Established 1838. SIXTY=FIRST YEAR. Incorporated 1892. 



DREER'S 



Garden Calendar 



FOR 1899, 



The full worth of their money to all is the broad principle in which we always deal, and w- 

 refer to our reputation as evidence that we live up to the precept. 



The Vegetable Garden. — If practicable, the garden should have a warm and southeasterly exposure. But when the ground 

 slopes to the north and west it is important to have it located on the sunny side of an orchard or buildings. The most desirable 

 situation possible should be set apart for the kitchen garden, as the exposure has much to do with the early maturity of the crops. 

 The soil must be in a friable state to secure the prompt vegetation of the seeds and the proper growth of the plants. Soils are 

 susceptible of alteration and improvement in texture ; heavy clays can be rendered open and porous, and light sandy soils may be 

 consolidated and rendered more retentive of moisture. To secure a fair return in seasonable crops, for the labor and outlav invested, 

 it is essential that the soil of the Vegetable Garden should be well drained, thoroughly trenched, and enriched by a judicious application 

 of manure. The culture of Vegetables is exhaustively treated in our new book, " Open-Air Vegetables." (See page 169. ) 



Rotation of Crops. — A rotation of crops is as essential in vegetable gardening as in farming, as different plants appropriate 

 different ingredients from the soil. Care should be taken that deep-rooted plants, such as Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, etc., are not 

 planted successive seasons on the same soil, but should be followed by those plants whose roots extend but little below the surface, 

 such as Onions, Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach, etc.; plants of the Brassica, or Cabbage tribe, are apt to become diseased at the roots 

 (club-rooted, as it is termed), if too frequently planted in the same ground. 



Thorough Seed Tests. — For the protection of the planter, careful seed tests are made before the selling season, at our 

 extensive greenhouse establishment at Riverton, N. J., where each variety is subjected to the most critical test, which places us in 

 a position to determine the germinating power. 



The trial grounds at our Riverton Experimental Farm are devoted to the growing of all new and old varieties, and furnish opportunity 

 for comparison of their relative merits, and we are thus enabled to quickly ascertain, for our customer's interest, which sorts to 

 recommend or discard. 



Full details of the management of Hot-beds and Cold Frames are given in our new book, " Vegetables Under Glass." 

 (See page 169) 



Why Seeds Fail. — From a conviction that the seedsman's fair reputation is often unjustly defamed, through die failure of 

 seeds, we would briefly state some of the causes. 



Some cultivators, through ignorance or forgetfulness of the fact that the products of a garden, being natives of various soils 

 and climates, require peculiar management, sow the seeds in the ground at improper seasons. To aid such we have prepared brief 

 directions, founded on practical experience in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where gardening operations are generally commenced early 

 in March. These directions may, however, be applied to all other parts of the United States by an observance of the difference in 

 temperature. Thus, to the North, the directions for March will apply to April ; and in the South to January, February, or whatever 

 season gardening operations may commence in the respective States. The early and most hardy species and varieties should not 

 be planted until the ground can be brought into good condition, as some species of plants, that in an advanced stage of growth will 

 stand a hard winter, are often cut off by a very slight frost while young, especially if exposed to the sun after a frosty night. 



Some species of seed, such as Beans, Beet, .Cabbage, Lettuce, Radish, Salsify, Turnip, etc., being from their nature apt to 

 vegetate quickly, are often destroyed while germinating through variableness of the weather, and some are liable to be devoured bv 

 insects in forty-eight hours after they are sown, and before a plant is seen above the ground, unless a suitable remedy is applied in 

 time to destroy the insects. 



Other species, such as Carrots, Celery, Leek, Onion, Parsley, Parsnip, Spinach, etc., being naturally of tardy growth, take (in 

 unfavorable seasons) from two to three or four weeks to vegetate, and are apt to perish through incrustation of the soil, or other 

 untoward and unaccountable circumstances, which cannot always be controlled. 



Failures of:e:i occur through seeds being deposited too deeply in the ground or left too near the surface. Sometimes, for the 

 want of a proper quantity of seed in a given spot, solitary plants will perish, they not having sufficient strength to open the pores of 

 the earth, and very frequently injudicious management in over-manuring and improperly preparing the soil causes defeat. 



In some sowings of seeds, made during the dry weather, with a drought following, a total failure often occurs from neglecting 

 to firm'y press or roll in the seeds, so that when they germinate the action of the heat and drought may not affect the germ. We are 

 satisfied that thousands of pounds of Turnip, late Cabbage and other summer-sown seeds are annually lost from this neglect. Never 

 tread or roll in the seeds when the ground is wet. 



Do not rai-e Egg Plants, etc., in the same hot-bed with Cabbage and other half-hardy plants that require air eery mild day ; 

 bv such management one or the other must suffer — heat being the principal requisite of tender plants, and air that of the more hardy 

 varieties. 



(18) 



