134 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '^ 



STOP THE LOAFING 



To quit fooling, it is evident that it would be 

 a great thing if the time for the growing and 

 ripening of melons, and all other vegetables, 

 could be halved and quartered and eighthed. 

 The quicker a vegetable grows the more tender 

 and succulent it is for the table. Plenty of 

 manure and water will do wonders, as the Paris 

 market gardeners in particular have shown, and 

 astonishing accelerations are also due to the 

 intelligent and frequent use of some chemical 

 fertilizers, notably nitrate of soda — or, more 

 rapid still, nitrate of ammonia, the fastest of 

 all fertilizers (if you are so lucky as to get a 

 pure sample); but that is not enough. The 

 whole time-table of vegetable growth in the 

 garden is outmoded and should be smashed to 

 smithereens. 



Why should carrots and beets and cabbage 

 and lettuce and all the rest of the kitchen plants 

 loaf around from two to three months, exposed 

 to all the dangers of drought and frost and 

 disease and blight and insect pests, before they 

 are ripe for the table? It's simply absurd. 

 The government has dozens of expensive experi- 

 mental stations for mending such matters, but 

 for the most part the officials seem to be as 

 much given to loafing as the lazy plants. Get 

 a move on yourselves, gentlemen, and on the 

 vegetables ! That's my advice. 



On another page I have referred to the Aus- 



