2 



THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[Janttaky, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The exceptionally severe and wide-spread 

 drought of last summer has revived in the 

 minds of many the fact that a deep, mellow, 

 and well-manured soil can withstand the 

 effects of a drought better than shallow and 

 poor soil. From our own experience we can 

 cite an instance where about one-fourth of a 

 field had been plowed twice, and lightly 

 dressed with stable-manure, while the re- 

 maining part received no manure, and was 

 plowed but once. The whole field was then 

 sown broadcast with Turnips on the same 

 day. At harvesting, the manured part yielded 

 not only much larger and better Turnips, but 

 more than the three times larger unma- 

 nured ground. The time to prepare for a good 

 garden is now. 



Manure is the foundation of all land cult- 

 ure, and although a good gardener will at no 

 time let any fertilizing matter go to waste, 

 the comparative leisure of winter offers many 

 favorable opportunities for collecting and 

 saving fertilizers. Where live stock is kept, 

 of course, all manure should be carefully 

 saved and mixed with sufficient absorbents, 

 that none of its liquid and gaseous parts may 



EARLY CABBAGES. 



It is quite as easy to grow a crop of early as 

 of late Cabbages. There is, of course, more 

 expense attached to the first-named from the 

 fact that, in the northern and western sections 

 of the country, the plants for early Cabbages 

 have to be grown in the fall and kept protected 

 in frames through the winter. This entails con- 

 siderable outlay, and in order to be successful, 

 the ground, to raise a maximum crop of early 

 Cabbages, needs twice — yes, three times — as 



Forest Leaves, as well as those from shade 

 and road trees, contain considerable quanti- 

 ties of potash and phosphates, and make ex- 

 cellent bedding for stabled animals. When 

 leaves cannot be utilized in this way, they 

 should be added directly to the compost-heap, 

 covered with soil, and kept moist with house- 

 slops. They will decompose during winter, 

 and, when thoroughly rotten, make a most 

 excellent top dressing for seed and flower 

 beds. 



Heavy Soils are too cold and wet in spring 

 for the successful growing of early vege- 

 tables. Plowing late in the fall in narrow 

 lands, with deep, open, dead furrows between 

 them, dries and mellows the ground consid- 

 erably. When muck or sand can be procured 

 without too much expense, an application of 

 either or both will generally effect a perma- 

 nent amelioration. If fresh muck is used, it 

 should be spread on the ground in early 

 winter, so as to become thoroughly frozen 

 through before being turned under. 



Experimental Plats. — We are frequently 

 asked to name the best variety of each kind 

 of vegetables. Now, the fact is that no list, 

 however carefully selected, will be found 

 adapted to every soil and locality, and even 

 if a certain variety has given satisfaction in 

 one season, it does not follow that it always 

 will do so. There is no surer way to deter- 

 mine the relative value of different varieties 

 than actual experiment, and every intelligent 

 cultivator of the soil should have Ms experi- 

 mental ground, however small. Valuable ex- 

 perience as to the earliness, productiveness, 

 hardiness, and quality may also be derived 

 from the general garden, by planting differ- 

 ent varieties side by side'. Thus the peculiar 

 characteristics of each kind may easily be 

 observed and noted without additional ex- 

 pense or labor. Plans for trial-beds should 

 be made during winter, and the necessary 

 seeds selected and procured, so as to have 

 everything ready for the " busy season." 

 Seeds, if kept dry, are not injured by any 

 of cold. 



EARLY WAKEFIELD CABBAGE. 



, much manure as will be required to grow a 

 late crop. This extra labor and expense 



j may be set down as temporary, from the fact 

 that a full crop of early Cabbages has three 



| times the money value of what is usually re- 

 alized from a late crop. Besides, it is har- 

 vested in July, in time to utilize the same 

 ground for raising a full crop of Celery, which 

 grows luxuriantly on ground of this charac- 

 ter withoiit any extra application of manure. 

