D. M. FERRY & GO'S DESCRIf>TIVE CATALOGUE. 



Formation and Management 



Vegetable Gardens (g) 



SITUATION AND EXPOSURE.— One of the most frequent causes of failure of the vegetable garden is the attempt 

 to combine it T\ith the orchard and small fruits. Good vegetables cannot be grow^n in the shade, and even if the space is 

 limited, it is better to have a verj^ small vegetable garden unshaded than to attempt to grow them in an orchard. A second 

 cause of failure is so arranging the garden that a horse cannot be used in cultivation. On the farm especially it should be 

 placed so as to be easily reached from the barn. Abrupt slopes in any direction are to be avoided. A gentle inclination to 

 the south and east is the warmest, will give the earliest vegetables, and be best for Corn, Melons, Tomatoes, etc., but it suffers 

 more from a spring or early fall frost, because of receiving the direct I'ays of the morning sun. An inclination to the north 

 and west is later, suffers less in a drought, and is the best for Peas, Cabbage, Lettuce, etc. So it is an advantage in a large 

 garden to have both these exposures, but for small gardens a gentle inclination to the south and east, or a level surface, is 

 the best. 



SOIL.— A good garden can be made on any soil, but that best suited to the purpose is a deep, rich, friable loam, resting 

 on a sand or gravelly subsoil; and the more nearly other soils can be made to approach this the better. This may be 

 accomplished in tenacious clays (and must be for a good garden) by good drainage, deep and judicious cultivation, use of 

 coarse manure, and liberal applications of leached ashes, sand, and in some cases of peat. If the soil is naturally too light 

 and sandy, it may be improved by rolling and the use of large quantities of well composted manure and muck, and bj' dress- 

 ings of clay. 



SIZE AND FORM.— A single bed ten feet square, well manured, well spaded, and thoroughly cultivated and cared for, 

 will produce more good vegetables, be more profitable, and give better satisfaction, than an acre unmanured, half prepared, 

 and poorly cared for. Our golden rule for size is, make your garden no larger than you can prepare and care for in the best 

 possible manner. If it all has to be done by hand, it will take the entire time of one man to keep in good order a garden of 

 one acre, but if it is so arranged that the horse cultivator can be used, he can care for four times that area. In village 

 gardens, the form is usually determined by that of the lot, but where there is a choice, a rectangle several times longer than 

 wide, the sides running from north to south, is the most economical; if this can be so placed that a space of eight feet wide 

 at both ends or along both sides can be left for a horse to turn in, it will be a great advantage. 



DRAINAGE.— Nothing is more essential for a good garden than good drainage. It is impossible to raise a supply of 

 fine vegetables without it. If the soil is at all wet it should be well drained with tile, but if this is not possible, something can 

 be gained by ploughing or throwing the soil up into beds from six to thirty feet wide, with smooth bottom trenches between 

 them to collect and carry off the surface water. 



MANURES.— For garden purposes there is nothing better than well rotted stable manure, with which tobacco stems, 

 bones, leaves, or any refuse vegetable or animal matter may be composted with advantage. It should be applied at the rate 

 of one ton or an ordinary wagon load for every 500 square feet. This should be ploughed in unless the soil is quite sandy and 

 the manure very fine, when it maybe applied on the surface, and simply harrowed or raked in. Plaster, salt, wood, ashes, 

 guano, ground bone, all are valuable and can be used to advantage in connection with the stable manure. Plaster should 

 not be applied until the plants are well up. Ashes should not be mixed with the other manures, and may be sown broadcast 

 and raked in just before planting. Guano, ground bone, and superphosphate should be applied to the surface just before 

 planting, spreading it about as thick as saw dust is usuallj' spread on a floor, or using 1,800 to 2,.50O lbs. to the acre, and care- 

 fully raked into the surface soil, for if it comes in contact with the seed or starting roots it will kill them. In some cases 

 sand, leached ashes and peat on clay soils, and clay and muck on sandy soils, will prove as valuable as manures. Occasion- 

 ally a spot which has been used for a garden for many years will become unproductive in spite of liberal manuring. We know 

 of no other remedy than to abandon it for a garden, seed down to clover and allow it to remain two years, when it may be 

 ploughed under, and the garden will be found to have regained its original fertility. 



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 ii-ell ploughed 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 ploughed then wUl 

 be hard to work all summer. The surface should be made as fine and smooth as possible with the harrow or rake, and in 

 case of sandy soils it should be rolled with a heavj' roller. It is generally necessary to plough 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 trenching, 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 two feet wide across one side, and a second one 

 adjoining and parallel with it one spade deep. The remaining earth of the second trench is then thrown into the first and 

 covered with the surface soil from a third trench; the balance of the third is then thrown into the second and covered with 

 the surface of the fourth; and so on until all is worked over, when the soil from the first trench is used to fill the last. This 

 is quite expensive, but frequently changes a soil upon which nothing can be grow n into one producing the finest vegetables, 

 and its effects last for several years. 



ARRANGEMENT.— In the city gardens, or where most of the work is done by hand, this may be entirely a matter of 

 taste, but it is quite important to have the garden so arranged that most of the work can be done by horse power. We can 

 best point out the things to be considered in the arrangement by means of the accompanying illustration. The points gained 

 by this plan are:— 



i^iVs^.- Ability to cultivate the ground. All but a strip seven and one- half feet wide between the Beets'and Bush Beans 

 can be worked by any common one-horse cultivator. 



Second.— Placing those vegetables which may stay out all winter side by side, where they will not interfere with next 

 season's ploughing. 



T/nrd.— Arranging the vegetables very nearly in the order in which they should be planted or set out in the spring. This 

 would be nearly perfect, except in case of the Cucumbers, if the late Cabbage were to follow the Tomatoes. 



i^owrf ft..— Providing for easy rotation of crops by simply reversing (with the exception of the permanent row of Aspara- 

 gus and that of the Parsnip and Salsify) the plan. 



The number of rows of each vegetable and the relative proportion of each may be varied according to the wants of the 

 family, but the proportion given here will be found to suit most families who depend upon the garden for both winter and 

 summer vegetables. 



