110 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



should be darkened and all possible air excluded. Watering is a 

 necessary evil only; when applied it should be of a temperature 

 of 100° to 120°. 



This paper has already exceeded the original intention of the 

 writer, who would say in conclusion, that he hopes more small 

 growers will this season have the courage to plant a vegetable 

 garden. Do not have one too large, which you cannot properly 

 care for. Quite a small plot, well manured, constantly cultivated 

 and weeded, and systematically planted, will be a source of pleasure 

 as well as profit. Those who never had such a garden before will 

 appreciate the value of fresh vegetables, and will find in this one 

 way to combat the ever advancing cost of living. There are too 

 many who, each season, have the garden fever, plant some ground, 

 give it perhaps one cultivation, and then neglect it, hoping for the 

 best. A well planted and tilled vegetable garden is a joy and an 

 inspiration. 



Buy the best seeds, replant or resow any bare spaces as soon as 

 crops are cleared, and you will be astonished what a small space 

 will yield, if cropped intelligently and intensively. Then when it 

 is too late to plant any vegetable crop, sow down bare ground with 

 red clover or winter rye, to prevent surface washing, and at the 

 same time, add fertility to the soil; for these cover crops, when 

 turned in, supply considerable nutrition; they also give a touch of 

 green which is very refreshing after each vanishing fall of snow. 



Discussion. 



The question was asked how to tell sour soil. 



Mr. Craig replied that by placing blue litmus paper in the ground, 

 if it turned pinkish it was evidence that the soil was sour and needed 

 lime. In reply to another question concerning the use of poultry 

 manure he said that it was best to use it as a top dressing, scattered 

 through the rows and well raked in. He said it should be used 

 with great caution and always mixed with two or three times its 

 bulk in earth. 



Wilfrid Wheeler called attention to the value of the American 

 toad in the garden as an insect destroyer. Last year toads were 



