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POINTS OF MERIT IN VEGETABLES. 



atively inexpensive methods ; or the water from the 

 drainage reservoir may be utilized. In such instances, 

 where practicable, a combined system of sub-drainage, 

 and irrigation can be advantageously established. 



The same tiling has been used for both purposes, 

 leaving them open in wet weather to secure drainage 

 and closing the outlets in drouths for irrigating the 

 ground. But a better plan is to put in two sets of tiling, 

 the irrigating tile at a foot and a half to two feet and 

 the drainage tiling three or four feet. Experiments 

 made in a number of places have demonstrated that 

 sub-irrigation is preferable to the surface method, es- 

 pecially on rolling lands, or on clay lands that ' ' bake, " 



Irrigation is not so essential in the eastern states as in 

 the arid plains of the west, yet it is often practicable and 

 profitable. Only a few years ago a Vermont farmer 

 published the result of his experiment in making an ir- 

 rigating pond by building a stone dam across a ravine, 

 and the increase of crops in the first year more than 

 paid the whole expense, without counting the ice from 

 the pond or the fine outlook he had for fish. Once 

 properly made the expense is but a trifle, and perpetual 

 drainage and irrigation are supplied. Think of the re- 

 freshing beauty of a blue grass lawn sub-irrigated, when 

 the browning effects of a drouth are everywhere wit- 

 nessed, to say nothing of flowers and fruits growing fine- 

 ly, because they have a full supply of air and moisture 

 at their roots. 



Tests made in England showed that the yield of grass 

 was increased 30 per cent, by sub-irrigation over that of 

 surface. Before the land was irrigated in either way it 

 was a barren heath, not even affording sheep pasturage, 

 but six tons of hay per acre were realized by drainage 

 and sub-irrigation. 



A practical test made by a Texas gardener shows 

 the following : A reservoir 30 feet square and 5 feet 

 deep will hold 40,000 gallons. A 12 to 14 foot wind 

 mill in a favorable location and with a good pump at- 

 tached will fill it in 10 to 12 hours. That amount of 

 water will cover two acres an inch deep, but in sub-ir- 

 rigation would suffice for four acres. These facts show 

 that it is feasible in nearly all instances to drain and ir- 

 rigate home grounds and gardens, if not entire farms, and 

 that the increased beauty, productiveness and health- 

 fulness would more than repay the cost of the work in a 

 very short time. 



"We must teach by example" says a New Jersey 

 horticulturist. Let the readers of The American Gar- 

 den who are amply able to put these statements to the 

 test, employ drainage and hydraulic engineers, estab- 

 lish drainage and irrigation systems on their home 

 grounds and gardens and in a few years these examples 

 will have spread and they will not only increase their 

 own pleasure and comfort, but will deserve and secure 

 the credit of being pioneers in a great reform. 



Indiana. J. P. Applegate. 



POINTS OF MERIT IN VEGETABLES. 



EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OF INTERNAL OUALITIES. 



WANT to ask your attention to 

 the consideration of desirable 

 qualities in some of our com- 

 mon garden vegetables, speak- 

 ing of each as a whole rather 

 than of any particular variety. 

 Possibly this may seem unnec- 

 essary. Most of you think you 

 know beans, at least well 

 enough to tell good from bad, 

 and all of you recognize the 

 superiority of vegetables as 

 brought to your table by your 

 wife or mother ; but would it not be worth while to 

 give a little thought to those external indications 

 which enable one, who can read them, to recognize 

 a good vegetable without a cooking test ? And this 

 is what I ask you to do with me this afternoon ; and 

 first let us look at 



Asparagus. — There has been a good deal of discussion 

 as to whether this vegetable should be blanched or 

 green, some claiming that blanched shoots only are 

 really fit to eat, and refer for proof to the long, tender, 



and delicious shoots served up in France, where only 

 blanched asparagus is used. Others say the brown or 

 blanched portion is always tough, woody, and flavorless, 

 and only the green portion should be used ; that we 

 must never cut or break below the surface. We think 

 a little consideration of how the plant grows will dis- 

 close the cause of this difference of opinion. The young 

 shoots of asparagus expand and elongate very fast at 

 first, but with gradually decreasing rapidity. The har- 

 dening or development of woody fibre commences at the 

 base of the shoot and extends upward, slowly at first, 

 but with gradually increasing rapidity until it overtakes 

 the elongating point about the time it breaks into 

 branches, and the entire shoot becomes hard and in- 

 edible. 



An asparagus shoot, or bud before it becomes a shoot, 

 is woody at the point of juncture with the collar from 

 the first, so that if we cut it at the collar when it is ever 

 so small the lower part will be woody and tough, and we 

 shall have to cut it at a proportionately greater distance 

 from the collar, as the shoot elongates, to avoid this 

 woody portion ; so that, if we plant shallow and cut 

 much below the surface, we shall always have woody 

 butts, and to avoid them we cut above ground and have 

 green and tender shoots. If, however, we plant deeply 



