1912. 
TH1C RURAb NEW-YORKER 
427' 
BACKYARD GARDEN IN 1911. 
Part V. 
It is assumed that all gardeners will, be¬ 
fore the season opens, make a plan of their 
operations and a map showing where each 
crop is to go. This is the only way to be 
sure. 
Spading or Plowing. —The actual method 
will be governed, of course, to a great ex¬ 
tent by the size of the plot, but whichever 
way it may be, there are some points of 
vital importance that will apply. I believe 
that good deep digging is needful, because 
it is not right to make the roots of the 
plants either stay within three or four 
inches of the surface, or force their own 
way through the unbroken subsoil, and 
many of us fail to realize to what depth 
the small fibrous or feeding roots of or¬ 
dinary crops will penetrate if given half 
a chance. The advocates of subsoiling by 
dynamite claim that there is another farm 
just as rich lying just beneath the one we 
have been cultivating, and claim that dyna¬ 
mite is the best agent to make its richness 
available to the use of the crops. If your 
soil is thin it is better to spade or plow 
up an inch or two of the subsoil and mix 
it in this year, and next year go a little 
bit deeper, until you have reached the limit 
that you can spade it up. The manure 
that you use should be worked into and 
through your soil, as the roots of most 
plants wish to get down in the cool away 
from the hot, drying conditions near the 
surface. In addition, the soil wants to be 
well pulverized with a rake or harrow and 
frequently it also needs compacting with a 
roller or some similar tool when there is 
danger of drying out too much by wind or 
evaporation by the sun. If the plot is 
being spaded up, it is best to pulverize the 
soil while you are at the job, unless the 
soil is too wet and a day or two’s drying 
out will make it easier to work with the 
rake, but unless the lack of time and size 
of the job demands it, it is better to let 
the soil in most cases get into shape so 
that you can finish the job as you go along. 
That is, you spade a small space and then 
rake and fine this space before you quit the 
task for several hours or days. You do 
not ever want to let the surface get hard 
or lumpy, as it makes more and harder 
work to get it pulverized, and it is not as 
good seed bed for the crops. With very 
small plots the spade is the only available 
tool to use to break up the ground and 
likewise the rake for pulverizing. If the 
plot Is larger where you can use a plow I 
would get a two-horse plow and have it 
well plowed and as deep as I could, also 
thoroughly pulverized with a harrow, allow¬ 
ing the spade to be brought in to break 
any ends or corners which you cannot get 
with the plow, and I always go over the 
entire surface of my garden with an iron 
garden rake, pulverizing and smoothing it 
after the harrow, getting the surface as 
fine as possible. 
Saving Humus. —Every system of farm 
management that is worthy of considera¬ 
tion at this day has within it a plan of 
rotation of crops in which grain or grass 
crops or both appear for the purpose of 
providing the soil with humus, both to keep 
up the fertility and the texture of the soil, 
but the backyard garden is generally too 
small to allow for such a rotation, because 
we need it all every year, and the grain 
or grass crop is not of any value for the 
family table. So some other method must 
be devised to accomplish this end in it. 
The trucker or gardener on a commercial 
scale sometimes resorts to a soiling crop 
for this purpose, which is very satisfactory 
to him, but even this is not often practical 
for us little fellows with our little back¬ 
yard gardens, which causes me to speak of 
a method I have used to help in this direc¬ 
tion. About every lawn and garden there 
are a few sources of material that will 
help to furnish humus for the soil of the 
garden. For the purpose of accumulating 
some material I establish what I call a 
trash heap, and into this heap goes all the 
material that decays so as to be available 
for that purpose. From the lawn come the 
clippings of the lawn mower, and from the 
garden the main supply is furnished; all 
leaves or parts of vegetables, cabbage leaves 
and stalks are thrown on the pile as soon 
as the head is cut; lettuce leaves, tops 
from beets and other similar vegetables, pea 
and bean vines, and in the Autumn the 
tomato and Lima bean vines are cut into 
short lengths; the short clippings from the 
privet hedge are samples of material which 
help to make up the pile. These are thrown 
on it during the Summer, and after the 
frost has killed the tomato vines and the 
Lima beans, as I have said, I cut them 
into short lengths, as they would not have 
time to rot sufficiently if not cut up. I 
buy a load of well-rotted manure. I then 
spread a layer from the trash pile and 
put on a layer of manure, a layer of the 
cut vines may now be spread on this com¬ 
post and continue with alternate layers of 
the waste and the manure until both are 
used up. Much of the material from the 
waste pile is well rotted by the time you 
are ready to make the compost. In the late 
Winter of early Spring I turn this compost 
once or twice, so by the time I am ready 
to broadcast it over my garden it is short 
enough for the purpose. The waste stuff 
I thus utilize, witli the manure purchased, 
will take the place of two loads of manure, 
which would cost from $1 to $1.50 each. In 
fact I get more humus than I would from 
the manure, and in this way I keep the 
texture of my soil in good shape and also 
keep up its fertility. This plan not .only 
saves humus, but the prompt removal from 
the garden of the waste keeps it looking 
better. Cabbage is a rank feeder. I have 
seen the stumps left in the garden for two 
or three months after the head has been 
cut, using up the fertility of the soil in a 
vain effort to grow leaves, and marring 
the well-kept appearance of the plot at the 
same time, and numerous other examples 
might be quoted, but “a word to the wise 
is sufficient.” 
