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add sand and leaf-mould to the compost, the hills

made at least three feet square, and slightly raised. This method is

also of use in planting the other vine crops.

 

Melon, water:—In the warm Southern States watermelons may be

grown cheaply, and they are so readily shipped that in the small home

gardens it will not pay to grow them, for they take up more space than

any other vegetable, with the exception of winter squash. The one

advantage of growing them, where there is room, is that better quality

than that usually to be bought may be obtained. Give them the hottest

spot in the garden and a sandy quick soil. Use a variety recommended

for your particular climate. Give the same culture as for musk melon,

except that the hill should be at least six to ten feet apart each way.

By planting near the edge of the garden, and pinching back the vines,

room may be saved and the ripening up of the crop made more certain.

 

Okra:—Although the okra makes a very strong plant—and

incidentally is one of the most ornamental of all garden vegetables—

the seed is quickly rotted by wet or cold. Sow not earlier than May

25th, in warm soil, planting thinly in drills, about one and a half

inches deep, and thinning to a foot or so; cultivate as with corn in

drills. All pods not used for soup or stems during summer may be dried

and used in winter.

 

Peas:—With care in making successive sowings, peas may be had

during a long season. The earliest, smooth varieties are planted in

drills twelve to eighteen inches apart, early in April. These are,

however, of very inferior quality compared to the wrinkled sorts, which

may now be had practically as early as the others. With the market

gardener, the difference of a few days in the maturing of the crop is

of a great deal more importance than the quality, but for the home

garden the opposite is true.

 

Another method of planting the dwarf-growing kinds is to make beds of

four rows, six to eight inches apart, with a two-foot alley between

beds. The tall-growing sorts must be supported by brush or in other

ways; and are put about four feet apart in double rows, six inches

apart. The early varieties if sown in August will usually mature a good

fall crop. The early plantings should be made in light, dry soil and

but one inch deep; the later ones in deep loam. In neither case should

the ground be made too rich, especially in nitrogen; and it should not

be wet when the seed is planted.

 

Pepper:—A dozen pepper plants will give abundance of pods for

the average family. The varieties have been greatly improved within

recent years in the quality of mildness.

 

The culture recommended for eggplant is applicable also to the pepper.

The main difference is that, although the pepper is very tender when

young, the crop maturing in the autumn will not be injured by

considerable frost.

 

Pumpkin:—The “sugar” or “pie” varieties of the pumpkin are the

only ones used in garden culture, and these only where there is plenty

of ground for all other purposes. The culture is the same as that for

late squashes, which follows.

 

Squash:—For the earliest squash the bush varieties of Scallop

are used; to be followed by the summer Crookneck and other summer

varieties, best among which are the Fordhook and Delicata. For all,

hills should be prepared as described at the beginning of this section

and in addition it is well to mix with manure a shovelful of coal

ashes, used to keep away the borer, to the attack of which the squash

is particularly liable. The cultivation is the same as that used for

melons or cucumbers, except that the hills for the winter sorts must be

at least eight feet apart and they are often put twelve.

 

Tomato:—For the earliest crop, tomatoes are started about March

1st. They should be twice transplanted, and for best results the second

transplanting should be put into pots—or into the frames, setting six

to eight inches each way. They are not set out until danger of frost is

over, and the ground should not be too rich; old manure used in the

hill, with a dressing of nitrate at setting out, or a few days after,

will give them a good start. According to variety, they are set three

to five feet apart—four feet, where staking or trellising is given, as

it should always be in garden culture, will be as much as the largest-growing plants require. It will pay well, both for quality and quantity

of fruit, to keep most of the suckers cut or rubbed off. The ripening

of a few fruits may be hastened by tying paper bags over the bunches,

or by picking and ripening on a board in the hot sun. For ripening

fruit after frost see Chapter XIV.

 

A sharp watch should be kept for the large green tomato-worm, which is

almost exactly the color of the foliage. His presence may first be

noticed by fruit and leaves eaten. Hand-picking is the best remedy.

Protection must be made against the cutworm in localities where he

works.

 

All the above, of course, will be considered in connection with the

tabulated information as to dates, depths and distances for sowing,

quantities, etc., given in the table in Chapter IV, and is supplemented

by the information about insects, diseases and harvesting given in

Chapters XIII and XIV, and especially in the Chapter on Varieties which

follows, and which is given separately from the present chapter in

order that the reader may the more readily make out a list, when

planning his garden or making up his order sheet for the seedsman.

CHAPTER XII

BEST VARIETIES OF THE GARDEN VEGETABLES

 

It is my purpose in this chapter to assist the gardener of limited

experience to select varieties sure to give satisfaction.

