Vegetables From the Home Garden 
By W. N. Craig, =•' Massachusetts 
VEGETABLE gardens should ahvays, if possible, be 
made where the}- can get a warm, sunny exposure ; 
if sloping south the crops will be earlier, but this 
is not essential, \egetables will grow well in almost any 
soil in which water does not stand. Such soils require 
drainage to produce good crops ; drainage warms as well 
as sweetens the soil. The best manure for nearly all vege- 
tables is well rotted cow manure or horse manure, if ap- 
plied and worked in. In the fall, fresh manure can be used 
to advantage, but it is better not to use such when near 
planting time. It is always well to save and bury as much 
of the humus or vegetable matter as jxjssible ; too often 
this is tlirown on the rubbish heap. 
Soils whicii are sour or acidy should have a liberal 
dressing of lime; this is best applied in the fall after the 
crops have been gathered. Sutificient lime is not used in 
America ; once in three years the bulk of soils are bene- 
fited by an application ; do not apply the lime, however, 
at the same time as manure, as the lime will release much 
of the nitrogen from the latter. Liarnyard manure cannot 
always be procured, but good crops can be produced with 
chemical fertilizers alone ; these, however, must be used 
with greater precaution than the manure. Too often fer- 
tilizer is used in seed drills, and the seedsmen are blamed 
for selling poor seed, where the seedings have been prac- 
tically destroyed by the fertilizer ; the safer plan is to 
broadcast and harrow it in well, also to use it between 
rows of growing crops to stimulate them. 
A list of vegetables of proved excellence and a few 
words on their culture is apt to be tedious, but there are 
so many starting a garden that something must be said 
on this subject. The best growers of vegetables are not 
necessarily market growers or practical gardeners at all. 
In Great Britain much finer leeks, potatoes, celery and 
cauliflower are grown by the artisan classes, who take a 
keen interest in vegetable culture, than by the profession- 
als, and there is no reason why it cannot be accomplished 
here. 
Peas are one of the important vegetables and the first 
sowing should be put into the ground as soon after it is 
open as possible. We hear it commonly stated that it is 
too early to sow peas because the ground has not become 
•warmed. The warmer and drier the soil gets the poorer 
the peas will do. We have sown these as early as JNIarch 
10, and in late seasons not until the first week of April; 
but iust as soon as the frost has left the ground it should 
be spaded and plowed, manured liberally, and a first sow- 
ing made ; successional sowings can be made until the 
end of May, after which time it does not pay to sow them, 
hut for a fall crop, a sowing can be made about July 25. 
Dwarf peas are to be recommended for small gardens : 
probablr the best of these is Sutton's Excelsior; Nott's 
Excelsior is very good also ; both of these are heavy 
croppers. Later varieties, stich as Thomas Laxton, and 
Gradus, are excellent, but should have good supports. 
Birch brush is the best support for peas ; wire netting 
may be used where birch is not procurable. Good suc- 
cession peas to follow those already named are Alder- 
man, Dwarf Champion, Sutton's Dwarf Defiance, Juno, 
Improved Stratagem. Advancer, Quite Content, and the 
old Champion of England ; the latter should not be grown 
where it cannot be given good supports, being a tall 
{jrower, but it is a very productive variety. 
Beans are of much easier culture than peas and will 
' E.xtracts from lecture delivered by W. N. Craig. 
succeed in soils where peas would be an utter failure; 
they can also be picked over quite a long season ; we have 
picked string beans as early as June 28 and as late as 
Uctober 12, which gives a fairly long season. Eirst sow- 
ings of string beans can be made from April 15 to 20, 
and successional sowings made until August 1 for late 
pickings. Triumph of the Frames and Plentiful are the 
earliest varieties we have grown. Stringless Green Pod 
and A'alentine are excellent later sorts. Improved God- 
dard and Dwarf Horticultural are splendid string and 
shell varieties. Wax beans are handsome and sell well; 
their appearance helps them to sell, but their flavor is 
far inferior to that of the green podded sorts. Rustless 
golden wax and stringless white wax are reliable vari- 
eties. Lima beans should not be sown until we get set- 
tled warm weather. The dwarf varieties are of compara- 
tively recent introduction, and for the small grower are 
far to be preferred to the pole sorts. The earliest of these 
is the small Henderson Bush Lima ; many prefer the 
flavor of this to all others. Dreer's Lima is a sure crop- 
per in wet seasons. T'ordhook Lima is superior to the 
Burpee's in both size and flavor and will eventually su- 
persede it. 
Potatoes are the most important of all garden vegetable 
crops. They will succeed in a great variety of soils, if 
proper preparation of manuring has been given, but the 
best soil is a deep, rich, friable loam, well drained, where 
there is no possibility of water standing in a wet season. 
Ear more owners of gardens should grow their own pota- 
toes ; they cost the average household more money than 
any other vegetable, and there is nothing difficult in their 
culture which should deter anyone from planting them. 
Eresh manure should never be used when planting pota- 
toes ; it can, however, be worked in the soil the previous 
fall ; the best plan is to plant them to follow some crop 
for which the ground was heavily manured the previous 
spring. Early planting pays the best. Rows three feet 
apart and sets fifteen inches are correct distances. Eor 
a very early crop it pays to sprout a few tubers in boxes 
containing a single thickness of each, stood erect and as 
close as they can be packed. The general practice is to 
spread fertilizer in the drills before planting the sets ; a 
far better plan is to broadcast it after the potatoes have 
been planted. 
DilTerences of opinion arise about cutting sets ; we 
like them to have two eyes each, and such sets from large 
potatoes are more productive than if cut from small ones. 
Single potatoes of small size do not average so well as 
sets cut from large potatoes. The ground should be kept 
constantly stirred, both before and after the potatoes start 
to grow, and this must be done very persistentlv, and 
particularly after each rainfall. The potato beetle and 
blight can be controlled by spraying. As to varieties. 
Early Norwood and Aroostook Pride as earlies. and 
Green Mountain as a main crop variety are sufficient. If 
restricted to one variety, it would be the reliable Green 
Mountain. 
The Brassica or cabbage family cannot be omitted from 
any vegetable garden ; all like well-manured land. Ex- 
cellent cabbages for early are Copenhagen Market and 
Jersey \\'akefield ; for late, Danish Baldhead and Danish 
Roundhead : these latter are harder and far superior to 
the Drumhead types. Early cabbage can be started in a 
frame in March and planted out about .\pril 15. Winter 
sorts should be sown about June 1. Cauliflowers for an 
early crop are best grown in a cold frame where they can 
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