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MARKET GARDENING
AND
FARM NOTES
Experiences and Observations
IN THE GARDEN AND FIELD, OF INTEREST TO THE
AMATEUR GARDENER, TRUCKER
AND FARMER
ee
BURNET LANDRETH
Chief Bureau of Agriculture Centennial Inter-National Exhibition,
Officier du Merite Agricole de France.
face X
NEW YORK
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
1893
i>
COPYRIGHT, 1892,
By ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page.
ST tuples tn rcAT OL TIA Oe eran Soe ye, «Mer eeinicm Aseria aK Sroka ee asi 1
CHAPTER IL
Mocation and Soils...) 22s... . asec 20s ence 8 sates Cee Re 17
CHAPTER III. .
Me Science Of Gardening .....-.. c/o nee ewe see ce ee se otiees 22
CHAPTER IV.
Chemistry of the Garden... 2... ...00022 502 000eees5e sense 30
CHAPTER V.
Stable Manure, Compost and Commercial Fertilizers ...... 30
CHAPTER VI.
RS NRNTAON SOE ster a 2 ants «dake o's a,cicve's ele Sere acne Seiamisiv's ssi0 Ba. 41
CHAPTER VIL.
Germination ........ Bias cc reteltia spepaises aieale sees arse eae eas 44
CHAPTER VIIL
Pilar AMa SONATE OTN Fey cc Esc). chasayaPasane raiefell Rich aia Sec apeaists «=k seu 61
CHAPTER IX.
Succession, or the Rotation of Crops................-..... 64
sf CHAPTER X.
AG TTAETUMUTISCC DS oc, rete «eye chavarste sees craieie ims) pst Rice sishe aloie“aja-svs esate, 0 57
CHAPTER XI.
65
Diseases of Garden Vegetable...... ........20ceeseeeeeees
IV MARKET GARDENING.
CHAPTER XII.
Heredity in’ Plamtseescccico scien ici es tetete aio tate tape ere Ieee 69
CHAPTER XIII
Savin SCC... ai--Se-cioie « oats epee sie eeie ole sre ete ee 73
CHAPTER XIV.
Seedsmen’s Novelties and Responsibilities................. 78
CHAPTER XV.
WiOdS oa.ceins sek tice athe Soa Ameen Oe ne Rea 82
CHAPTER XVI.
Hothedsiand Cold Bramesi.a5-ris eee eee Oe ee eee 84.
CHAPTER XVITI.
Market Gardening Under Glass<3 27.5. -mie- ms ria 94
CHAPTER XVII.
(Chl eA eenOe sore Guomaae Tac soaeces SbaoscoSesqa00c: - 113
CHAPTER XIX
Onion Culttarese: 22 oondeke So Whe sept ee se as Sea ee Sie Ce 125
CHAPTER XX
Mushroom: Culture...s2.0% cose eens eee See eee eee ee 135
CHAPTER XXI.
Roots for Stock: Weeding... =... 456- 44 see eee eee ee eee 140
CHAPTER XXII.
Packing and Shipping Veretables: > seo .0 = ee esere- eee 164
CHAPTER XXIII.
Implements for the Farm and Garden. ............... Dect ol GS)
CHAPTER XXIV.
WASHalf-Nere' Garden. 2026.2. & cocks casei oc wienie ne ne eee 182
CHAPTER XXV.
Calendar Indicating Operations for the Northern and
SouthernuStates: oo... sh ices «her - see ten Seen ee Oe 185
CHAPTER XXVI.
MARKET GARDENING.
CHAPTER I.
MARKET GARDENING.
Though this volume is written for the amateur,
or family gardener, indeed, to be more precise, for the
novice in gardening, it may, however, fall into the hands of
more experienced persons, inclined to make a venture in
gardening for profit, and, accordingly, it may not be
out of place to make some remarks upon subjects con-
nected with growing vegetables for sale. The last
United States Census Bureau has issued a bulletin on
Truck Farming, from which the writer makes the fol-
lowing extracts. Upward of $100,000,000 is invested
in this industry, the annual products reaching a value of
$75,000,000, the product of 534,440 acres of land.
The annual expenditures for fertilizers being................... $10,000,000
The cost of seeds used amounting to...............--..2..eee ees $1,420,633
The number.of men employed being. ...................0 eee eeee 216,7€5
The number of women employed being.................-...0000e 9,254
The number of children employed being ......................-% 14,874
The number of horses and mules employed being.............. 75,800
The value of the implements used being ......................-- $8,971,000
For convenience of tabulation the States are divided
into districts. The following is a summary of the num-
ber of acres under cultivation for truck farming pur-
iL
ate
2 MARKET GARDENING.
poses, and the value of products raised, given by dis-
tricts, is as follows:
AA ‘ Value of
Districts. Acres. produets.
ING wabnclandstaa.cceee nee eer eee ne 6,838 $3,184,218
TDMA ONE Gooanaanoges no oscodososoonSenc 108,135 21,102,521
Penn SOILATN.: gacteaactier- cee eiatasctrieeee 25,714 2,413,648
IMO ION oreo ge coggonoceo dsococke oe Dececoossoos 45,375 4,692,859
BaliimOnre seri aee eae ser eect ecere 37,181 3,784,696
SOU ANTE WNTOS 60 sogndocoogcuescoDeKecH2009 111,441 13,183,516
WUSSISSUD Ue Vice Vareeteteleer leita tier ite 36,180 4,982,579
Southiweshecsectee eee eee eee eer cre 36,889 4,979,783
Cham loc oo spac dona socDSnbo ues DadoCSoOONGNS é 107,414 15,432,223
INOLUIDW ES Tie «ocieiciee cicieleloywrstctelereneretelenreTersesxereteletols 1,083 204,791
NOMPMIZIN Ss nccmescocasovadacaseo0g7e0G0000000 3,833 531,976
IPACIIC I COaStee ete cei lereeec ieee 14,357 2,024,345
534,440 $76,517,155
In the Philadelphia district, which includes Penn-
sylyania, New Jersey and New York, there are employed
69,000 men at an average cost for daily wages of $1.19;
the annual production being of the value of $21,000,000.
The next district of importance, extending over
the State of Ohio as far as Wisconsin, is known as the
Central, wherein are employed 34,000 men, at an aver-
age wages cost of $1.16 per day, and producing an an-
nual valuation of $15,500,000.
The South Atlantic district is the third in import-
ance, having an output of $13,000,000 and employing
31,000 men, women and children at an average daily
wages of eighty-five cents.
Asan example of the market gardening output at
Norfolk, Va., it may be interesting to note the extent of
some of the shipments made from that city in one year.
(CHI OI OR VERD con cenopora ps oe gona oc So cUae CsoRbae 347,000 barrels.
IA eBotoanonodocosepdoossucsennc- olen Sond hades 178,000 ¥
QODTONS eee ie aioe steeie elel relateterstetcietaters 4,800 Ks
live GIVES Bonccup sone eons neccdan sce coco UDoOtodG 4,200 us
IS Hep OLAVO CSlra ac) sstencereaselere eters eetses 325,000 &
Sweet potatoes...............0...s0ceeeeeese 255,000 cs
ShOnneNG Ny Goshmepenbab ano se bccbcUaSCoKStosooce 123,000 cc
MBCA Sie clei c ese sictereye sial Sasser: Stes ecaaroceeteleneT vrs 80,000 boxes.
CUCUMDEES ec icec i cere oils mia delocaatertaicleleietarele ease 46,000 OC
A Yorritehs Se Beaenone~ gga nobpot dd Adadoubocancodot 350,000 ae
MARKET GARDENING. 3
In addition to the above there were shipped from
the same city almost 1,000,000 watermelons. And yet
it was considered a poor year.
From the city of Mobile, im the next year, the
shipments. were :
Crates: of cabbage........ boo coo acodn douse bosooRgaEoso 58,309
15topcrs O) ML DYer Cee ro cacnoest ceca ndeceoCUUNsO GCC EEL OCG 46,178
ISOPKOS OM [UST Sosocdccon occrosdeoeoscoca ognoouceaséooEns co aleparts?
BOXES OF TOMATOES! 0... 6 ee ees cteece cle eve ene cee cneccene 2,695
BanvelsiO£ POUALOES:. ..-.. 2. cieieic ctcisecicceie cows scien oeinenees 78,924
Other market garden products...................+.- $458,000
The Philadelphia district, the Central district, and
the South Atlantic district are only three of twelve dis-
tricts as laid out by the Census Bureau, that of Califor-
nia giving an annual production of over $4,000,000, and
yet there is room for the productions of all, amounting
to $76,000,000, and no doubt in a few years that sum
will be doubled, for everything soon doubles in this land
of phenomenal progress.
The unprecedented development in the Carolinas
and Gulf States of the business of growing vegetables
for autumn and winter shipment to the cities of the
North, to be from those active centers more widely dis-
tributed among the densely populated districts of the
Middle, Western and New England States, has been one
of the surprises in modern agriculture.
Formerly eseulent vegetables could be divided into
classes, and a. period named covering the time of sale of
each class—as, for example, peas were only offered dur-
ing May, June and July, and so with cucumbers, toma-
toes, egg plants and beans, they all had their seasons,
and, when they were past, only those people who had
greenhouses could expect more until the return of the
corresponding season: the following year, but now that is
a condition of the past, for Georgia and Florida, with
their evergreen productiveness, have been able to revolu-
tionize the old conditions, by sending to the northern
4 MARKET GARDENING.
cities, even when snow clad and ice bound, the fruits of
balmy summer.
From such a perennial field there are now offered,
at all times, vegetables which at first surprised the ob-
servers and were only used by epicures, but which now
have become a necessity, not only on the table of the
rich and well-to-do, but of every hotel and restaurant.
Thus; thanks especially to Florida, the general pub-
lic of the whole country have luxuries at their command
which their ancestors never even hoped to obtain, and
the now familiar products of Florida have brought that
State more prominently to the notice of the Northern
people than has the wheat and corn of any Western
State made its name known, for grain products do not
carry with them their own identifications as do cucum-
bers in March, egg plants in December and January,
tomatoes from January to March, cauliflower in March
and April.
The value of the output of winter vegetables from
Georgia and Florida, and the value of the quantity con-
sumed by the winter guests of the hotels, tips the scale
at a valuation of several millions of dollars, a large sum
considering that the cultivation is yet in its infancy, for
the production of vegetables, in Florida especially, is
certain to develop to an immense degree, as no competi-
tion can come from a more southern district. The
profits of the Norfolk truckers were cut by the Charles-
ton and Savannah market gardeners, and they, in turn,
by the Florida cultivators, but the Gulf is south of
Florida,’so competition stops, or becomes merely inter-
state, there being no neighbors southwardly to compete
with earlier productions.
Market gardening may be termed commercial gar-
dening, as the operator must, to a certain extent, be a
merchant, fully alive to the import of fluctuating prices,
and quick to change his point of shipment or his
consignee.
MARKET GARDENING. 5
The market gardener, filling a multiform position
as a cultivator of the soil to an intense degree, as a care-
ful packer of products in such a manner as to make his
goods attractive-and saleable, as a shipper and a close
reader of market intelligence, must have the best agri-
cultural appliances and commercial aids, none of which
can be procured without money, consequently the sub-
ject of capital is one of considerable importance.
Capital.—The capital of a market gardener should
be estimated by his available cash, compared with the
number of his acres, and, as, in other things, opinions
vary, so do the estimates of practical gardeners, some
being satisfied to live on inexpensive land far removed
from market, and use what others would term an incom-
plete line of implements, and be satisfied with what
nature develops in the ordinary routine of their busi-
ness, while others, more progressive, locate in the out-
skirts of great cities, consequently upon high-priced
land, and have everything new in the way of Jabor-saving
appliances.
The first class of gardeners may be termed experi-
mental farmers, men tired of the humdrum rotation of
farm processes and small profits, men looking for a pay-
ing diversification of their agricultural interests. Their
expenses for appliances are not great, as they have
already on hand the usual stock of farm tools, requiring
only one or two seed drills, a small addition to their cul-
tivating implements, and a few tons of fertilizers.
Their laborers and teams are always on hand for the
working of moderate areas. In addition to their usual
expenses of the farm, they would not need to have
a cash capital of beyond twenty to twenty-five dollars
per acre for the area in truck. Other men, in ordinary
farming districts, purchasing or renting land, especially
for market gardening, taking only improved land of
suitable aspect, soil and situation, and counting in cost
6 MARKET GARDENING.
of building, appliances and labor, would require a cash
capital of eighty to one hundred dollars per acre. For
example, a beginner in market gardening in South Jersey,
on a five-acre patch, would need five hundred dollars to
set up the business and run it until his shipments began
to return him money. With the purpose of securing
information on this interesting poit, the writer asked
for estimates from market gardeners in different locali-
ties, and the result has been that from Florida the reports
of the necessary capital per acre in land or its rental (not
of labor), fertilizers, tools, implements, seed and all the
appliances, average ninety-five dollars, from Texas forty- -
five, from Illinois seventy dollars; from the Norfolk dis-
trict of Virginia the reports vary from seventy-five to
one hundred and twenty-five dollars, according to loca-
tion, and from Long Island, New York, the average of
estimates at the east end are seventy-five, and, at the west
end, one hundred and fifty dollars.
