January, 1919 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



175 



type of cabbage called kohlrabi will have to be 

 satisfied with White Vienna, since its purple- 

 skinned companion is hardly obtainable — but 

 after all what's the odds, in actual use? Neither 

 parsnips nor salsify offer any difficulty in selec- 

 tion since only two of each are obtainable. Not 

 so in turnips, however. England, the past season, 

 grew an astounding acreage and tons upon tons 

 of all kinds of turnip seed will reach the market 

 from over there. Remember the types — flat, 

 round and elongated. Flat White Milan, Purple 

 Top White Globe and White Egg are dependable 

 standards. 



"\X7HILE not strictly a root crop, onions de- 

 * ' serve mention here as a profitable crop in 

 the home garden. Again, learn to look upon 

 them in classes and types, each having certain 

 characteristics. As a whole, the white kinds 

 are the earliest and mildest; the yellow kinds are 

 the most popular, and the red kinds the latest 

 and best keepers — but also the strongest flavored! 

 Foreign onions are past history. American 

 grown Danvers Yellow Globe is helping to flavor 

 European soups and stews. And don't forget — 

 Danvers Globe, Ohio Yellow Globe, Rocky 

 Mountain Danvers, Michigan Yellow Globe, etc., 

 are all children of one great race. Three famous 

 onions from Southport, Connecticut, have given 

 that town world-wide fame — the Southport 

 White, Yellow, and Red Globes. They are the 

 acme of American standards in onions. 



"D ADISHES always will be the tempting spring 

 -*-*■ delicacy of the home garden. There is 

 absolutely no reason why they should not be a 

 "year around" vegetable by growing only those 

 specific types that fit the seasons, viz: spring, 

 summer, and fall, and others for winter. 



The Button, or earliest, radishes are useful 

 only for spring work. Scarlet Globe, Rosy Gem 

 and French Breakfast are the champions in this 

 type. The longer sorts last longer before becom- 

 ing spongy, but require longer to get ready. 

 In order of their appearance on the table of this 

 type, I recommend Icicle, Long Scarlet and 

 Cincinnati Market. Chartier is the summer 

 radish "par excellence." White Strasburg is an 

 early fall root; White Chinese the be:t tasting 



sort for early winter; Black Spanish the best 

 keeper. 



A S TO vegetables grown for greens and salads, 

 ■**■ there is good news! It is good to know 

 that the "famine" in spinach seed is over, per- 

 haps never to return. Almost over night 

 the great Northwest has become a world factor 

 in producing seed of this vegetable. It is pro- 

 duced literally by the ton throughout Washing- 

 ton. Aren't you glad? It is also good to feel 

 that New Zealand spinach has reached a point 

 of deserved recognition as a wonderful producer 

 of greens in the midsummer garden. Swiss 

 chard, or spinach beet, has also come into its 

 own and our home gardens will never again be 

 without a row of some sort of plants that furnish 

 "green" food acceptable to humans and so essen- 

 tial to their welfare. 



: TNLESS every home gardener takes kindly 

 V-' to growing some cabbage this year, there 

 will be an unpredecented shortage of "Liberty 

 cabbage" in 1920. The cabbage seed crop is one 

 of the shortest in the history of the country. 

 As the result, commercial producers wdl not grow 

 as large quantities as usual. On the other band, 

 a "packet" of seed contains just as much as 

 ever, and if every home gardener does his part, 

 we will have millions of small individual cabbage 

 patches this year instead of a few thousands of 

 big ones. There are three types — the Early 

 pointed; the Flat Dutch; and the Round Danish. 

 Remember that the pointed ones do not keep 

 well; the flat Dutch type is the most popular, 

 and the Danish is the most solid, and conse- 

 quently usually keeps best. 



I don't know just where tomatoes "belong" 

 but after all is said, we have to acclaim the tomato 

 as the most dependable, allround American vege- 

 table. Two distinct classes of it are available, 

 the standard or tall, and the dwarf. The latter 

 is particularly adapted to the small garden, but 

 its season of bearing is but short and, with one 

 exception (Dwarf Giant), the fruits of the dwarfs 

 do not size up to those of the taller vines. 



The standards in turn, are divided into four 

 types — the scarlet round, the purple round and 

 the globe-shaped also having both scarlet and 

 purple members. Manyfold (globe-shaped) is I 



think unquestioned leader in its class, as a perfect 

 salad fruit, the earliest bright red. Hummer, 

 and Coreless, are larger, later sorts of the same 

 color. There is only one purple globe-shaped 

 sort — the original Globe — to my mind the best 

 from all points of all tomatoes I have grown 

 unless it shares honor with Bonny Best, among 

 the scarlets. Both are early, productive, and 

 the fruits uniformly of medium size, also very 

 smooth and generally handsome. Chalk's Jewel 

 is a good one to select for succession — it bears 

 until frost. Stone is still the standard main crop 

 scarlet for all purposes, and is really unrivalled. 



A S THE basis of all good salads, lettuce ranks 

 ■^-*- alone. Four types ask for consideration— 

 the loose-leaf, butterhead, crisp head and cos 

 varieties. The first are the best for the man with 

 least experience; and always remember that 

 only "head" lettuces make solid heads. The 

 butterheads are the true "quality product" 

 but require careful cultivation. The crisp- 

 heads are large and crisp but have little flavor. 

