Having selected the kinds to plant, you should be careful not to 

 plant more than you can attend to properly. A small plat of each well 

 grown, will be much better than double that amount partially 

 neglected. Kow, I am going to sug,u;e^t the following varieties for our 

 garden: (i olden Wax Bean, Gem Musk ifelon, Knott's Excelsior Pea, 

 Stone Tomato, Early Snowball Cauliflower, and ]\roore's Early Con- 

 cord Sweet Corn. These are all excellent varieties and may be easily 

 grown. 



One of the most interesting things about vegetable gardening, is the 

 size of the crop gardeners get from their land. Some "truck farmers," 

 as vegetable gardeners are often called, harvest enormous quantitie'^ 

 of produce from an acre of soil. They never let the land lie idle. It 

 is always producing in the growing season. This suggests a scheme 

 for yoii. Suppose you plan to have one j^lat divided into halves, each 

 part being of the same size. You perhaps plan to plant some toma- 

 toes. Then plaoe just twice as many plants on one-half as the other, 

 and give them ei[ual treatment. Keep count of the number of green 

 tomatoes, of those that ripen and of the weight of those you pick from 

 each half. Then, if you are sharp and handy with figures, you can tell 

 at tiie end of the season what the difference was in total yields of 

 those half plals and what the diiferenee would be in yield per acre. 

 This seems to me to be a plan that will interest the home folks, and 

 would be a very interesting thing for a school report on a truck farm- 

 ing experiment. This is not suggested so much to study the yield of 

 tomatoes as to li-arn how much can be secured from two equal pieces 

 of ground differently planted. 



Pens. — Almost any of the garden peas may be sowed just as earlv 

 as the ground can l)e worked, as they are somewhat hardy and light 

 frosts do not injure the plants. Eake the surface of the soil before, 

 sowing till' seeil. in oi-dor io destroy any weeds which may have ger- 

 minated since the ground was plowed This will give the peas an equal 

 chance with the weeds, and the labor of cultivation will be mtich les- 

 sened. Jlake the rows 16 inches apart and perfectly straight by 

 stretching a line across the bed. With a stick make a mark about one 

 inch deep and drop in the seed two inches apart, and cover with fine 

 soil. Now if the soil is pressed down by laying a board over the row 

 and walking on it, the seeds will germinate much quicker than if the 

 soil is left loose. This should be done with all seeds which are sown 

 in the open ground. 



Examine the seed peas before sowing and see if you can find any 

 that are '-buggy." That is, those that have had a portion of the inside 