Market gardeners, living ten miles out of Philadel-
phia, on tracts of twenty and thirty acres, devoting all
their land and energies to growing vegetables, sometimes
paying forty dollars per acre for rent, estimate that the
necessary capital averages from two hundred to three
hundred dollars per acre, according to the amount of
truck grown.in hotbeds. These same men calculate the
profits to be from one hundred and fifty dollars to two
hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
Very different is the case on the immediate outskirts
of Philadelphia, and other large cities, with the five and
ten acre gardeners, employing several men to the acre,
sometimes a larger force, where high rents, high wages,
intense manuring and expensive forcing-houses combine
to swell the expenses to an astonishing degree, often over
six or seven hundred dollars per acre being absorbed the
first year, and without which ready capital at command
the suburban cultivator would be driven to the wall
MARKET GARDENING. re
before the close of the first season, as he works under heavy
uxpenses, and he must have ready cash to meet them, es-
pecially if the first season be an unprofitable one. Of
course, the six or seven hundred dollars per acre which
may be expended the first year by a gardener haying forc-
ing houses, with all the entailed expenses, need not be
repeated the second, not more than one-half of it, and,
indeed, it is absolutely necessary to reduce expenses, as
the profit in trucking would not warrant such an annual
cash outlay; but what would be thought of an annual
rental of six hundred dollars per acre, which is the rate
eharged for a market garden which the writer visited in
the outskirts of Paris, France.
Location.—Alluvial soils with gravel subsoil are
best for garden vegetables, but one finds many excep-
tions, as nearly pure clays, on the one hand, and white,
apparently inert, sands, on the other, have been made to
yield a satisfactory return for labor and time put upon
them. Of course, a light soil means early crops, and a
clay soil later ones. It may be said that in the South
early crops always pay the best, but in the North late
crops are often the most profitable, as they come in after
the market has ceased to be glutted. Location is of the
utmost importance, as, evidently, it would be idle to
expect success where the means of regular and prompt
shipment to market are not within reach, hence location
may be looked upon as an indispensable preliminary.
But it is not all, for the nature of the soil is an even
more important. one, as without. a soil, productive nat-
urally, or with artificial stimulation, it matters little
what the transportation facilities may he.
Transportation.—From many comment Hone
which the writer has received, he gathers that the in-
quirers imagine, because they are on a railroad a few
hours or a hundred miles or so from a shipping point,
that they are well placed for market gardening. This
8 MARKET GARDENING.
is a grave mistake. ‘True the railroad car or the steamer
which is to receive articles so perishable as fruit and
garden vegetables for transportation, should be near at
hand, as hauling over rough country roads should be
avoided as much as possible, and transshipment from
cars to boat, or vice-versa, is to be dreaded, as every dis-
turbance is promotive of decay, and attended by expense
in some shape or other, as well as lable to cause delay.
The writer would impress upon all not to embark in the
business of market gardening and small fruit growing,
however much they may be tempted by ready transpor-
tation, unless they are, themselves, favorably located for
such pursuits; for a good location means not only trans-
portation, but condition of soil, and availability of labor.
There are other crops besides garden vegetables and
fruit which will, in many locations, pay more certainly,
and, as a necessary result, more fully, in the end—just
as the moderate man, who is content with six per cent.
well secured on land, fares better, finally, than he who
grasps at two and one-half per cent. a month on
doubtful paper.
Where transportation, climate, soil, ability to com-
mand labor and manure, unite to point out any special
spot as well adapted to the object, the next point of
inquiry is, which crops are the best to grow? This is,
also, an all-important subject to be considered, inasmuch
as the facility for shipment may be all that is desirable,
but the distance from market too great to afford hope
for the successful transportation of the more perishable
class of products. Within fifty to sixty hours of market
by rail or boat, delicate fruits and comparatively perish-
able culinary vegetables may be moved successfully, but
beyond that distance danger of decay increases, and the
business assumes too much the complexion of a lottery,
where the blanks far out-number the prizes. A ship-
ment, eighty hours on its travels, may occasionally reach
MARKET GARDENING. 9
its destination and pay largely, but the loss on other
shipments which may arrive at destination heated and
decayed will more than absorb previous profits.
Much, however, depends on the season, as, for ex-
ample, a shipment from Florida to the North during
the winter months will, if not frozen in transit, carry
twice as long as in spring or autumn, and three times as
long asin summer. Hence it will be seen that not only
must there exist certain conditions as respects facility
for shipment, but the adoption of the locality, with ref-
erence to distance from market, must be carefully con-
sidered, before deciding as to the crops to be grown.
With such a location as Burlington county, New Jer-
sey, where the writer has a farm, and where have congre-
gated so vast a number of ‘‘truckers,” as they are pop-
ularly called, and small fruit growers, attracted by the
light kindly soils, admitting of tillage early in the
spring, and the markets of New York and Philadelphia
in close proximity, where gathering of perishable vege-
tables and picking of fruit may be pursued till sunset,
and the next morning find them in market, everything
which the climate admits may be successfully produced.
Still further south, as in the vicinity of Norfolk, Wil-
mington and Savannah, other cultivators are pursuing
_ market gardening on a larger scale, and, although the
transportation is more expensive and of longer duration,
these points are still within easy reach of market, while
the earlier season in which crops are produced is a
compensation for increased expenses. It may not be
fully realized by all persons into whose hands this work
may fall, that the time or season in which a vegetable
delicacy or choice fruit is placed in market has an
important influence on the price. In our large commer-
cial and manufacturing cities where wealth has concen-
trated, and where abound families who live regardless
of expenditures, fabulous prices are freely paid for vege-
tables and fruits to please the palate or adorn the table.
10 MARKET GARDENING.
Products.—At Norfolk are grown extra early peas
in great quantity, string or snap short beans, early cu-
cumbers, tomatoes, kale, cabbage, spinach, early squash
and early potatoes, and other articles of minor import-
ance. Berry culture is also pursued there, and large
quantities of strawberries reach the Northern markets
from that quarter, and several weeks before those grown
near Philadelphia are ripe. Melons also find there a
congenial soil along rivers and water-courses, and where
ready means of transportation admit of carriage of bulky
articles at reasonable rates. To illustrate the extent to
which trucking at Norfolk is pursued may be cited the
spinach crop grown there, which annually takes one
hundred thousand pounds of seed to sow the Jand.
Still further south, from the ports of Charleston
and Savannah, come to us in advance of those of Nor-
folk, peas, beans, asparagus, cucumbers, cabbage, pota-
toes and berries.
But is it necessary to profitable gardening that
there should be great variety? On this subject
there are two distinct views, one set of men directing
their energies to the production of a limited variety,
aiming to grow and ship those well. Such a system
affords a longer time for planting and culture, the mind
not being harassed by the conflicting claims of many .
crops, the few which grow being harvested, affording
an opportunity to plan for the future and rest from the
labors of the past. A second set of cultivators planting
more or less of everything, at every season, always plant-
ing, seeding, marketing, a never-ceasing round of labor
and anxiety. ‘This system, however, seems to be one
which, by its very diversification, offers the best hope of
profit, as the cultivator does not carry all his eggs in
one basket, nor in several, but in many.
With the seven millions of people of Philadelphia,
New York, Boston, St. Louis and Chicago, and the many
MARKET GARDENING. ipl
millions more in other cities and towns which look to
these great distributing markets for supplies, there is,
at seasonable seasons, little fear of gorging the markets
of the country if the fruit and vegetables be well chosen
and well packed. The reader will observe the cautious
use of the expression seasonable season, as, of course, no
Southern grower of tomatoes, cucumbers, egg plant or
other garden products would expect to find a market for
his goods in Northern cities when those markets were
in receipt of the same class of garden truck from terri-
tory adjacent, the products of which would be fresher
and cheaper than those from distant points. The ship-
per of fruits and vegetables from the South, attempting
to cope with the garden States of New Jersey and Dela-
ware, when their products are being sent to market,
would only have his trouble for his pay
It will be perceived, from the reference to the great
distributing markets, that they must be reached by sev-
eral channels or lines of transportation. In the Hast
along the seaboard by steamer or coast railway lines from
points as far south as Key West, inland up to St. Louis,
Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Cincinnati,
Cleveland, by the various railways of the Mississippi Val-
ley, from gardening sections of Louisiana, Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, Tennessee, further west still on north and south
lines from Texas and Arkansas. In continuation of the
remarks on the limited or comprehensive systems of
cropping, it may be added that there are two extremes.
First:—That of too fine a concentraticn, the
reduction of the varieties to a very few, the carrying of
all of the eggs in one basket, a glutted market of such
fruits and vegetables, sweeping away all hopes of profit,
with no resources in other crops. If the cultivator is at
a distance, requiring over a day or two to reach the
larger markets, then four or five varieties which develop
well should be planted. The nearer the cultivator is to
12 MARKET GARDENING.
market, the greater the range of varieties he can ship
successfully.
Second :—That of too great diversification and the
undertaking to grow too many kinds of vegetables,
requiring widely different conditions of soil and climate,
the land, perhaps, being very favorable to some, and to
others not adapted at all.
If growers in the Southern States would continue to
raise, each year, such varieties as have proved adapted to
their soil and location, and avoid overcropping with such
sorts, which, by accident, paid the largest return the pre-
ceding season, their average yearly return would certainly
be better. To illustrate this more clearly, it may be
well to note a circumstance which occurred during the
spring of 1890. The spring before, Philadelphia received
a limited supply of from one hundred to two hundred
quarts per day of strawberries from Florida, very early,
and very good, and they found ready sale at from sixty
cents to one dollar per quart, the consequence being the
setting out in Florida of a very largely increased acreage
of strawberry plants. Now, what was the result? The
receipts from the same section the spring of 1891
ran from one thousand to two thousand quarts per day,
and they were retailed through the streets by hawkers
at fifteen to eighteen cents per quart, the results of
over-production.
Large quantities of new potatoes reach the markets
of New York and Philadelphia from Bermuda, Charles-
ton, Sayannah, Florida, and, still later, but before North-
ern crops mature, from Virginia and Maryland, and
there is room for more, at paying prices, and they who
present them early, of good sorts and in good condition,
need not apprehend a want of customers.
Florida, however, seems to be destined to be the
market garden of the Atlantic States, as the gardening
year there is one of almost continued sowing and har-
MARKET GARDENING. 13
vesting. So unusual are the conditions that they have
upset all the usual gardening records of the seasons, for
the Florida trucker, working throughout the length of a
peninsula of two hundred miles, is sowing nearly every
kind of seed in every month, and marketing crops out”
of their usual seasons. For instance, egg plant is sown
in August, onion seed in October, tomato seed in Novem-
ber, and so on. The ordinary routine of sowing has been
disturbed, and yet everything appears to grow in profu-
sion and to perfection.
Fertilizers.—The subject of fertilizers is one which
looms up boldly and expensively when considering the
culture of garden products, especially those designed for
early maturity. ‘The writer is asked every day what
kind of manure is best for this or that crop. Is guano
good? Do you use superphosphate? He can only
answer in general terms. Yes, they are all good, if made
by reliable parties ; but which is most valuable in respect
to cost and effects produced will depend, im no small
degree, on each particular surrounding. In localities
where horses and cattle abound, stable manures will usu-
ally be attainable at moderate prices; especially will this
be the case where gardening is not pursued to a large
extent, and the sale of manure is mainly to ordinary far-
mers, who are not accustomed to paying high prices.
On the other hand, around Philadelphia, for
instance, the charge for the article in question is fear-
fully exorbitant, the price it generally commands at
that city is seventy cents per small cartload, delivered
on board boat or car. Hight sach loads cai readily be
drawn by two good horses, as has frequently been done
at Bloomsdale. Under such conditions of expense, the
gardener must resort to all the fertilizers within reach,
hoping to find something less expensive, but all are gen-
erally quite costly.
To give an idea of the expenditure for manure when
intense effects are to be produced, the writer will add
14 MARKET GARDENING.
that one year the order for Bloomsdale and Reedland
Farms, six hundred and fifty acres, reached the sum of
twenty thousand dollars. When stable manure cannot
be had, as in a sparsely settled country, wood ashes may
play an important part, and, if artificial fertilizers need
to be bought, superphosphate and Peruvian guano will
come in as useful adjuncts to home manure, compost
and green crops, plowed under. Baugh’s superphosphate
is in good repute in Philadelphia, and we feel warranted
to say, from our own experience, that it is reliable. In
short, all organic matter, and nearly every substance
that decomposes, is able, if rightly applied, to stimulate
vegetable growth. But let it be observed, for on this
fact much depends, the product, in respect to earliness,
is influenced in proportion to the quality and quantity of
manure applied. The truck gardeners of Philadelphia
understand this well, and -place in market, by the aid of
excessive application of excrementitious matter, cabbage,
lettuce, radish, beets, long before they are fit for use in
private gardens, where such rank manures would not be
countenanced, and, of course, with extra early products,
they reap large profits.
It isa good plan to prepare manure in advance of
the season of demand, by making compost heaps, as they
are called, which can be drawn upon as needed, without
having to look up fertilizers at a busy time, and when
crops may be delayed, awaiting their arrival. The expe-
rienced cultivator understands all this equally well with
the writer, but he is advising the inexperienced, those
who inquire of him the why and the wherefore, and to
such only, be it understood, is he addressing himself.
Another point of important consideration and of
interest to those who design embarking in the business
of gardening, whether for market or private gratifica-
tion, are the implements best adapted for such work.
Implements.—If the operations are designed to
MARKET GARDENING. Misi)
embrace several acres there will be needed a good two-
horse steel plow, costing, say ten dollars, for breaking
up the soil to a proper depth in spring, and whenever
the land is recropped ; a light one-horse steel plow, cost-
ing five dollars, for drawing open furrows, closing them,
earthing up such crops as are benefited by such culture ;
a harrow, best of iron, as it is lighter than wood; an
Iron Age cultivator, with a full set of movable teeth,
price three dollars, for pulverizing the soil between
drilled crops; a clod crusher, or leveler, readily made
of three boards nailed together to form a triangle, to be
drawn from either angle; a seed drill, the Matthews or
the Model, costing six to eight dollars, both being used
on Bloomsdale with satisfaction ; or, still better, a Keeler
seed drill, price $9.00, which will sow continuous rows,
or drop the seed in hills, from ten to thirty-six inches;
a Lees wheel hoe costing five dollars; a full set of hoes
of various sizes and shapes for side scraping and cross
cutting. With these simple implements nearly all the
necessary appliances will be at command ; others, if need-
ful, may be procured at the hardware stores.
