FERRY & GO'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE, 



^THB BSSBNTIAJuS^ 



. . . FOR A . 



Good Vegetable Garden 



SINGLE square rod well prepared, judiciously- 

 planted and cared for, will be more satisfac- 

 tory than an acre poorly planted and neglect- 

 ed. 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. Whatever the soil, it 

 must be made friable by thorough 

 and judicious working, and rich by a 

 ,,„ _ liberal use of fertilizers if we would 



^^^^r have good vegetables. Of manures, well decom- 

 V/^ posed 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. Commei'cial fertilizers are 

 excellent and may be used at the rate of four to twelve 

 pounds to the square rod, and the more concentrated chemi- 

 cal 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 com- 

 mercial 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 di- 

 rect contact with them. In a great many instances seeds 

 and small plants are killed from neglecting this precaution. 

 Good vegetables cannot be grown in the shade, and even if 

 the space is limited, it is better to have a very small vege- 

 table garden unshaded than attempt to make a garden in an 

 orchard. 



PREPARATION 



OF THE 



GROUND 



Thorough preparation of 

 the ground is of vital im- 

 portance 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 

 will 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 won- 

 derfully 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 often changes 

 a soil where nothing can be grown, into one producing the 

 finest vegetables, and its effects last for several years. 



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