good as the American Wonder, and very 

 much larger (less work' to shell them, you 

 know), they also brought 40 cents, without 



trouble. Later sowings of Stratagems were 

 made at proper intervals, and I may say we 

 had peas from June until frost, and almost 

 every kind of pea brought 40 cents a peck. 

 This was because we did not have such a 

 surplus as to at any time overstock the mar- 

 ket. l>efore sowing our Alaskas with the 

 grain-drill, perhaps I should mention that 

 we put in a little patch by hand on a 

 southern slope. These came in just before 

 the long rows of Alaskas. Most of these 

 sold for 50 cents a peck. Xow, at the same 

 time we put in the three diflerent kinds of 

 peas, we went through once with the grain- 

 drill, with Corey's Early corn ; we then 

 came back with Golden Wax beans ; then a 

 piece was left for early cabbage. Next to 

 the cabbage we put Early Ohio potatoes, 

 most of them started in the greenhouse. 

 This took about an acre of ground, and this 

 acre was vacated almost at the same time, 

 and was fitted for other crops all at once. 

 Now, while we do all this we want to man- 

 age to make also a certain rotation of crops ; 

 that is, we do not want to have the same 

 thing on the same ground year after year. 

 It is said, however, that onions do just as 

 well, or even better, on the same ground; 

 and some one has said that lima beans do 

 just as well year after year on the same 

 plot. I am inclined to think this may be so, 

 for we have a piece of clayey upland that 

 always gives us a big crop of lima beans ; 

 but if we try them on our rich creek-bottom 

 land, we have lots of vines but very few 

 pods that get ripe. Now in regard to looks. 



A garden looks very pretty made up of 

 long rows of different kinds of vegetables ; 

 and I think it looks enough better to have 

 complete whole rows— no halves nor quar- 

 ters When sowing with a grain-drill we 

 put almost enough seed into the drill to go 

 through ; then we keep careful watch, and 

 put in a handful at a time, to make it hold 

 out. A good full stand of any crop also pre- 

 sents a pleasant appearance to the eye. 

 The only way to secure this, that I know of, 

 is to put your plants pretty thick, and thin 

 out the surplus. This is a task, I know ; 

 but we can, by running the drill empty on 

 smooth hard ground, by repeated trials, set 

 it to sow just enough and no more. 



In order to get on the ground to draw ma- 

 nure, bring on the tools, and gather the 

 crops, we need some permanent roads. I 

 have many times decided that I would have 

 a roadway clear around the outside of the 

 ground. \t the ends of the ro\^s this road- 

 way makes a nice place to turn around with 

 the horse and cultivator. On the sides of 

 the long strip you lose some ground ; but I 

 am inclined to think that it pays. If the 

 piece is large, you also want a road through 

 the center. Then a road at right angles is 

 also very convenient, and it helps to make 

 the ground look tasty, as well as avoids the 

 necessity of tramping down crops. But this 

 crossroad is a nuisance when you come to 

 cultivate. I know you can jerk up the cul- 

 tivator as you come to the road, and then 

 drop it as you get across ; but more or less 

 dirt is pulled into the road. I have some- 

 times had a man take a shovel and clear the 

 road out alter every cultivating ; but this is 