 The cos varieties are useful as summer standbys 

 when all the rest "go to seed." 



The choice in loose-leaf sorts is easy. Butter- 

 heads are divided into early and late — the Tennis 

 ball type being the earliest, the Mammoth 

 Black Seeded Butter and All Seasons the latest. 

 The best flavored "crisp" head is Mignonette. 

 The most popular cos is Paris White Cos. Re- 

 member please, that for best results, lettuce 

 must be thinned out repeatedly. 



Other salad plants are endive, cress, mustard, 

 and petsai or "Chinese cabbage" — which in fr.ct 

 isnt a cabbage at all! Fifteen years ago we dis- 

 carded petsai and threw away a quantity of seeds 

 simply because we did not know how to grow it. 

 To-day petsai bids fair to rival Swiss chard in 

 popularity because we "discovered" that it 

 should not be sown until August 1st in the lati- 

 tude of Philadelphia. Look at the head photo- 

 graphed October 17th, from seeds sown August 

 2nd. A twenty-foot row held two dozen plants 

 like the one shown, good to eat as a salad, or 

 like celery, or cooked as regular cabbage and 

 when so served is even more delicate in flavor 

 than the savoy type of cabbage. If you can 

 beat it please let me know. 



The Garden in the South 



THIS is the month for careful thought and 

 planning. The proper site for a garden: 

 A southeastern exposure. The proper 

 site for an orchard: A northern or 

 northwestern exposure. 



A garden should have an evergreen hedge as 

 a wind-break on the north side. The orchard 

 is exposed to the north to check early blooming 

 of the trees as a late frost is apt to kill the fruit. 



The character of the soil must be considered 

 in selecting the site. For a garden, a good loose, 

 loamy soil with much sand is best. For the orchard 

 and Rose garden a subsoil of clay is preferable. 



After deciding the location of garden and or- 

 chard draw a plan on paper, to scale. Make the 

 rows run north and south if convenient so 

 the plants will get the maximum of sunlight. 

 Arrange to have the permanent plants — such as 

 small fruits, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, 

 strawberries, with asparagus and rhubarb in a 

 far ofF corner of the garden so that the constant 

 changing crops which need more working will 

 be more accessible. Plant herbs convenient 

 to the house where they can be constantly handy 

 for seasoning in the daily cooking. 



A FTER planning on the paper, one can easily 

 ■**■ calculate the number of feet that can be 

 spared for the various vegetables. It is still 

 necessary to concentrate one's attention on the 



more important vegetables, because of the urgent 

 need of food over the whole world, and in this 

 reconstruction period to make the minimum of 

 work make for a maximum of food. Avoid 

 fancy vegetables and fruits: try no experiments. 

 Get your seed from the most reliable seedsman 

 [Read carefully other articles elsewhere in this 

 issue.] 



Send for seed catalogues right away; go over 

 them carefully; make out your order; and send 

 it this month — send "a full order for the whole 

 season as seeds are scarce. If you are making 

 a garden for the first time look up the scale in 

 some of the back numbers of Garden Magazines 

 for January which gauges to a minimum the 

 number of seed per foot needed of each kind. 

 A list of the best and thoroughly tested vegetables 

 for the middle South were given in Garden 

 Magazine Southern Reminder, January, 1918. 



TF THE season is an open one much actual 

 ■*■ work can be done to speed things along. 

 Asparagus trenches can be dug and a four inch 

 layer of manure or nitrogen gathering humus 

 be put in and dirt spread over this and the as- 

 paragus plants set in. Trenches for Sweet Peas 

 can be dug and the peas planted; though many 

 people plant them in November. The early 

 garden peas of the smooth variety can now be 

 planted. 



On inclement days mend the hotbed sach; 

 make small individual coldframes the size of a 

 glass — i. e., IO by 12 inches. These can be 

 used in early spring over a tomato plant, squash 

 or melon to force it along and to progtct it at 

 night from early frost; later the glass could be 

 removed and a piece of plain cloth tacked over 

 it and used to protect plant from destructive 

 insects. There should be plenty of lettuce from 

 the cold frames and the space which is now vacant 

 can be used for early beets (Bessano), and French 

 Breakfast radishes, also an early sowing of kale for 

 greens. This is only done to be able to get greens 

 when snow covers the ground; for as a matter 

 of fact the salad greens — such as turnips, upland 

 cress and spinach grow readily in the open 

 ground. Cabbage plants of the early Jersey 

 Wakefield held over in cold frames with slight 

 protection can be set out in open ground in rows 

 z\ feet apart and each plant 15 inches apart in 

 the row. 



CPRAY. The orchard should be sprayed, 

 ^ if there is any sign of San Jose or oyster 

 scales, with the winter strength of lime-sulphur 

 mixture. Prune out dead limbs and those that 

 crowd each other. {Note. Early flowering shrubs 

 should not be pruned now, but immediately after 

 blooming.) 



Virginia. J. M. Patterson. 