Crates.—The boxes and baskets in which garden
products are to be transported to market, are of great
- importance ; for it is self-evident, unless proper precau-
tion be taken, perishable articles may reach their desti-
nation so badly damaged as not to be worth the freight.
For strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, very
light boxes are manufactured by parties who make a
business of it, and sell them at low prices. Some of
these are made at so slight a cost as to be given away to
the purchaser of the fruit; others are expected to be
returned to the commission merchant, who, in turn,
dispatches them to the grower from whom they came.
Others are made with a view to greater ventilation, and
that is of special importance when the point of shipment
is distant from market. Peas, beans, cucumbers, can be
16 MARKET GARDENING.
shipped in ventilated one bushel baskets made for such
purposes.
Potatoes usually reach the Northern markets from
the South packed in second-hand flour barrels, but it is
questionable whether it would not pay to put them up,
especially those barely ripe enough to ship, in half bar-
rel or one bushel pea baskets,so as better to adapt the
quantity to family wants. But few private persons wish
to buy a whole barrel of rare-ripe potatoes, but many
families could consume a bushel before they would grow
stale, which immature ones are liable to do. Thus, with
smaller packages, a direct domestic market could be
formed for vast quantities, and not, as now, have the sale
confined to provision stores and other retail dealers, each
party, through whose hands they pass, adding a profit
until they reach so high a price as to deter purchasers
from buying liberally.
Pea baskets are gotten up of thin stuff, slatted on
all sides, to admit air. ‘There are sometimes rims, or
projections, so as to obviate compact storage of the bas-
kets while in transportation, thus securing a sure circu-
lation of air.
Large quantities of potatoes reached the Northern
market in former years from Ireland, put up in ecylin-
drical wicker-work hampers, and they came in excellent
condition, and it is probable such hampers could be
made in the South very cheaply. Oranges and lemons
from Florida might also reach the North in the same
form, as there are thousands of families who would buy
a small hamper of fruit, who now purchase only a
dozen at a time. It is not simply the interest of the
producer to transport his crop in market, but to do so in
a form that will entice customers, by giving them the
least possible trouble and inconvenience when supplying
their wants. The writer is merely throwing out hints,
practical minds will work out the problems themselves.
MARKET GARDENING. ily
There may be some people with but little experience
in tillage, who imagine the conduct of a farm or garden
is like that of a manufactory, where the amplification
and extension of the business is only limited by the cap-
ital at command; and when they hear of certain large
sums being realized from a small plot of ground, argue
that the same ratio of profit may be extended over an
indefinite area; this is a great mistake, as they are posi-
tively certain to realize, if they undertake to prove their
theory ; and hence we recommend all readers who incline
to start in the enterprise herein discussed, to feel their
way. One season’s experience may enlarge their confi-
dence, or it may teach them without serious loss, that
either they or their locations are unfitted to the business.
Undoubtedly the greater profit will be found in doing a
little well, rather than in imperfect efforts to accom-
plish more than the facilities at hand warrant one to
undertake.
CHAPTER II.
LOCATION AND SOILS.
As arule, the best exposure is a gentle slope to the
south, but in hilly countries such cannot always be
obtained, and good gardens are often seen facing to
every point of the compass. ‘The site, face which way it
may, should preferably be an even plane, be it level or
sloping; that is to say, a table-like surface, without
dish-like hollows, on the one hand, or knolls, on the
other; but even an inability to meet these latter condi-
tions need not deter an active worker, for frequently the |
best gardens are met with in localities anything but cor-
responding to the requirements of theory.
18 MARKET GARDENING.
As sunlight is the great factor, in the growth of
vegetables, too much attention cannot be given to afford-
ing uninterrupted access for every ray of sun to the grow-
ing crops, hence no houses, barns, sheds, fences or trees,
should be allowed to cast shadows at any time upon the
garden surface; and trees, even so located as not to cast
a shadow on the crop, may be robbing them both of
their moisture and fertility by their wide-reaching roots,
which should be cut off by sinking a deep trench between
them and the garden.
Soils.—The soil may be anything but brick clay,
theoretically a light sandy loam is best, but here, again,
astonishing results are often obtained on forbidding
soils; for instance, on sticky red clays and sands, the
latter seemingly no better than those of the seashore.
No soil should be considered entirely bad until it has
been proven so.
So much of success or failure in garden operations
depends upon the natural character of soil, that the
composition of each field of a farm should be closely
observed, if not in the scientific view of geological
formation and chemical composition, then in the more
ordinary view of the mechanical conditions, as respects
texture, weight, porosity, adhesiveness and aeration.
Soils may be divided into three divisions, as respects
their origin : ~
1st. Sedimentary—A soil formed. entirely ont of
the local rocks.
2d. Drift—Soils formed out of divers materials,
irregularly mixed and deposited without stratification.
3d. Alluvial—A soil of flood deposit by water,
the finer particles being on the top.
This soil is the only one, as a rule, of any agricul-
tural value, and it may be said to be derived from
broken, pulverized, decomposed rock brought by water
from many and far distant parts and deposited in layers,
LOCATION AND SOILS. 19
the heavier being at the bottom and the lighter at the
top. An alluvial soil may be divided into four distinct
classes :
ist. Gravelly—So styled from the abundance of
small stones or pebbles of granite, slate, feldspar and
limestone.
2d. Sandy—So styled from its composition of
small grains of rock. Coarse sands are generally unprof-
itable, while finer sands are more fertile.
3d. Loamy—So styled as being between the poros-
ity of sand, and the tenacity of clay.
4th. Clayey—So styled from its fineness of texture
and retentive power of water. A soil drying and crack-
ing under the effects of hot sun.
A soil, to be fertile, must contain a sufficient quan-
tity of the ash ingredients of the plants to be cultivated,
and these must be in such soluble condition as to be
taken up by the growing plants. Soils once fertile are
said to be exhausted when deprived of such food ag is
required for plant nutrition, but rest and meliorating
treatment will, in time, restore such soils to a fertile
condition.
DRAINAGE.
A soil has good drainage when it is of such compo-
sition that the rain filters away without flooding the sur--
face, and when, in time of drouth, the evil effects are
lessened by the ability of the soil particles to absorb
moisture from the air and raise it from the subsoil.
A soil, to be adapted to gardening purposes, must
have fair drainage, either natural or artificial, and it is
the wisest course to select land naturally possessing these
desirable conditions, as the construction of artificial
drains is an expensive operation, often doubling the
original cost of the land.
Good drainage, like tillage, has a vitalizing effect,
admitting of the entry of air and the deposition of its
20 MARKET GARDENING.
oxygen, carbon and nitrogen; it also warms the soils,
while poorly drained land, by the course of evaporation,
becomes cold. By deepening the soil, we make it tillable
soon after rain, early in the spring, and prevent it from
becoming sour, hastening the chemical actions so neces-
sary in promoting the growth of crops.
TILLAGE AND CULTIVATION.
These operations, often spoken of as the same pro-
cess, are distinct operations, tillage being the breaking
and pulverizing of the soil, a preparation of a seed bed,
the work preparatory to the sowing of seed. Cultivation
is that work done after the germination of the seed,
with the view of developing a rapid growth of the plant,
and; incidentally, the suppression of weeds.
Tn tillage, the ground is broken by plow, spade, or
other implement, with a view of dividing the particles
of earth and increasing the internal superfices of the
soil, for the purpose of holding moisture and absorbing
nutritive principles from the air. Tillage is necessary
on land of any character, and the more tillage the better
the results, for delicate roots cannot take up nourish-
ment as well amid a rough, cloddy, undisintegrated soil,
as crops in close contact with a soil well pulverized,
which affords, within a limited area, a greater percent-
age of available air, moisture, organic and inorganic
matter.
Tillage is best performed with a spade, but as this
is a slow, expensive, and exceedingly laborious process,
digging can only be pursued in small gardens. On
tracts of an area of one-eighth of an acre and over, the
plow, in this country, becomes a necessity, .and this
implement has now been lightened and perfected so as to
do the work almost equal to digging itself. Plowing
twice over always pays, three plowings is said to be equal
to one manuring. A garden soil may hold plant
LOCATION AND SOILS. 21
food enough for five crops, but be practically barren if
the fertilizing materials are locked up in impenetrable
clods. In tillage, the plow is followed by the harrow,
the clod crusher and the roller. Frost is one of the best
pulverizers, and it is a well recognized fact that we gen-
erally have poor summer crops succeeding mild winters,
a consequence of a want of frost action on the soil.
Cultivation is the breaking and working of the soil
whilst the crop is growing; the tillage had previously
loosened and divided the particles of soil, but during
that period of time between the cessation of tillage and .
the germination and vegetation of the plant the soil, in
part, reverts to its more natural solidity, and it is then
that cultivation comes in, as an endeavor to retain that
friability so necessary to the extension of the toots and
their ready nutrition ; thus, tillage must always be sup-
plemented by cultivation. To cultivate a crop means
to pursue that course with the soil which hastens the
development of the plants, and incidentally with this
comes in the destruction of weeds, which, allowed to
grow, starve the sown plants by robbing them of nutri-
ment. Labor given to tillage, except preparation for
broadeast crops, will be, to a large extent, wasted, unless
supplemented by such culture of the growing crop as
will preserve the earth in a loose and fresh condition.
Jethro Tull, a well known agricultural writer, many
years ago said, “ Tillage is manure,”
CHAPTER III.
Tur SCIENCE OF GARDENING,
Gardening, as pursued in its higher sense, is both
an art and a science. It has arrived at this estate by
slow gradations, compared with the development of
many other pursuits, but that is consequent upon its
complex nature. The development of a knowledge of
geology, chemistry, meteorology, vegetable physiology
and botany, indeed, something from all branches of
human knowledge, has gone to perfect the science of
agriculture and horticulture ; pursuits affording as wide
a range of research in their ramifications as any subject
engaging the mind of man, and fully as important in
their results. Agriculture, though practiced in early
days without any correct knowledge of cause and effect,
was always held in high esteem. Columella, contempo-
rary with Virgil, wrote, ‘‘The art of husbandry is so
necessary for the support of human life, and the com-
fortable subsistence and happiness of mankind have so
great a dependence upon it, that the wisest men in all
ages have ascribed its origin to God, as the inventor and
ordainer of it, and the wisest of civilized nations, who
have best understood their true interests, have always
endeavored to promote and improve it, and have never
failed to acknowledge and honor, as public benefactors,
all such as have contributed anything towards the same.”
In colonial days our forefathers were almost entirely
dependent upon agriculture. Washington, in his agri-
cultural correspondence with Sir John Sinclair, wrote,
“Tt will not be doubted that, in reference either to indi-
22
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 23
viduals or to national welfare, agriculture is of primary
importance.” Webster, of our own generation, wrote,
“‘ Aosriculture feeds us, to a great extent, clothes us;
without it we could not have manufacturers, and we
should not have commerce. These all stand in a clus-
ter, the largest in the center, and that largest is agri-
culture.” Agriculture is, indeed, the most fruitful
source of the riches of a country, and of the welfare of
its inhabitants, and only as the state of agriculture is
more or less flourishing can we judge of the progress of
a people.
Gardening, which is agriculture upon circumscribed
areas, has ever shared with the latter the esteem of man-
kind. Socrates said, “It is the source of health,
strength, plenty, riches and honest pleasure; and an
eminent English writer said, ‘‘It is amid its scenes and
pursuits that life flows pure, the heart more calmly
beats.”
Agriculture refers to the tillage of the earth over
broad fields, as for the raising of cereals, grass or tubers.
Gardening, on the other hand, refers to the culture of
small inclosed areas. ‘This application of the latter term
was quite correct originally, but it is now common for
mere vegetable gardens to equal the area of ordinary
grain and grass farms, requiring, in their cultivation, a
degree of skill and an amount of activity, implements
and labor, exceeding that expended upon large farms.
Gardening again differs from farming in the range
of varieties cultivated. ‘The farmer may devote his acres
to those crops to which his land is adapted, but the gar-
dener is expected to grow the entire list of vegetables,
without reference to the composition of the soil. Such
cultivation, to be successful, must be, to some extent,
scientific. The cultivator must possess a knowledge of
the facts and principles which underlie his art, or he
will certainly fail.
*
24 MARKET GARDENING.
Viewed in the light of the present age, how ridicu-
lous the directions of the ancients appear! ‘Take Vir-
gil’s Georgics, for instance; he, the prince of Latin
poets, possessing at once the highest intelligence of his
day, experience as a husbandman, and with the stimulus
of a royal commission to revive the decaying spirit of
husbandry by the insinuating charms of poetry; how
crude his teachings pertaining to the laws governing the
development of nature in the vegetable and animal
kingdoms! Charming to read, even now, and correct
still in many practices, yet we are continually jarred by
directions the opposite of scientific teaching and experi-
ence. The ancients were ignorant of vegetable physiol-
ogy. Virgil, Pliny and Columella taught that any cion
might be grafted on any stock; Pliny mentions the
effect of grafting the vine on the elm, and other ridicu-
lous unions. Notwithstanding the numerous supersti-
tions of the Romans, they had acquired many facts per-
taining to husbandry; they pruned, watered, fenced,
forced, and retarded blossoms and fruit much as we do.
