Radishes flourish and mature in thirty days. White 

 Icing, Long Scarlet White Tip and Scarlet Globe 



Perfect onions are easily grown in a deep, rich, 

 loose soil. Southport White Globe 



Mild 



flavored Ruby King peppers are excellen 

 stuffed or in pickles 



A Vegetable Garden in the Semi-Arid Region— By viola McColm, Essr- 



HOW GARDENING ON THE PRAIRIES DIFFERS FROM THAT IN THE EAST-LAND A PLENTY 

 BUT A SCARCITY OF WATER— THE PECULIAR CONSEQUENCE OF THE DRY WINTERS 



[Note. — This is the first of a series of articles on home gardening in every part of the United States and Canada, to which our readers are cordially invited to 

 contribute. We need articles from Southern Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Alaska, Manitoba, and every other region that has peculiar conditions. Won't you tell us what 

 these conditions are, describe your successful garden, give a calendar for all important operations, make your article intensely practical for people in your region and interesting 

 to everybody else ? Instead of writing us " Why don t you have articles about our region," won't you tell us who are the successful amateurs in your region ?] 



OUT in the Western prairies, the garden 

 has a new set of conditions, but the 

 commoner vegetables are easily grown in 

 this semi-arid region if the garden be irri- 

 gated. The soil is deep, rich, and com- 

 paratively new, so there is no need to add 



Squash, pumpKins and melons are successfully 

 grown without irrigation 



fertilizer. The one thing needed here at 

 2,428 feet elevation is water in the earliest 

 spring. And for economy's sake our vege- 

 table gardens are placed sufficiently near to 

 the house so that the one well can serve 

 the two. Cultivation is by hand tools 

 or by horse power, generally the latter, 

 because it is so much the cheaper, and then, 

 too, the necessity of getting much in a little 

 space, which is one of the controlling factors 

 of Eastern gardening, does not bother us at 

 all. When horse power is used, more ground 

 is occupied, but land is cheap here. 



WATERING BEFORE PLANTING 



During the four months, November, 

 December, January and February, the aver- 

 age monthly rainfall is only about half an 

 inch, yet the average annual precipitation is 

 20.35 inches. This means that, while in the 



spring and summer months there is a liberal 

 supply of moisture, the ground may be so 

 dry in the early spring that the garden plot 

 must actually be watered before it can be 

 put in good condition for planting. Fancy 

 that, you Easterners! 



Luckily there are good wells, and one well 

 will, besides affording water for house use 

 and for many head of stock, supply plenty 

 of water to irrigate a large garden; and the 

 wind will lift the water. 



When once the crops are well established, 

 the rain comes in abundance, and sometimes, 

 for several weeks together, there will be no 

 need to water the garden. 



The garden is just south of the barn lots, 

 so the buildings afford protection when the 

 wind happens to be in the north. That 

 however, is an incident. The main reason 

 for selecting this place is that the ground in 

 this direction slopes from the well. Near 

 by is a fifty-barrel stock tank where the 

 stock drinks, and which also serves as a 

 storage reservoir for water to be used in the 

 garden. 



In our first summer we irrigated until after 

 mid-summer by means of pipe and hose. 

 But cheaper, and really more satisfactory, is 

 the method or small ditches or trenches 

 which was installed the second year. Lead- 



A typical prairie garden— open to all the winds that blow. Irrigation is its salvation 

 282 



