162 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



much complaint among our farmers and mechanics who own 

 gardens, of small yields and poor quality of roots and plants 

 for table use ? Probably a majority of tlie families in any of 

 our towns raise vegetables enough, of really excellent quality, 

 to give the housewife the means of getting up a really attractive 

 and savory "boiled dinner," once a week, through the season. 

 Perhaps in midsummer she manages to have a mess or two of 

 pease and beans, and in early autumn a few beets and cabbages, 

 and in winter some turnips. But the beets are stringy and 

 small, and the cabbages are only leaves, and the turnips are 

 hybrid, neither Swedes nor English. After using her best skill, 

 she is mortified to find that no one really relishes the dinner. 

 And yet everybody loves good vegetables, well cooked and 

 served. 



Very likely the failure lies in part in the careless manner of 

 making the garden. Perhaps abundance of manure is used, 

 not in a state suited to the wants of the tender embryos. Per- 

 haps the land is ploughed so shallow that the surface becomes 

 quickly dried to a powder. Perhaps it is planted at odd jobs, 

 and in a hurry, and then left to the tender mercies of the old 

 hen and her hungry brood. And what with a ready growth of 

 weeds, and neglect of early stirring the soil and proper thinning, 

 the result is inevitable. 



A deeply stirred and thoroughly pulverized soil is a prime 

 requisite to a successful garden. All the smaller seeds require 

 such a fineness of mould, that, while it freely admits warmth 

 and moisture, at the same time completely covers them, and 

 secures against too ready evaporation Seeds planted in a 

 lumpy bed, exposed to be drenched by a shower and parched by 

 the succeeding hot sun, will not, of course, put forth strong, 

 thrifty shoots. If, after a severe struggle, they live, it is to be 

 dwarfii-h and sickly. And the hard-coated seeds, like the beet, 

 and the oily-coated seeds, like the parsnip, need to be covered 

 so deeply as to retain a maximum of moisture — such as would 

 drown the lettuce. 



And all seeds, to germinate well, want seasonable planting. 

 Odd jobs and convenience may not suit them. The direction 

 printed on most packages by the seedsmen, " plant early and 

 throughout the season," hits the caprice of now and then a 

 plant, and the views of all slack farmers, but not the nature of 



