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THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



[May, 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Although spring opened unusually early, 

 the past month has been cool, and sharp 

 night-frosts have injured many tender 

 plants. As a rule there is nothing gained 

 by sowing and planting in advance of the 

 proper season. 



Melons, Street Corn, Limit Beans, etc., 

 should not be placed in the open ground 

 in this latitude before the middle of May. 

 Their seeds cannot sprout before the soil is 

 thoroughly warmed, and they will rot in 

 cold, wet earth. 



Tomatoes, Peppers, and Egg-plants, likewise, 

 should not be transplanted out-doors before 

 all danger of frost is past, which is not the 

 ease before about the 20th of this month. If, 

 previous to this time, the plants in hotbeds 

 or in boxes become too large, they should 

 lie transplanted into pots and pinched back, 

 which process retards their growth and fits 

 them better for their final transplanting. 



Economy of Space is an important item in 

 small places where, to obtain the best re- 

 sults, it has to be carefully studied. It is 

 surprising how much can lie grown in a 

 small garden when systematically planted. 

 Two or three crops may often be taken from 

 the same ground in one season, if planting is 

 so arranged that the rank-growing late vege- 

 tables occupy the ground made vacant by the 

 removal of earlier crops. 



Bough. Places, which are too stony or too 

 steep for general cultivation, and are there- 

 fore given up to weeds and briars, are fre- 

 quently found within easy access from the 

 farm-house. Such spots, especially when 

 facing southward, offer generally the most 

 favorable conditions for raising tender vege- 

 tables requiring considerable room, such 

 as Water-melons, Squashes, Tomatoes, and 

 similar plants. The soil immediately around 

 the plants has, of course, to be made rich 

 and deep; but as the hills should not be 

 nearer together than ten feet, and may be 

 even considerably farther apart, a foothold 

 for the roots can easily be made by digging 

 or banking up. 



Potatoes for early use or marketing have, 

 of course, to be planted as early as the 

 ground can be worked; but early planted 

 Potatoes do not generally produce the largest- 

 crops, nor are they desirable for keeping 

 through winter. Prom a comparison of the 

 practice of a great number of successful 

 Potato-growers, it appears that from the 

 15th to the 25th of May is the most favor- 

 able time for the planting of the main crop. 

 Last year we planted Potatoes at various 

 times during May and June, the last ones on 

 the 3d of J uly. This last planting produced 

 not only the largest crop, but the largest 

 and best-shaped tubers. 



Cut or Whole Potatoes/or Seed.— Condition 

 of the soil, time of planting, and the price of 

 seed have to be taken into consideration, in 

 deciding for one or the other plan. For late j 

 planting, whole Potatoes are decidedly pref- 

 erable to cut ones. The skin of a Potato is 

 almost impervious to water, therefore an 

 uncut tuber retains sufficient moisture for 

 the nourishment of the young sprouts, even 

 in very dry ground, and under conditions 

 which would completely dry out a cut piece. ' 



FARMERS' GARDENS. 



Years ago ex-Governor Seymour, of New 

 York, told me about his garden and the 

 success which he had — generally getting 

 vegetables earlier than his city friends. I 

 have followed his plan ever since, and it 

 has given so much satisfaction, and is so 

 much of an improvement over the old garden 

 system, that I am sure the readers of The 

 American Garden, especially those living 

 on farms, will be interested in it. 



One part of a field, as handy to the house 

 as may be, is used for the garden. This 

 land is well covered with manure, which is 

 plowed under as early in the season as the 

 ground will admit of working in a mellow 

 and friable condition. It is then harrowed 

 thoroughly, and gone over with a roller to 

 make it smooth, all coarse clods and stones 

 being removed previously. 



The ground is then marked out in straight 

 lines, two feet apart, ready for planting, 

 except for the finer vegetables, for which the 

 marking is done By hand. The depth of the 

 marking is graduated according to the kind 

 of seed to be put in. The rows are made 

 not less than two feet apart, so that they 

 can Vie worked with a horse and cultivator. 

 As soon as the vegetables are up, so that the 

 rows can be seen, the cultivating is begun. 

 By making the rows perfectly straight and 

 turning the hind teeth of the cultivator from 

 the row the ground can be worked close to 

 the plants, thereby doing away with hand 

 labor, except to a very limited extent. 



Frequent cultivating will keep the ground 

 mellow r , which causes the vegetables to grow 

 rapidly. This frequent tillage also lets in 

 the sunshine and increases the moisture. 

