92 
May, mi. 
ORCHARD 
GARDEN \ 
Notes for May. 
THE SPRING WORK. 
These notes are written the first of April 
and are to be applied a month hence, but 
the calendar months sometimes get out of 
kelter. For a month past in North Carolina 
we have had worse weather than we had or 
usually have in the two winter months, and 
now, the first week in April, it looks more 
like the first of March. Last year at this 
time we had snap beans above ground, all 
tender things planted, and tomatoes trans- 
planted. This year we have hardly done 
anything, on account of the continual rain 
fall. The same or worse weather, if the 
reports are correct, has prevailed elsewhere, 
worse generally west and north of us, for 
we hear of snow over two feet deep in Vir- 
ginia, while our wiuter has passed without 
any snow at all. 
We may therefore do, and probably will 
be doing, in May what we usually do in 
April, and I simply advise all our readers 
to look back at the April notes to see if any 
item has been left behind. In all parts of 
the country. May is the greatest of the 
spring months. In the far North all the 
vegetable seeds can go in during this month 
while in the South the early harvest for the 
truck gardens which began in March gets 
over its biggest rush as the strawberry sea- 
son passes north and takes a little rest oh 
snaps and cucumbers and squashes until 
the watermelon season opens. 
In the Middle States the planting of ten- 
der seeds w ill begin w ith the month, and be- 
fore its close the people of the far North can 
do likewise. Tomato seed for the late crop 
for canning purposes should now be sown 
in open beds. The fruit raised in this way 
is gener illy much finer than that on plants 
forwarded early under glass, and comes in 
at the proper season for canning. Where 
snap or string beans are a favorite dish a 
few should be planted every fortnight, un- 
til August or September, so as to have a 
constant succession. In the Middle States 
and northward, succession crops of peas can 
still be planted, but south of the Potomac 
peas planted at this date will usually turn 
out badly. 
MELONS, ETC. 
For melons, cucumbers and squashes we 
prefer the old fashioned method of digging 
a hole for the “hill.” fill it with a rich com- 
post of woods mould or street sweepings 
and old rotten manure nearly to the sur- 
face, scatter over the surface of the com- 
post a little guano and cover w'ith an inch 
or so of surface sod on which the seeds are 
scattered and lightly covered. Make the 
hills for cucumbers, musk melons and sum- 
mer squashes five feet apart each way and 
for watermelons nine to ten feet. We think 
it is of advantage to nip the points of water- 
melon vines when they have run three or 
four feet. We generally have abundant 
success with melons planted in this way. 
But one of the most successful melon grow- 
ers I ever knew, grew 7 his crop on moist 
and very fertile alluvial soil, in the bottoms 
along a mountain stream. He plowed the 
land very shallow and laid off his rows 
twelve feet apart and planted six feet apart 
in the rows. In running out the twelve 
foot rows he plowed as deeply as possible, 
running the plow several times back and 
forth and then ran a large subsoil plow 
deeply in the centre of this trench. Guano 
was then applied liberally along the whole 
trench and stirred in with a bull tongue 
coulter. The seed were then planted and 
covered several inches below the general 
surface of the soil. In the subsequent cul- 
tivation the earth was gradually worked in 
around the plants until they finally stood 
on raised beds or lands twelve fed wide. 
With their roots deep in the moist alluvium 
these vines nevei flagged until cut down by 
frost. The cnly defect in his method was 
lack of earliness, and had he been growing 
for the northern market he would have 
been badly “left” by liis neighbors w 7 ho 
planted in hills. But so far as the crop w 7 as 
concerned and the quality of the watermel- 
ons and cantaloupes, be was wonderfully 
successful. Preparation should be made 
early for the melon crop, but do not sow 
the seeds until the ground is thoroughly 
warm. A good plan when it is desirable to 
be as early as possible, is to mark off the 
top of the hill in quarters by two lines 
crossingin the center, and plant one quarter 
every week until a good stand is had. Many 
people go to a great deal of trouble putting 
boxes and covers around hills of melons 
and cucumbers to keep off the bugs. 1 do 
not think I have ever lost any hills by bugs 
and have never covered one in my life. I 
keep some fine raw bone flour on hand and 
as soon as the plants are above the ground 
I dust each hill over with this, renewing it 
in case of rain. This not only drives off the 
bugs but materially aids in the growth of 
the plants. Try it and you will not mind 
the beetles much hereafter. 
tomatoes. 
The tomato plants that have been for- 
warded under glass, and have been properly 
hardened off in cold frames, can be trans- 
planted early in the month except at the 
extreme north. My practice is to sow rath- 
er early a few seeds on an open border, and 
when these come up and grow it is safe to 
transplant the plants from the frames, as 
the soil is then in the proper temperature 
for this plant. Strong tomato plants that 
have been properly hardened off in the 
frames will pass through a light hoar frost 
without injury. 
EGG PLANTS AND PEPPERS. 
These we always sow in March under 
glass and grow 7 on in pots until the weather 
is permanently warm; in this latitude the 
the middle of May, at the North in June. 
Any attempt to “harden off” an egg plant 
I have found always results in a stunted 
plant which will be far surpassed by those 
kept under glass. 
TRAINING VINES. 
I am using this year 1000 lineal feet of 
galvanized wire netting four feet wide. 
This cost delivered a little more than one 
half cent per square foot and will last in- 
definitely if cared for. I find it the cheapest 
of all material for peas, beans and toma- 
toes. Last year I made a comparison be- 
tween this and brush for peas. The only 
expense of the brush was the cutting, haul- 
ing and setting. Allowing lor the time of 
two men and a pair of mules and wagon 
getting the brush, the cost of the brush, 
good only for one year, exceeded the first 
cost of the wire, good for ten. This w ire 
throws no appreciable shade, and for train- 
ing tomatoes is admirable, since there is 
always a place to tie to. In fact but little 
tying is needed after the plants get well up, 
as a little daily attention to directing the 
shoots to and fro in the meshes supports 
them perfectly. Climbing beans fairly riot 
over it and there will be no bother about 
Limas failing to catch to poles. Light stakes 
w r ell set about ten or twelve feet apart are 
all that are needed to support it, and short 
pieces of wire are better than the more per- 
manent attachment of staples, 
potatoes. 
The Rural trench system of planting Irish 
potatoes, and subsequent flat culture gives 
by far the best results. In a southern lati- 
tude at least, two top dressings of nitrate 
of soda along side the rows before working 
produce a wonderful effect on the crop. 
We use about 100 lbs per acre at each 
dressing. 
sweet potatoes. 
Late in the month or early in June will 
be time enough to set the plants in the 
Northern States. Here we can plant from 
April till August. Growers here assure me 
that cuttings from the early vines, set in 
midsummer, make the best potatoes, and 
the crop keeps better in winter than those 
grown from the early plants. 1 hope to ex- 
periment a little in this line during the 
present summer. Land for sweet potatoes 
should be plowed very shallow and the 
plants set on very low ridges. This pre- 
vents the formation of long and crooked 
tubers. The Southern Queen or Hayman 
as it is called here, is the best for northern 
plaining. It is a ■feavier cropper than the 
Nansemond and a much better keeper. 
Sweet potatoes will bear and need heavier 
manuring north than they do south. The 
Nansemond, as grown in southern New 
Jersey, is a very handsome and salabfe po- 
tato in northern cities, but you cannot per- 
suade a southern man that it is fit for any- 
thing but to feed hogs. A Nansemond, 
raised here, is about as hard to swallow as 
a choke pear, and our people prefer the soft 
and sugary yams, which northern people, 
who steam their potatoes, don’t like at all. 
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