Cato, in the second century before the Christian era,
writing upon agriculture, said, ‘‘What is good tillage?
First, to plow; second, to plow; third, to manure.
The other part of tillage is to sow plentifully, to choose
your seed cautiously, and to remove as many weeds as
possible in the season.” Thus, it will be perceived,
quite a practical view of agriculture was taken two
thousand years ago.
Despite the teachings of the ancients, agriculture
has for centuries been weighed down by ignorance, prej-
udice and imperfect action. The force of custom in
every country has held the farmer in chains; and such
still is, alas, too often the case, even in this land of
progress. But to what better pursuit can an able mind
turn than to agriculture ? Without it men would live
wandering lives, disputing with each other for the pos-
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 25
session of such animals as they could catch, and for the
spontaneous fruits of the earth. Without agriculture
there would be no bond of security or love of country ;
it is, in all countries, the purest source of public
prosperity.
One of the greatest of all the sources of enjoyment
resulting from the possession of a garden, is the endless
variety which it affords, both in the processes of vegeta-
tion as it goes forward to maturity, dormancy, or decay,
and in the almost innumerable kinds of plants which
may be raised, even in the smallest garden. Add to ita
small greenhouse, what a source of pleasure and instruc--
tion does it not hold out to the amateur? Exactly in
proportion as the outdoor work becomes less urgent the
indoor operations become more numerous. The amuse-
ments and the products which a small glass house affords
in the hands of an expert or an ingenious amateur are
almost without end. Labor in dealing with inanimate
objects has not that enticement and recreation about it
which is ever present to him who, aiding nature, wit-
nesses the results of daily toil in living plants changing
their forms and colors day by day. Thus, there is a
deal of enjoyment to be derived from the different oper-
ations of gardening, independently altogether of the
health resulting from the exercise.
Investigation into any one of the principles of vege-
table growth will develop another, and they, in time,
will be found so intimately connected with all the allied
branches of natural science as to create a desire for fur-
ther knowledge of what before were mysteries, but which
the intelligence of the present age has developed into
science. A well-cultivated garden will awaken inquiry,
and start trains of thought and study which otherwise
would not be pursued. The close observer will desire to
make microscopic observations of the germination of
plants, of the growth of fungi, of insect life; and here
26 MARKET GARDENING.
we pause, for there is opened a volume of nature new to
most men, and a source of unexpected pleasure. At the
beginning of this century any investigation into the
agency of insects, for good or evil, in connection with
vegetation, was scarcely considered as belonging to gar-
dening ; their eggs passed unnoticed, and the ravages of
the larve were looked upon frequently as atmospheric
blights beyond control. Now the entomologist is con-
sulted every day by the agriculturist and gardener, and
no section of the museum of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture is more interesting than that
- devoted to entomology. Countries of temperate climates
in an undeveloped condition support a limited number
of species of insect life, and they are generally harmless
to vegetation, but, under culture, conditions favorable to
their increase are presented. One of these conditions is
the wanton destruction of birds, after which follow the
myriad tribes of insects which feed upon vegetation ;
species not alone native to the country, but brought in
the course of commerce from all parts of the world.
For example, the Hessian fly is supposed to have been
brought here in the straw used by the Hessian troops
during the Revolution. The cabbage butterfly was
brought first into Montreal in cases of crockery from
Holland. In ten or twelve years it has extended from
the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande.
The intelligent culturist will be brought to notice
the effect of various forms of potash, nitrogen and lime;
he will gradually be drawn into geological research, for
he must study the peculiar features of the soil. Finally, ~
he will find that the birds are his co-partners in the gar-
den, and the common tomtit or sparrow will no longer
be looked upon with a careless eye by reason of his dull
colors, but each one welcomed as the destroyer of mil-
lions of injurious insects. Even so the bat, ugly and of
nocturnal habit, will no longer be driven away or looked
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. a0
upon with disgust, but regarded as a most useful ally.
Of what does gardening consist ? Of obtaining from the
earth vegetables and fruits for man and domestic ani-
mals; and the perfection of the art is to obtain the
greatest possible product at the least possible expense.
From the earliest times gardening has advanced, and
receiving always the first attention, it has, in each suc-
ceeding generation, become more perfect than in the
one preceding.
The development of field and garden culture to its
present condition is the result of the union of theory
and practice. The greatest expansion has been in a
chemical and physiological point of view, and this devel-
opment, strange as it may seem, dates back not farther
than forty years. Agriculture and horticulture before
that time may be said to have been conducted under a
Virgilian system; cultivators adhering more to blind
custom than to reason. In the year 1795 the first book
in English upon the relations of agriculture and chem-
istry was published, and, though containing some truth,
its teachings are ridiculous under the light of the
present day.
The first accurate analyses of a vegetable was not
made till the year 1810, and so late as 1838 the Gottin-
gen Academy offered: a prize for a satisfactory solution
of the question whether the ingredients of the ashes are
essential to vegetable growth. The last forty years have
placed agriculture upon a scientific foundation, and the
strides of development have been wonderful. The inves-
tigations of all scientific men, in their particular pur-
suits, have served to dispel ancient theories and develop
the intricate system of germination, subsistence and
growth.
It is, fortunately, the case that every soil holds
more or less of the inorganic parts essential to vegetable
growth. ‘They may be briefly enumerated as sulphates,
28 MARKET GARDENING.
phosphates, nitrates, chlorides and carbonates of potash,
lime, magnesia, iron and ammonia. ‘Those ingredients
that are deficient in quantity can be readily added by
the application of stable manure, which contains every-
thing desirable, or by specific application of the constit-
uent wanting. The time has come when every farmer
must possess some knowledge of natural history; he
must prepare himself, if he expects to follow his pursuit
successfully, as much as does the mechanic or the pro-
fessional man. Why should not the national govern-
ment establish at frontier army posts agricultural experi-
ment stations? This nation is eminently agricultural,
and it is within. the province of the government to
develop its resources in every practical way.
The war department and the agricultural, working
in connection, could, in a few years, establish a series of
experiment stations, at once of national importance
and of hygienic advantage to each garrison. A post
garden is practicable at any military station ; of course,
under so great a variety of conditions as presented to
the soldiers of an army, each garden would differ from
the other in some particulars; some upon mountain
slopes, others in valleys, on plains both fertile and arid ;
all influenced by meteorological conditions of widely
different effect. Such gardens would have to conform
to circumstances, and the more difficult these cireum-
stances may be to surmount, the more pleasure in the
results, both in a gastronomic and scientific view.
In Europe they do some things better than we, not-
withstanding our boasted practicability, and foremost
among their advances is that of public instruction. To-
day, in Austria and Sweden, there are many thousands
of public schools having gardens attached, where are
taught botany, vegetable physiology, and sometimes the
whole range of science and art so necessary to a thorough
understanding of vegetable growth and development.
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 29
Sweden alone possesses two thousand public school-
gardens, and there, as in Austria, the system has become
so popular that all new school buildings have one room
set apart as a school-garden room, where are assembled
herbariums, works on agriculture, geology, agricultural
chemistry and physiology, and apparatus used by the
teachers in their lectures upon plant-life. The public
school law passed in Austria in 1869, provided that “In
every school a gymnastic ground, a garden for the
teacher, according to the circumstances of the commun-
ity, and a place for the purposes of agricultural experi-
ment be created.” The ‘school inspectors of each dis-
trict are instructed ‘‘To see to it that in the country
schools school-gardens shall be provided for agricultural
instruction in all that relates to the soil, and that the
teacher shall make himself skillful in such instruction.”
The general law declares, ‘‘ Instruction in natural his-
tory is indispensable to suitably established school-gar-
dens. The teachers must, therefore, be in a condition
to conduct them.” Contrast this thoughtful care with
the system, or rather, want of system, for the finer
instruction of the mind pursued in the publie schools of
cur rural districts! The time will come when, in this
country, as in Hurope, more practiced attention must be
paid to the practical instruction of the masses in our
country districts than now; our boasted public school
system, though not retrograding in our cities, has, in
the country districts, been far outstripped by that of
Germany, Sweden and Scotland, where technical educa-
tion is now given, fitting the pupils, as men and women,
to deal with the affairs of agricultural life.
CHAPTER IV.
CHEMISTRY OF THE GARDEN.
The chemistry of the garden is that science which
attempts to define the action of plants upon the chemi-
ical constituents of the soil and air; consequently
includes the studies of garden geology, the nature of
minerals composing the soil, vegetable physiology and
plant nutrition, each indicating how the chemical sub-
stances are made use of by the vegetable world. The
subject of agricultural chemistry is a voluminous and
intricate one, and only a very brief reference can be
made to it here. Nothing more can be here attempted,
than to lead the reader to desire for further information,
obtainable from the writings and reports of men like
Lawes and Gilbert, of England, Samuel W. Johnson,
and others, of this country. All garden and farm plants
may, as respects their food, be divided into three classes :
First:—Those requiring an excess of potash, as
peas, beans, potatoes, clover, flax.
Second :—Those requiring much nitrogen, as beets,
cabbage, oats, wheat, barley and hemp.
Third :—Those requiring large amounts of phos-
phoric acid, as radish, turnip and corn.
Plants draw some food from the air by their leaves,
but most from the earth by their roots. The composition
of the air is quite constant, but the character of the soil is
exceedingly variable, and crops grown continuously upon
a soil draw out one or more of its nutritive principles ;
consequently, it can only be reinvigorated by returning
to it those elements removed in the crops.
30
CHEMISTRY OF THE GARDEN. bl
In general, the method of maintaining fertility of soils
is by the application of stable or barnyard manure, which
may be termed the king of manures, as it can be pro-
duced upon every farm, and contains, when good, all
the ingredients needed to make a complete and assimila-
ble manure. Most prominent among these ingredients
are nitrogen compounds, phosphate of lime, potash and
lime. All soils, however, do not need the addition of
all four agents; nitrogenous fertilizers are often not
needed for peas, beans and clover, leguminous crops.
The nitrogenized matter, on the other hand, is often
applied to wheat, barley, oats, beets, turnips, and it may
be said to be necessary to every crop.
The potash, the active principle of wood ashes, is a
suitable fertilizer for peas, beans, clover, flax and pota-
toes. The phosphate of lime is largely drawn upon by
corn, turnip and radish. The chief supply, in a com-
mercial way, is from bones which contain phosphate
of lime, carbonate of lime, a little gelatine, albumen
and oil.
The lime, ordinarily in the form of carbonate or
sulphate, is not so pronounced in its effects, but lime
must always be present to produce the best results. The
question may occur, where can these concentrated ingre-
dients for the manufacture of a complete manure be
obtained ; and we meet the query by saying, assimilable
nitrogen may be had, to the extent of twenty per cent.,
in sulphate of ammonia, fifteen per cent. in nitrate of
soda, fourteen per cent. in nitrate of potassa, or in dried
blood or flesh from slaughter houses or fish factories.
These nitrates, preferably that of potassa, are best for
vegetables, especially root crops; the sulphates for the
cereals. Phosphate of lime can be had, to the extent of
fifty per cent., in bone dust, seventy per cent. in bone
ashes and bone black, and in superphosphate of lime,
which is phosphate of lime treated with sulphuric acid,
32 MARKET GARDENING. —
and which, when properly done, should contain forty per
cent. of soluble phosphate.
Potash is contained in wood ashes, but is obtainable
in larger quantities in nitrate of potassa, commonly
known as saltpeter, which salt should contain forty-five
per cent. potash, with the valuable addition of fourteen
per cent. of nitrogen. Lime is found chiefly in the car-
bonate of lime, as chalk or limestone, and in the sul-
phate of lime, as gypsum or plaster of paris. The sul-
phate is best, as most soluble. The average prices of
these four manurial substances named are : ;
Bone phosphate of lime............... 13 eents per pound
Nitrate of potassa........-............. BG 6 “
IND frabe Of SO Cleans vole) rateraleloteloreleieleles teria meee we “ 66
Sulphate of ammonia.......-.......... ght tc ‘“
Sulphate of lime....................... ist “ 6
Bone phosphate varies in commercial value just as
it is derived from native phosphates, such as South Car-
olina or Florida rock, or from animal raw bones. It
is, therefore, difficult to fix a value for bone phosphate
of lime.
Application of Chemical Manures.—Chemical
manures should be distributed as regularly as possible,
hence the work cannot be done on a windy day. If time
permits, it is well to double the bulk by a mixture of dam-
pened loam, and this addition to the bulk insures a more
even distribution. In a general way, we recommend the
following application to the crops indicated. For beans,
carrots, cucumbers and general garden culture,
Acid, bone phosphate of lime........... 300 pounds
INDtrate/ ot potassai eet. -rereeeteeeniaee 100 =f
INTHE) Ort SOKO gags sencocon scos Dod goKeGS 150“
Sulphateyof dimes q...--- eee eee eee 150 =‘
Costing about sixteen dollars.
For potatoes we recommend :
Acid, bone phosphate of lime........... 250 pounds
Nitrate of potassal.--j.---1-eeree eee Eee DDC ie
Sulphateof lime: s---eenceee ee eeeeeeere 150 =
Costing about fifteen dollars.
CHEMISTRY OF THE GARDEN. 303
I
For turnips, ruta baga, corn, sorghum:
Acid, bone phosphate of lime........... 300 pounds
Nitrate of potassa ............ 2.2.2.0 eens 100 *
Sulplhate of Wime.)s.-025-5-.0--+eeee=s 22s 200 =
Costing about thirteen dollars.
