Victory Garden Pointers. 
By Gordon Morrison, Director of Plant Breeding and Research — 
The best soil and most skillful garden care will 
yield disappointing results unless the gardener uses 
the best seeds of the most suitable kinds of vegetables. 
This short story on gardening points out principles 
that must be observed in vegetable growing to per- 
mit good seeds to produce the best. results. 
LOCATION OF GARDEN. Convenience is impor- 
tant due to gasoline rationing. Abundant sunlight, 
good soil and good drainage are primary require- 
ments. Your own backyard may be your only choice 
for a garden. Providing the soil is-moderately fer- 
tile it may be made tillable and productive by fol- 
lowing our directions. 
SIZE OF GARDEN. The garden should be ade- 
quate to provide for the family. It should’ not be So 
large as to prove a burden. A well planned, well 
conducted vegetable garden of well chosen kindssand 
varieties may require only a few hours of attention 
each week, especially if gardening is made a pleasant 
family enterprise. 
It has been shown that a garden 30 x 50 feet may 
yield important quantities of vegetables for a family 
of five, but every means must be used to keep every 
square foot of soil producing from spring until fall. 
A garden of 5,000 square feet may provide for the 
average family a year ’round supply of vegetables, 
including dry beans, sweet corn, potatoes and vine 
crops such as cucumbers, melons, squash and pump- 
kins, as well as perennial beds of asparagus, rhu- 
barb, strawberries and raspberries. 
SOIL. Garden soils consist of various proportions 
of coarse, medium and fine mineral particles together 
with decomposed vegetation, air and moisture. The 
smallest mineral particles are clay. The largest min- 
eral particles are sand. The mineral particles of me- 
dium size are silt. 
Sandy soil has the least silt and clay. 
particles increase, the soil is called loamy-sand, 
sandy-loam, silt-loam, clay-loam and clay. All of 
~ these soils are valuable, including sand and clay. 
Sandy soils are often called early since they are usu- 
ally very well drained and warm up readily. 
Clay is composed of such fine particles that it has 
a great attractive force for water. Clay soils drain 
e 




As the finer ~ 
coanye 
cial fertilizer may prove injurious, the gardener 
should not use more than 2 to 4 pounds per hundred 
square feet unless a larger amount is recommended 
by the manufacturer-of the product used. The mini- 
mum indicated may be enough on productive soils. 
The maximum indicated may be used with good re- 
sults on the lighter, sandier soils. Leafy crops such 
as cabbage, onions and chard may use relatively 
larger quantities of fertilizer than vegetables that are 
grown for fruits, such as tomato, cucumber and 
melons. 
Barnyard manure may be applied before plowing. 
Dried sheep and cow manure and commercial fer- 
tilizer may be well raked in just before planting, 
SOIL PREPARATION. From the standpoint of dis- 
ease and insect control it is advisable to clean up 
and spade or plow any garden in the fall. On fall 
plowed clay land, the heavy clods crumble during 
the winter and yield a soil of good texture that may 
be planted relatively early in the spring. Very early 
spring plowing or spading is second choice to fall 
plowing. However, soil should never be plowed or 
cultivated in any way when the soil is wet enough 
~to stick to the feet or to the garden tools. 
DIRECTIONS FOR PLANTING VEGETABLE 
SEEDS DIRECTLY IN THE GARDEN 
Hardy kinds of vegetables may be sown outdoors 
as early in the spring as the soil may be prepared. 
Beginning gardeners should learn the usual date of 
the onset of steady freezing fall weather in their 
neighborhood. He may then make midseason plant- 
ings of hardy vegetables early enough to provide sat- 
isfactory development for storage before steady freez- 
ing weather occurs. Carrots that require 70 to 80 
days from seed to maturity for storage may be sown 
as late as July 20 in regions where freezing weather 
rarely occurs before November 1. 
Tender kinds of vegetables may be sown with lit- 
tle risk out of doors about the usual date of the last 
killing frost. Midseason succession plantings of ten- 
der kinds such as green beans should be planted early 
enough to avoid injury by early fall frosts which may 






