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DE GIORGI BROTHERS CO 
THE “OUTLINE” OF GARDENING 
SOIL—Any soil where weeds grow is all right or can be made 
so. If the soil is poor, apply manure, the more the better. Spade 
it under. Spade 9 to 12 inches deep, preferably in the spring, then 
rake the soil smooth. If the soil is too heavy, (gumbo, clay), apply 
stable manure; if it is too light (sandy), again apply manure. 
Manuring makes light soils heavier and heavy soils lighter. This 
sounds like a joke, but it is a fact. If your soil is pure muck (peat), 
it is ideal for raising cabbage, lettuce and other leafy vegetables, but 
before you can grow all kinds of crops on this soil you must 
thoroughly mix it with regular soil, be this sandy, clayey, or a good 
loam. With soil and small application of staJble manure you will 
raise wonderful crops, as muck soil is exceedingly rich. 
SOWING—Read cultural directions in this book. Do not cover 
the seed too deep—be very careful in this respect. Seeds the size of 
a pin head should be covered one-fourth to one-half inch deep. 
Larger seeds like those of radish or beets should be covered three- 
fourths to one inch deep. Corn, beans and peas, should be covered 
two to three inches deep. Very fine seed like those of begonia, must 
not be covered at all, merely pressed to the soil and sow such fine 
seed first in a box, not over 3 inches deep, filled with finely sifted 
soil. Cover the box with a pane of glass. 
VERY IMPORTANT—Whenever you read in our catalog “thin 
out to 4 inches apart in the row” as the case may be, do so as soon 
as the plants are up. If you allow the plants to crowd each other 
the crop will never properly develop. Leafy vegetables will be 
spindly and sometimes will quickly shoot to seed and the root crops 
will have thin, long and deformed roots. The beginner may think 
that the more plants in the ground the bigger the harvest. That is a 
mistake. Big and fine crops will come only from plantings where 
the plants have room to develop. 
WHY SEEDS SOMETIMES FAIL TO “COME UP”—All real 
seedsmen send out good live seeds with strong germination. But 
seed will fail to come up if it is covered too deep, if the ground is 
not moist enough, if the weather is too hot, if a hard crust is formed 
on top of the soil, if mice, birds or insects will get it, if sown in 
too hot a hotbed and from other causes which are, for a while any¬ 
how, impossible to explain. These things happen no matter how 
good the seed sowed, and all old gardeners know it. In the great 
majority of cases seeds come up just fine, yet sometimes they fail, 
and you should be informed about the probable causes. Do not 
blame the seedsman, he is rarely to blame, he is doing his part. Be 
optimistic—do like a neighbor of ours did. He sowed beet seed three 
times, every time in a row about an inch or so apart from the old 
row. The seed did not come up. He sowed the fourth time, then 
came a heavy rain, and in a few days the seeds from all four sow¬ 
ings were up. 
CULTIVATION—As soon as your plants are big enough to 
handle, thin them out, pull the weeds, transplant and keep on culti¬ 
vating. The more you use the hoe or the cultivator, the faster your 
crops will grow, and the more they will produce. 
SETTING OUT PLANTS—You will hardly ever lose a single 
plant if you will plant in a moist soil, and if you will press the 
soil firmly to the roots. NEVER, NEVER place manure near the 
roots of a plant. Manure contains strong chemicals and will either 
kill the plant outright, or damage its roots to such an extent that 
the plant will stay stunted. If you must manure, place the manure 
a foot or so away from the roots. Putting manure right to the 
roots has killed thousands of trees and plants. D 9 not plant in dry 
soil. Wait for a heavy rain or soak the ground with water, then let 
it dry off so that when you press a handful of it it will not stick to¬ 
gether. Never work soil that is wet; wet soil when worked sticks 
together and hardens just like a brick. Plants do well only in soil 
that is porous, soil that crumbles easily when handled. 
MORE INFORMATION—You will get more information else¬ 
where in our catalog. It is packed with valuable pointers. Also con¬ 
sult your friends about gardening, exchange your experience with 
them, read garden magazines, and after a year or two of experience 
you will know all you need to know. Your garden will be a source 
of pleasure and profit. 
GARDENING FOR PROFIT—If you want to raise vegetables 
or flowers for profit, hire yourself to a practical gardener or florist. 
One year of experience will be worth more to you than all the books 
that were ever published on gardening. However, read books; they 
are the cheapest source of information. With actual experience in 
a garden or greenhouse, the books you will read afterwards will do 
you twice as much good, because many things now hard to under¬ 
stand will be plain to you. Experience is the best teacher. 
HOW TO MAKE A HOT BED 
In a sheltered spot, away from shade, dig a trench 6 feet wide, 
2 feet deep and long enough to accommodate the number of sashes to 
be used. Standard hot bed sash measures 3x6 feet. Line the sides of 
the trench with boards, brick or concrete and to secure good drainage 
place medium sized rocks on the bottom in a layer of about 4 inches. 
Above the surface of the ground erect a frame 12 inches high in the 
rear, sloping to S inches in front to give an angle for sun rays and to 
secure enough “fall” to swiftly carry off rain water. Fill the trench 
with fresh horse manure which you must first pile up and allow to 
heat. When heated and steaming, work the pile over into a new pile. 