Beet Culture. —Beets are a vegetable 
that may fill quite a large place in the 
crops from backyard garden. They are 
easily grown and come quite early to the 
table, in fact are one of . the earliest that 
the garden yields, and they do not require 
very much room, so that if the family likes 
beets, they should be given a place in every 
garden, though it may be quite small. My 
practice has been to plant the beet seed 
just as soon in the Spring as I could. As 
soon as the ground is plowed and I have 
that done with a two-horse plow and har¬ 
rowed, I finish up the job with a steel gar¬ 
den rake, so as to get the soil in the best 
condition. I plant in drills one foot apart; 
just a slight ridge or elevation of two or 
three inches is an advantage, as then you 
do not cover the young plants aa easily in 
the early cultivation. I use a wheel hoe 
for my garden, and it is worth getting for 
even a quite small one. With the stakes 
driven at each end to mark the drills, I 
turn a very small furrow with the plow on 
the wheel hoe frame and then shape the 
drill with the garden rake. Now I string 
a line from the stakes at each end of the 
drill and draw it taut, then with the back 
of my rake on the line of the drill I press 
the rake into the soil with my foot, and 
thus open a drill about one inch deep. I 
then slide the rake along and repeat the 
process, sighting with the line to keep it 
straight. In this way you soon have a drill 
opened the length of the row ready to 
plant the seed. The seed I drop in by hand, 
about one inch apart in the drill. The 
usual packet of seed sold for five cents will 
plant 75 feet of drill. Then with the rake 
turned the other way I cover the seed and 
the depth of) planting will be from one-half 
to three-fourths inch. The rake leaves the 
surface in a shape less liable to crust than 
if some other tool had been used for cover¬ 
ing. As soon as the plants are up you may 
begin cultivation, using the rakes on the 
wheel hoe reversed to break the surface 
only, or you may use the hoes if you pre¬ 
fer. If the weeds are threatening to get a 
start you can put the hoes in even before 
the beet plants are all up. I continue the 
cultivation with the wheel hoe at least once 
a week, and when the ground is in the 
right condition after each rain. As soon 
as the tops have made enough growth I 
put the cultivator teeth on the wheel frame 
and continue the cultivation with them dur¬ 
ing the season. If at any time I find the 
drill of beets ridged up too much I shift 
the middle tooth of the cultivator ahead 
of the two outside ones, and you thus work 
the soil from the plants and leave a ridge 
In the middle betwen the drills. When 
some of the roots have attained the size 
of a lead pencil you can thin out the beets, 
letting the best ones remain about 2 y 2 or 
three inches in the drill. The beetlets that 
you pull out can be set in another drill 
and will come into use about as if you 
had made another planting two or three 
weeks later. The thinning will let them 
grow quicker and you thus get them earlier 
to use. Some gardeners prefer to let them 
grow, using the largest as soon as they 
reach a size of two or three inches in 
diameter. This is available for limited 
spaces, but one of the secrets of a tender 
beet is its quick growth. About three 
plantings in succession will give them in 
just about the proper condition throughout 
the season. By planting as early as you 
can, the beetlets that are pulled out will 
make one succession. In this latitude the 
second planting can be made about the first 
of June and the last one about the middle 
of July. This last planting should be well 
fertilized and thinned to about three inches 
apart. The cultivation is about the same 
for all the plantings. I broadcast manure 
before plowing the garden, and have used 
bone meal in the drills before planting; 
with me this is all that is needed for the 
earlier plantings. Some well rotted manure 
dug into the soil before making the latest 
planting is necessary if you wish good re¬ 
sults from same. A drill of beets 75 feet 
in length will yield about 60 bunches of six 
beets in a bunch; that is about the size 
bunch in this locality, and it retails for 
about five cents usually, although in 1911 
they were frequently higher in price. 
Pea Culture. —The sooner you cook peas 
after they are picked from the vines the bet¬ 
ter the flavor will be ; while they do not lose 
their flavor as quickly as sweet corn, the 
only sure method of getting the good kinds 
of peas early in the season is to grow them. 
The market at that time is supplied with a 
quick growing pea, but of a very poor 
quality. One pint of seed will plant 75 feet 
of drill with peas. If I have the room in 
my garden plan I make about four plantings 
about 12 days apart each ; that will bring 
the crop on in about the right succession, 
and is as long in the season in our locality 
under ordinary conditions as it is worth 
while to attempt to grow peas. They being 
a cool weather crop will not grow satis¬ 
factorily in hot midsummer. In my small 
garden I plant only varieties whose height 
of vine is given at 30 inches or less. I 
plant peas in alternate rows with sweet 
corn, the rows about two feet apart; the 
cultivation begins as soon as the peas are 
up enough to keep from covering them 
with the soil, and the tool is selected with 
that end in view. After the vines have 
made some growth it helps to support them 
to throw a furrow to them with the plow. 
While I have no knowledge that peas are 
subject to rust from the same cause or 
like beans, I try to avoid cultivating them 
when the foliage is wet. I support tne 
vines, by either staking them with brush or 
by means of stakes driven and lines 
stretched on the stakes to support the 
vines; by this means they are kept upright, 
being easier to pick and are also kept off 
the rows of other crops beside them. With¬ 
out the stakes or brush it would be neces¬ 
sary to make the rows farther apart. I 
have sometimes divided the seed peas for 
a row into two parts, making the row to 
consist of two drills six inches apart. 
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This month we celebrate. 
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