1905. 
i77 
THF. RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FIGURES OF A KITCHEN CARDEN. 
Would it not interest many amateur readers 
If you could publish from some practical man 
the distances between rows, and the distances 
between plants or hills in the rows, at which 
it would be best to plant a small home gar¬ 
den, such as is now usually planted with 
some hand wheel “hill and drill seeder," 
and cared for with some hand wheel hoe? 
I presume the various vegetables can be 
advantageously planted much closer than 
when the old methods were used? Another 
Interesting inquiry is: IIow much space 
need be planted with each vegetable, probably 
to supply an average family of, say five, 
under usual conditions, and with a fair yield? 
Or, perhaps, a better way to put it, what 
would be the probable yield, under ordinary 
conditions, of 50-foot rows of each of the 
following: Beaus, beets, carrots, corn, 
onions, lettuce, parsnips, peas, potatoes, rad¬ 
ishes, spinach, turnips, and of live hills of 
corn, cucumbers, cantaloupes, watermelons, 
Summer squashes. Winter squashes, pump¬ 
kins, potatoes, tomatoes? I llnd most agri¬ 
cultural writers, instead of getting down to 
practical facts and useful figures, are prone 
to indulge in many words that don't mean 
much. VILLAGER. 
Cultivating in Rows.—There are two 
general systems of handling the small 
stuff in a kitchen garden, viz.: beds and 
long rows. I use the row plan, having 
found the results as good and the hand 
labor less. The following rules and fig¬ 
ures apply to mellow soil moderately fer¬ 
tile. Closer planting may be practiced un¬ 
der specially favorable conditions, but 
where the soil is at all heavy rows of 
small vegetables should be IS or 20 inches 
apart to avoid compacting the earth 
around the plants. For a small garden 
horse cultivation is unnecessary. The 
wheel hoc wilh i,s variety of attachments 
does excellent work. I put rows of beets, 
onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach and sim¬ 
ilar small plants 16 inches apart. The 
distance for sweet corn depends on va¬ 
riety and location as regards wind. 
Where earthing up is necessary to keep 
the stalks from sprawling 30 inches is not 
too much. Where nearly level culture can 
be given, 20 to 24 inches, according to 
habit of growth, works well. It is claimed 
that corn will stand up as well under level 
culture as though hilled, but my experi¬ 
ence with small patches in a garden is that 
some bracing up is desirable. Sweet corn 
in drills should be thinned at least to six 
inches apart. Snap bean rows of varie¬ 
ties like Red Valentine should be 24 
inches apart to make picking convenient. 
The plants should not be closer than three 
inches. Pole beans need much more 
room; 2 l / 2 feet apart is not too much for 
best results. Dwarf peas do well at 20 
inches. B n sorts, like Champion, need 
three feet, in order to get between them. 
Space may be economized by planting the 
brush varieties in double rows nine inches 
apart, setting the brush between. I pre¬ 
fer thick drilling for most peas, one inch 
apart, though some of the very high-bred 
sorts need more room. Unless planted so 
deeply as to need no hilling, 30 inches is 
not too wide for potato rows, and when 
one comes to hill up he will wish for 
36 inches. If the latter distance is used, 
late cabbage plants may be set between 
rows. Plant potatoes 12 to 16 inches apart 
in drill. 
The Depth for Planting is largely de¬ 
termined by weather and texture of soil. 
Under favorable garden conditions I cover 
potatoes four to six inches; peas, four 
inches; beans, two ; sweet corn, one. Po¬ 
tatoes are not injured by nosing around 
under ground for some time, but corn 
should get out without delay. In wet 
ground one-half inch is deep enough. 
Beets need one inch of covering; carrots, 
onions and seeds of that character, one- 
half inch. Celery and similar seeds, one- 
fourth inch. Seeds sending out a small 
delicate shoot should have no more cover¬ 
ing than enough to secure germination. In 
a dry time thorough firming of the cov¬ 
ering is an advantage. When fairly 
moist many seeds may be sown on the 
surface and merely pressed in. For shal¬ 
low sown seeds a screen of laths crossing 
each other, leaving two-inch spaces, gives 
the surface a constantly changing mixture 
of sunshine and shadow, which prevents 
burning the tiny shoots and roots. These 
screens are easily made and a good sup¬ 
ply of them will do away with much 
"planting over.” 
Crop Quantities. —Regarding the latter 
part of the inquiry, it is doubtful whether 
anyone ever laid out a garden so that he 
had just enough of everything. If beets, 
carrots, etc., would guarantee to grow a 
certain size, bugs and fungus pests keep 
away, and the family appetite could be ac¬ 
curately predicted a correct estimate of 
the space required could be made. The 
following length of row has been found 
satisfactory for a family of four who use 
vegetables freely. Peas, 60 feet, one- 
fourth dwarf and remainder tall; beans, 
snap, 30*feet, pole Lima, 25 hills of three 
plants each : sweet corn, early, 30 feet, me¬ 
dium, 70, late, 30; beets and carrots, 10; 
onions, 15; lettuce, 12; squashes, three 
hills Summer, six Winter; cucumbers, six 
hills; tomatoes, 25 plants, a good many 
being used for catsup and canning. The 
following yields have been observed from 
10 feet of row; 15 beets; 17 carrots; 25 
onions; 100 radishes; 12 heads of lettuce; 
string beans, one peck in three pickings; 
dwarf peas, four quails in two pick¬ 
ings; Champion peas. Hi quarts in three 
pickings; corn, 50 led of row. 100 cars; 
potatoes, 125 feet of row, two barrels. I 
shall try to keep an accurate record of 
an equal amount this year to see what 
variation there will be from above figures. 
Good seed is half the battle with a 
kitchen garden. Fertile soil, sunshine, and 
showers, and every possible care with 
hoe and fingers, cannot make a profitable 
garden if poor seed be planted. It either 
will not come up or will make such 
wretched plants that one will wish it had 
not. It pays to deal with first-class seeds¬ 
men, and even then to “rogue” their seeds 
over before planting, throwing out under¬ 
sized or otherwise imperfect specimens. 
Then the planter knows what he is do¬ 
ing, a reasonably even stand may be 
had, and a great amount of “thinning” 
done away with. H. 
“I can’t take this,” said the street car 
conductor, as he looked at the plugged 
dime. “I’m sorry,” rejoined the passen¬ 
ger, “but that’s all I’ve got. If you don’t 
want it give it to the company.”—Chicago 
Daily News. 
Old Party: “Boy, you’ll catch cold if 
you get your feet wet in that puddle.” 
Small Boy: “Dat’s what I’m after. I’m 
agoin’ to speak ‘Spartacus to de Glad¬ 
iators’ at school on Friday an’ I wants to 
git me voice hoarse.”—Chicago News. 
Mother; “So you have been at the jam 
again, Adolphus!” Son: “The cupboard 
door came open of itself, mother, and I 
thought-” Mother: “Why didn’t you 
say, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’?” Son: 
“So T did, mother, and he went and 
pushed me right in.”—Town and Country. 
“The World’s Best by Every Test. 
Bradley’s 
Fertilizers. 
The Editor of the “ Vermont Watchman 99 says: 
“ For us, having used the Bradley Fertilizers for farming, gardening, and fruit-growing for 
nearly a quarter of a century, — meantime testing, and sometimes buying largely of other makes, 
and many times buying the raw materials and mixing them ourselves,—we can and do unre¬ 
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FAILED IN ANY SEASON, OR UNDER ANY CONDITIONS, TO GIVE US A 
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American Agricultural Chemical Co. 
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92 State Street, Boston, Mass. 