This new pile will get hot and steaming again in about 10 days and by 
this time has lost enough excess heat and is now safe to place into 
the pit. Fill up the pit to the surface of the ground, pack down firmly 
and evenly, then place over it 4 inches of good friable dirt. Put on 
sashes and do not sow until the heat under the sash registers between 
80 and 90 degrees. Ventilate your plants, give them all the air pos¬ 
sible by raising the sashes on cold days and removing them entirely 
on warm days. Water enough to soak the soil, but not to reach the 
manure below. COLD FRAME is built on the surface of the ground, 
like a hot bed in appearance, but without the manure. 
How to Make Gardening Pay 
Work, work, work, and some thinking will do it. Think¬ 
ing plays an important part. To make gardening or any 
other business pay is not easy. There is strong competition 
—there are too many gardeners. But no matter in what line 
you may be engaged, you would find the same conditions— 
hard struggle, lasting for years before one is a success. 
That can not be helped, we must submit to that, must never 
get discouraged. You work hard, all gardeners do, in work¬ 
ing you are hard to beat. But how about thinking, planning 
ahead? There it is where too many gardeners are below the 
mark. Thinking, weighing facts in your mind as you see 
them happen, noticing the constantly changing conditions 
and chances, is what counts. 
Noticing, for instance, that a certain crop is bringing 
very low prices, you can gain by planting this same crop 
on an enlarged scale the following season. A little thinking 
will reveal to you, that you can gain by cutting down or 
planting only the usual acreage, the season to follow, of 
crops that at present are paying well. Why? Take potatoes 
in 1927. That year potatoes sold for real money, but in 1928 
prices were below the cost of production. Everybody plant¬ 
ed potatoes, folks planting potatoes in 1928 must have been 
under the impression that because in 1927 potatoes paid well, 
they will always pay well. They did not, the growers lost 
money. Another case. In 1927 carrots in our market were 
hard to sell even at very low prices. Disgusted, the growers 
in 1928 either did not plant carrots at all or very few only. 
Result was that in 1928 carrots were among the crops that 
paid well. Spring crop of beans in 1928 did not bring the 
cost of picking them, the growers were "sick” of beans and 
did not plant any for a late crop. A few gardeners did and 
made money, beans were scarce and prices good. This 
proves that low prices are followed by high prices and high 
prices are followed by low prices. It is easy for the think¬ 
ing man to foretell how the market will go for months ahead. 
And that is very important as it means the difference 
between profit and loss. Think twice, before you place an 
order for seeds. It pays to plant the best only, regardless of 
what the seed costs. Ordering wisely chosen varieties will 
help a great deal to make gardening profitable. We know of 
a local gardener, who in 1927 planted a new superior variety 
of late cabbage, of a muskmelon, a new tomato, besides a 
few other items of less importance. His melons, cabbage 
and other vegetables being of superior quality fetched fancy 
prices; he found gardening a well paying business, while 
many other gardeners had a hard time to make expenses. 
They did not think, our gardener friend did. 
HOW MANY PLANTS 
FROM AN OZ. OF SEED? You can expect from 1 oz., from 1 lb. 
Asparagus.1,000 16,000 
Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauli¬ 
flower, Rutabaga, Egg Plant.3,000 48,000 
Chicory .3,000 48,000 
Parsley .3,000 48,000 
Pepper .2,000 32,000 
Tomato.4,000 64,000 
Onion, Leek .2,500 40,000 
You will get less plants from seed sown in the open than 
you will when sowing under glass or in a seed bed. 
NUMBER OF PLANTS TO THE ACRE—It takes 43,560 plants 
when set foot apart each way; 10,890 when set 2 feet apart each way 
and 4,840 when set 3 feet apart each way. 
LAST SOWING DATES 
You can sow and be snre that they will “make,” Broccoli, leek, 
pepper and tomato up to May 15th. Onion and parsnip up to May 
20th. Lima Beans, celery, melons, cardoon and salsify up to June 
1st. Swiss Chard and peas up to June 10th. Brussels sprouts, cab¬ 
bage, cauliflower up to June 15th. Sweet corn and endive up to 
July 1st. Carrots, cucumber, winter radish up to July 10th. Dwarf 
beans, beets and Florence Fennel up to August 1st. Chinese cabbage, 
kale, mustard and turnip up to August 10th. Spinach and early rad¬ 
ish up to September 1st. 
The dates mentioned are for the approximate latitude of Chicago 
and New York and allowances must be made in colder and warmer 
sections. 
CUT WORMS—The following bran mash gets them. Two pounds of 
bran, one pound of sliced oranges or lemons, 2 ozs. of parts green and 
one pint of molasses which is enough for one acre. Spread over the 
field In the evening, will result in cut worm free field In the morning. 
HOTBEADS —Write for free bulletin entitled; Hotbeds and 
Coldframes No. 1743 to U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, Washing¬ 
ton, D. C. Write also to Washington State College, Pullman, 
Wash, for bulletin entitled: Hotbed Construction — Electric 
and manure types. 
