1906 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



VEGETABLE I iARDEXIXG 



den were placed between the farm buildings and the 

 outlying parts of the farm, the cultivator could be run 

 between the rows when going and coming. In this way 

 nearly all finger-work could be avoided and a greater 

 quantity and better quality of vegetables could be 

 secured. Compare Figs. 1528, 2645. 



Vegetable-gardeners are usually large users of stable 

 manure. Near the large cities the manure is bought in 



car-load lots, and it is used every year. The reason for 

 this is the necessity of improving the physical texture 

 of the land so that it will be loose, open and mellow, be 

 early or "quick," and hold an abundant supply of mois- 

 ture. In intensive vegetable-gardening there is no 

 "resting " of the land and no green crops to be plowed 

 under. The vegetable matter, therefore, has to be sup- 

 plied almost entirely by barn manures. In the larger 

 and less intensive vegetable-growing farther removed 

 from large cities, general agricultural practices can be 

 employed to better advantage, such as rotation and 

 green-manuring. Vegetable - gardeners generally use 

 largely, also, of concentrated fertilizers. These mate- 

 rials may be employed for either or both of two pur- 

 poses : to start off the plants quickly in the spring, or to 

 add plant-food for the sustenance of the plants duringthe 

 entire growing season. Ordinarily the former use is the 

 more important in vegetable-gardening, since it is nec- 

 essary that the plants start quickly in order that early 

 crops may be secured. Many times fertilizer is used in 

 amounts far in excess of the 

 needs of the plant in mere plant- 

 food, in order to give the plants 

 a strong and vigorous start and 

 thereby enable them to make 

 the most of themselves. If the 

 plants are not well established 

 when hot and dry weather 

 comes there is likely to be lit- 

 tle profit in them. 



In intensive vegetable - gar- 

 dening it is important to start 

 many of the crops under glass 

 and to transplant the young 

 plants to the open as soon as 

 settled weather comes. This is 

 particularly true of tomatoes, 

 very early lettuce, sweet pota- 

 toes, egg plants, peppers and 

 the early crops of celery, cab- 

 bage and cauliflower. In the 

 northern states muskmelons 

 and sometimes watermelons 

 and cucumbers are started un- 

 der glass, being grown in pots, 

 boxes or upon inverted sods, 

 whereby they are more readily 

 transferred to the open. For- 

 merly the plants were started 

 under hotbed or coldframe 

 structures, but of late years 

 there has been a great increase 

 in the extent of glass houses 



or forcing-houses. In these structures conditions can 

 be controlled better than in hotbeds, and they are per- 

 manent investments. However, hotbeds and coldframes 

 are still exceedingly important adjuncts to the vege- 

 table-garden, chiefly because they are not permanent 

 and thereby can be moved when the person shifts to 

 oJier land, and because the space that they occupy can 

 be utilized for outdoor crops later in the season. Much 

 vegetable-gardening in large cities is prose- 

 cuted on rented lands; therefore it may not 

 be profitable to invest in such permanent 

 structures as forcing-houses. The first cost 

 of hotbeds is also less than that of forcing- 

 houses, and this is often a very important 

 item. Fig. 2(i4(i. For management of glass 

 structures, see Hotbeds, Greenhouse, Forcing. 

 There are great numbers of insect and 

 fungous pests that attack the vegetable-gar- 

 den crops. General remarks under Insects, 

 Fungus, Insecticides, Fungicide and Spray- 

 ing will apply to these difficulties. The spray 

 pump has now come to be a necessary ad- 

 junct to any efficient vegetable-garden. How- 

 ever, there are mauy difficulties that are be- 

 yond the reach of the spray, particularly 

 those that persist year by year in the soil 

 or which attack the roots rather than the tops. 

 For such difficulties, the best treatment is to 

 give rotation so far as possible and to avoid 

 carrying diseased vines back on the land the 

 next year in the manure. Even the club-root of cabbage 

 can be starved out in a few years if cabbages or related 

 plants are not grown on the area. Any treatment that 

 conduces to the general vigor and well-being of the plant 

 also tends to overcome the injuries by insects and fungi. 

 In its best development vegetable-gardening is essen- 

 tially an intensive cultivation of the land. Often it is 

 conducted on property that is too high-priced for ordi- 

 nary farming. Land that demands a rent on one thou- 

 sand dollars an acre is often used for vegetable-gardens 

 with profit. There is also intense competition near the 

 large cities. These circumstances force the gardener to 

 utilize his land to the utmost. Therefore, he must keep 

 the land under crop every day in the year when it is 

 possible for plants to live or grow. This results in va- 

 rious systems of double-cropping and companion-crop- 

 ping, whereby two or more crops are grown on the land 

 the same season or even at the same time. Market- 

 gardening is usually a business that demands enter- 

 prise, close attention to details and much physical labor. 



A better way of £ 



