52 
House & 
Garden 
HARVESTING THE WAR CROP 
How to Get One Hundred Per Cent. Benefit from the Work You 
Have Done and the Things You Have Grown this Summer 
D. R. ED SON 
F OR every ten gar¬ 
deners you can find 
who know how to 
grow things, there will 
be but one who utilizes 
it all after he has grown 
it. The waste of food 
products in the kitchen, 
about which our news¬ 
paper editors have been 
berating the housewives 
of the nation for the 
last six months, is 
stringent economy com¬ 
pared to the wastes that 
occur in the average 
vegetable garden. 
These wastes are of 
two kinds. First, ne¬ 
glecting to harvest stuff 
when it is ready and 
letting it get so old and 
tough that it cannot or 
will not be used; sec¬ 
ond, leaving things in 
the garden to be spoiled by the first frost, or freezing 
weather later, when they might have been harvested 
and saved for future use. 
The first of these wastes can be avoided only by 
efficient canning, drying and preserving, information 
about which has been distributed so generally this 
summer that I will not attempt to take it up in detail 
here except to call attention to one fact that is very fre¬ 
quently overlooked. Canning and drying by the person 
with a home garden is managed quite differently titan 
by the one without a garden, who is buying food pro¬ 
ducts when they are cheap in the open market to put 
up for winter use. In the latter case you get a bushel 
or two of one thing at a time and have a canning or a 
drying spree that lasts for a day or two. In the former 
you should be prepared to handle all surplus quanti¬ 
ties, perhaps several different kinds in a day, when 
they are ready to use from your garden. To anyone 
interested in canning and drying I would suggest 
writing to the Secretary of the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture at Washington, D. C., for Farmer’s Bulletin No. 
839, “Canning by the One Period Cold Pack Method” 
and Bulletin No. 840, “Drying Fruits and Vegetables 
in the Home.” These give in plain, understandable 
language information on the easiest and best methods 
for you to use. 
Cabbages may be 
covered with corn¬ 
stalks as protection 
Parsnips stored in boxes filled with dry 
sand will keep for winter use 
I N the first place, a. great many gardeners—and not 
only beginners—make the mistake of letting up on 
their garden, long before the season has come to a 
close. Keep your crops growing up to the last minute! 
To do this means that there must be no let-up in 
cultivation or ini spraying of such crops as are subject 
to injury from'blight, which often destroys or cuts 
down to a very large extent the yields of potatoes, 
melons, beans, celery and a number of other vegetables. 
While rqost of the vegetables which are to be stored 
for winter should not be put away until the approach 
of really cold weather, there are many which will be 
spoiled by the first frost, and these should be looked 
after before there is danger of that happening. One 
unexpected frosty night will put an end to such things 
as lima beans, melons, tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins, 
cucumbers, corn and okra. Lettuce, egg-plant and 
peppers will stand a little more more but not much. 
Therefore the gardener who wants to get all that he 
can out of all that he has put into his garden will be 
on the alert to save these things. 
They can be saved in one of two ways, either by 
protecting them so that they will not be injured, taking 
advantage of the two or three weeks of good weather 
which are pretty sure to follow the first cold snap; or 
by harvesting them in advance and making the most 
that can be made of the products before they have 
been spoiled by being frosted. 
In this connection the new 
gardener should learn to distin¬ 
guish the difference there is be¬ 
tween fruits that are “mature” 
and those that are fully “ripe.” 
Vegetable fruits — as well as 
most tree fruits—may be said to 
be mature when they have at¬ 
tained their full size or develop¬ 
ment. Practically all of them, 
if picked in this state and put 
away under conditions favor¬ 
able for keeping them, will ripen 
up afterward and in most cases 
be as good as if they had rip¬ 
ened fully where they grew. If 
not fully developed under the 
same treatment they will of 
course merely dry up and shrivel 
or decay. It often happens that 
if there is danger of frost the 
ripe and mature fruits may be 
removed to safety and those not 
yet fully developed left on the 
plant or vine to take their 
chances of coming through. 
ALL of the vine crops or 
41 curcubits, such as melons, 
cucumbers, squash, citron, etc., 
are quite tender. A first frost, 
even if light, will usually kill 
the vines down to the ground. 
