VEGETABLE GARDENING 



If. with hi-^ knowledge of vegetahle-growing, the gar- 

 dener eoinhiues g.>oa business ;ind ext'outive ability, 

 and an intimate knowledge of market eonditious, he 

 should be ahle. liowever. to make it a pretitalde ami at- 

 tractive l>usiiiess. Although tlie outlay is likely to be 

 large, the returns are direet and quick/ Fig. '2VAi. 



There is a large- literature devoted to vegetable-gar- 

 dening, although the greater part of it applies ehiedy to 

 amateur or home-growing. Leading current books" on 

 the general subject of vegeta- 

 ble - gardening are those by 

 Greiner, Green, Henderson. 

 Rawsou and Landreth. F o r 

 California one sliould consult 

 AVickson's "Galifornia Vegeta- 

 bles in Garden and Field." and 

 for the Atlantic south, Kolfs 

 "Vegetable - Growing in the 

 South for Northern ilarkets." 

 There are mauy books devoted 

 to special topics, ami there are 

 many others whiidi in tlieir 

 time were of i^'reat practical 

 value, but which are nowchietlv 

 known as recording the historv 

 of the epoch in whitdi they were 

 written. Only one Anirricau 

 work has heen <levoted to de- 

 scriptions of varieties of viire- 

 tables. as the works of Dowu- 

 ing. Thomas, and others hiive 

 to varieties of fruits. This work 

 is Fearing Burr's "Field and 

 Garden Vegetables of Auirrii-a." 

 Boston. ISfJ.S. and the alnidir- 

 nient of it in 180G, called "(iar- 

 deu Vegetables and How to 

 Cultivate Them." A full list of 

 the American vegetable - gar- 

 dening literature may be found 



in Bailey's "Principles of Vegetable-Gardening" (1901). 

 Persons who desire a cycloitedic account of vegetables 

 should consult Vilmorin's "Les Plantes Potageres/' the 

 first edition of which is published in London as "The 

 Vegetable Garden." L H B. 



Vegetable-Growing- in California. It is an interest- 

 ing fact that thouL:h California's horticultural promi- 

 nence now rests upon fruit proilucts, the first attrac- 

 tion to the new state, after the gold discovery, was 

 the wonderful growth of garden vegetables. The re- 

 ports of immense size, of acreage product and of prices 

 secured, were almost incredible because so much in ad- 

 vance of ordinary standards, but the statements were so 

 fully authenticated that many were drawn to California 

 by them. These horticultural pioneers, however, soon 

 found that immigrants from Asia and the Mediterranean 

 region could, by their cheap living an<i l-y doing their 

 own work, cut undi-r American growers wh^t bail to 

 employ high-priced labor, and so the latter retired from 

 the field, leaving the opportunity to the frug^d and 

 thrifty foreigner. Thus vegetaljle- growing, from an 

 American point of view, came into disrepute and largely 

 retains such disadvantage at present. The result is 

 that the American largely avoids market- gardening, 

 while Asiatics and South Europeans are thriving on it. 

 There has been a reflection of the same disfavor upon 

 farm growing of vegetables for home use. and our farm- 

 ing population, including the fruit-growers who should 

 know and do better, is larirely dependent upon alien 

 vegetable peddlers or products of canneries instead of 

 fresh home-grown esculents. which would lie cheaper and 

 inexpressibly betterthan canned ortransported supplies. 

 Fortunately there are indications that this state of af- 

 fairs is changing. The uprising during the last decade 

 of a large industry in growing vegetables for overland 

 shipment and for canning seems to have clothed tlo- 

 plant-cultures involved in this trade with new dignity 

 and importance which is attractive to American growers. 

 Cabbage, cauliflower and celery for eastern shipment, 

 peas and asparagus for canning and for shipment, to- 

 matoes for canning, etc., have all liecorae large special 

 crops, while some other plants, like Lima beans, which 



VEGETABLE (LIRDENING 



1907 



are chiefly grown in gardens elsewhere, have become hold 

 crops in California covering very large acreage. Such 

 enterprises attract American citizens and are tdiaii^nng 

 the popular coneeption of tlu^ dignity and <.])porl miity 

 of vegetalde-growing. A measure of'thts inMueuce, as 

 well as of the extent of the jo-oduct. m:iv l>e had in the 

 statistics of the year 1900. hi that vear there were 

 shipped out of the state by r;iil and sea 51,400 tons of 

 green vegetal)les. The product <.f canned vei^otables in 





of hotbeds. 



LSO'J was: tomatoes, 58:i.0fU cases; peas, '25.006 cases; 

 asparagus, 105, SM cases; beans and other vegetables, 

 38,523 cases. Nearly all the vegetabh.-s included in the 

 above trade are of the higher classr-s. potatoes and 

 onions only moving in considerable <juantities when ex- 

 ceptionally high prices prevail in the East. In addition 

 to the foregoing there is the bean shiimient to eastern 

 markets, which reached a total of 73.150.000 jiounds in 

 1895. but has been less each year sim/n then liecausi- of 

 partial drought in the chief beiin disiricts. 



(California conditions affecting veL;-ft;diip-ir]-owing are 

 wiile and various. Nowhere else )ierh;i]is i.s it more es- 

 sential that certain things should I.h- done just at the 

 right time and in the right way. If these requirements 

 arr fairly met the product is large and tine; if they are 

 iio:;-leeted the failure is sharp and complete. This fact 

 has given rise to the impression that California is a 

 hard place to grow vegetables, which is not true unless 

 one lacks local knowledge or the nerve to apply it. <"»ne 

 of the chief causes of failure is in following seasons 

 and methods which have yielded success under condi- 

 tions prevailing in the states east of the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains. If one begins garden-making in the spring- 

 time the plants do not secure deep rooting, which is 

 necessary to carry them to success in the dry season, 

 and the garden is likely to be a disappointment. If. on 

 the other hand, all the hardier vegetables are sown in 

 succession from September until February or March 

 there will be continuous produce through the winter 

 and into tlie early summer. The chief shipments of 

 vegetables from California are made during the late fall 

 ami winter and arr^ taken right from the ground to the 

 ears without protection or storage. Tender vegetables, 

 like corn, beans, tomatoes, etc., can, however, be grown 

 in the winter only in a few frostless places. They 

 must either be pushed to a finish in tlie fall or sown 

 early in the spring and carried into the dry summer as 

 far as necessary either by natural moist land or liy irri- 

 gation. There are, however, a few localities where to- 

 matoes will frnit early in the si:irinii' from fall iilaiitiiiLrs, 

 and ")"ie-)i])frs will live tbreuirli tlo' winter and l:iear a 

 second season's cro]» on the old plants. 

 The possession of an irrigation supply is the secret of 



