SB The Western Pomologist and Gardener. 1872 



Hints on Gardenlng."HoTV' to Have Earlj' Vegetable*. 



Bt C. Bradley, Nautoo, III. 



I propose to say a few words upon gardens and gardening, and when I speak of gar- 

 dens I mean such as every farmer in the land and nearly every citizen of every village or 

 small town in the whole of this Western World, may have without infringing upon 

 those (so-called) more important avocations of dail.y life. In this article I say nothing of 

 Hot Beds or Green Houses. These are important for professional gardeners and nursery- 

 men, but are not necessary for the common every day vegetable garden. In order that I 

 may be better understood as to what I refer, I will give a brief description of my own lit- 

 tle "patch," which I have cultivated for five years, and has answered me as a nursery for 

 small seedlings, a strawberry patch, an arboretum, and a most excellent vegetable and 

 fruit garden. 



This garden lot is 130 feet by 50 feet, with one corner 48 by 20 taken off for stable, hen- 

 house and pig pen. On this there are six cherry trees, four plum trees, two pear trees, 

 six peach trees, two apple trees, thirty currant bushes, twelve gooseberry bushes, fifteen 

 grape.vines, one persimmon tree three years Bid, eight feet high, and several small ones 

 one year old, fifty seedling peach trees one year old, rhubarb and asparagus, six ozier wil- 

 lows, and on the north side of the soulh fence, a row of the Red Antwerp raspberries 

 one hundred feet in length; and in addition to the above I have the Bradley Nawioo Seed- 

 ling Strj.wberry on the ground where it originated, the Jucunda and the Russell. The 

 small fruits have all done well — all we needed for current use, a plenty for canning, and 

 some to give to our neighbors. Now as to vegetables, as our patch is. small and pretty 

 well covered with iruit, of course we do not raise vegetables in large quantities, but 

 Always have plenty and to spare, and of the best quality. 



The soil is the deep, rich alluvial of the Mississippi River bottom, and this well manured. 

 As soon as the frost is out of the ground and the weather favorable, I fork up a bed twelve 

 inches deep, along the south side of my north fence, and sow or plant beets, lettuce and 

 radishes, all together in the same bed. The radishes soon come to a good size and are 

 used ; the lettuce is thinned out as soon as it will do to use, and the greater part of the 

 beets are taken up and set on the borders of other beds, leaving enough on the ground to 

 ;grow and ripen after everything else is taken off. In this way I have always succeeded 

 in having plenty of beets from three to four inches in diameter by the 4th of July. 

 These and peas and onions are planted in March, and generally have some cold and freez- 

 ing weather on them, but it does not kill them — only puts them back a little. I sow my 

 parsnips in the winter broadcast all over the garden ; they come early and in great abun- 

 dance. What I don't want are easily hoed up, or if they are in the wrong place I trans- 

 plant them ; in this way they grow large — weighing from three to seven pounds. I have 

 one now in my cellar fifteen inches in circumference, two feet long, weighing seven 

 pounds; the rest of the crop is in the ground jet. For early potatoes I start them in 

 March, in a box by the cook stove. Cut them into one or two eyes, let them dry two or 

 three days, then lay them in as close as they will lay in good, ricli soil ; cover them with 

 the same kind and set them in a warm place. When the tops appear above ground they 

 may require a little water occasionally, but not much. In bright, clear weather, set the 

 box out in the open air on the sunny side, in the middle of the day, taking in at night. 

 Have the ground well prepared a day or two before planting. When the plants are six 

 inches long they will be well rooted. Set them out leaving about an inch above ground, 

 in the evening cover with straw or litter, which can be left on protecting them from the 

 cold. In this way you will have plenty of potatoes large and fine by the 5th to the 10th 

 of June. Sweet corn should be planted early in April, and if it is an early kind and has 

 been well tended, you will have green corn on the table early in June. Peas should be 

 planted in rich mellow soil, three to four inches deep, and the ground well stirred with a 

 rake before they come up, and stirred of: en afterwards, and you can eat green peas at an 

 early day. Tomatoes require the richest and warmest soil and good care. Set the plants 

 six inches deep, leaving the top bud above ground. Don't wait for them "'to get big 



