March, 1 p 1 6 
41 
ADOLPH KRUHM 
THE EARLY VEGETABLE GARDEN 
What to Plant for Early Crops ot Quality 
The Culture and Characteristics ol Sorts 
to Grace Your Spring Table 
By June the really early garden 
should be well under way. But it 
needs careful planning and constant 
attention to produce crops at this 
date. Wise choice of sorts is essential 
Wayahead produces solid, 
handsome heads that rival 
Naumburger for table use 
Naumburger or Tender- 
heart, perhaps the finest 
early butter-head lettuce 
T HERE is a peculiar 
fascination in try¬ 
ing to “beat” your neigh¬ 
bor in having fresh 
vegetables of one kind 
or another before his are 
ready. Those little 
round radishes early in 
May, the first green peas 
and the brilliant red 
tomatoes late in June— 
how we value them! 
And they may all be 
yours by a little planning 
and scheming. For all 
practical purposes, the 
thing to do is to deter¬ 
mine which classes of 
vegetables are so hardy 
that they may be sown 
early, and then to pick out those sorts 
which we know to be the most dependable 
early yielders. 
Vegetables that deserve the title of being 
hardy are peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, 
onions and cabbage. Since cabbage, as a 
rule, is not considered desirable as an early 
vegetable because it has played an impor¬ 
tant part on the bill-of-fare all winter, it 
can safely be eliminated in our plans for a 
real early garden. Onions in the early gar¬ 
den are grown from sets secured at most 
any seed store. Remember that the white 
ones are the mildest, the yellow ones the 
cheapest, and the red ones the hottest 
but the best keepers, should you put out sets 
from which to grow bulbs for winter use. 
This, then, leaves 
peas, lettuce, radishes 
and spinach for consid¬ 
eration in our hardy 
vegetable garden, and, 
since so far we have em¬ 
ployed the process of 
elimination in arriving 
at conclusions, let me 
eliminate spinach by 
stating that I have only 
found ope worth-while 
sort to grow for home 
use and that is All Sea¬ 
sons or Triumph, as 
some seedsmen call it. 
Of course, there are 
other sorts. But none 
will develop as fleshy, 
juicy plants of good size 
as quickly as this, and 
those who are fond of 
spinach greens will find 
All Seasons the most 
palatable of all. While 
some gardeners persist 
in growing this vege¬ 
table by broadcasting the seeds, better re¬ 
sults will be scored by sowing in rows Yz' 
deep, 18" to 20" between the rows, and by 
thinning out the plants so that they stand 4" 
apart in the row. 
Peas, radishes and lettuce offer complex 
problems to even experienced gardeners, be¬ 
cause in every class are found sorts of spe¬ 
cial value for different seasons. So let us 
take them up one by one to find out which 
sorts will best serve our purpose for an 
early garden and what each of them is like. 
filled with large peas 
of remarkable flavor 
for a smooth - seeded 
sort. Early in the sea¬ 
son almost any green 
peas taste good and 
you will find Prolific 
Extra Early, picked 
when just right, a few 
hours before cooking, 
a great deal sweeter 
than what you buy 
from the commission 
man or green-grocer. 
In sixty days from 
date of planting a good 
strain of Prolific Ex¬ 
tra Early will yield 
75% of its crop, and a 
few days later the bal¬ 
ance will be ready, so that the ground may 
be cleared to make room for successive 
crops. In other words, if you sow two 15' 
rows of Prolific Extra Early on April 15th, 
you may safely count on being able to pick 
from ten to twelve quarts of pods on June 
15th, if the season has been at all favorable 
for peas. 
About a week after Prolific Extra Early 
is planted, you should sow a few rows 
of the sweetest extra early wrinkled pea 
that grows—Little Marvel. The only fault 
I have to find with this sort is that it isn’t 
called Big - Marvel. But since the word 
“Little” in its name doubtless refers to the 
height of its vines, let me state here these 
are only 18" tall and that every vine carries 
from seven to ten pods, 
usually in pairs. They 
are so tightly filled with 
large, dark green peas 
that they frequently 
burst open at the end. 
One wonders how the 
short 3" pods can hold as 
many as eight large peas. 
Little Marvel is but a few 
days later than Prolific 
Extra Early, bearing the 
bulk of pods ready for 
picking in sixty-five days 
after seeds were sown. 
With Little Marvel 
growing only 18" tall 
and Prolific Extra Early 
from 24" to 30", you 
need not figure on 
“brushing” them or pro¬ 
viding trellis, unless you 
want to. Personally, I 
have found that even 
the dwarf peas appreci¬ 
ate support of some sort 
or other. It keeps the 
White Icicle is unsur¬ 
passed among the early 
producing long radishes 
The Ever Popular 
Pea 
Peas may be divided 
into two broad classes 
according to the kind of 
seeds they have. There 
are smooth-seeded peas 
and sorts with wrinkled 
seeds. In both classes 
will be found extra early 
sorts, though the wrin¬ 
kled kinds should not be 
sown quite as early as 
the smooth-seeded, be¬ 
ing more apt to rot in 
cold, wet ground. 
Foremost among the 
smooth -seeded peas 
which may be sown as 
soon as you can get on 
the ground, stands Pro¬ 
lific Extra Early. In 
this pea, we find earli¬ 
ness combined with a 
prolific character and a 
good - sized pod, well- 
Fine radishes like these 
are largely the results of 
carefully selected seed 