For beans, peas and clover :
Acid, bone phosphate of lime........... 200 pounds
Nitrate of potassa..............2...2.05-- 150“
Sulphate opines sess sees eee ae 200 =“
Costing about fourteen dollars.
For wheat, barley, oats and pasture :
Acid phosphate of lime.................. 100 pounds
Nitrate of potassa........................ 100, 7S
Sulphate of ammonia.................... HOW 66
Sulphate of lime.......................08 100—s **
Costing about twelve dollars.
The unexampled collection of wheats shown by Lan-
dreth & Son at the Centennial International Exhibition
of 1876, were grown on Bloomsdale Farm, fertilized by a
preparation made after the last named prescription.
The writer has said stable manure is king, but it
cannot always be obtained in quantity, nor at the desired
periods; failing to obtain it for present use, we recom-
mend chemical manures, which, used in seasons not too
dry, may do equally well at less cost ; but if time permits,
green manures will be found the cheapest.
Nitrogenized matter in the soil is absolutely neces-
sary to the growth of vigorous crops, and the fact cannot
be too strongly impressed on every gardener that nitro-
gen and phosphoric acid are the leading manurial ad-
ditions required, and a cheap and efficient method of
application should occupy his constant attention. Ni-
trogen, in the form of atmospheric ammonia, is largely
obtained by plants through their leaves, but to an equally
large extent does the soil get it by absorption, and, if
covered, it holds it, and in this simple fact is one of the
secrets of green manuring. Any cover, whether of
boards, hay, straw, or uncut grass, renders the soil
quite as fertile by the retention of nitrogen as by the
3
34 MARKET GARDENING.
direct value of the constituent parts of the hay, straw,
or green matter upon the surface.
That the soil becomes of higher fertility when cov-
ered by matter, inert or otherwise, so that the air is not
excluded, cannot be denied. A case is known to the
writer where a remarkable fertility was shown by a soil
which had been covered two years by a board floor on
the surface of an open field, the explanation being that
the soil daily absorbs ammonia from the air, from rain,
dew, and decay of organic matter, while, on the other
hand, if not covered, these absorptions are as rapidly lost
by volatilization.
Of course, the most natural and cheapest covering
for the soil is a green crop, and if the green manuring
is to be done between spring and autumn, experience
points to corn as the best crop, two half-grown crops
being better than one allowed to reach such a develop-
ment as to be difficult to plow under, the first crop being
planted at the usual season, and the second sixty to
seventy days subsequently, the latter crop being plowed
under after frost checks its growth.
On Bloomsdale Farm, this system has been pursued
with profit, but, better still, rye sown in the October
following the corn. Rye has proved to be the best green
manure sown in October or November, and, when prop-
erly put in, will produce a sponge-like mat of from four
to five tons of root fibers and fifteen to sixteen tons of
green herbage to turn under in April or May, and early
enough, except in the far South, for crops of potatoes,
onions, melons and corn. Rye, grown during autumn
and winter, only occupies the ground during a season when
no other crop except wheat would be standing out, and it
covers the soil during a critical period. The cost of a
green crop of rye should not be over four dollars to the
acre, say one dollar for seed, one and a half dollars for
the preparation of the land, one and a half dollars for
turning under.
MANURE AND FERTILIZERS. mes)
Four crops of green manure can be turned down in
seventeen months, by seeding rye in October, corn in
April, a second crop of corn in July, and rye again in
October, to be plowed under in April. This rotation
will surprise the experimenter, who will see his soil
made fertile, friable, and in general vigor far beyond its
previous condition, all due to the valuable component
parts of the vegetable matter plowed undev, and to the
absorption and retention of nitrogen by the soil conse-
quent upon the extended covering of the surface. From
the earliest agricultural records green manuring has
been practiced, and whole districts of country in Europe
have been rendered fertile by such practice. A large
district in Germany, once a barren, is now most fertile,
all due to the use of the lupine, which plant, however,
does not offer such good results under the hot sun of the
American climate.
CHAPTER V:
STABLE MANURE, ComMPosT AND COMMERCIAL
FERTILIZERS.
Stable manure of good quality cannot be obtained
in every locality,.and it may be practical to consider,
first, how poor stable manure can be improved, and,
secondly, how a poor grade may be mixed with other
materials to form acompost. Stable manure, in its gen-
eral designation, indicates all the refuse from the stall
and barnyard, and, consequently, includes good, bad
and indifferent. Of course, the prominent material in
stable manure is straw of wheat, rye, oats or barley,
with smaller proportions of hay or fodder—these mixed
with the droppings and urine of cattle. The quality
4
36 MARKET GARDENING.
varies with the proportion, in the mass, of the excretion
of animals. Stable manure is best applied when well
broken up by fermentation. If not decayed but in long
strawy condition, or otherwise green condition, it should
be piled till fermentation sets in to reduce it, or it
should be composted.
In strong fermented stable manure there is often
developed an immense number of insect larva, the rich
mass attracting the mature insects, in which they lay
their eggs; which dung also frequently developes many
varieties of fungous growth, ready to effect lodgment on
such crops as may be naturally fitted for their further
development. The best stable manure is that exclu-
sively from the stables of well fed horses, as such is com-
posed only of hay, straw, urine and horse dung, digested
and half digested food of forage and grass, the richer the
food given to the horse the better the excrement. This,
as taken from the stalls, is known as fresh manure, and
is slow in fertilizing action. ‘To render it active agri-
culturally it must be piled, that fermentation may pro-
ceed to break down the component parts and bring them
into condition to afford quick nutrition to growing
plants. The fresh manure is suitable for application in
winter, or to a crop requiring a slow fertilization, but to
spring and autumn crops in the garden it is too slow,
consequently if we use stable manure to develop an early
effect it must be rotten, or short, as it is termed.
The value of stable manure, of course, varies In
every locality. Farmers in New York, Pennsylvania
and Delaware pay for stable manure delivered on railroad
cars eighty to one hundred miles out from the city, from
New York and Philadelphia, $2.00 per ton including
freight. The cleanings from stalls should be piled as
taken out, and this is best done under a shed, as too
frequent rains wash out a portion of the most soluble
ingredients, though a limited amount of water must be
MANURE AND FERTILIZERS. Bp
present in the pile all the time or the manure will burn
or grow white within the pile, and its value be injured
as much as if subjected to too much water; thus, as in
all things, there is a happy medium. Stable manure of
indifferent quality, strawy, not rich in dung, containing
little digested or half-digested grain, not putrefactive,
may be started into more rapid fermentation by densely
piling it, and, as itis piled, watering it with a ferment-
ing solution.
Fermenting Lye.—The solution, or lye, may be
compared to horse urine, and will exert the same effect
in starting a like fermentation. ‘To every ton of crude
stable manure apply the lye as the manure is corded up
in ten inch layers. The ingredients necessary to make
the lye to test a ton of crude stable manure need not
cost more than one dollar, and are: ‘T'wo bushels of
pulverized quicklime, one bushel of land plaster, one-
fourth bushel of common refuse salt, three pounds of
saltpeter, three pounds of muriatic acid, stirred in with
three barrels of rich barnyard water. The lye can be
made in oil or whisky barrels, and, after making, should
stand several hours before application. Barnyard water,
the drainage from manure, is almost as important as
the solid parts, as, to a considerable extent, it is a
diluted solution of urine, the very agent which the
preparation is intended to represent in its action. The
larger the bulk the more perfect will be the action
of the lye.
Compost.— Compost, in an agricultural sense, is
understood to be a compounded manure of the varied
collections of the garden, as crude stable manure, swamp
mud, leaves, weeds, swamp grass, sea grass, old sods,
king crabs, jelly fish, fresh or salt fish, tobacco stems,
pumice from cider mills, waste wool, refuse from soap
factories, tallow waste from slaughter houses, and any
vegetable or animal product. The compost pile, if made
38 MARKET GARDENING.
of good materials, should be a well disintegrated mass of
equal quality, throughout, in fertilizing substances, in
ready condition for quick assimilation by plants. The
process of fermentation and disintegration may be has-
tened in compost piles by the same application of a fer-
menting solution as described for coarse stable manure.
For one ton of compost we recommend two bushels
of powdered quicklime, one bushel of land plaster, one-
half bushel of refuse salt, ten pounds of saltpeter, ten
pounds of muriatic acid, all mixed in three barrels of
barnyard water. This mixture, costing about two dol-
lars and a half, will weigh about thirteen hundred pounds,
and, if further diluted, as would be advisable, the ton
of compost, when treated, will weigh two tons. In the
application of the lye, the compost should be worked,
and packed up in a square, round, or other compact
form, applying the solution to every layer of five or six
inches, that the lye may dampen every portion.
CoMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
A commercial fertilizer is an article of concentrated
strength, and adapted to transportation, storage and
easy application. These fertilizers may be divided into
three classes. First, articles found in natural deposits,
as Peruvian guano or Chili saltpeter. Second, articles
resulting from a manufacture or process, as fish chum
from the oil works, dried blood from the slaughter house,
_ graves from tallow works, or odorless phosphate from
the basic process of making Bessemer steel. Third,
compounded materials, those requiring manufacture, as
superphosphate, and the various combinations of potash
and soda. While commercial manures were used in.
Kugland fifty years ago, they did not become common
in the United States until about 1844, when Peruvian
guano was introduced, and this, then as now (more so
then than now), was a complete manure, the early ship-
MANURE AND FERTILIZERS. 39
ments sometimes containing as much nitrogen as phos-
phoric acid, and also a large percentage of potash.
The chief merit of Peruvian guano is due to the
fact that it has been accumulated in a region where it
never rains, as upon the Chincha Islands, or only occa-
sionally upon the Labos Islands, and though fifty per
cent. of Peruvian guano is soluble in water it thus
remained intact, and did so remain for ages, until
the deposits, in some places, accumulated to one hundred
feet in thickness, the droppings from birds, and other
materials, all derived from the weeds and fish of the sea.
There are other bird guanos collected from various
islands in other seas, but having been subjected to rains,
have lost most of their nitrogen and potash, the phos-
phoric acid being retained; these have been termed
phosphatic guanos, while the Chilian grades are termed
nitrogenous guanos. ‘The natural sources of phosphoric
acid are the rock phosphate, extensively used by the
superphosphate manufacturers, large quantities being
brought from the island of Navassa, near St. Domingo,
and from the South Carolina and Florida phosphate
beds. ‘The artificial sources of supply are the vast plains
of South America, from whence have been collected and
exported the bones of innumerable herds of cattle slain
for their hides, and millions of others dying from nat-
ural causes, during the past one hundred and fifty years.
Potash, used commercially as a fertilizer, was at first
derived frum wood ashes, and often from feldspar, and
the supply was long insufficient; but about 1860 the
salt miners of Prussia discovered large deposits of potash
salts, which have since been the main supply for the
manufacture of fertilizers the world over, the damaging
chloride of magnesium being first removed. These
Prussian mines are vast deposits of saline matter, evi-
dently crystalized out of sea water. Before crude salts
can be advantageously sold and transported they have to
40 MARKET GARDENING.
go through a course of preparation which, according to
the nature of the deposit and the process, develops sul-
phate of potash and muriate of potash.
Nitrogen, as an article of commerce, has been
obtained in large quantities from Peru and Chili, in the
form of Chili saltpeter, found in the interior of those
countries in vast quantities, sometimes many feet in
thickness. As much as four million tons have been
exported annually, but the Peruvian government has
now reserved these deposits for domestic use. Of course,
there are other sources of nitrogen, especially in the by-
products. of manufactures, for example, sulphate of
ammonia, from gas works. Animal nitrogen is largely
obtained from fish scrap, of which sixty thousand tons
are annually produced on the Atlantic coast. Of course,
the raw or fresh fish will furnish this same ammonia.
The writer has plowed under, on his firm’s farms in
Lancaster county, Virginia, from seven to nine millions
of fish annually; the fish beimg menhaden, a species
slightly smaller than herring. Cracklings from the tal-
low works, dried blood and tankage from slaughter
houses, are valuable sources of supply for agricultural
nitrogen.
By the introduction of commercial fertilizers farm
operations have been freed from the restrictions and
limitations imposed by the deficient sources of home-
made manures, and the intelligent farmer may vastly
extend his operations, while the scientific one turns his
farm into a factory, where he endeavors, sometimes, with
the aid of climatic influences, and sometimes defeated
by such influences, to manufacture his products.
The world-wide use of commercial fertilizers has
served to establish a standard of agricultural value of all
the ingredients, and their high price has stimulated the
inquiring gardener to a closer scrutiny into the entire
subject, not only of plant nutrition, but as respects
SOWING SEEDS. 4]
human foods. He is thus lifted above the laborious
routine of digging, plowing and harrowing, and becomes
a student of nature. By the application of commercial
manure the gardener has an advantage over the use of
stable manure in the avoidance of adding to the stock of
weed seed natural to his land, stable manure always con-
taining more or less seeds of grain or weeds. ‘The use
of commercial fertilizers, on the other hand, while rais-
ing agriculture to a higher level of intellectual thought,
has made a large class of farmers indifferent, if, indeed,
not strangers, to the old school methods of farm recu-
peration, a condition much to be regretted.
Commercial fertilizers will always be in demand, and
much of the success of our agriculturists depends upon
the capital and talent of the manufacture of such ma-
nures. A fair amount of confidence can be placed in
well made fertilizers, due principally to the enactment
of laws by several of the State legislatures requiring from
manufacturers sworn statements of analysis, and also to
the very critical investigations and comparisons made at
the various State experiment stations.
CHAPTER VI.
Sow1nG SEEDS.
In this we refer to the sowing or planting of. the
seeds of vegetables or flowers in the open garden. Every
sane man knows that a preparation of the land is neces-
sary, but when and how to make the preparation can
only be learned by reading, observation or experience.
