D. M. Ferry & Go's Descriptive Catalogue. 



FORMATION AND MANAGEMENT 



VEGETABLE GARDENS. 



SITUATION AND EXPOSURE.— The vegetable garden should never be in an orchard, or have trees cr 

 shrubs within it. If the space must accomodate both fruit and vegetables, it is better to set the fruit at one' end 

 so as to leave the portion for vegetables unbroken and unshaded, even if it is much smaller. On the farm, it should 

 be so placed as to be easily reached from the barn, to facilitate horse cultivation. 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, &c., but it suffers more from a spring or early fall frost, because of receiving 

 the direct rays 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, &c. 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 ca7i be made on any soil, but that best suited to the purpose is a deep. rich, friable 

 loam ; 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 

 dressings 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 

 ot 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 

 wliere 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 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 

 sMiDOth bottomed 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 

 toliacco stems, bones (which after a few weeks in fermenting manure will crumble to powder), leaves, or any refuse 

 vegetable or animal matter may be composted with advantage. This should be ploughed in unless the soil is quite 

 sandy and the manure very fine, when it may be 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 and salt should not be mixed with the 

 other manures, and may be sown broadcast and raked in just before planting. Guano, ground bone, and super- 

 phosphate give better results if one-half is sown broadcast at planting and the balance when the vegetables are half 

 grown. In some cases, sand, leached ashes and peat on clay soils, and clay and muck on sandy soils will prove as 

 valuable as manures. Occasionally a spot which has been used for a garden for many years will become unpro- 

 du: live in spite of liberal manurings. 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 well 

 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 ot 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 will be hard to work all summer. The surface should be made as 

 fine and smooth as possible with the harrow or rake, and in the case of sandy soils, it should be rolled with a heavy 

 roller. 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 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 cov- 

 ered with the surface of the fourth ; and so on until all is worked over, when the soil from the first trench is used 

 to nil the last. This is quite expensive, but frequently changes a soil upon which nothing can be grown, into one 

 p-odncing the finest vegetables, and its effects last for several years. 



