174 PRIZE GARDENING 



sixty-three cents, the expense account not including 

 cost of labor. 



At a cost of ten dollars and fifty cents for three 

 hundred feet of piping, the garden was connected with 

 the city water main, and the water was distributed by 

 hose. Water cost about one cent per barrel. " Beets, 

 cauliflower and lettuce showed most quickly the effects 

 of watering ; the onions least of all, although the water- 

 ing saved them. The farmers around had their onion 

 crops all burned up by the drouth." Upon six rows of 

 Parker Earle strawberries, the effect of watering in 

 furrows opened between the rows with a hoe was to 

 immediately increase the size of the berries. Berries 

 not irrigated were a failure. 



By " soluble fertilizers " Mr. Kilbourne refers to 

 chemicals, mostly nitrate of soda, bone black and 

 muriate of potash. These are not mixed, but are 

 applied separately and worked into the soil. The potash 

 is applied in winter or early spring, better results being 

 obtained than from summer application. Bone black 

 proved very good for radishes, and nitrate of soda for 

 spinach. For most crops the three substances were 

 applied in something like equal quantities. The land 

 had been used for truck growing for the past twenty 

 years and had been fertilized wholly with chemicals 

 for three years past, yet the crops had constantly 

 increased. 



It was found that bordeaux mixture would drive 

 potato bugs from egg plants, while wrapping in paper 

 saved the egg fruit from a freeze. Lima beans were 

 started in deep boxes in a greenhouse May lo, and 

 picking began July 12. Onions too small to sell were 

 used for pickling or saved for sets. Cauliflower with 

 high fertilizing and irrigation proved very profitable, 

 bringing eight to fifteen cents per head. It was a 

 second crop. The twenty-one rows cost fourteen del- 