Two weeks or so before frost is to be expected, go 
through die garden and cut off entirely die ends of the 
vines a few joints beyond all fruits of such size as 
may reasonably be expected to mature before the 
vines are killed, so that the strength of the plants may 
be thrown into these fruits, instead of being wasted 
on those which in any event will be too small to har¬ 
vest. Some time later, if the vines have not been 
killed outright by the first cold night, all die fruits 
on each vine or hill may be moved about so as to be in 
one or two central points, while still attached to the 
vines on which they are grow¬ 
ing, so that they may be readily 
covered if a sudden hard frost 
sets in unexpectedly. 
Beans: A large percentage of 
the beans which go to waste in 
the average garden might be 
saved. While most varieties can 
be used as dry or shelled beans 
for winter, the gardeners make 
the mistake of leaving the sur¬ 
plus pods on the vines indef¬ 
initely, with the result that they 
either sprout or get mouldy be¬ 
fore they are gathered. As frost 
time approaches pick all the 
immature pods diat can be used 
either as snap beans or for can¬ 
ning. A first frost sufficient to 
kill the foliage is not likely to 
injure those diat have matured 
enough to be used as “green 
beans” for either cooking or 
canning. Such should be re¬ 
moved and then the whole vines 
may be stored in an airy place 
under cover to dry out further; 
or all the dry pods may be 
picked off, as seems most con¬ 
venient. If a late planting of 
snap beans is in danger of get¬ 
ting caught by an early frost, 
it may readily be protected by 
Let the potatoes dry off thor¬ 
oughly before storing them 
away 
Almost any covering will serve 
to keep off the early frosts 
using marsh hay or several pieces of bagging to throw 
over the plants in the row. 
Tomatoes: Tomatoes are another thing often going 
to waste by being left too long and getting caught by 
the first frost. Sometimes these frosts will blacken 
the foliage without spoiling the fruit, but more often 
the latter is frost-bitten in die upper side and rots 
almost immediately thereafter. Where there are only 
a dozen plants or so it is often easy to keep these 
covered up with old pieces of bagging or with news¬ 
papers, so that one may have them for a week longer 
than usual. If this is not done all the larger vines 
should be cut back, a week or 
more before danger of frost, to 
the larger bunches of fruit 
which would tend to mature be¬ 
fore freezing. They can then 
be left until the last moment 
and taken in when the first 
freeze seems imminent. If the 
whole plant is taken up, surplus 
foliage cut away, and the plant 
hung up in some place protected 
from the frost, die fruits will 
continue to grow and gradually 
ripen, or the large green fruits 
may be picked off and placed 
in straw or excelsior in a cold- 
frame or a cool room, where 
they will continue to ripen up. 
By these methods “fresh” toma¬ 
toes may be had for some weeks 
after the plants outdoors have 
been destroyed by frost. 
Sweet Corn: If one has made 
a late planting of sweet corn 
that will not all mature before 
danger of frost, the best way of 
keeping it is to cut down the 
stalks the day that frost threat¬ 
ens and put them in small 
shocks, just as field corn is han¬ 
dled. Once the foliage has 
wilted it will not get frozen as 
in the growing plant, but will 
dry up in a natural way. In the 
meantime there is enough sap in the stalk to keep 
the ears plump and much fresher than they would be 
if picked off altogedier for some days. 
Lettuce: While lettuce will stand a light frost with¬ 
out much injury, it is well to provide marsh hay, 
leaves, or some other covering that can be put on 
quickly. The former is especially good as it admits 
plenty of air. If covered with marsh hay—put along 
the rows so that the plants may be quickly covered 
when frost threatens—they may be kept growing for 
several weeks longer than otherwise. Mature plants 
taken up with roots and soil 
and placed in a frame close to¬ 
gether will remain fresh for a 
long time if the soil is kept 
moist, but the foliage should not 
be allowed to become dry. 
Peppers and egg-plants, like 
tomatoes, should be picked be¬ 
fore danger of a frost that would 
injure the fruit, although they 
may remain growing for some 
time after the foliage has been 
blackened by a light frost. Store 
in a cool, dry place after pick¬ 
ing them. 
T HERE are a number of 
other crops which, while 
they will not have to be taken 
from the garden before the first 
frost, have to be especially pre¬ 
pared for harvesting before they 
are ready. Among these are 
onions, celery, cauliflower, en¬ 
dive and cos lettuce. 
Onions should be pulled as 
soon as the tops turn yellow and 
die down. If they are left and 
rainy weather sets in they are 
almost sure to send up new 
sprouts and make new roots, 
which all but ruins them. The 
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