VEGETABLE GARDENING 



lus to lie 1 ^'lowm,' tmdency m this country 



I _ II 1 i,in_ t 1 mi a pait of general 



' 1 .1 large part of the 



. nn''ucted in rela- 



1 I .1 their entire time 



11, ii |.i u lull h (.t the regetable- 



.:ittiiiii-.c IS mi II h in adiunet to farming 



Ub IS in pirt due to the de\ elopraent of the 



lustiv, because of which enormous quanti- 



iin ).iiidu(ts IS of tomatoes, are desired. It 



I iiv t til I \tpnsion of agriculture into 



1 ^1 11^ \li 1 l.\ lands aie discovered that 



iih w 11 I 1 i| ti d to the growing of special 



s 1^ till 1 \ iiiipli the laismg of squashes in 



iti s ind the recent extension of 



VEGETABLE GARDENING 



1905 



Census, 1890. According to a bulletin issued by that 

 census the investment in coninii-rcinl m- ]nirely truck- 

 gardening interests of the counnA hm;; Ik y..iid the 

 immediate vicinity of large i-ii-' ■ ! ' : i" more 



than $100,000,000. More than li.i i i uics of 



land were devoted to the iudusir\ mi i h :i quarter 



of a million of people were employed. After paying 

 freights and commission, the products of these estab- 

 lishments brought to their owners more than $76,- 



000,000. 



Vegetable-gardening ma 

 categories, depending on 1 

 made of the products ; n 

 truck-gardening, of which 1 

 from the industry; and ho 



be 1 



ed into two great 

 tion that is to be 

 rket-gardening or 

 ! is to make money 



melon-growing into Colorado. Long-distance transpor- 

 tation has revolutionized vegetable - gardening in this 

 country. See Packing. Whilst there has been great 

 progress in the industry, our vegetable-gardening has 

 not developed so widely from the European ideals as 

 our pomology has. Yet tomatoes, sweet corn, water- 

 melons and sweet potatoes are probably grown more 

 extensively here than elsewhere in the world. 



Vegetable-gardening is an important business wher- 

 ever there are large cities, because the markets are 

 close at hand. The second most important factor in 

 determining the location is clinintf. since earliness 

 of,'product usually increases tlir j'l-.ilit^- A third in- 

 fluence in the geography nf \iLjit:iMi burdening is 

 the soil. Usually soils of a Iii:lii inni |i> ^-i rharacter, or 

 those that are said to be "quii-k," im- |ir.l'ririd, because 

 the plants may be started early in fh« sjiring and they 

 also grow and mature rapidly. Because such soils 

 are so frequently employed for vegetable - gardening 

 purposes, gardeners have come to be very free users of 

 stable manure and concentrated fertilizers. In recent 

 years the vegetable - gardening areas of the eastern 

 country have rapidly extended along the Atlantic sea- 

 board as far as the keys of Florida. In these southern 

 localities vegetables can be secured in advance of the 

 northern season and when the best prices are reigning. 

 The development of transportation facilities has made 

 this enterprise possible. The southern Mississippi val- 

 ley region is also developing a large vegetable-garden- 

 ing interest since it is tapped by trunk lines of railroad 

 running to the north and east. Well-marked vegetable- 

 gardening areas are those on Long Island, N. Y., and 

 about Norfolk, Va., where special industries and prac- 

 tices have developed. Pig. 2643 shows an onion-grow- 

 ing community in southeastern New York. 



The most recent published statistics of vegetable-gar- 

 dening in the United States are those of the Eleventh 



Whilst the same principles of selection of soil, 

 tillage and fertilizing apply to both these categories, 

 these kinds of gardening are unlike in the general meth- 

 ods of procedure. The market-garden is ordinarily lo- 

 cated where the climate and soil influences are favorable. 

 Every effort is made to secure uniformity and great pro- 

 ductiveness of crop, and it is usually desirable that the 

 crop come into the market somewhat quickly and then 

 give place to other crops. In the home-garden the cli- 

 mate and the soil are largely beyond the choice of the 

 gardener, since the.se matters are determined by the 

 location of the homestead. The general effort is to se- 

 cure 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 was generally 

 unsuited to the easy handling of the soil and to the effi- 

 cient growing of the plants. Ordinarily it was a small 

 confined area in which horse tools could not be used. 

 The rows were short and close together, so that finger 

 work was necessary. The custom of growing crops in 

 small raised beds arose, probably because such beds are 

 earlier in the spring than those that are level with the 

 ground (Fig. 1528). With the evolution of modern til- 

 lage 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 underdrainage and the 

 incorporation of humus and by judicious tillage. See 

 TiUatie and Toola. For farm purposes particularly it is 

 desirable that the rows be long and far enough apart to 

 allow of tillage with horse tools. If the vegetable-gar- 