Experience in the garden, like experience in all matters
of life, is the most practical teacher; when and how to
dig or plow, when to harrow or rake, to clean the
42 MARKET GARDENING.
ground, to fertilize, to open trenches, or cast up ridges,
whether to drill in long parallel rows, or across narrow
beds, all of which operations are preliminary to the
actual operations of seeding. ‘The practice of seeding
differs on the part of equally capable men ; the conditions,
the quantity to be grown, and whether for family or
market garden, leading to variations in processes.
Much disappointment in the garden often results
from ignorant practices, as from unseasonable sowing,
as from too deep or too shallow covering, from imjudi-
cious selection of varieties, from inefficient thinning out
that the plants may have room to properly develop, from
want of preparatory tillage and subsequent cultivation.
Of course, the amount of seed properly sown to the acre,
or to the row, by persons of equal experience, differs as
much as does their process of sowing or method of culti-
vation. It is generally considered, however, that it is
unwise to spare the amount of seed, as the difference in
cost of a thick seeding, compared with a thin one,
amounts to little as compared with the disappointment,
and, still greater, the loss resulting from a deficient stand
of plants. Ordinarily the quantity of seed to be sown is
said to be so many bushels or so many pounds to the
acre, but this does not, by any means, indicate to the
gardener, who may only have one acre on which to plant
all his crops, the amount he should obtain to meet his
necessities. It is better, in such cases, to indicate the
quantity of seed required to sow one hundred yards of
continuous rows, as the gardener, measuring the length
of the rows intended to be devoted to various kinds of
plants, can calculate exactly how many ounces or quarts
he should procure. Such a ready table for reference
will be found in the following :
SEEDS REQUIRED FOR A ROW ONE HUNDRED YARDS LONG.
One ounce of cabbage, cauliflower, collards, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
egg-plant, kale, kohl-rabi, pepper, squash, pumpkin, tomato,
turnip.
SOWING SEEDS. 43
Two ounces of onion, leek, lettuce, endive, parsley, canteloupe.
Three ounces of carrot, eress, celery, chervil, water melon, parsnip,
Four Be cs of cucumbers, nasturtium, rhubarb, salsify, scorzonera.
Five ounces of beet.
Six ounces of radish, spinach.
Hight ounces of corn salad.
Twelve ounces of okra, asparagus.
One pint of field corn.
One quart of sugar corn.
Three quarts of btish beans, peas.
In a country of such diversity of soil and climate as
the United States, it is difficult, indeed, impossible, to
advise, except in a very general way, as to processes of
tillage, seeding and culture. With sixteen hundred and
fifty miles of territory north and south, three thousand
five hundred miles east to west, a surface level in some
places with the sea, in others four to eight thousand feet
elevation, some districts having an annual rainfall of
ten to twenty inches, others of one hundred and twenty
inches, soils differmg with varying geological forma-
tion on two thousand millions of acres, an acreage nearly
equal to the entire continent of Europe.
In correspondence the writer accordingly adopts the
policy of advising inquirers to observe the practice of
successful gardeners in their respective localities, and
follow that system as a far safer practice than anything
he can advise from experience, necessarily limited to
the Middle States. In the Northern and Middle States
the average season for open air seeding may be indicated
by the blooming of well known trees and shrubs, though
seeding may be made with profit, both before and after
such periods, as it is a safe rule, in gardening, to divide
the risks. For instance, when the peach is in bloom
sow those seeds which will germinate in cold soil, resist
slight frost, as peas, spinach, onion and leek. When
the oak bursts its leaf buds, sow beet, carrot, celery,
lettuce, parsnip, radish, salsify, turnip, tomato. When
the blackberry is in bloom sow those seeds which will
44 MARKET GARDENING.
thrive only in warmer soil, as the bean, corn, cucumber,
canteloupe. watermelon, pumpkin, squash, okra.
No occupation of business, no occupation of pleas-
ure, affords so much for interesting study, as the growth
and treatment of vegetables, and the study of their soils,
their fertilizers and tillage. It must be borne in mind,
however, that those who would avoid labor should leave
gardening alone, because it 1s a perpetual combat with
enemies, rain, drouth, frost, heat, weeds, insects, and
the unexpected from every quarter.
CHAPTER VIL
GERMINATION.
The process of germination may be said to cover
that period of time from the moment of planting the
dry seed to the appearance of the new plant, and con-
tinuously on till the young plant, exhausting the food
stored in the mother seed, is capable of sustaining itself
by attachment to the soil. Very few garden seeds will
start at a lower temperature than 50°, many requiring a
warmth of 70°. On the other hand, too much heat
dries up the germ, few kinds resisting a temperature
above 120°. The moist, rapid germination of seeds in
general is at a temperature from 70° to 90°. Under low
temperature root growth is very slow, while under high
temperature the development of roots is far in excess of
a counter-balancing leaf development.
Moisture is indispensable to germination, but the
amount most favorable varies with different plants; for
instance, son.2 seeds will only start when in water. Gar-
den seeds will do best when the land is moist, but not
wet; too much moisture causes decay; and they
GERMINATION. 45
may be divided into two classes, as respects their ger-
mination, viz.: Cold soil and warm soil seeds, the first
class comprising peas, onions, lettuce, radish and spin-
ach; the second class includes the greater number,
sprouting freely by the aid of much solar or artificial heat.
Time for Germination.—The time required in
germination greatly varies, dependent upon the species
of plant, the age of the seed and the surrounding condi-
tions of soil and atmosphere. Under favorable circum-
stances, peas, beans and corn should sprout in three
days; cabbage, turnip and radish in four days; vine
seeds, such as melon, squash and cucumber, in five or
six days. Germination, however, does not guarantee
vegetation, as seeds showing a germ may never appear
above ground if physically weak, if too deeply covered,
or if the soil is hardened by rain or heat. As a rule, the
depth for covering seeds should be three to four times
their diameter.
Rapid Growth Desirable.—The great principle
conducive to quick, healthy germination and rapid veg-
etation is a fine seed bed and good tillage. A rapid
growth of garden plants is much to be desired, as they
then outstrip the weeds, and, to a degree, get beyond
such dangers as floods, grubs and insects, which play
havoc with young seedlings, especially those of delicate
structure. Healthy, uniform germination requires
warmth, moisture, and air, as climatic accessories to a
finely pulverized soil, which preserves the moisture
longer than rough land. Seeds, on the other hand, sown
amid clods and crevices, are, many of them, lost by depth
of covering, while the rough surface of such land quickly
bakes and cracks and offers shelter to annoying vermin.
Vitality of Seeds.—The time during which vege-
table seeds retain their vitality is very variable, depend-
ent, first, upon their chemical composition; second,
upon the climatic condition under which they were har-
46 MARKET GARDENING.
vested ; third, upon the greater or lesser moisture of the
air in which they are stored; and, fourth, upon proper
ventilation of the bags or packages. On the southern
seaboard, and in the Gulf States, where the air is very
moist, at times, perfectly fresh seeds frequently lose
their vitality by the end of the first year, while far inland
and in dry sections of the country, and especially in
high latitudes, they may, with few exceptions, be safely
used the second season. The primary cause, however,
of difference in period of duration of the growing powers
of seed, depends principally upon difference in their
chemical composition.
All seed may be divided into two classes, those in
which oil predominates, those in which starch predom-
inates ; and it is the first which most rapidly change by
decomposition, the starchy seeds, with the exception of
corn, being least subject to chemical change and most
tenacious of life.
Testing Seeds.— When it is desired to determine
the vitality of a seed, the test should always be made by
counting out lots of one hundred seeds, just as they are,
good, bad and indifferent ; better still, to take several
lots of one hundred seeds of each variety, that one lot
may serve to prove the other. In all such cases the
experimenter should have a sample of another lot of the
same variety of seed from a distinct source, of which he
already knows the true vitality, this to serve as a proof
or standard in estimating the accuracy of the test. The
test of vitality may be made in a number of ways, the
most reliable, of course, being in earth; sandy loam in
broad pots or trays, well placed as respects heat and
moisture, or, better still, the seed sown in earth on the
benches of a greenhouse.
A second method of testing seeds is by germinating
them in flannel cloths suspended over water trays, from
which the flannel becomes damp by capillary attraction. »
GERMINATION. AL)
By this process, excepting for egg plant, pepper, and
such other seeds as require heat, a higher test can be
made than by the earth test, but the flannel test is decep-
tive, as many seeds will start and show a sprout, while
unable to make further growth for want of vital force.
Such seeds, under the flannel test, are counted as good,
while under the earth test they never would be counted,
as they never would appear above the surface, being too
weak to force their way through the soil.
A test of somewhat similar character to the flannel
test can be made by placing the seeds between two bats
of cotten, each one inch thick and three to four inches
wide, kept constantly wet and near a stove, or in the sun,
that the water may not become cold. Seeds of the oily
class, as cabbage, cauliflower and turnips, should have,
when first harvested, if gathered under dry conditions,
and if well cleaned, an average vitality of eighty to
ninety-five per cent. The second year the percentage
falls to seventy and eighty per cent; the third year to
sixty and seventy per cent., and so on in a declining
seale to nothing after seven or eight years.
Carrot, parsley, spinach, or parsnip seeds are much
affected by harvest conditions, and as respects cleaning
or the separation of the good from the bad, after thresh-
ing. The first year they grow from seventy to eighty
per cent., the second year fall to fifty and sixty per cent.,
the third year forty to thirty per cent., and the fourth
year may be considered valueless.
Cucumber, canteloupe, squash, pumpkin and water-
melon require cautious harvesting and washing to pre-
vent sprouting during the process, and, when well
washed and dried, have a vitality the first year of eighty
to ninety per cent., the second year seventy to seventy-
five per cent., the third year sixty to seventy per cent.,
decreasing over a period of five or six years.
Pepper, egg plant and okra seed are especially weak
in vital force, seldom showing over seventy per cent. of
48 MARKET GARDENING.
germination the first year, and often not half that the
second, and sometimes less. Beet seed containing from
three to five germs to the single capsule will often
develop three hundred shoots to a hundred seeds, but
after a period of four years the percentage of vitality
will fall to twenty-five per cent., though the writer has
now growing a ten acre crop from a lot of select seed of
Bassano beet eight years old. American grown onion
and leek seed varies from seventy to ninety per cent. in
vitality the first year, falling to about sixty the second
year and thirty the third. These seeds of English and
French growth, when brought to the United States, sel-
dom have a vitality of two-thirds of the percentage of the
American. Frequently the best English leek seed can-
not be found to show over twenty-five per cent. Radish,
if of American growth, should have a vitality of nmety
to ninety-five per cent. the first year, and will diminish
ten per cent. for four or five years. Of European growth
it seldom has over seventy per cent. vitality the first
year, ofttimes not more than fifty per cent., and the
second year frequently falling to twenty-five per cent.,
and sometimes less, by reason of the conditions of exces-
sive moisture under which it is harvested and cured,
and the moisture absorbed during the ocean voyage.
Lettuce, endive, celery and tomato being seeds dif-
ficult in the separation after threshing of the good from
the bad, seldom have a vitality of over eighty per cent.
Lettuce and endive, however, are very retentive of ger-
minating quality, falling not more than ten per cent.
per annum, annually, for three or four years, after which
they decline rapidly to nothing, celery and tomato being
least vital.
Peas, well riddled and hand picked, should have a
vitality the first year, if harvested in dry weather, of
ninety-five per cent., the second year eighty per cent.,
the third year sixty per cent., after which they will
GERMINATION. 49
deteriorate so rapidly as to be of no value. Beans are
much more liable to injury than peas, ripening during
later and less favorable weather for drying, and encased
in more succulent pods. Wax pod beans are especially
delicate, but when harvested under good conditions and
hand picked, should have a vitality of ninety to ninety-
five per cent. They, however, deteriorate rapidly, to
eighty per cent. the second year, to sixty per cent. the
third, and the fourth to twenty per cent.
Corn varies greatly in germinating force, the flint
varieties being the most vital, the dent sorts, the gourd
seed sorts and the sugar varieties following in the order
named. Hard, flinty corn, grown under good condi-
tions, and well cured, should germinate the first year to
the extent of ninety per cent., the second year to eighty
per cent., and the third year to fifty per cent. Sugar
corns, on the other hand, are very delicate, their vitality
being affected by the conditions under which they are
matured, husked, cured and packed, and, even after
seeming hard and dry, they often become damp if kept
in bulk or in bags piled up. So delicate are sugar corns
that they should never be continuously kept in bags or
sacks till the January following the harvest, and often
not that early.
There are unauthenticated records of mummy corn
from South America having germinated, but the writer
doubts the accuracy of the statements. He has an ear
of mummy corn from Peru, said to be seven hundred
years old, but it is entirely dead, having been subjected,
as all other mummy corn has been, to the heating effects
of hot pitch and similar mixtures used in embalming.
The claim that corn of vital force has been found in the
Egyptian tombs is positively false, as small grain was
found. Maize was entirely unknown on the Eastern con-
tinents before the discovery of America. Credulous tour-
ists visiting the Nile regions can always be accommodated,
4
50 MARKET GARDENING.
by obliging native guides, with maize said to be from the
tombs, but it is of recent growth.
In making comparisons of the vitality of vegetable
seeds, it must always be borne in mind that English,
French and German seeds are never as vital as American,
consequent upon the excessive humidity of the seed-
growing regions abroad and the injurious effects of a sea
voyage. ‘The European crops are never ripened in the
field as thoroughly as the American, and before and after
threshing are never in as bone-dry condition as crops
ripened under semi-tropical heat; consequently Hu-
ropean seeds do not sprout as quickly, do not develop
the same large percentage of vitality, and do not hold
what they have so well as seeds of American growth.
