64 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



Practice with This System. Concerning practice with the dif- 

 ferent vegetables and the preparation of ridges and beds for them, 

 Mr. Reynolds gives the following suggestions: 



Plant melons and winter squash seven feet apart on each side of the 

 ridge, which should be eight feet apart for these varieties, and about five feet 

 apart for corn, beans, summer crook-neck squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. 

 After preparing the ground and planting the seed neither the ditch nor plants 

 will require much attention more than to keep the weeds out. For the 

 growth of other vegetables, such as peas, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, 

 radish, beets, lettuce, asparagus, egg plant, spinach, peppers, onions, garlic, 

 rhubarb, and tomato plants, prepare the ground by forming it into beds four- 

 teen inches wide and two inches higher in the center than on either ridge, 

 with a small trench between them six inches wide and three inches deep. 

 They can be made wider and deeper if a large amount of water is available. 

 After the beds are prepared run the water through them and recrossing the 

 beds that are defective, so the water will rise to a uniform height on each, 

 within about one inch of the top. Make a depression on each side of the bed 

 two and one-half inches from the edge with a hoe and one and one-half 

 inches deep. Sow the seed not less than one-half inch apart and be very 

 careful not to cover the seed more than one-half inch deep. Every good seed 

 will grow, and those which are to remain in the rows must be properly 

 thinned out. When tomato plants are from three to five inches tall, trans- 

 plant them on either side of the high ridges, five feet apart in the row. Trans- 

 plant cabbage and egg plants when they are from two to three inches tall, in 

 vacant beds, the former eighteen inches apart in the row for early and close 

 heading varieties, and twenty-eight inches apart for late and spreading varie- 

 ties, and egg plants twenty-four inches apart in the row. A pint of fine 

 manure from the cow-yard placed six inches below the surface under each 

 plant will insure a cabbage from nearly every plant. Pepper plants should 

 be transplanted eighteen inches apart in the row. 



Picturesque Irrigation, A modification of the permanent ditch 

 plan is quite widely practiced on the sand hills south of San Fran- 

 cisco. The water is lifted from wells by windmills, the discharge 

 from the pump being taken at such e;levation that it will flow in a 

 small flume supported by a trestle to the highest point of the land 

 to be irrigated. Hence the water is carried in small contour ditches 

 hither and thither until every corner of the very irregular slopes is 

 reached. Short lines of vegetables are planted about at right 

 angles to these small permanent ditches and short spurs made with 

 the hoe so that the water is brought beside each individual plant. 

 As the slope! is so broken and the soil so open, anything like uniform 

 seepage is out of the question. The appearance of these gardens is 

 exceedingly picturesque^ with the little beds tucked in here and 

 there, showing varying shades of green on miniature terraces and 