 In sections where market gardening is carried 



j on with economy and skill, a crop of Lettuce 

 planted between each two rows of Cabbage is 



EARLY FLAT DUTCH CABBAGE. 



taken off the same piece of ground the same 

 season, making three crops in the nine 

 months ; and this plan is followed every year 

 by gardeners located near large cities. 



The time of sowing the seed for early Cab- 

 bages, in the latitude of New York, is from 

 the fifth to the fifteenth of September, in the 

 open ground, in an ordinary seed-bed — the 

 rows a foot apart — the seed sown thickly and 

 covered lightly. By the middle of November 

 these plants are large enough to prick into a 

 cold frame, putting from six to eight hundred 

 to a sash of 3 x 6. As the weather grows 



colder the sashes are put in place, and the 

 only labor from then until spring is, on mild 

 days, to give the plants some air by raising 

 the sashes, or pushing them up or down on 

 the frames. Plants kept in this way become 

 stocky and hardy, and can be set in the open 

 ground as soon as it can be worked in the 

 spring, one month earlier than plants grown 

 in a hot-bed, and there will be more than 

 that difference in the time of maturing of the 

 crop in favor of the cold-frame plants. 



There is an extended list of early varieties 

 of Cabbages, many of them possessing more 

 or less the qualities desirable in a solid, large- 

 sized, tender head. But market gardeners 

 in the vicinity of New York, Philadelphia, 

 and Newark, New Jersey, give preference to 

 the Jersey Wakefield over all the other early 

 sorts, and it is safe to assert that nine- 

 tenths of the number planted, in the locations 

 named, for the earliest crop are the Jersey 

 Wakefield, and this variety has held the same 

 front position for nearly a score of years. 

 Cold-frame plants of this and other desirable 

 varieties, as Early Flat Dutch, Early Summer, 

 Large Early Schweinfurt, Winnigstadt, etc., 

 for planting in the kitchen garden, can always 

 be bought at a low cost in most seed-stores, 

 as soon as the spring opens. 



When early Cabbages are grown for profit, 

 there are two important points which the 

 market gardener never loses sight of at any 

 time. The first is to plant early, and the 

 second to prepare his ground in such a way 

 that it will give a full crop of uniform-sized 

 heads, in the shortest possible time. By fol- 

 lowing this rule, the crop is marketed early 

 and in a limited time, so that the ground 

 can be made ready for another crop in the lat- 

 ter part of July, in full time to plant a fall crop. 

 In planting in the kitchen garden, the same 

 rule should not be overlooked, for it is gener- 

 ally safe for those who plant for pleasure to 

 watch and practice the methods of those who 

 invest capital in raising Cabbages for profit. . 



In the early days of April, when the ground 

 is dry enough to work, thoroughly rotted sta- 

 ble manure may be spread thickly over the 

 surface, and plowed or turned under at once. 

 There is no danger of using too much manure 

 for early Cabbages. The most prosperous 

 market gardeners apply rotted manure so lib- 

 erally that it needs a man to tread it down in 

 the furrow so that the furrow-slice will cover 

 it. When the ground is plowed in the way 

 described, the surface is made smooth and 

 level by drawing the back of a harrow over 

 the plowed ground. The plants taken from the 

 frames may then be transplanted in rows two 

 feet apart and eighteen inches apart in the 

 row. This is done with an ordinary hand 

 dibble, fastening each plant firmly in the soil. 

 When it is desirable to couple economy in 

 space with profit, a row of Lettuce-plants may 

 be set a foot apart between each two rows of 

 Cabbages, and the Lettuce will come to matu- 

 rity long before the whole space is needed by 

 the crop of Cabbages. When once in place, 

 the only important matter is to keep the sur- 

 face loose and entirely free from weeds and 

 grass. This will have to be done with hand- 

 hoes, going over three or four times while the 

 plants are small. Later in the season the 

 labor is but a trifle, for there will be suffi- 

 cient shade to keep down the growth of 

 weeds. The cheapest and most effectual way 

 to keep the crop free from weeds is to dis- 

 turb the surface often enough not to allow 

 them any headway. P. T. Quinn. 



