l88 PRIZE GARDENING 



November, two dollars and eighteen cents ; total, 

 twenty-one dollars and seventy-two cents. The labor 

 for the seven months beginning with April was, respec- 

 tively, four hours, five and one-quarter hours, nineteen 

 hours, ten and one-sixth hours, two hours, five and 

 three-fourths hours, three and one-fourth hours ; total, 

 sixty-eight hours, worth at fifteen cents, ten dollars 

 and twenty cents. The owner thinks labor was much 

 less because hand wheel implements were used. Poul- 

 try got into the garden and the damage was placed at 

 one dollar, mostly to turnips and cabbages. Lettuce 

 was grown between the rows of onions with some 

 saving of space. Mr. Everson mentions a wet spot in 

 his garden where the soil was lumpy and did not work 

 up well. The cause was a snowbank which did not 

 melt till late. If the snowbank had been scattered he 

 thinks the trouble might have been prevented. " To 

 work a garden early in the spring," continues Mr. 

 Everson, " the garden should be plowed in ridges in 

 the fall." The wheel rake proved a labor-saver in clear- 

 ing ofif small stones. The wheel hoe with cultivator 

 teeth was just the thing for hoeing peas. Sulphur 

 proved a remedy for black cabbage fleas. 



An Interesting Experiment with old, rough pas- 

 ture land was tried by E. H. Boutelle of Worcester 

 county, Massachusetts. The object was to make the 

 crops pay for themselves and to take the profit in im- 

 provement of the land. The first item of expense was 

 clearing off the bush growth at a cost of over nine 

 dollars. The vegetables were sold on a milk route. 

 Hen manure was bought at fifty cents per bushel and 

 barnyard manure at four dollars per cord. The best 

 paying crops proved to be squashes, string beans and 

 tomatoes. The net gain was nineteen dollars and sixty- 

 seven cents, also improvement of land, reckoned at 

 thirty-eight dollars for the one and one-twentieth acres. 



