THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 183 



Cultivation should be kept up frequently enough to maintain a 

 dust mulch at all times. Cultivation with a wheel hoe should be kept 

 up as long as it is possible to get between the rows. Then you should 

 substitute for it a double or slide hoe. The types with runners or wheel 

 to guide the blade and hold it even do much better and easier work. 

 By all means, provide yourself with one. 



Rotation of Crops 



Garden rotation — that is, changing the location of vegetable 

 plantings each season — is of much importance and should be carried 

 out as far as possible. An excellent plan to follow is to raise surface 

 crops one year on a plot where root crops were grown the year before. 



Insects and Diseases 



There are a number of insects which are almost certain to put in 

 appearance every season. One important thing in combating insects 

 and diseases is to be prepared to ward off attack. In cases where pre- 

 ventive measures are not possible, be prepared to act immediately if 

 trouble appears. Owing to the large number of remedies, cures and 

 poisons which the gardener sees advertised or hears about, he is likely 

 to get the idea that the question of plant pests is such a complicated 

 one that no simple and systematic measures are possible. As a matter 

 of fact, warfare with plant troubles, while it is always serious enough, 

 is by no means as complicated as at first appears. The first step to take 

 and the most important thing to know is what kind of enemy you are 

 fighting in any particular case. While their number is legion, they can 

 be classified into three or four groups (as spoken of in a chapter on 

 Insect Pests and Fungous Diseases, which see), against each of which 

 the same weapons are effective. 



Harvesting and Storing 



There are thousands of amateur gardeners who leave enough fruit 

 and vegetables on or in the ground at the end of the season to make all 

 the difference between profit and loss on their season's operations. 

 Learn to utiHze everything you grow. Every head of Cabbage that 

 splits, every ear of Corn, or handful of Beans that gets too old to use, 

 every root that is left to freeze in the ground, is just so much waste. 

 While many things can be successfully stored through the W^inter, or a 

 large part of it, others must be canned. The usual mistake is to try to do 

 all the canning in a rush at the end of the season. The prejudice against 

 canned things is largely due to the fact that they are not canned until 

 they are already old and tough. See Chapter on Fruits and Vegetables 

 for Winter. 



