DKY-LAND GARDENING AT MANDAN, N. DAK. 15 
7 or 8 inches deep. This operation should be performed in the fall 
just before the ground freezes. By late plowing insect eggs and larvae 
are exposed to winter temperatures and killed, and the soil has an 
opportunity to become settled and compact before planting time in 
the spring. The manure is in the best condition if it has been stacked 
and composted the previous season. As early in the spring as the 
soil is in working condition it should be harrowed several times and 
smoothed with some kind of float or planker. 
PLANTING SCHEDULE 
Most of the common vegetables may be sown in the ground where 
they are to grow. Long-season or hot-weather crops must be started 
indoors and set out in the field later, when the weather becomes 
settled. Seeds that take a long time to germinate and are more or less 
frost resistant are planted as soon as the ground can be worked; 
examples of these are onions, parsnips, and carrots. Other seeds 
germinate within a few days, and the plants are easily injured or 
killed by frost. The planting of these should be delayed until most 
danger of frost is past. Examples of these seeds are beans, cucumbers, 
squashes, and melons. Some vegetables, such as rutabagas and 
carrots, are hardy and may be planted early in the spring, but if grown 
during the heat of the season they develop strong, disagreeable 
flavors, making them unfit for food. They are better planted as late 
in the season as possible, in order that they may make their maximum 
growth in the fall, when the weather is cool. 
The suggested planting dates given in the following schedule are 
suited to the average season on the northern Great Plains : 
Early cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, eggplant, peppers, and celery, March 15 to 
20; indoors. 
Head lettuce, April 1; indoors. 
Smooth peas, onion, carrot, parsnip, lettuce, radishes, and spinach, April 14 
to 20; outdoors. 
Fall cabbage and cauliflower, April 25 to 30; indoors or in a coldframe. 
Wrinkled peas, beets, and potatoes, May 1; outdoors. 
Set out early cabbage and cauliflower, if well hardened, from May 1 to 7. 
Sweet corn, wax beans, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkin, melons, and the second 
planting of lettuce, radishes, spinach, and carrots, May 7 to 10; outdoors. 
Navy beans, May 14 to 16; outdoors. 
Fall beets, rutabagas, the second planting of sweet corn, wax beans, wrinkled 
peas, and the third planting of cariots, May 25 to 28; outdoors. 
Set out late cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, eggplant, peppers, and celery from 
May 20 to June 1. 
SPECIAL CULTURAL METHODS 
Some long-season vegetables are apt to be caught by frost before 
their maximum yield is produced. Special treatment calculated to 
hasten maturity is advisable for these. If labor is scarce such special 
treatment may be confined to tomatoes. These should be pruned to 
a single stem and trained to stakes for early ripening of the fruit. 
The pruning and staking should begin shortly after the plants are set 
in the open. Shoots growing in the axils of the leaves should be 
pinched out when about 2 inches in length. This causes less injury to 
the plant and is performed with greater ease than when they are 
allowed to develop farther. It will be found necessary to go over the 
plants every other day or so when in full growing vigor. The stem is 
tied to the stake immediately above a fruit cluster, to provide support 
when the fruits begin to develop. Figure 6 shows tomatoes pruned 
and staked in the garden at Mandan. 
