THE HOME GAEDEN. 



BY PROF. F. W. RANE, DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY, 

 NEW HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS. 



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 suc- 

 cessful 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 therefore 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 commer- 

 cial 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 valuable. 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 gro-wing 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 pass judgment upon new things which 

 they have tested. Bulletins are available, either from the State ex- 

 periment stations or from the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 that have been written to assist such of us as care to make a garden. 

 Without looking the matter up, I can recall many bulletins that briefly 

 and in a practical way give just the information desired in gro\\ang 

 certain crops. Some of those sent free by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, called Farmers' bulletins, are: 



