HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 19 ii 
forms on top of'tlie ground bust it 
up. Then don’t go fussing with the 
ground when it’s too wet. You'll 
do more harm in an hour than ten 
men can mend in a week, — packing 
it down and making clods under¬ 
neath. Besides, tramping over wet 
ground takes the life out of it. 
Pick up a fistful of earth and ball 
it up. If it falls apart go on in and 
dig, but if the ball stays together 
the only digging it’s safe to do is 
for fish worms behind the barn.” 
“Right you are, Cap’n,” the old 
soldier would agree. “Any man 
with sense knows lie’s got no busi¬ 
ness with the vegetables when the 
leaves are wet. It burns ’em up if 
you get a hot sun during the day. 
Especially beans — it’s death on beans to handle them wet. If you 
want to turn the soil, wait till evening, — but if you're after weeds, 
take the heat of the day. Then you’ve got them turned out and 
half dead before night dews can bring reinforcements and start 
a new growth.” 
Occasionally the Newcomer would advance his views. “There 
are as many ways to hoe as there are politicians or preachers. It 
doesn’t do any good to scrape daintily over the top; you've got to 
go deep. Get under, and you’ve a soil that just draws life right 
out of the air. What’s necessary is to let the rain and dew and 
air get right in and help. It's as important as — well, a good bug 
remedy.” 
Thus the contestants in their wisdom; but all the time each 
practiced the little arts and tricks of agricultural coaxing which 
of themselves seem trivial, but which count in the end. 
With the relenting sunshine and showers of May the contest 
took on added interest, and spectators began passing from one 
garden to another to keep in touch with their progress. The Cap¬ 
tain and the Early Bean Man went boldly forward and laid out 
the unplanted portions of their gardens and planted them to pota¬ 
toes, corn, cabbage, tomatoes, and so on. It was noticed that 
the Newcomer spaded, raked and made beds, but tomatoes and 
cabbages were conspicuously absent from his plantings, also that 
he planted his vine beans and Lima beans in drills, instead of in 
hills. It was found on investigation 
that he had planted his tomatoes 
and cabbages in old strawberry 
boxes, saved from the summer be¬ 
fore, and had them placed in a 
sunny nook where they were shel¬ 
tered from the night air. Large 
holes were cut in the bottoms of the 
frail boxes and paper laid over the 
holes before the boxes were filled 
with choice earth and the plants set. 
They grew twice as rapidly in this 
way as they would if set in the 
open. When the proper time came 
he carried the boxes to the garden. 
The tomatoes were set exactly three 
feet apart each way, holes being 
dug and the tops of the boxes being 
set a little lower than the surface of 
the ground. By this means the plants were not disturbed in the 
least by transplanting and went right on growing without inter¬ 
ruption. The first roots pushed down through the holes cut in 
the bottoms of the boxes, and within a few weeks all the boxes 
had rotted and fallen apart so that they did not hinder the roots 
from spreading. In the bottoms of the holes dug for the re¬ 
ception of the boxes, manure had been placed long before, in 
liberal quantities and covered with earth. This tended to boost 
the plants along the moment the roots reached that stratum. 
The cabbages were set in rows three feet apart and one and 
one-half feet apart in the row. No manure was placed directly 
at their roots. 
All the Newcomer’s plantings were in rows, one, two and 
three feet apart, so that later plantings of other vegetables could 
go in between. For instance, his early bunch beans were drilled 
in in rows three feet apart. That is about as wide again as is 
required, but between the rows after the beans had a good start 
he followed with a second or third planting of radishes. Beets 
for winter use were also started in this way and when they needed 
the space and air the beans were gone. This plan was also fol¬ 
lowed for late cabbages; as soon as one crop came out — or be¬ 
fore that time — another went in. The large onion bed was 
planted to winter radishes as soon as the onions were harvested. 
About the middle of May the purpose of the Newcomer's 
During the previous fall the Newcomer had half a dozen 
loads of river silt brought up. In the trenches filled with 
this he produced a bumper crop of sweet potatoes 
'JM 
The lath bean racks provided the newcomer with a largely 
increased surface exposed to sun and air 
When the bean vines covered the lath frame there was a continuous 
wall of bearing surface 
