D. M. FERRY & GO'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



THE ESSENTIKL-S 



GrooD •:• Vegetable -'- Gtarden 



The sentiment of the old rhyme, 



" A httle wife well willed, 

 A little farm well tilled,'" 

 Is that which should guide us in planting our garden. A single square rod well prepared, judiciously planted and cared for, 

 will be more satisfactory than an acre poorly planted and neglected. A rich, sandy loam is best, but one need not despair if 

 that is not available. A garden which will be at least some satisfaction can be made on any soil. We know of one man who 

 annually grows prize-winning tomatoes on top of his house, and of another who in the filled-in back yard of a city tenement 

 house grows vegetables of which any gardener might be proud. Whatever the soil, it must be made friable by thorough and 

 judicious working, and rich by a liberal use of fertilizers if we would have good vegetables. Of manures, well decomposed 

 stable manure, where straw bedding is used, is the best; that where sawdust is used is not so good, and if it or shavings are 

 used very freely the manure is almost worthless. Commercial fertilizers are excellent and may be used at the rate of four to 

 twelve pounds to the square rod, and the more concentrated chemical fertilizers, such as nitrate of soda, superphosphate, bone 

 meal, etc., at the rate of from one to six pounds to the rod with wonderfully good results. But wherever these commercial 

 fertilizers are used, great care should be taken to thoroughly mix them with the soil, so that the seed and tender roots of the 

 young seedlings will not come in direct contact with them. In a great many instances seeds and small plants are killed from 

 neglecting this precaution. 



PREPARATION OF THE GROUND.— Thorough preparation of the ground is of vital importance in raising good 

 vegetables; if this work is well done, all that follows will be easier. The garden should be well plowed or spaded, taking care 

 if it is a clay soil that the work is not done when it is too wet. If a handful from the bottom of the furrow moulds with slight 

 pressure into a ball which cannot be easily crumbled into fine earth again, the soil is too wet, and if plowed then wUl be hard 

 to work all summer. The surface should be made as fine and smooth as possible with the harrow or rake. It is generally 

 necessary to plow the whole garden at once, and to do this in time for the earliest crops, but the part which is not planted for 

 some weeks should be kept mellow by frequent cultivation. Stiff clay soils are frequently wonderfully improved by trench- 

 ing, that is, spading two feet deep in such a way as to leave the surface soil on top. This is accomplished by digging a trench 