Inches Inches 
Vegetables Sown Directly Hardiness Between Inches Seeds To Thin | Days To 
in Garden Rows Depth Per Foot Plants Table 
Beat OMapr.3 5 haere Sean - eee Tender 24-36 14-1% 4-6 3-4 45-60 | 
daferiny, 1 Bhbent: terme, 5 gia ee Tender 30-36 142% 3-4 4-6 70-90 
Bean, Frost Proof or Lima Pea. Hardy » 28-36 2-3 3-4 { 4-6 - 80-90 
Beets, Table. . ise Hardy 14-18 14-1 15-20 3-5 50-60 
PERC ALEO LEAN <4 pon ae ees eh Hardy 14-18 Y-\% 20-25 2-4 60-80 
Chinese Cabbage............ Medium Hardy 24-30 Vy 10-15 8-10 70-80 
(GOlaCAS oi 7s: asc aa soto Hardy “| ° 30-36 4-4 10-15 12-15 80-90 
GomePSweet en se Boe. Tender 36-42 1-1% 4-6 10-12 70-90 
Cucumber. 255s nose Tender 48-72 34-1 4-6 18-24 50-60 
tee ee Re Set so MR ne Sele Medium Hardy 24-28 Yy-l4 10-15 6-8 
PNGIve ty ek ae ee oe Medium Hardy | 14-18 4-4 15-20 10-12 80-90 
TANG. en recy ene Oe Hardy 24-30 4-14 -10-15 15-20 70-80 
Lettuce, Leaf.... . Pe Be BS Medium Hardy 14-18 4-4 15-20 3-4 35-40 
Vettuces Head’, 20s ts5 ca. S: Medium Hardy 14-18 4-4 15-20 10-12 65-80 
Muskmelonic «hs eee 2 sa Tender 48-72 34-1 4-6 18-24 75-90 
Oman Drvake.. git eet .. o Hardy 12-16 i4-Vo 20-30 1-2 ~ 90-120 
IParsHip sci waar 8 5 Very Hardy 14-18 44-6 15-20 3-4 100-120 
12723 (fe eerie earns Se a Hardy 30-36 114-214 10-15 1-3 55-75 
RBampkiny. 0. Yeas ahem... o Tender 96-120 1-14% 4-6 24-36 75-90 
Headishy 2h. ee easy wen Hardy 12-16 4-4 20-25 14-1 25-30 
Pita pagar ower meen ee es Hardy 24-30 4-44 10-15 6-8 90-100 
Bapeang, cen Weeeeee my. onc Hardy 24-28 4-4 4-6 15-20 
SOindclh. ea ee oe. Ses Hardy 14-18 4-\4 15-20 3 40-50 
Squash;/Summers. 2 ..k ss 3% Tender 48-72 1-14% 4-6 24-30 50-60 
Squash, Winter.) 4...2252. 2; Tender 96-120 1-14 4-6 24-36 90-110 
BE URED so ines are ss OREN ie Hardy 14-18 y-W 15-20 2-4 40-60 
Watermelon, ss o1a. cen ee Tender 96-120 1-1% 4-6 24-36 75-90 
less readily than sandy and loamy soils. Clay soils strike a month or so before freezing weather which 
are sometimes called late. They are usually very 
productive. 
Loamy soils are relatively early and productive and 
are ideal for gardening. 
Manure and garden litter of all kinds including 
rotted leaves and lawn clippings improve the water 
holding capacity of sandy and loamy soils without 
impeding drainage. These materials improve the 
drainage and workability of clay soils and improve 
conditions for root growth and penetration. 
Victory Gardeners who wish to improve the con- 
dition of their soil will find pages 76 and 77 of this 
catalog very helpful, Adco turns garden litter into 
artificial manure. Dried Sheep Manure, Dried Cow 
Manure, Peat Moss, Soilmaster and Sodus Acid Hu- 
mus furnish a good. selection of conyenient materials 
for improving the soil. 
Stable manures and other soil conditioners are low 
in mineral fertilizer ingredients. Therefore, it may 
be advisable to also use about 2 to 4 pounds of a 
well balanced commercial fertilizer per hundred square 
feet of garden soil, es 
Since very heavy applications of strong commer- 
For Insect Powder Duster 
78 See Page 51 
would injure hardier kinds. Garden beans that re- 
quire 50 days for the first picking and 75 days for 
the full crop of snap pods should be planted before 
August 1 in a neighborhood where killing frosts usu- 
ally occur in the middle of October. 
The table shown on this page is merely suggestive. 
The closer spacings may be used in hand-operated- 
gardens of limited size. The wider spacings;may be 
advisable in large gardens, particularly where tractor 
or horse cultivation is available. Those who operate 
large gardens may prefer to plant sweet corn and 
viné crops in widely spaced hills rather than as in- 
dicated in columns 3 and 6 of the table. The hills 
within the rows may be almost if not quite as wide 
apart as the rows. The seeds should be sown thickly 
enough to provide a final stand of several plants in 
each hill, 
Succession planting, intercropping and companion- 
cropping are advocated as means whereby gardens of 
limited size may serve the purpose of larger gardens. 
Successive plantings of short-period crops such as 
garden beans, carrots and beets provide a continuous 
Stpuly of crisp tender produce from early summer 
until fall. Summer sown beets or carrots may be 
grown in the same row which yielded early spinach. 
Cabbage plants may be set in the row from which 
the early planing of peas has been removed. Green 
pod beans may succeed the early plantings of beets. 

terplanted early in the season with lettuce, ra 
with moist soil about the depth indicated in Colum ye 
deeper in sandy soil. 

