10 GARDENING FOR YOUNG AND OLD. 



tirely by the use of the cultivator, and aim to have some 

 of the crops come in early, and some to mature late, so 

 that all the work of gathering the crops will not have to 

 be done at one time. 



Even if you are sure of the labor, it is a good plan at 

 first to grow crops with which you are most familiar, and 

 which do not require excessively rich land. It takes 

 some years to get land in the very best condition for 

 many of our best garden crops. Even such a common 

 crop as early cabbages will do better on land that has 

 been heavily manured two or three years, and occupied 

 each year with cabbages, than can be grown on new 

 land, no matter how heavily it may be manured. The 

 same is true of onions; old onion land, provided it is 

 well manured every year, is proverbially better for this 

 crop than new land. 



I want the boys to engage in gardening, because they 

 are young and can afford to wait, but more especially be- 

 cause they will be more likely to adopt new processes, 

 and will be willing to bestow the necessary care and 

 labor in preparing the land. I can not insist too much 

 on the importance of this matter, not only at first, but 

 in the years to come. 



HOW TO BEGIN. 



If the land selected for a garden is not naturally well, 

 drained, it must be under-drained. Without this, suc- 

 cess is impossible. Fall plowing is of great importance, 

 and I do not mean by this simply turning over the soil 

 with a plow, and letting the furrows lie undisturbed un- 

 til spring. If it is sod-land, it should be plowed deep 

 and well, as early as possible, and the surface afterwards 

 harrowed and rolled, cultivated and again rolled, and 

 harrowed again, until there are four or five inches of loose 

 mellow soil. If the plowing was done so early that the 



