4 BULLETIN 1427, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
potatoes. The garden area is divided accordingly into four plats of 
equal size, each plat being occupied during a season by one of the crop 
groups. Leaf crops require a soil rich in nitrogen, which is obtained 
in freshly manured soil. The plat on which such crops are grown 
may be manured heavily with rotted or half-rotted stable manure. 
The root crops require a rich soil, but not a freshly manured one, as 
fresh manure causes fibrous roots and excessive leaf development; 
hence they may properly follow the leaf crops in the rotation. The 
legumes are not exacting in their requirements and may follow the 
root crops. They use comparatively little water and leave the ground 
improved for the vine crops to follow in the fourth year. 
The vegetables included in the four groups are as follows : 
Leaf crops. — Cabbage, cauliflower, and sweet corn. Cauliflower anu sweet 
corn are not leaf crops, but are included with them because they require the same 
soil conditions and because their inclusion here equalizes the area of ground re- 
quired for each group. 
Root crops. — Beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, onions, tomatoes, peppers, 
and eggplant. The latter four are not root crops, but may be included with them, 
as they require the same soil conditions. 
Legumes. — Peas, wax-pod beans, and shell beans. 
Vine crops and early potatoes. — Pumpkin, squashes, watermelons, muskmelons, 
cucumbers, and early potatoes. 
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LEGUMES 
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Fig. 1. 
-Diagram of the acre garden at the Northern Great Plains Field Station, Mandan, N. Dak., showing 
the division into four plats and the rotation on them for one cycle of four years 
Figure 1 presents a sketch of the garden at the field station, showing 
the division into four plats and the rotation on them for four years. 
Short-season crops, such as radishes, lettuce, and spinach; special 
crops, like celery; and perennial crops, such as asparagus, horse- 
radish, and rhubarb, were not included in the main garden at the 
station, but for convenience were grown in a special plat near to the 
dwellings. They may be included in the main garden, however, the 
perennial ones being planted at the edge, where they will not interfere 
with the rotation; the celery, lettuce, and spinach among the leaf 
crops; and the radishes among the root crops. 
Figures 2 to 5 show the vegetables in the four sections of the garden 
as they appeared on July 25, 1924, 
