DIFFICULTIES IN HOT-WEATHER GARDENING. 



407 



faucets to which we can attach hose or gas-pipes, as we 

 see fit, and in this way reach any spot in the garden. A 

 sprinkler is attached to the hose at the time for watering. 

 Last season we had the most severe drouth ever known 

 here, and we arranged to have the hose started about 

 4 o'clock A, M., and run until about 8:30 p. m. Each 

 hose would distribute about 1,000 barrels of water dur- 

 ing a 16 hours' run. It requires one man and a boy 12 

 or 14 years old to attend to each hose. This irrigating- 

 plant costs about $1,000, and it paid for itself twice over 

 last season. During the season of 1890, we did not turn 

 a faucet in any part of the garden, except to get water 

 while setting out plants. 



The crops most in demand in July and August are late 

 strawberries and raspberries and currants. The demand 



are to such points. If I am not already acquainted with 

 some good and reliable firms in these localities I make 

 such acquaintances speedily. By so doing I am almost 

 invariably enabled to sell my produce in car-lots, for 

 \ery much more than I could get at or near my own 

 home. I have sold produce in New York city, Phila- 

 delphia, St. Louis, Kansas City, Leavenworth, and many 

 other places. — J. M. Smith, Wisconsin. 



T. V. Munson's Methods. 



Few vegetables are planted in Texas during July and 

 August, as the dry, hot weather usually destroys young 

 plants, even if seed can be induced to germinate. The 

 Irish potato is an exception ; it is often planted in July. 

 When the first crop is dug, the unmarketable tubers are 



West Gate of Towtr Grove Park, St. Louis. (See page 403.) 



is good for early cabbage, peas, beans, cucumbers, 

 bunch-onions, sweet-corn, early potatoes, etc. Cabbage 

 generally sells better during these months than any 

 other crop. Marketing is a business in itself, and often 

 requires more care than the growing of produce. In the 

 last 20 years there has not been a time when our crops, 

 if thrown upon the home market, would not have brought 

 prices down so low that the produce would not have paid 

 for harvesting and hauling it. Hence, we sell most of 

 our crops in distant markets. During the summer and 

 early fall our best market is in the large lumber and iron 

 districts of the north. During the fall (if I have larger 

 crops than the market north of us cares for) I learn 

 where there is a deficiency in any of the kinds of prod- 

 uce thit I have to sell, and what the rates of freight 



at once planted in good moist mellow soil, being covered 

 deep with a plow. In two or three weeks they are up, 

 and if the heat and drouth of August are not too severe 

 will live, but grow little until the cool nights and moist 

 weather of September and October arrive — then fine 

 growth begins, and frequently a good crop of potatoes 

 matures early in November. This crop will keep here all 

 winter far better than the northern potatoes shipped in. 



During midsummer, irrigation is necessary to insure 

 prompt germination of seeds that require no freezing, 

 and, with moisture, will sprout in a few days or weeks. 

 They are planted in loamy soil, under screens, watered 

 thoroughly from a fine rose nozzle every evening, or 

 every other evening, according to dryness of the atmos- 

 phere. All such seeds as tomato, strawberry, blackberry. 



