32 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



THE HOME GARDEN. 



By Prof. F. VT. Rane, Department of Horticulture and Forestry, the Neio Hampshire 



College. 



Just how to handle, plan and arrange, select best varieties, and, 

 in a nutshell, get satisfactory results in caring for a home garden, 

 is not an easy thing to explain satisfactorily in a brief discussion. 

 A successful garden is the result of an apparent interest in the 

 undertaking by the owner himself. Let us first awaken this. 



To get up an interest and to get best results I would say start 

 in early in winter, when the seedsmen's catalogues begin to appear 

 soon after Christmas, to study them and get out the seed order. 

 This of necessity must be preceded by a plan of the garden and 

 the area of each crop to be grown. It is a good practice to 

 consult a neighbor who has a reputation for having a successful 

 garden, and get all the points we can. The commercial men 

 who are growing on a large scale are also always of a generous 

 disposition, and ready to give any one the information he cares 

 most for. There is a mistaken impression, seemingly general, that 

 large growers do not select the better varieties for use, and there- 

 fore the varieties grown by them are not the best for the home 

 garden. From an extended experience and acquaintance with both 

 the average person making his own garden and the commercial 

 grower, I am convinced that the varieties grown by the latter are 

 far superior. The commercial man is constantly studying the 

 problem of varieties, and it is a part of his life's work to take 

 advantage of any improvements as soon as they are proven val- 

 uable. Neither is he led astray by the too frequent fake novelties 

 commonly grown by many novice gardeners. Some of the State 

 experiment stations make a very close study of vegetable growing 

 as a part of their horticultural work, and are ever ready to suggest 

 what they consider the best lists of varieties for planting, and to 



