CHAPTER IX 



VEGETABLE CULTURE 



AN abundant supply of good fresh vegetables throughout the year 

 is essential for health, and therefore, whatever other departments 

 of horticultural work are undertaken in the school garden, 

 vegetable culture ought, except in the case of a school in the 

 centre of a large urban area, to take the first place. 



Continuity of supply is important, and the young student 

 should therefore be so instructed that he may have exact 

 information as to the time of planting and the length of the 

 period during which the ground is occupied by the various crops 

 commonly grown in the vegetable garden. He should thus be 

 able to say at once what crops may be expected to be occupying 

 the garden at any time of the year. It is only when the worker 

 has clear and exact knowledge under these heads that he is able 

 to utilise the ground at his disposal to full advantage, and to 

 provide a satisfactory supply. 



It is of some importance to arrange for a rotation of crops, 

 though, provided the garden soil is good, this is not so necessary 

 as in the case of farm crops. In a good rotation of crops a shallow 

 rooted plant is succeeded by one which roots deeply ; and 

 further, plants of closely allied species should not succeed each 

 other, for the reason that closely related plants frequently make 

 similar demands on the mineral constituents of the soil, and also 

 harbour the same fungoid and insect enemies. 



The pupils may with advantage receive some instruction on 

 the food values of the various vegetables cultivated by them, 

 and if the school possesses some equipment for chemistry they 

 may be taught how to isolate and examine some of the most 

 important common constituents. Microscopic sections of 

 vegetable tissue may be examined for cellulose, starch, protoplasm, 

 and oil drops. The most abundant constituent of most vegetables 



