52 PRIZE GARDENING 



in a part of Page county, Iowa. I have traveled around 

 a great deal, principally to look at the country; have 

 been in nearly every state south and west of and includ- 

 ing Ohio. 



A Connecticut Valley Garden. — A concise, read- 

 able story is told by G. W. F. Campbell, Hampshire 

 county, Massachusetts^ winner of second Woodruff 

 prize. His lot comprised eighteen-one hundredths of 

 an acre of sandy loam in the Connecticut river valley. 

 Tools and land were worth forty-six dollars ; seed, two 

 dollars and ten cents ; fertilizers, seven dollars and 

 thirty-five cents. A limited but well chosen list was 

 planted, including Egyptian beet, Valentine, Six Weeks 

 and bush lima beans. First of All corn. Bliss Everbear- 

 ing and Notts Excelsior peas, also radishes, lettuce 

 and onions. By limiting variety he was able to give 

 more space to each species, and to save cost by getting 

 seeds at quart and pound rates ; labor at fifteen to 

 twenty-five cents per hour cost twelve dollars and nine 

 cents ; income was twenty-eight dollars and seventy- 

 one cents ; net gain, seven dollars and fifty-four cents, 

 or seventeen per cent on the invested value in land and 

 tools. Mr. Campbell writes the following account: 



The spot was a garden and onion field last year. 

 Previous to that time it was an old orchard. In the fall 

 a coat of manure was put on and plowed in. This spring 

 the land was pulverized with a smoothing harrow. 

 Fertilizer was sown before putting on the smoothmg 

 harrow. April 24, onion and lettuce seeds were sown 

 in drills. On the 26th, beets, spinach, peas, radishes 

 and beans were planted. The peas, with the excep- 

 tion of a few, were soaked in water twenty-four hours. 

 May 3 found the soaked peas up, while those planted 

 dry did not appear until two days later. Six rhubarb 

 plants, which were manured this spring, and also the 

 strawberry plants looked thrifty at this date. Between 