.planted immediately. FORMACIDE c 




































































The vine epaee petween rows of ee alees may be i a . 
Companion crops of pole beans 
or early beans. - 
use corn plants for support.. : 
- Beginning gardeners often sow -yegetable seed C 
deep and too thick. Seed should be sown deep enough 
to rest in moist soil and should be covered fir : 
of the table; poetely. shallow in heavy. soil, slightly — 
Seeds should not be wasted although ample see 
should be used to.insure a good stand. If thin 
should be necessary, Column 6 of the table may 8 
as a guide. j 
Thinning of beets, carrots, lettuce, spinach and — 
the like, should be successive after the first opera: 
tion which eliminates excessive crowding. Successi 
thinnings may be removed for immediate use u 
the plants stand about as indicated in Column 62 0! 
the table for full development. 
Column 7 is merely suggestive. The number — 
days required from seeding to table condition may 
vary according to temperature, sunlight, soil and 
moisture conditions. Furthermore, a short period va- 
riety, such as- Burgess’ Earliest and Best Tomato 
quires much less time to reach table condition than 
a long-period variety such as Ponderosa. - 
/ DIRECTIONS FOR TRANSPLANTING 
VEGETABLES 
“Damping-Off,” a destructive disease of seedlin 
started indoors, may be avoided. (1) Use sandy s 
in the seed-boxes to provide drainage. (2) Treat the 
soil with Formacide (see page 78). (3) Use Burgess’ 
‘Disease Treated” seeds. (4) Place the seed-box in 
(Continued on next page) 
SLUG SHOT DUST 




——SSS Destroys 
ve pouwes one oouan sr | ONL DOLLAR SIZE ae 
HAMMOND’S - : 
SLUG SHOT Kills Cucumber, Melon 
Se EU ENA AEC Squash Bugs, Bean 
Green ‘Flies, Slugs and al f 
ing insects, and controls | 
gus. Harmless to plants, flow- 
ers and vegetables, but deadly 
to leaf-eating insects and 
gus. Easy to use—simply — 
it>onwe! 1b. can; does 
can, $1.35, postpaid. B 
press, not prepaid, 1 lb., 25 
Ibs., $1.00; 25 lbs., $4.75. 



ee 
HOMMOND Paint & (HEMI(R) fo 
WIAION NY Usa 
So mites 1s 
Grape and Roce Du 
medias 4 
Prevents Mildew and B 
Spot. Successful Rose gro 
BEL EIGHT —s Ponnne ST ot] 
-HAMMONDS 
everywhere use this non-poi 
ous fungicide. Safe to ‘use: 
will not harm any p- } 
human. Hasy to use—_ 
simply dust it on. Green + 
color — not unsightly. 
45c; 5 Ibs., $1.60, postpai 
express, not prepaid, 1 Ib. 
5, Ibs., $1.25; 25 lbs., $6 
_ 100 De bea 00. 
ROSE DUST 
CONTROLS FUNGUS DISEASES 
Scab; Mold, Black wie 
Stop Damping- Off. Unprotected tende 
are helpless before this deadly fungus dis e 
planter of vegetables and _ flower see 
FORMACIDE to’ prevent-seeds decayin 
and to prevent seeding plants from dy 
By applying FORMACIDE to the soil and 
gess’ Disease Treated. Seeds, your seedling: 
are, at a very small expense, doubly prot 
the most serious plant disease problem. 
horticulturists. FORMACIDE also disinfects 
sufficiently to kill other fungus diseases w 
cause scab, mold, black leg, etc. It~ 
plant growth, gives stronger plants, 
productivity. Soil treated with FOR 
with fertilizer and. drilled directly — 
the rate of 1 Ib. to a 450-foot ro 
PRICES: % Ib., 55c¢; 1 JIb., 95 
postpaid. By express, not prepaid, ¥, 
85035 Ibs. ., $2.50. i 
