October, 191 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



95 



This work is, of course, done during the 

 vacation season, but it is very seldom that 

 volunteers must be called in to work a ne- 

 glected garden. Prizes are offered each season 

 for the best gardens, and in some schools the 

 children are paid for their work in cash or 

 receive a certain share of the vegetables they 

 grow. The surplus crops are sold through the 

 agency of the children's market established on 

 a prominent downtown corner, where the 

 children gather each Saturday morning to sell 

 the produce raised in the school and home 

 gardens. Canning demonstrations are held 

 each Saturday afternoon and the left over 

 vegetables are thus saved for future use. 



The interest in the home gardens is equally 

 keen, owing to the inducements offered for 

 making vacation money. Vegetables not re- 

 quired for the family use are sold on the mar- 

 ket, and many of the children make from #50 

 to #200 for their season's garden work. The 



Root crops may be packed in sphagnum moss and brought 

 indoors to keep 



profits returned by some of the school gardens 

 are equally high, often reaching #2,000. Cash 

 prizes are awarded for home garden work in 

 each school district in the city. 



The Lincoln plan was declared the model 

 of its kind a few years ago by the federal gov- 

 ernment and Lincoln was made the headquar- 

 ters for the western end of the school and home 

 garden movement. A new department of 

 garden activity, known as the commercial gar- 

 den work, has been added, and hundreds of 

 boys and girls have enlisted in this work each 

 year. This year the number was greatly in- 

 creased. Children engaged in this department 

 of gardening activity are interested in the com- 

 mercial side of gardening exclusively. They 

 are shown how to engage in the garden business 

 at a profit, and the earnings of some of the 

 boys and girls who engage in this work in a 

 serious way often amount to more than #ico 

 for a few weeks' work. Widespread adoption 

 of the Lincoln plan might be worth con- 

 sidering as a means of creating a permanent 

 interest in gardening work in all large cities 

 of the country. 



13 ECAUSE, hitherto, we have not taken 

 *-* the garden as seriously as its economic 

 importance deserves we have, as a people, 

 overlooked many fall planting possibili- 

 ties for food crops. The season of next 

 spring's fresh vegetables may be hastened 

 by sowing seeds of hardy vegetables this fall! 

 While fall sowing of vegetable seeds may be 

 unusual in northern sections, yet, it is thor- 

 oughly practical, as nature herself proves to us 

 each spring. Here and there, chance seedlings 

 will appear in the garden, long before the 



PRESENT SOWING FOR EXTRA 

 EARLY CROPS 



Help the general food conservation plans by storing even a 

 few beets and carrots in boxes of sand 



gardener can sow seeds — the result of some 

 seeds blown about the preceding fall and prop- 

 erly stored by nature. 



The vegetables adapted to fall sowing are 

 carrot, lettuce, mustard, smooth-seeded peas, 

 radish, spinach, and turnip. The one im- 

 portant point to watch is not to sow the seeds 

 until cold weather has come to stay. 



However, October is the month in which to 

 prepare the ground. It should be well fer- 

 tilized (manure, humus, or artificial fertilizer), 

 deeply dug, thoroughly raked and put in the 

 identical condition as though spring garden 

 making time were here. Where humus or 

 commercial fertilizer is used, it should be raked 

 into the surface rather than to be spaded deeply 

 into the ground. 



Then wait for freezing weather and just be- 

 fore the ground freezes hard, sow seeds as 

 usual, cover as usual, and let nature take its 

 course. It happens sometimes that a belated 



warm spell (Indian summer) causes some of the 

 seeds to sprout and seedlings will appear. But 

 little is lost if subsequent frosts destroy them. 



Spinach will often make a good growth, sown 

 even very late in the fall. But since it is an 

 exceptionally hardy vegetable it is easily car- 

 ried through the winter under the slight pro- 

 tection of a four-inch cover of strawy manure 

 or hay or dry leaves. 



Rather deep covering is advisable with all fall 

 sown seeds because the alternate freezing and 

 thawing of the soil causes the seeds to work to- 

 ward the surface anyway. 



Since all the vegetables sown this fall will 

 mature in early spring, it is essential, of 

 course, to sow extra early varieties, examples of 

 which are given herewith. These are se- 

 lected as illustrative types, and other equally 

 early varieties may be substituted. 



Carrots, Early Scarlet Horn, Oxheart, and 

 Chantenay, all serve the purpose well. They 

 mature in the order here mentioned and will 

 beat the spring sown product by a good two 

 weeks. Sow the seeds thinly, in rows, about 

 18 inches apart. Cover about one half inch 

 deep in light soil, one fourth inch in heavy soil. 



Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson, May King 

 and Prizehead are unsurpassed for fall sowing. 

 All three will stand disagreeable spring weather. 

 May King, fall sown, will form small, but 

 tightly folded heads early in June, when 

 spring-sown plants are just developing the 

 larger leaves. Lettuce seeds may be sown in a 

 manner similar to carrots. 



Mustard, Fordhook Fancy and Elephant 

 Ear thrive both perfectly during the very early 

 spring and may be enjoyed over a longer period 

 (in combination with spinach) because the 

 cool weather retards their going to seed. 



Peas, of the smooth seeded sorts only, are 

 Pedigree Extra Early, Prolific Early Market, 

 and Alaska. The last named sort, while of 

 poor quality, is the most easily procurable. 

 What Mr. Geo. W. Kerr says in last month's 

 Garden Magazine about fall sowing of Sweet 

 Peas is equally adapted to culinary peas. Sow 

 them in single rows, 18 inches apart, or in 

 double rows 2 feet apart. 



Radishes are surpassed only by spinach in 

 their adaptability for fall sowing. Proof of 

 this: more chance seedlings of radish turn up 

 in the average garden every spring than of any 



other vegetable. Scarlet Turnip White 

 Tip, Rosy Gem, and Scarlet Globe are sorts 

 that will be of edible size when roots from 

 spring sown seeds have not outgrown the 

 seedling stage. Sow like carrots or let- 

 tuce, or broadcast like spinach. 

 Spinach, Prickly Seeded Winter is the best 

 for sections where winters are very severe. 

 Its arrow-shaped foliage does not give frost a 

 very large surface to work on. Long Season 

 (or Triumph) is a very much fleshier sort that 

 requires longer to reach good size. Sow either 

 in rows, like carrots, or scatter the seeds 

 broadly in beds, raking seeds carefully into the 

 soil. 



Turnips, either the Early White or Early 

 Purple Top Milan perfect handsome, flat roots, 

 very early in the spring. Sow thinly, in rows, 

 12 to 18 inches apart, cover one fourth inch 

 deep. 



Vegetables from Bulbs or Roots 



Onions. There is also opportunity to set 

 out Perennial Winter or Egyptian Tree 

 Onions, also Multipliers and Potato Onion sets. 

 All must be planted in the fall. If kept out of 

 the ground over winter, they shrivel badly and 

 are apt to rot after planting. These onions 



Before the root vegetables are put into the storage pit or 

 box cut off the leafy tops, but not the root tips 



