CHAPTER VIII 



THE KITCHEN GARDEN 



THE aim of the kitchen garden is to provide an abundance 

 and variety of food for the family. As the object of the 

 cultivator is to get the largest product for his labor, he 

 ought to produce all that he can consume on the least pos- 

 sible area. Though one may go into mushrooms or frog 

 raising as a money crop, the kitchen garden is the first in- 

 dispensable and should first be given attention. 



For a garden choose a piece of land with a southern ex- 

 posure, sheltered on the north and west by woods, buildings, 

 hedge, or any kind of a windbreak. This arrangement 

 will give the earliest garden, for it gets all the sun there is. 

 By running the rows north and south, the rays of the sun 

 strike the eastern side of the row in the morning, and the 

 western side in the afternoon. 



The best time to take hold of a piece of land is in the fall, 

 because then it can be plowed ready for the spring planting. 

 The alternate freezing and thawing during the winter breaks 

 up the sod and the stiff lumps thrown up by the plow, so 

 rendering the soil pliable and easily worked. This is espe- 

 cially true of land that has been reclaimed from the forest, or 

 which has not been farmed for many years. 



Before the plowing is done, the land for the garden should 

 be manured at the rate of twenty-five large wagon loads 



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