March, 1906 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



71 



portions for fruit on average soils but also 

 because the lime in them is often very bene- 

 ficial in correcting sourness and improves the 

 soil in several other ways. If potash can be 

 bought about as cheaply in the form of ashes 

 as it can be in the form of muriate by all 

 means take the ashes. Were any such thing 

 as "the best orchard fertilizer "possible, ashes 

 would get a majority of votes. 



These are all very liberal applications; in 

 many cases half the amounts mentioned, or 

 less, would be ample. Fertilize fruits with 

 judgment, not by rule. It is as easy to over- 

 fertilize as it is to over-prune. If there are 

 but a few trees on the home grounds, the 

 natural tendency is to give them more fertil- 

 izer than if there are many. If applying 

 300 pounds of muriate of potash per acre 

 and the trees are twenty-four feet apart each 

 way, each of the seventy-five trees gets four 



pounds, which seems like a very small amount 

 to the man who has only a few trees to 

 fertilize, and would gladly multiply that 

 amount several times if it were best. In a 

 general way it may be said that from four to 

 ten pounds of most high-grade fertilizers is 

 sufficient for bearing fruit trees, except per- 

 haps on very poor soil or for very large trees. 



HOW AND WHEN TO APPLY COMMERCIAL 

 FERTILIZERS 



Usually the best way is to broadcast them, 

 and plow, harrow or dig them into the soil. 

 When the trees are young it is especially 

 desirable to work the fertilizer into the soil 

 deeply; if left on or near the surface the roots 

 tend to become established there, where 

 plant food is most abundant, thus making 

 a shallow-rooted tree. After the trees come 

 into bearing surface applications may be 



made if necessary — as it would be if they are 

 in sod — but it is always desirable to work the 

 fertilizer into the soil whenever expedient. 

 Put the fertilizer where most of the feeding 

 roots are — at some distance from the trunk. 

 In bearing trees they are mostly in the 

 middle between the rows, not under the 

 branches. 



When to apply commercial fertilizer to 

 fruit depends chiefly upon the solubility of 

 the fertilizer. Nitrate of soda, blood, tank- 

 age, ashes, muriate and sulphate of potash, 

 acid phosphate, and in fact most high-grade 

 fertilizers, and most brand fertilizers also, 

 are quickly dissolved in the soil water, and 

 hence should be applied in the spring or 

 summer. A few, as untreated South Carolina 

 rock, and bone in various forms, become 

 available slowly and may be applied in the 

 fall. 



A Ten-Minutes-a-Day Garden— By I. M. Angell 



New 

 York 



PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF OF WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED ON A 15X30 FOOT PLOT IN 

 RAISING SUMMER VEGETABLES FOR A FAMILY OF FIVE— A NOVEL SCHEME FOR UTILIZING 

 EVERYTHING BY MEANS OF SUCCESSIVE THINNING OF THE LARGE PLANTS INSTEAD OF THE 

 LITTLE ONES— DOUBLE CROPPING IN SAME ROW AND FIVE CROPS FROM ONE FOOT OF GROUND 



Photographs by the author 





MANY possessors of small pieces of 

 ground never think of raising their 

 own vegetables because they imagine that in 

 order to make vegetable growing worth while, 

 a half-acre plot and a man to work it are 

 necessary. But we know differently. For 

 on a garden spot, measuring fifteen by thirty 

 feet, and with only ten minutes' work a day, 

 we grew twelve dollars' worth of vegetables. 

 There were twenty kinds and each planting 

 yielded enough at a picking to supply a 

 family of five grown persons. The seed cost 

 less than a dollar. Except in cases where we 

 knew the actual value, we have reckoned it 

 as one cent, because the quantity necessary 

 was only a small portion of a five- or ten-cent 

 package. One week's picking alone would 

 more than equal the entire cost of the seed, 

 as the following table shows: 



Parsley . 

 Peas. . . . 



Carrots. 

 Chard.. 

 Lettuce. 

 Beets.. . 



LARGEST PICKING FOR ONE WJEK 



June nth to zoth 



LARGEST PICKING FOR ONE DAY 



September \\th 



2 quarts Limas. 



1 " pole beans. 



2 " parsley 



3 ears corn 



9 carrots 



8 cucumbers 



9 tomatoes 



$1.30 



value, the lowest income from seven different 

 plots was worth sixty cents. And, of course, 

 what we had was fresh and therefore far 

 superior to the store goods. 



Our first thought was to plant the rows 

 north and south in order to get the full benefit 

 of the sunshine. Next we arranged rows of 

 three different lengths — thirtv feet for those 



$ .60 



The largest picking for a single day was on 



September 14th, when, at the regular market 



The biggest single day's picking of vegetables was 

 worth sixty cents. September 14 



vegetables of which we wanted the largest 

 possible quantity, twenty feet for others and 

 ten feet for the sorts that would yield a suf- 

 ficient amount from a small space. In every 

 case where it was possible, a succession cr 

 doubling up was done. Sometimes two or 

 even three crops grew on the same line. In 

 the case of the potatoes and corn alternate 

 hills of the former were promptly dug and the 

 space replanted with a July-ist-sowing of corn. 



The 30-foot row of early peas was followed 

 by three crops that made use of the same 

 trellis, each occupying one-third of the row. 



As both onions and parsley are the better 

 for transplanting, the young plants of each 

 simply exchanged locations; the parsley went 

 into the place vacated by the onions and seed 



of a later crop of onions was sown in the 

 parsley row. In instances where the ground 

 was not to be vacated early enough for the 

 later planting, the sowings of the successive 

 crops were made in odd corners or in flower 

 pots and the plantlets transplanted as soon 

 as there was a vacancy; tomatoes, cucum- 

 bers, squash, bush Limas, kohlrabi and let- 

 tuce were treated in this way. 



FIVE CROPS ON ONE FOOT 



The trellises and adjacent ground were 

 used for two, three, four or even five crops. 

 One foot from the eastern boundary line the 

 garden was an arched trellis, on the opposite 

 sides of which peas and Lima beans grew. At 

 the foot of the trellis were radishes, and as 

 soon as they were harvested, lettuce plants 

 (that had been started in another part of the 

 garden) were moved in. A tomato plant 

 occupied one of the uprights of this trellis, so 

 that the one-foot strip of ground actually ac- 

 commodated five crops. 



The 12-foot trellis at the back of the garden 

 had a similar history. It was sowed the en- 

 tire length with pole beans. At each one of 

 the five uprights there was a tomato plant. 

 A lemon cucumber climbed on this trellis, 

 also some asparagus beans, making four 

 crops at the same time. 



Sometimes a second crop was sown before 

 the first one was off the ground. This was 

 accomplished by planting a row a few inches 

 away from the old one, and as soon as the 

 latter was removed the young crop had all 

 the room it required and yet had the advan- 

 tage of several days' start. Double rows are 

 another help to economy of space. Slow 

 maturing crops can be either sowed or trans- 



