Vol. LXXI. No. 4144. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 30, 1912. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
A REAL FARMER’S GARDEN. 
The Best Acre on the Farm. 
Part I. 
The importance of the farmer’s garden as a real 
asset can hardly be overestimated. It is a productive 
enterprise which furnishes, or should furnish, the 
farm table with fresh choice vegetables, fruit and 
flowers, both in and out of season. The city man can 
appreciate better how much this is worth than can the 
farmer. The farm garden is too often neglected. It 
is hoped that this article may be an incentive to better 
care of the home garden. Among the primal requisites 
for an ideal home garden are its proximity to build¬ 
ings, fencing, size, shape, soil, drainage, fertility, ex¬ 
posure, planned and planted for utility, profit and 
pleasure. The garden is enclosed by 18 strands of No. 
10 galvanized wire, attached to cedar posts, and so 
arranged and constructed that it is positively chicken 
and animal proof. There are two 12-foot wire hinged 
gates. While one gate is only 20 feet from the kitchen 
door, the other is but 70 
feet from the barn. 
SIZE AND SHAPE. 
—The size and shape are 
important considerations. 
If either or both are 
faulty, often more land 
can be purchased, or if 
practicable, reconstruction 
of garden and adjacent 
property will accomplish 
the above. Owing to a 
division fence on the 
north, orchard on the 
east, lawn on the south, 
and a highway on the 
west, our garden boun¬ 
daries are fixed. During 
1901 the garden was re¬ 
organized on the present 
basis, which is the best 
the situation affords. 
North and south sides 
are parallel and 157^4 
feet distant. East end is 
very slanting; west end 
slightly so. Garden con¬ 
tains about three-fourths 
of an acre. One and one- 
half foot inside the fence, all around the garden, are 
set fruit trees. On the northern, 12 quince and 12 
prunes; east end, 10 Bartlett pears; south side, four 
prunes and five cherries, and west end are 10 cherries. 
Such trees make but little shade, no internal trees. 
SOIL AND DRAINAGE.—The soil varies from 
dark heavy loam to stiff clay, Dunkirk series, and all 
underlaid with a fine tight, nearly impervious quick¬ 
sand and clay subsoil, which naturally was retentive of 
the excess water, thus rendering the land cold, sour, 
inactive and unfit for gardening purposes. Both the 
soil and subsoil have been decidedly and permanently 
improved by a complete system of drains. There are 
86*4 rods of three and four-inch round tile drains, 
placed four feet deep, in six parallel lines, running 
lengthwise the garden. The drainage cost $43.13. 
Owing to the heavy character of the soil, even after 
the installation of a complete artificial drain system, 
the rains always caused the ground to crust, bake and 
dry out badly, which seriously interfered with the 
prompt surface penetration of all plants, but especially 
so with the tender and weak growing varieties. More¬ 
over, in spite of timely and careful hand wheel hoe 
tillage, the soil would invariably break up coarse, 
lumpy and dry, with more or less plants loosened, cov¬ 
ered up or destroyed. Realizing fully the value, in a 
dry time, of the escaping moisture, together with the 
unavoidable loss from perishing plants, yet utterly 
powerless to control it, other methods were studied. 
SAND EXPERIMENT.—It is said to have “sand” 
is an admirable quality, therefore its virtue was tried 
out by a four-inch sand coat applied to the garden 
during the Fall of 1907; 170 big loads, 250 yards, 
actual cost $27, of clear white and yellow sand were 
drawn, covering about three-fourths of the entire gar¬ 
den. What a transition! It has made the garden two 
weeks earlier in Spring, planting and tillage can be 
done on time, no stones to annoy the work of seed 
drill or hand cultivator, original fertility is more avail¬ 
able, tender plants of all kinds come through the sur¬ 
face promptly, without loss, and grow rapidly. Close 
cultivation is easily and more economically performed, 
and the products have more than doubled in both 
quantity and quality. In fact the sand application ap¬ 
pears to have solved satisfactorily the difficulties 
enumerated, and the investment up to the present time 
has returned annually more than the original sand 
cost. The fertility is maintained and supplied by till¬ 
age, rotation, manure and home-mixed fertilizers. 
