CULTURE OF VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. 



CHAPTEE XL 

 DIRECTIONS FOR THE FARM CULTURE OF VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. 



BY PETER HENDERSON. 



Principal Market Garden Crops. 



IT seems appropriate that a short chapter on the cultivation of 

 vegetables and fruits should be introduced into this work, not only 

 for the information of the farmer himself, for his own private use, 

 but also for the advantage it may be to him in localities where he 

 can dispose of such products at a much greater profit than he can 

 dispose of ordinary farm produce. There are tens of thousands of 

 farmers adjacent to the smaller towns and villages, hotels, watering 

 places and summer boarding houses, where the want at the table, 

 of fresh vegetables and small fruits, is most conspicuous. In 

 many such places it is unquestionable that, if the farmer would 

 devote a few acres to the cultivation of fruits or vegetables, or both, 

 the chances are more than equal that they would be found much 

 more profitable than ten times the amount of land cultivated in 

 ordinary farm crops; for most land that will grow a good crop of 

 corn or potatoes will, under proper tillage, yield a good crop of 

 either fruits or vegetables. However, I will say, that whenever 

 choice can be niade, the land used for such purpose should be as 

 level as possible, and be of the nature of what is known as sandy 

 loam ; that is, a dark colored, rather sandy soil, overlaying a sub-soil 

 of sand or gravel. All soils that have adhesive clay for their sub-soils 

 are not so well suited for vegetables, besides requiring at least double 

 the amount of labor for cultivation. Above all things necessary for 

 success in growing either vegetables or fruits, is manure. It may be 

 laid down as a settled fact that, unless manure can be obtained in 

 quantity sufficient, the work is not likely to be half as remunerative 

 as where plenty of it can be had. The quantity of manure used per 

 acre by market gardeners around our large cities is not less than 100 

 tons per acre each year, and if barn-yard manure is not accessible, 

 concentrated manure, such as bone dust or superphosphates, should 

 be harrowed in the land after plowing at the rate of not less than 

 two tons per acre, if no other manure is used. For fuller instruc- 



