THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



215 



Because of their great value as destroyers 

 of numerous garden pests, you should not 

 interfere wdth the activities of such visitors 

 as frogs and toads, ground and lady bug 

 beetles, bees, tree crickets, dragon flies, 

 wasps, hornets, lizards, lace- wing flies, 

 garden spiders , etc . 



Poultry and sheep manures are much 

 more powerful than horse or cow manure 

 in their action. They should be used cau- 

 tiously, for it is possible to get the appli- 

 cation so strong that the vegetables will 

 be burned rather than improved. 



The use of slaked lime will be found 

 highly beneficial. It seems to loosen the 

 heavier soils; it affects the sandier soils and 

 makes them more moisture-holding; it 

 sweetens the sour soils, and by its chemical 

 influence with certain of the substances in 

 the soil it renders available a liberal share 

 of the earth's storehouse of food. It should 

 be applied very early in Spring or in the 

 Fall. A 50-lb. sack to a plot 30 ft. by 40 

 ft. will be sufficient. 



When plants are first transplanted during 

 hot weather they should be protected from 

 the sun's rays for a few days, otherwise 

 they are liable to wilt and die off. Use 

 cheese-cloth, shaded sash or boards for 

 shading. 



On no account allow your soil to bake. A 

 rain shower or watering during extremely 

 hot weather will often produce a hard crust 

 over the soil. This is detrimental to plant 

 growth and should be broken up without 

 delay. 



When battling to suppress weeds, the 

 gardner will find that early morning cultiva- 

 tion will aid him materially. Exposure to 

 the drying influence of the sun will wither 

 most weeds before they have an opportunity 

 to revive in the moist atmosphere of the 

 evening. 



For essential hand tools in the garden, 

 see Contents. 



Planting for succession: for instance, 

 to have one crop of green Peas follow 

 another by planting a first row say, April 

 15 and another April 25, is all too often, 

 much of a fallacy, yet all good gardeners 

 strive for that result. The fault lies with 

 our variable climate. 



In making up formulas for the small 

 garden, bear in mind that eight teaspoonfuls 

 make one fluid ounce, sixteen ounces make a 

 pint and there are eight pints in a gallon. 



THE VALUE OF DRAINAGE 



There are few places where some amount 

 of drainage is not necessary. It may be 

 merely the drainage around greenhouses to 

 keep them dry and prevent rot, or it may 

 be the improvement in land, or proper 

 drainage of benches. All land that holds 

 water for a day or so after heavy rain 

 requires drainage. The benefits derivable 

 are the sweetening of the soil, making it 

 accessible to roots to a much greater depth. 



freeing it of stagnant water, and allowing 

 healthy action to take place. Cylindrical 

 tiles of 2J^ in. diameter, set from 23^ ft. 

 to 3,V^ ft. deep, according to the stiffness or 

 sogginess of the soil, are recommended; 

 these to be 30 ft. apart. 



METHODS OF TESTING SOILS 

 FOR ACIDITY 



Probably the simplest test for ascertain- 

 ing whether a soil is acid, that is, lacking in 

 calcium carbonate, is by the use of litmus 

 paper which can be obtained at any drug- 

 store. Buy a few slips of the blue kind and 

 be careful to keep it in a tightly corked 

 glass vial and not to handle with the 

 fingers which themselves may contain 

 suflBcient acid to turn it pink. A reliable 

 way to make the test is to place one or two 

 small pieces of the blue paper in the bottom 

 of a glass tumbler. Upon these lay a piece 

 of blotting paper cut to exactly the size of 

 the glass and on this place an inch or two of 

 the soil to be tested. Moisten this soil 

 thoroughly with rain or distilled water until 

 it 13 wet enough to saturate the blotting 

 paper, then cover the tumbler and leave it 

 for from half an hour to an hour. At the 

 end of this time turn it upside down and 

 notice the condition of the paper. If it 

 has turned from blue to pink the soil is 

 acid. If it has remained blue, the soil is 

 either neutral or more probably alkaline. 



"The only disadvantage of this test is that 

 It gives no idea as to the degree of acidity. 

 For that matter it may not always be 

 accurate, in that careless handling or other 

 local conditions may cause the paper to 

 turn pink even though there is no apprecia- 

 ble amount of acid in the soil. For these 

 reasons, persons who have occasion to 

 test soils for acidity would do well to 

 familiarize themselves with a more recently 

 evolved method and one which is only 

 slightly more complicated than the litmus 

 paper test. 



This test was designed by Prof. E. Truog, 

 of the University of Michigan, and not only 

 detects positively the presence of acid in 

 the soil, but also indicates the degree of 

 that acid and, consequently, the amount 

 of lime required to neutralize it. It is 

 based upon the chemical principle that 

 when zinc sulfid comes in contact with any 

 form of soil acid, hydrogen sulfid gas is 

 formed; and when this gas comes in contact 

 with lead acetate, lead sulfid, a black 

 chemical is formed. 



In making the test, one simply places a 

 small, measured quantity of the soil in a 

 glass flask and adds to it a solution com- 

 posed of 20 per cent calcium chloride and 

 2 per cent zinc sulfid. The mixture is 

 heated to the boiling point over an alcohol 

 lamp and the boiling allowed to continue 

 for a few minutes to drive off any carbonic 