TILLAGE.—Of course since the garden got “sand” 
into its physical make up, it has not been plowed, as 
this would turn under the sand and thereby defeat the 
object, and like Samson of old, “shorn of its power,” 
it would become a prey to its enemies. The coarse 
and deep tillage is done with a five or 10-tooth walk¬ 
ing cultivator, Fall and Spring, leveled with weeder 
and rolled down. Where hand drill and hand cultiva¬ 
tor are used the ground is usually hand raked and 
leveled up as smooth as a floor. Rubbish of any kind 
is either burned or removed to to the cane fruit patch. 
Neither man nor horse should be allowed in garden 
when wet. Garden vegetables, and such fruits as can 
be, and flowers should be rotated annually. Occasion¬ 
ally a portion of garden should be seeded to clover 
and Alfalfa. 
MANURE AND FERTILIZERS.—For gardening 
purposes well rotted manure is preferable to the fresh 
article. Application at the rate of one load to four 
square rods is liberal. The following pounds of fer¬ 
tilizer ingredients will make one ton of high-grade 
goods: 267 pounds nitrate soda, 267 pounds blood, 
534 pounds fine ground animal bone, 400 pounds dis¬ 
solved bone, and 534 pounds sulphate of potash; an¬ 
alyzes four per cent nitrogen, eight per cent phosphoric 
acid and 12 per cent potash; cost, about $35 per ton; 
1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre will give results worth 
while. Fertilizer is applied with an 11-hoe, seven-inch 
grain and fertilizer drill. If more than 1,000 pounds 
per acre is applied, twice over is necessary. For the 
cane fruit and other inaccessible areas the fertilizer is 
hand distributed, each bush or hill receiving its 
proper amount for best results. 
EXPOSURE AND PLANTING.—The exposure is 
western and northern. For extra early vegetables, 
fruits and flowers a southern or eastern exposure is 
preferable, and should be selected if a choice is pos¬ 
sible. The garden rows were laid out east and west 
because long rows are desirable and facilitate in the 
economical handling, and 
headlands are reduced. 
Short rows are objection¬ 
able, particularly where 
horse culture is used, as 
ground is tramped down 
and plants destroyed. 
North and south rows 
are preferable to east 
and west ones in that the 
sun can shine on both 
sides of the former. For 
hand planting or laying 
out the first row for seed 
drill a tight-drawn cord 
is used. 
SEED STOCK AND 
DRILLS.—Great care is 
exercised in procuring, 
early, seeds and plants of 
known vigor and vitality. 
Many can be produced in 
the garden, thereby often 
avoiding new diseases 
and insect pests. Grocery 
store and Congressional 
seeds should be given a 
severe letting alone. They 
are too often a first-class 
disappointment or fraud. A hill and drill seeder, cost¬ 
ing $8 to $10.50, is used for sowing the bulk of garden 
seeds. It sows well the various seeds in a narrow row, 
and at the same time marks the next row. The drill 
is provided with the necessary adjustment and gradu¬ 
ated for all kinds and quantity of seed. The seeder 
should be pushed slowly and steadily for even distri¬ 
bution of seed. With care the rows can be kept 
straight and parallel, which is surely an advantage 
while cultivating. Also straight even rows of garden 
products attract attention and incidentally advertise 
and make a silent appeal for better gardens. In¬ 
variably it is wise to sow or plant all kinds of seed a 
little thick, to insure against poor germination, un¬ 
favorable weather, soil conditions, insect pests and 
disease. Later thinning is much cheaper and more 
profitable than transplanting, or no crop. Better be 
safe than sorry. 
CULTIVATION.—Horse culture is used exclusively 
for rows where conditions permit the work and the 
headlands, and includes all pumpkin, squash, melons, 
corn, cane fruit, cucumber, egg plant, cabbage, tomatoes 
and potatoes, or practically one-half of garden area is 
HOUSE AND FARM GARDEN ON T. E. MARTIN’S FARM. Fig. 146. 