 This is one of the secrets of rapid growth, and 

 is a great improvement over the old garden 

 system, where the tillage is all done with a 

 hoe, and the ground is usually hard, or, at least, 

 not mellowed, except on the surface. An 

 hour's work with a horse and cultivator will 

 go over a large garden, which would require 

 days to accomplish by hand labor with a hoe. 

 There is nothing more irksome to a farmer 

 or his boys (the hired man not excepted) 

 than " plodding" in the garden ; but when the 

 work can be done with a horse, they do not 

 object to it ; all the seeds should, therefore, 

 be sown in drills. 



When a field is used for a garden there 

 are generally fewer weeds to contend with 

 than in an old garden spot, which makes the 

 raising of vegetables less irksome. Most 

 gardens are so much shaded with shrubbery 

 and- trees that vegetables cannot do well in 

 them, and, besides, the numberless roots from 

 these shrubs and trees exhaust the moisture 

 necessary to the growth of vegetables. In 

 the field none of these objections exist, but, 

 on the contrary, the conditions are all favor- 

 able ; hence it is that the vegetables will be 

 earlier and better. With a field-garden every 

 farmer can supply his table bountifully with 

 all sorts of vegetables, at so small a cost that 

 none need be without them. 



Melons have been made a success at 

 " Kir by Homestead " by putting two seeds in 

 a two-inch pot and setting the pots in a hot- 

 bed, filling the spaces between with sand. 

 If both seeds come up in a pot, the weak- 

 est one is pinched off. When the plants begin 

 to run they should be transplanted in the 

 open ground. A shovelful of well-rotted 

 manure is mixed with the soil, into which a 

 single plant is set. The plants can be easily 



removed from the pot with the earth attached 

 to the roots. They should be shaded a few 

 days, the ground thoroughly wetted, and 

 the surface covered with sand to the depth 

 of several inches, for a distance of two 

 or three feet around the plant. The sand 

 will keep the ground moist underneath and 

 attract the heat on the surface, which is 

 essential in growing Melons, especially 

 Water-melons. In the absence of sand or 

 gravel, small stones may be placed around 

 the hill. 



The best location for Water-melons is on 

 the south side of a fence or building, which 

 helps to increase the heat. The ground 

 should be kept clean and mellow between 

 the hills. The earliest varieties should be 

 planted in high latitudes, and when this is 

 done and the above rules are followed, a fine 

 crop of Melons may be had with very little 

 trouble. Col. F. D. Curtis. 



THE LETTUCE MILDEW. 



Market gardeners in some localities have, 

 during the past few years, suffered more or 

 less severely from a mildew which has 

 attacked and sometimes entirely destroyed 

 their early, forced Lettuce. The writer has 

 been to some expense in both time and money 

 in looking into the subject of the Lettuce 

 pest, and is free to state that the Lettuce 

 mildew is a near relative of the Grape mil- 

 dew, though much more rapid and destructive 

 in its work. 



The Lettuce mildew is a minute frmgus 

 which grows in the substance of the Lettuce 

 plant. There are a great many kinds of 

 fungi, and most of them are exceedingly small 

 and need to be seen with the compound mi- 

 croscope in order that their simple structure, 

 methods of growth and propagation may be 

 understood. The Mushroom and the various 

 Toadstools are the largest representatives of 

 the fungus group — a group, the members of 

 which have no leaves, roots, true stems, or 

 flowers. Fungi are all very low in their organ- 

 ization, and we should not pay much atten- 

 tion to them if they did not make serious 

 trouble to the farmer by growing upon his 

 grain as rust or smut, or to the fruit-grower 

 and gardener, by producing the many blights, 

 molds, and mildews. We are forced to look 

 into the nature of these pests that we may 

 be the better able to apply a remedy. Though 

 fungi have been known to cause various 

 so-called diseases, it was not until very 

 recently that any prolonged study was given 

 to them, therefore the knowledge that we 

 have of fungi is much of it of recent date, 

 and withal quite limited in extent. 



The surface of the attacked Lettuce plant 

 is seen to be covered with a white frosty sub- 

 stance. With a hand lens this coat resolves 

 itself into a, miniature forest of very small 

 stems and branches. To understand the 

 nature of this "forest " we must first examine 

 the interior of the Lettuce leaf. This may 

 be done by making a thin section of the leaf, 

 and placing it under the compound micro- 

 scope, when it will be found that there are 

 fine threads running in all directions among 

 the cells which make up the tissue of the 

 Lettuce leaf. The facts in the case are not 

 difficult ones to grasp. The fine threads that 

 have been found are the " roots," so to speak, 

 of the mildew plant which take up the nour- 

 ishment, that the mildew plant needs, from 