A low percentage of vitality, either of European or
American seeds, does not necessarily indicate age, but,
frequently, that the seed was matured under unfavorable
circumstances, conditions beyond the power of the seed
grower to avoid. No seed grower could undertake to
guarantee the vitality of the seed sold by him, for he
cannot control the conditions of the sowing as respects
nature of soil, preparation of seed bed, previous condi-
tion, present manuring, time and manner of seeding,
immunity from fleas and larve at time of sprouting,
conditions of moisture and temperature. The seedsman
who guaranteed his seed would either be a fool or a
knaye.
While vitality is of much importance, it is less so
than purity. An apparent want of vitality is often
wholly due to some unfavorable condition, as one planter
frequently succeeds while another fails with the seed
out of the same bag. Again, a low vitality of a newly
harvested seed, the result of climatic conditions, is a
matter beyond human control, and, occasionally, seed of
such defective vitality has to be accepted by both seed
grower, merchant and planter. Not so with impurity ;
TRANSPLANTING. 51
for if seed prove unvital a new purchase can be made,
and a new planting follow within a few days; but im-
pure seed is more deceptive, as its very vigor secures the
crop, attention and labor to be subsequently found
wasted. Of the two evils, unvital seed or impure seed,
the first, by all odds, is the least.
CHAPTER VIII.
TRANSPLANTING.
Many seeds of garden vegetables, and of nearly all
garden flowers, are first sown in beds, to be afterwards
transplanted to permanent positions, with the object,
First :—That by their concentration more thorough
attention can be given them as respects preparation of
seed bed.
Second :—Because the space in which they ulti-
mately stand may be occupied by an immature crop.
Third :—That delicate plants might be lost if sown
in permanent positions and subjected to the attacks of
insects, or overgrown by weeds.
Fourth :—To save labor, as one thousand small
plants in a bed can be cared for at one-tenth the cost of
time and money as the same number in open ground.
Fifth :—To induce productiveness, as plants set out
from beds to the open ground are checked in their vigor
of leaf growth and a clearly indicated disposition devel-
oped, in the direction of blooming and early maturity.
The beds in which delicate, slow growing vegetable
plants are grown may be hotbeds, intermediate beds,
cold frames or out door border beds, but from all or any
of them the plants must be moved with equal care, for
transplanting is an operation so delicate as not only to
52 MARKET GARDENING.
‘determine whether a crop be secured or not, but to grade
the productiveness and time of maturity. Beets, car-
rots, parsnips, radish, turnip and all other fleshy tap-
rooted plants are best grown on permanent positions,
as they do not transplant well, but many fibrous-rooted
plants, as cabbage, tomato, egg plant, pepper, lettuce,
are most safely started in beds, and really do best after
transplanting, as they then are afterward more deeply set
in the soil and start off upon fresh tilled land as well as
while growing in the bed, giving the gardener ample
time to make all desirable arrangements for transplant-
ing, while, on the other hand, if he sowed the seed in
permanent position at the same early date he might fail
to secure good plants.
The process of transplantation should be performed
.on soils properly tilled; that is, thoroughly plowed or
dug, harrowed or raked, and marked off in rows at
proper intervals for hand hoeing, or wider for horse cul-
tivation. While transplantation by thoroughly experi-
enced persons can sometimes be done under unfavorable
conditions of soil. it is, as a rule, only safely undertaken
when the soil is damp or wet, when the rain is falling,
or the air charged with moisture, otherwise the plants
may succumb under hot sun or drying winds.
In setting the plants in the row, space should always
be allowed between them greater than the extreme diam-
eter of the fully developed plant. For instance, if a
certain variety of cabbage will produce a head and out-
side leaves of a space of fifteen inches, then that variety
of plant should be set at eighteen inches; or if one vari-
ety of lettuce plant grows twelve inches in diameter and
another variety only five inches, they should be set
accordingly.
In taking plants from seed beds they should not be
pulled up, to the destruction of the rootlets, but lifted
with a trowel or similar tool, and when out of the ground
TRANSPLANTING. 53
should be protected from sun or air, as either influence
will dry up those tender fibers upon which depend its
earlier or later connection with the soil. The coarse
roots may be looked upon as so many anchors; they
do not sustain the life of the plant. The plants dug
from the seed beds and properly protected, the next
operation is to set them, which may be done with a
dibble or trowel. The dibble is a long, pointed, cone-
shaped tool, which, from its form and rotary motion
when used, generally smooths the sides of the hole, both
bad features, while a trowel is a digging implement,
leaving the soil mellow.
The plants should be set deeper than they origin-
ally stood, but as a rule, not deeper than the points of
attachment of the lower leaves. None of the root fibers
should point upward, be all turned downward, and the
more widely spread the better. The soil should be
pressed down with the hand or foot after the plant is
set, that the earth and rootlets may be brought into
intimate contact, otherwise the time required to bring
about this contact is so much lost time. It is a good
practice to hoe a transplanted crop just as soon as the
plants recover from the setting, as hoeing mellows the
soil and has a vitalizing effect.
Mulching.—In small gardens the practice of mulch-
ing after transplanting is often pursued with marked
advantage. This operation is the covering of the soil
around freshly set plants, vines, shrubs and trees, with
three to four inches in depth of litter of any kind, long
manure, dry hay, dried leaves, green grass from the
lawn, green weeds from the field or mre, any of them
preventing, during dry weather, excessive evaporation
from the soil.
Crops well mulched are comparatively free from
weeds, and such as do push themselves through it can
easily be pulled up, while the moist, mellow condition
54 MARKET GARDENING.
of the soil under a mulch renders ordinary cultivation
unnecessary. Every cultivator not familiar with the
merits of mulching should make some experiments, the
material always being cheap, indeed, often in the way,
aud presenting a problem as to its disposition.
CHAPTER IX.
SUCCESSION, OR THE ROTATION OF Crops.
The gardener, whether an expert or amateur, must,
like a general in the field, have a plan of operations
upon which to conduct the campaign of the summer,
and, while the expert may not commit his plan to paper,
the amateur certainly should, otherwise he will more
than double the number of the errors which he is sure
to commit, plan he ever so well.
Gardening, it is true, is often successfully pursued
by seemingly ignorant men, and they truly may he
ignorant of literature and polite accomplishments, but
they are, nevertheless, specialists, and if successful oper-
ators in the advanced system of gardening, may prove
themselves to have acquired a technical knowledge which
is as much a profession as any other occupation which
develops looked for results.
The amateur has everything to learn, and must
commit his plans to paper, or he will be certain to run
everything into disorder, and, before the season is well
started be disposed to give up in despair of ever getting
things into order by strawberry time. With a clear,
systematically managed garden, his is the envy of all
neighbors, while with a weedy and clearly unprofitable
one he sets such a bad example that it would have been
better he had not attempted anything. The gardener
ROTATION OF CROPS. 5d
must do a little engineering, he must have a plan of his
garden drawn to a scale, say one-third of an inch to the
foot, and on three distinct sheets lay out the plans for
spring, summer and autumn. As to the nature of these
plans, the reader may get some hints from observation
of the practice of good market gardeners in his vicinity
or elsewhere. Now, presupposing that the spring plant-
ing of the private gardener comprises every thing season-
able, the question naturally arises what shall he sow as
a succession to his spring planting; for be it clearly un-
derstood, it is only by keeping up in the garden a never
ceasing course of sowing of seed, gathering of matured
crops, and re-sowing on the same ground, without any
waste of time, that the garden can be practically made
to pay its cost in dollars and cents. With a less intense
system of administration and culture it may pay well,
in the pleasure derived from the contemplation of rural
subjects and in increased health consequent upon inter-
esting and moderate outdoor labor, but unless the course
of rotation is well thought out and practically put into
effect each fruit or vegetable will cost double its price
in the stores. Of course the climatic location has every-
thing to do with the policy adopted, as in the Gulf
States the practice is quite distinct from that of the
Carolinas, and in the Carolinas equally distinct from
that of the corn and wheat growing districts of the Hast
and West. In fact, in each section of. each State dis-
tinct policies are pursued as to periods of sowing, and as
to choice of varieties.
As an aid to the amateur in the Middle and West-
ern States we will say that peas may be followed by cab-
bage for early autumn use, also by beans, tomato and
celery plants. Onions by kale, turnip and winter rad-
ishes. Spring spinach by beans and tomatoes. Spring
radishes by cabbage, for early autumn use. Lettuce by
beans and tomatoes. Beans by kale, turnip, winter rad-
56 MARKET GARDENING.
ishes, autumn lettuce and celery. arly carrots by
autumn spinach, kale, turnips, winter radishes. Sum-
mer squash by kale, turnip, winter radishes. Cucumber
by autumn spinach, turnip and winter radishes. Early
beets by spinach, kale, turnips and winter radishes.
Early sugar corn by a second crop of the same kind or
by autumn spinach, beans, tomatoes, celery.
There are some late maturing varieties of garden
plants which seldom afford the cultivator an opportunity
to sow anything else as a succession; among these are
late sugar corns, parsley, parsnip, leek, pumpkin, mel-
ons, winter squarsh, tomatoes, okra and peppers.
THINNING Out.
It takes a determined conviction of necessity to thin
out young plants in the vegetable or flower garden, that
they may have full space to properly extend their growth.
Among vegetables of large leaf development, as cabbage,
lettuce, spinach and parsley, the space necessary for
growth without crowding, may be found by marking
round the plant a circle on the ground equal to the
diameter of a fully developed specimen, and those plants
with large roots, such as beets, radish and turnip, must
be allowed room in proportion to their usual size.
Do not hesitate to thin out, no matter how sturdy
and attractive the plants may be, for the plant which
crowds another is simply a weed. This thinning should
be done before the plants be drawn or elongated in their
stems or leaves, or they will ever afterward show the
injurious effects of crowding. It may be done by cut-
ting out with a hoe or knife of those plants which are
not needed elsewhere, or, if considered worth transplant-
ing, they should be carefully dug up, that the finer roots
be preserved. No vegetable or flower will properly
develop if crowded ; certainly one symmetrical plant is
worth a dozen sickly ones, not only for market, but
in effect.
CHAPTER X.
GARDEN INSECTS.
Owing to the depredations of sparrows, blackbirds,
chickens, and other feathery thieves, moles and mice
underground, squirrels, woodchucks, cats and dogs
above ground, the painstaking gardener will find many of
his labors frustrated by an innumerable host of enemies
coming and gcing throughout the season. Among these
may be included slugs, grubs, cutworms, caterpillars,
sap suckers, plant lice, the larva of day butterflies and
night moths in various stages of transformation. Some
seasons they all appear to be present and combine in an
attack to defeat every operation of the gardener. At
other times they most graciously absent themselves;
but the gardener is never without a sufficient number to
keep him well on the defensive.
Insecticides.—The subject of insecticides and traps
is one to which is now given much attention, and
country stores in every district are all well supplied
with preparations and apparatus without number, all
offered as the best, however poor.
An unscientific description of a few of the common
destructive insects in the garden, with suggested reme-
dies for destroying them, may not be out of place.
Insect preventives may be said to be of two forms of
application: Steeps, in which the seed, before sowing, is
soaked, and dressings, with which the plants are covered.
These may again be divided into two classes: Repellants,
as gasoline, tar, kerosene, sulphur powder, which act by
overcoming the natural odor of plants attractive to cer-
57
58 MARKET GARDENING.
tain insects, and poisons, generally arsenical compounds,
applied with the direct intent of killing the insect eating
the foliage.
In nothing is the saying that ‘‘An ounce of preyen-
tion is worth a pound of cure,” more exemplified than
in the advantage derived from destroying flying insects
before they deposit their eggs. Every one living in the
country is familiar with the habit of night moths and
bugs to fly into lamps or other lights, and that the ineli-
nation has been used as a means of inviting them to
destruction by night fires on the borders of the garden,
or by placing in the midst of the garden a large tub of
water, over the center of which is placed a square lantern
against which the insects fly violently and are precipi-
tated into the water.
Asparagus Beetle.—The asparagus beetle, often
called the asparagus fly, is an oblong, hard-bodied, quick
motioned insect, about one-third of an inch in length,
its head black, its thorax tawny red, and wing-covers
blue-black, ornamented with six small yellow spots,
appearing in large numbers during the season of aspara-
gus cutting; the soft larve, or slugs, are most ravenous
destroyers of the cuticle or outer bark of stems, twigs
and leaves of the asparagus plant, attacking it from the
first peeping sprout in early spring till the plant has
reached its full development. ‘These insects, maturing
early, develop a new brood in August. Nothing can be
done to destroy the asparagus beetle upon the market-
able shoots, as mineral poisons would be destructive to
human life, and offensive applications would destroy
the value of the crop.
On beds not old enough for cutting, and on beds
past prime condition, mineral poisons may be used, and
none have been found better than Paris green, mixed
with forty parts of flour. Sometimes the beetles appear
in such numbers and are so yoracious that asparagus
GARDEN INSECTS. 59
shoots for market require to be cut when just peeping
through the ground, otherwise in a day nothing would
remain to be collected.
Asparagus beds past the marketable condition of
growth can be dressed advantageously with a solution of
a tablespoonful of Paris green in four gallons of water,
which will be generally found to kill the slugs. Some-
times effective results ensue by the application of freshly
slaked lime while the dew is on them, for the least par-
ticle of lime touching the skin of a slug is certain to
Kill it.
