42 The Principles of Vegetable -Gardening 



the raspberries and currants a second row, rhubarb, asparagus 

 and like plants a third row. The spaces between these various 

 fruits should be eight feet, as it is poor economy to so crowd 

 vines and bushes as to force them to struggle the year through 

 for plant-food and moisture. A rod or two of land, more or less, 

 virtually amounts to nothing on the farm. Crowding the plants 

 is only admissible in the city or village; here the plants may 

 receive unusual care, and often may be irrigated at fruiting time 

 from the city hydrant. The rows of ordinary vegetables may be 

 thirty inches apart, except in case of such plants as onions, 

 lettuce and early beets. These small, slow-growing esculents 

 should be planted in double rows. Starting from the last row 

 of potatoes, a thirty-inch space is measured off, a row of lettuce 

 planted, and then one foot from this a row of beets or onions; 

 then leave a space thirty inches wide and again plant double rows, 

 if more of the small esculents are wanted. The larger spaces 

 may be cultivated by horse-hoe and the smaller spaces by hand- 

 hoe. The entire garden which is to be planted in the spring 

 should be kept fertile and plowed early in the spring, leaving 

 that part of it which is not designed for immediate planting 

 uriharrowed. It may be necessary to replow. It certainly will 

 be necessary to cultivate several times that part of the garden 

 which is used for late -growing crops, such as cabbage and celery. 

 As a rule, the farmer cannot afford to attempt to raise two crops 

 on the same land the same year, since labor is everything and 

 the use of land nothing; therefore, better prepare the ground by 

 two or three plowings for the late crops than to attempt to raise 

 them on land which has parted with much of its readily available 

 plant-food in producing the early crop. Then, too, land which 

 has produced one crop is likely to be deficient in moisture, while 

 land that has been plowed two or three times during the summer 

 and kept well harrowed will be moist and contain an abundance 

 of readily available plant-food. Early in the spring, when the land 

 is cold and often too moist, it is best to leave the soil rough for 

 a time if it is not to be planted immediately, that it may become 

 somewhat dry and warm. As a rule, the garden should not be 

 fenced, but the chickens should be restrained by fences a part of 