 

To the man or woman planning a garden for the first time there is no

one thing more confusing than the selection of the best varieties. This

in spite of the fact that catalogues should be, and might be, a great

help instead of almost an actual hindrance.

 

I suppose that seedsmen consider extravagance in catalogues, both in

material and language, necessary, or they would not go to the limit in

expense for printing and mailing, as they do. But from the point of

view of the gardener, and especially of the beginner, it is to be

regretted that we cannot have the plain unvarnished truth about

varieties, for surely the good ones are good enough to use up all the

legitimate adjectives upon which seedsmen would care to pay postage.

But such is not the case. Every season sees the introduction of

literally hundreds of new varieties—or, as is more often the case, old

varieties under new names—which have actually no excuse for being

unloaded upon the public except that they will give a larger profit to

the seller. Of course, in a way, it is the fault of the public for

paying the fancy prices asked—that is, that part of the public which

does not know. Commercial planters and experienced gardeners stick to

well known sorts. New varieties are tried, if at all, by the packet

only—and then “on suspicion.”

 

In practically every instance the varieties mentioned have been grown

by the author, but his recommendations are by no means based upon

personal experience alone. Wherever introductions of recent years have

proved to be actual improvements upon older varieties, they are given

in preference to the old, which are, of course, naturally much better

known.

 

It is impossible for any person to pick out this, that or the other

variety of a vegetable and label it unconditionally “the best.” But the

person who wants to save time in making out his seed list can depend

upon the following to have been widely tested, and to have “made good.”

 

Asparagus:—While there are enthusiastic claims put forth for

several of the different varieties of asparagus, as far as I have seen

any authentic record of tests (Bulletin 173, N. J. Agr. Exp. Station),

the prize goes to Palmetto, which gave twenty-eight per cent. more than

its nearest rival, Donald’s Elmira. Big yield alone is frequently no

recommendation of a vegetable to the home gardener, but in this

instance it does make a big difference; first, because Palmetto is

equal to any other asparagus in quality, and second, because the

asparagus bed is producing only a few weeks during the gardening

season, and where ground is limited, as in most home gardens, it is

important to cut this waste space down as much as possible. This is for

beds kept in good shape and highly fed. Barr’s Mammoth will probably

prove more satisfactory if the bed is apt to be more or less neglected,

for the reason that under such circumstances it will make thicker

stalks than the Palmetto.

 

Beans (dwarf):—Of the dwarf beans there are three general

types: the early round-podded “string” beans, the stringless round-pods, and the usually more flattish “wax” beans. For first early, the

old reliable Extra Early Red Valentine remains as good as any sort I

have ever tried. In good strains of this variety the pods have very

slight strings, and they are very fleshy. It makes only a small bush

and is fairly productive and of good quality. The care-taking planter,

however, will put in only enough of these first early beans to last a

week or ten days, as the later sorts are more prolific and of better

quality. Burpee’s Stringless Greenpod is a good second early. It is

larger, finer, stringless even when mature, and of exceptionally

handsome appearance. Improved Refugee is the most prolific of the

green-pods, and the best of them for quality, but with slight strings.

Of the “wax” type, Brittle Wax is the earliest, and also a tremendous

yielder. The long-time favorite, Rust-proof Golden Wax, is another fine

sort, and an especially strong healthy grower. The top-notch in quality

among all bush beans is reached, perhaps, in Burpee’s White Wax—the

white referring not to the pods, which are of a light yellow, and flat

—but to the beans, which are pure white in all stages of growth. It has

one unusual and extremely valuable quality—the pods remain tender

longer than those of any other sort.

 

Of the dwarf limas there is a new variety which is destined, I think,

to become the leader of the half-dozen other good sorts to be had. That

is the Burpee Improved. The name is rather misleading, as it is not an

improved strain of the Dreer’s or Kumerle bush lima, but a mutation,

now thoroughly fixed. The bushes are stronger-growing and much larger

than those of the older types, reaching a height of nearly three feet,

standing strongly erect; both pods and beans are much larger, and it is

a week earlier. Henderson’s new Early Giant I have not yet tried, but

from the description I should say it is the same type as the above. Of

the pole limas, the new Giant-podded is the hardiest—an important

point in limas, which are a little delicate in constitution anyway,

especially in the seedling stage—and the biggest yielder of any I have

grown and just as good in quality—and there is no vegetable much

better than well cooked limas. With me, also, it has proved as early as

that old standard, Early Leviathan, but this may have been a chance

occurrence. Ford’s Mammoth is another excellent pole lima of large

size. Of the other pole beans, the two that are still my favorites are

Kentucky Wonder, or Old Homestead, and Golden Cluster. The

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