D. M. FERRY & CO’S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 
3 
Formation and Management 
- OP - 
Vegetable Gardens. 
SITUATION AND EXPOSURE.— One of the most frequent causes of failure of the vegetable garden is the attempt 
to combine it with the orchard and small fruits. Good vegetables cannot be grown in the shade, and even if the space is 
limited, it is better to have a very small vegetable garden unshaded than to attempt to grow them in an orchard. A second 
cause of failure is so arranging the garden that a horse cannot be used in cultivation. On the farm especially it should be 
placed so as to be easily reached from the barn. Abrupt’slopes in any direction are to be avoided. A gentle inclination to 
the south and east is the warmest, will give the earliest vegetables, and be best for Corn. Melons, Tomatoes, etc., but it suffers 
more from a spring or early fall frost, because of receiving the direct rays of the morning sun. An inclination to the north 
and west is later, sufFers less in a drought, and is the best for Peas, Cabbage, Lettuce, etc. So it is an advantage in a large 
garden to have both these exposures, but for small gardens a gentle inclination to the south and east, or a level surface, is 
the best. 
SOIL.— A good garden can be made on any soil , but that best suited to the purpose is a deep, rich, friable loam, resting 
on a sand or gravelly subsoil; the more nearly other soils can be made to approach this the better. This may be accomplished 
in tenacious clays (and must be for a good garden) by good drainage, deep and judicious cultivation, use of coarse manure, 
and liberal applications of leached ashes, sand, and in some cases of peat. If the soil is naturally too light and sandy, it may 
be improved by rolling and the use of large quantities of well composted manure and muck, and by dressings of clay. 
SIZE AND FORM. — A single bed ten feet square, well manured, well spaded, and thoroughly cultivated and cared for, 
will produce more good vegetables, be more profitable, and give better satisfaction, than an acre unmanured, half prepared, 
and poorly cared for. Our golden rule for size is, make your garden no larger than you can prepare and care for in the best 
possible manner. If it all has to be done by hand, it will take the entire time of one man to keep in good order a garden of 
one acre, but if it is so arranged that the horse cultivator can be used, he can care for four times that area. In village gardens, 
the form is usually determined by that of the lot. but where there is a choice, a rectangle several times longer than wide, the 
sides running from north to south, is the most economical: if this can be so placed that a space of eight feet wide at both 
ends or along both sides can be left for a horse to turn in, it will be a great advantage. 
DRAINAGE. —Nothing is more essential for a good garden than good drainage. It is impossible to raise a supply of 
fine vegetables without it. If the soil is at all wet it should be well drained with tile, but if this is not possible, something can 
be gained by plowing or throwing the soil up iuto beds from six to thirty feet wide, with smooth bottom trenches between 
them to collect and carry off the surface .water. 
MANURES.— For garden purposes there is nothing better than well rotted stable manure, with which tobacco stems, 
bones, leaves, or any'refuse vegetable or animal matter may be composted with advantage. It should be applied at the rate 
of one ton or an ordinary wagon load for every 500 square feet. This should be ploughed in unless the soil is auite sandy and 
the manure very fine, when it may be applied on the surface, and simply harrowed or raked in. Plaster, salt, wood-ashes, 
guano, ground bone, all are valuable and can be used to advantage in connection with the stable manure. Plaster should 
not be applied until the plants are well up. Ashes should not be ipixed with the other manures, and may be sown broadcast 
and raked in just before planting. Guano, ground bone, and superphosphate should be applied to the surface just before 
planting, using 1,800 to 2,500 lbs to the acre, and carefully raked into the surface soil, for ir it comes in contact with the seeds 
or starting roots it will kill them. In some cases sand, leached ashes and peat on clay soils, and clay and muck on sandy 
soils, will prove as valuable as manures. Occasionally a spot which has been used for a garden for many years, will become 
unproductive in spite of liberal manuring. We know of no other remedy than to abandon it for a garden, seed down to clover 
ana allow it to remain two years, when ft may be ploughed under, and the garden will be found to have regained its original 
fertility. 
PREPARATION OF THE GROUND.—Thorough preparation of the ground is of vital importance in raising good 
vegetables; if this work is well done, all that follows will oe easier. The garden should be well ploughed or spaded, taking 
care if it is a clay soil that the work is not done when it is too wet. If a handful from the bottom of the furrow moulds with 
slight 'pressure into a ball which cannot be easily crumbled into fine earth again, the soil is too wet, and if ploughed then will 
be hard to work all summer. The surface should be made as fine and smooth as possible with the harrow or rake, and in 
case of sandy soils it should be rolled with a heavy roller. It is generally necessary to plough the whole garden at once, and 
to do this in time for the earliest crops, but the part which is not planted for some weeks should be kept mellow by frequent 
cultivation. Stiff clay soils are frequently wonaerfully improved by trenching, that is, spading two feet deep in such a way 
as to leave the surface soil on top. This is accomplished by digging a trench two feet wide across one side, and a second one 
adjoining and parallel with it one spade deep. The remaining earth of the second trench is then thrown into the first and 
covered with the surface soil from a third trench; the balance of the third is then thrown into the second and covered with 
the surface of the fourth; and so on until all is worked over, when the soil from the first trench is used to fill the last. This 
is auite expensive, but frequently changes a soil upon which nothing can be grown into one producing the finest vegetables, 
and its effects last for several years. 
ARRANGEMENT— In the city gardens, or where most of the work is done by hand, this may be entirely a matter of 
taste, but it is (mite important to have the garden so arranged that most of the work can be done bv horse power. We can 
best point out the things to be considered in the arrangement by means of the accompanying illustration. The points gained 
by this plan are:— 
First. —Ability to cultivate the ground. All but a strip seven and one-half feet wide between the Beets and Bush Beans 
can be worked by any common one-horse cultivator. 
Second.— Placing those vegetables which may stay out all winter side by side, where they will not interfere with next 
season’s ploughing. 
Third.— Arranging the vegetables very nearly in the order in which they should be planted or set out in the spring. This 
would be nearly perfect, except in case of the Cucumbers, if the late Cabbage w-ere to follow the Tomatoes. 
Fourth.— Providing for easy rotation of crops by simply reversing (with the exception of the permanent row of Aspara¬ 
gus and that of Parsnip and Salsify) the plan. 
The number of rows of each vegetable and the relative proportion of each may be varied according to the wants of the 
family, but the proportion given here will be found to suit most families who depend upon the garden for both winter and 
summer vegetables. 
