3436 VEGETABLE-GARDENING 



VEGETABLE-GARDENING 



coordinate with pomology (fruit-growing) and floricul- 

 ture. However, certain vegetables, such as potatoes, 

 when grown in large areas in rotation with general 

 farm crops, are sometimes looked on as agricultural 

 rather than horticultural subjects. 



Some of the crops may be classified as horticultural or 

 agricultural depending on the uses for which they are 

 to be employed. For example, beans that are grown 

 for the green pods are horticultural subjects, but if the 

 same varieties were to be grown for the mature seed for 

 selling in the general market, they may be known as 

 agricultural products. In like manner turnips may be 

 horticultural subjects when grown in small areas for 

 home or table use, but agricultural subjects when 

 grown on large areas for stock-feeding. 



Vegetable-gardening may be divided into two great 

 categories, depending on the disposition that is to be 

 made of the products; namely, commercial gardening 

 (see page 1997, Vol. IV, the article Market-Garden- 

 ing), of which the purpose is to make money from the 

 industry; and home- or amateur-gardening, in which 

 the purpose is to raise a supply for family use. Com- 

 mercial vegetable-gardening may be divided further into 

 four fairly well-defined types : market-gardening proper, 

 truck-gardening or truck-farming, forcing (see Vol. Ill, 

 page 1254), and the growing of vegetables for canning 

 or pickling factories. 



Market-gardening proper involves intensive methods 

 of culture, and is most highly developed near large 

 cities. Truck-farming involves the growing of one or a 

 few special vegetable crops, often as an adjunct to a 

 system of general farming. These are usually grown in 

 relatively large areas, and at considerable distance 

 from market. Questions of climate, soil, and shipping 

 facilities largely determine the location of truck-gar- 

 dening areas. The South produces early vegetables for 

 northern markets; the North produces cool-climate 

 crops for winter storage, such as onions, cabbage, 

 turnips. Sweet corn, tomatoes, and peas for canning 

 purposes, and cucumbers for pickling, are grown where 

 the soil and climate are especially adapted to their 

 culture. 



Particular regions have become famous for the pro- 

 duction of certain vegetable crops. Some examples are : 

 Eastern Long Island for late cauliflower; Kalamazoo, 

 Michigan, for celery; Rocky Ford, Colorado, and the 

 Imperial Valley, California, for muskmelons; certain 

 areas in Georgia for watermelons; southern Texas for 

 the Bermuda type of onion; Norfolk, Virginia, for 

 spinach, kale, and early potatoes; Ontario for turnips 

 and other root-crops. Long-distance transportation has 

 revolutionized vegetable-gardening in this country (see 

 Packing, Transportation), and crops which were for- 

 merly grown only near market and had a limited sea- 

 son are now shipped across the continent, and may be 

 procured in the same market, from some source, twelve 

 months in the year. Head lettuce is an example. 



The practices. 



While in commercial vegetable-gardening the loca- 

 tion is determined to considerable extent by soil and 

 climate, in the home-garden the climate and the soil 

 are largely beyond the choice of the gardener, since 

 these matters are determined by the location of the 

 homestead. The general effort in the home-garden is to 

 secure products of high quality and to have a more or 

 less continuous supply throughout the season. In mar- 

 ket-gardening emphasis is usually placed on a few 

 crops, whereas in home-gardening it is placed on a great 

 variety of crops. 



The old-time home vegetable-garden or "kitchen-gar- 

 den" was generally unsuited to the easy handling of the 

 soil and to the efficient growing of the plants. Ordinarily 

 it was a small confined area in which horse-tools could 

 not be used (Vol. Ill, page 1738). The rows were 

 short and close together, so that finger-work was neces- 



sary. The custom arose of growing crops in small raised 

 beds, probably because such beds are earlier in the 

 spring than those that are level with the ground. With 

 the evolution of modern tillage tools, however, it is now 

 advised that even in the home-garden finger-work be 

 dispensed with as much as possible. Some of the very 

 earliest crops may be grown in raised beds to advantage, 

 but in general it is better to secure earliness by means of 

 glass covers or by ameliorating the entire soil by under- 

 drainage and the incorporation of humus and by judi- 

 cious tillage. See Tillage and Machinery. In the home- 

 garden on the farm particularly it is desirable that the 

 rows be long and far enough apart to allow of tillage 

 with horse-tools. 



Vegetable-gardeners are usually large users of stable- 

 manure. Near the large cities the manure is bought in 

 carload lots or hauled with four-horse teams, and it is 

 used every year or even two or three times a year. The 

 reason for this frequent and heavy use of manure 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 moisture. 

 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 supplied 

 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-manur- 

 ing. Vegetable-gardeners, especially in the East and 

 South, generally use largely, also, of concentrated 

 fertilizers. 



In intensive vegetable-gardening 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. See Transplanting. This is particularly true 

 of tomatoes, very early lettuce, sweet potatoes, egg- 

 plants, peppers, and the early crops of celery, cabbage, 

 and cauliflower. In the northern states muskmelons 

 and sometimes watermelons and cucumbers are started 

 under glass, being grown in pots, veneer "dirt bands," or 

 upon inverted sods, whereby they are transferred to the 

 open without disturbing the roots. Formerly 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. These are primarily 

 for the purpose of growing certain crops to maturity 

 outside of their normal season in the given locality, but 

 are often used a part of the season for starting plants 

 intended for transplanting. In these structures con- 

 ditions can be controlled better than in hotbeds, and 

 they are especially valuable for the starting of very 

 early plants in cold weather. However, hotbeds and 

 coldframes are still exceedingly important adjuncts to 

 the vegetable-garden. They are almost indispensable 

 for the reception of early plants that have been started 

 in a greenhouse and require "hardening-off" before 

 transplanting into the open ground. They can be 

 moved when the person shifts to other land, and the 

 space that they occupy can be utilized for outdoor 

 crops later in the season. They are extensively used 

 for starting early plants. Much vegetable-gardening 

 in large cities is prosecuted on rented lands; therefore 

 it may not be profitable to invest in such permanent 

 structures as forcing-houses. The first cost of hotbeds 

 and coldframes is less than that of forcing-houses, and 

 this is often a very important item. For management 

 of glass structures, see Hotbeds, Greenhouse, Forcing. 



The seed and variety problem is most complex. A 

 mistake in the selection of a strain or kind may mean 

 inability to meet a market demand either as regards 

 characteristics or season. A round cabbage crowds out 

 a pointed form. As soon as they mature, better varie- 

 ties crowd out the Earliana tomato. Therefore the 

 gardener must know varieties. Many seedsmen are 

 making sincere efforts to provide good seed, and each 