White Grub.—The white grub is the larve of the
familiar June bug, or, more correctly, May beetle, which,
in the early spring months, enters dwellings in the even-
ing, swarming about the lights, buzzing loudly and vio-
lently, knocking themselves against the walls and ceil-
ings. The perfect insect feeds upon the foliage of trees,
and is more or less destructive. The eggs are deposited
in the earth, and hatch in about a month. The grubs
remain in the ground, doing little injury till the second
summer, when they attack the roots of plants. They
remain as grubs in the earth for nearly three years, by
which time they reach a length of tio inches, and often
appear in such great numbers as to do immense damage.
The body of the grub is soft and of a dirty white, and
its head is of red and brown, and its habit, like the cut
worm, is to coil into a ball when disturbed. Like other
grubs, they are difficult to poison, the best plan being
to endeavor to destroy the beetles in early spring. This
worm is eaten by skunks, coons, moles and birds. Dogs
can be trained to eat it, and when so trained will follow
a plow all day long.
Wire Worm.—The wire worm is a long, yellow,
slender-bodied grub, with exceedingly hard and tough
skin. These worms destroy the seed and young plants
of squash, pumpkin, melon, and often potatoes. They
60 MARKET GARDENING.
are the grubs of snap-beetles, brown-black insects which,
when laid over on their backs, have the singular power
of snapping and springing violently to their feet. The
writer has frequently seen grains of corn a week after
planting, bored out to a shell, and containing as many
as a dozen worms ravenously finishing the remainder of
the grain.
Cut Worm.—Cut worms are the larvee of various
species of night moths which deposit their eggs late in
the summer. When hatched, the worms enter the
ground and remain in a torpid state all winter. In the
spring. they appear as naked, greasy, smooth caterpillars,
rayenously attacking the seed, roots and stems of almost
any young vegetable, and when disturbed, coiling
quickly into a ball. The best method of killing them
is to catch them by digging. They are sometimes
destroyed by Paris green sprinkled on small bunches of
freshly cut grass laid upon the surface of the soil where
the worms are known to be. White heliebore has been
found effective in the destruction of this pest.
Colorado Potato Beetle.—The Colorado potato
beetle is, perhaps, one of the best recognized of insect
pests, being large in size, and found in every locality.
Its favorite foods are the leaves of the potato, tomato
and egg plant. But it is readily destroyed with Paris
ereen.
Squash Beetle.—The striped squash beetle, prey-
ing upon cucumbers and melons, is an insect a little
over a quarter of an inch long, with a black and yellow
jacket bearing three parallel black bands. The full
grown beetle appears in the middle of spring, just in
time to catch the plants as they sprout, eating the young
leaves as they develop, so that the gardener almost gives
up in despair of ever securing plants with too well devel-
oped leaves, at which stage they are usually considered
proof against the beetles; but this is not always the case,
GARDEN INSECTS. 61
for in some seasons plants of squash, cucumber, melons,
pumpkin, having six or seven leaves large as a man’s
hand, are completely eaten off in a single day. Appli-
cations of Paris green, land plaster, slaked lime, must
all be so applied as to reach the under side of the leaf as
well as the top.
In gardens an effective way to keep off the mature
flying beetles is to cover the seed hills at once, after
planting, with square or circular frames, covered with
mosquito netting, that the young plants may be protected
from the beetles. ‘The gardener may conclude he has
conquered, but not so always, for the eggs of the same
beetle, deposited in the earth, now hatched by the heat
of the sun, develop larve, a little white worm, which,
commencing at the vines under ground, pierce the stems
through and through, to their utter destruction, and to
the gardener’s dismay. We recommend Hammond’s
slug shot to destroy the first brood of beetles which ap-
pears. This done, no larve will follow.
On Reedland Farm the Landreths, cultivating large
breadths of watermelons and canteloupes, always have
to replant, more or less, on account of the ravages of
this troublesome insect, sometimes replanting five or six
times, using an aggregate of nine or ten pounds of the
seed to the acre before obtaining a complete growth, a
very expensive process, increased cost of labor, of seed,
and the risk of a delayed crop. On large areas the best
remedy against this pest is slug shot, or Paris green,
mixed with forty parts of land plaster or flour, and ap-
plied as often as it is washed off. Hxperiments made
at Bloomsdale Farm have conclusively shown that
various vine plants have different degrees of resistance
to the noxious effects of Paris green, squashes being the
strongest, pumpkins next, then cucumber, water melons
_and canteloupes least of all.
As the French wine growers kill the phylloxera
insect feeding on the roots of the grape by the poisonous
62 MARKET GARDENING.
fumes of carbon bi-sulphide injected into the earth, why
should not this same application destroy the white grub,
wire and cut worm, squash beetle, and others? A spoon-
ful of the liquid, injected by a syringe about the roots of
the plants to be protected, might work wonders.
The Harlequin Cabbage Bug.—The harlequin
cabbage bug is a very demon among garden pests, the
perfect insect one-half inch long, somewhat resembling
in shape a terrapin, having a hard shell brilliantly spot-
ted. It is a sap sucker, puncturing the stalks and leaves
of cabbage and other plants of the cabbage family, suck-
ing out the sap and poisoning the entire plant. ‘Turkeys
and chickens decline to eat them, poison will not kill
them, as they do not eat solid matter; they must be
picked off by hand. This Mexican insect has repeatedly
presented itself to the observation of the writer in such
innumerable numbers as to obtain for itself a record of
first place among destructive bugs. It is particularly
fond of cabbage and turnip, attacking both in autumn
and spring, and is especially destructive on those plants
when shooting to seed. His firm has lost, on several
occasions, sixty to seventy acres of cabbage, and still
more of ruta bagas, even after weeks of labor and efforts
to remove the bugs by hand picking; all being msuffi-
cient to check their numbers, and no poisonous applica-
tion being effectual in checking their voracity. The
most reliable method of meeting the ravages of this bug
is to destroy the first brood at any cost, even of the crop
itself.
Cabbage Worm.—The cabbage worm is a green
caterpillar, feeding on nearly all broad-leaved vegetables,
especially cabbage, cauliflower and letiuce. It is the
larve of a white butterfly of European origin; Paris
green will poison these caterpillars, but, except in the
very early stages of cabbage growth, it is unsafe to apply
so poisonous an article to a plant which might enfold
GARDEN INSECTS. 63
the poisonous compound within its leaves and kill those
who afterwards ate the plant. Pyrethrum has been
found excellent as a destroyer, but probably Hammond’s
slug shot is as effective. Sometimes good results follow
the application of white hellebore mixed with land plas-
ter, four parts to one. In other cases a solution of one
quart of powdered alum to twelve quarts of boiling
water is effective. Sometimes good effects result from
an application of a tablespoonful of pyrethrum mixed in
two gallons of water, and applied forcibly with a spray
syringe. The writer’s experience with the cabbage worm
dates from the period of its southern raid from Canada,
where it was first established as an emigrant from
Europe. He has had annoyance from it in variable
degrees every year, but never to that serious extent as
reported from localities where it has occasionally de-
stroyed entire crops of cabbage.
Cabbage Louse.—The Downy cabbage louse is a
mealy, soft-bodied insect, sometimes appearing in thou-
sands, swarming like bees upon the leaves of young cab-
bage, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. It can be driven
off by application of Hammond’s slug shot. Personal
experience should always enable one to express opinions
on a subject, and the writer, having had years of com-
bat with this plant louse, looks upon it as a pest to be
dreaded, difficult to kill, and destructive in its work.
He has seen, upon the seed farm of his firm, as much
as one hundred and fifty acres of otherwise healthy tur-
nip plants, and one hundred acres of cabbage in the
seed producing condition, entirely destroyed within
three weeks. It is especially fond of the tender seed
stems of the ruta baga, and in nearly all seed-growing
districts where ruta baga seed-growing has been pursued
twenty years, the cultivation has ceased entirely on ac-
count of the great increase of this insect. On young tur-
nips the louse can be destroyed by dusting with Paris
64 MARKET GARDENING.
green, hellebore and slug shot, but as the insect enters
the most intricate folds of the leaves of cabbage, cauli-
flower and Brussels sprouts, the poisonous applications
cannot be used. An effective remedy, on small garden
plots, is kerosene emulsion, made as follows: One part
sour milk, two parts kerosene, thoroughly mixed by
rapid agitation till the combination forms a creamy
liquid. ‘To this add fourteen parts water, and apply by
an injector, or dash over the vines with a broom; or
the emulsion may be made with: One quart soft soap,
one quart kerosene, two quarts water mixed by forcible
agitation, and diluted with sixteen quarts of water
applied forcibly with a syringe.
Onion Fly.—The grub of this insect attacks the
bulbs of onions, the tops of which grow yellow and soon
die. There is no stopping its ravages, but prompt action
should be taken to destroy the larve, as a preventive
against a like attack the succeeding year. All sickly
onions should be removed and burned, and from four to
eight bushels of salt applied to the acre.
Turnip Fly.—The turnip fly, or flea beetle, is a
jumping insect about one-twentieth of an inch in diam-
eter, feeding on lettuce, radish, turnip and cabbage, as
soon as they break through the ground, often destroying
an entire crop, acres in extent, before the planter
knows the seed has sprouted. Equal parts of wood ashes
and land plaster dusted very thoroughly on the young
plants will generally drive them off. An application of
some efficiency is, one-part of Paris green, mixed with
forty or fifty parts of land plaster or flour. Some of the
State legislatures have very admirably passed laws mak-
ing it obligatory on farmers to destroy the Canada this-
tle, and other weeds dangerous to the interests of agri-
culture. No less caution should be observed with
respect to certain insects, as, for instance, the potato
beetle, multiplying by hundreds of thousands on the
DISEASES OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. 65
land of a slovenly farmer, infests the entire district next
year, no matter how diligently other farmers apply
themselves to its eradication.
Insects attacking garden plants may, in a slight
degree, compensate for their injuries, by the agreeable
study they afford to one of an investigating turn of
mind. The eggs can be gathered and hatched under
glass, or, better, under wire gauze, and the larve of
many species observed passing through the various
transformations to the fully developed winged insect.
Flying insects can be caught in a scoop net placed on
the end of a pole, and, when caught, can be killed by suf-
focation by the fumes of ammonia, or, more promptly,
by chloroform or ether. Beetles can be killed by fumes
of cyanide of potassium in a corked bottle, but this is
recommended cautiously, as its fumes are a deadly poison.
CHAPTER XI.
DISEASES OF GARDEN VEGETABLES.
However much insect depredations may be dreaded
by the gardener, he, at least, has some recourse against
the grubs, worms, snails, caterpillars and bugs, by de-
stroying them after some trouble, or by holding them in
check by poisonous applications, so as finally to secure a
crop. Not so, however, with fungous growths, which,
intimately connected with the structure and circulation
of the host plant, cannot always be destroyed by solu-
tions poisonous to vegetable growth, for, with the fun-
gus, the supporting plant may suffer equally with the
parasite.
The Legislature of the State of New York has set a
good example by the passage of a law authorizing the
66 MARKET GARDENING.
officers of the State Agricultural Society to enter upon
farm lands of citizens of that State, where new or dan-
gerous parasitic plants are found upon vines, or other
plants, and to destroy the crops by fire, the State assum-
ing the loss to the farmers.
The reader of this little volume may conclude that
the author has adopted a singular method of promoting
amateur gardening, by presenting to the beginner all
the evils which can possibly occur to crush the ardor -
and forestall the labors of the young gardener. Not sat-
isfied with dwelling on insect pests infesting gardens, he
must here present a dissertation on diseases. P
The observing man already knows that all vegetable
life, like the animal, is subject to disease and decay.
He has seen strong forest trees with lifeless branches,
and fruit trees, as the peach and pear, cease to be pro-
ductive. Garden vegetables of weaker development can-
not be expected to be exempt, and a very brief survey of
the prevalent diseases of a few varieties of field and gar-
den plants may be instructive, and lead to such subse-
quent critical observation as may be of profit; as, for
many of the diseases of vegetables, there are treatments
which may be termed preventive, palliative or curative,
and their proper use may, in time, reduce what is now a
serious loss in garden products.
Many of the diseases are the result of unclean soil,
which, like an unclean house, is a hotbed of infection ;
some are of a foreign origin, brought to this country
with seeds and plants, and, as in the case of certain
people, flourishing with double vigor under new condi-
tions of life. Other diseases, again, of American origin,
are carried, like certain insects, from one region to
another by our transportation lines; as, for instance,
the Colorado potato beetle, which has flourished for
hundreds of years in Colorado and on the plains of Ari-
zona, and southward into Mexico, but it never escaped
DISEASES OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. 67
froni its natural habitat till our cultivated frontier
reached its home, and then it spread Hast and North by
easy stages on the potato fields.
Potato-Vine Fungus.—The potato is subject to
the attacks of several parasitic fungi, two or more of
which attack clover and lettuce, appearing as patches of
white film, which, in a few weeks, spread over the entire
plant, extract the juice and reduce the vigor of the plant
so that growth of tubers ceases. ‘There is no remedy for
this disease, and to prevent its spread exceedingly great
caution has to be observed in burning all the stems of
the infected crop. ‘To dress the land with lime and to
cease to raise potatoes on the same ground for two years
is the best system to pursue. A second fungus growth
to which the potato is subject also attacks tomato and egg
plants, on each of which it is equally injurious. It ap-
pears about midsummer, and flourishes most vigorously
during close humid weather. It is first seen as a
fine white bloom, accompanied by darker spots on the
leaves. It is to be found mainly beneath the leaves,
and if the temperature continues moist it rapidly dis-
tributes itself over the entire plant, the darker spots,
increasing in number and size, indicating the presence
of mycelium within the tissues soon ready to develop a
white material on the surface. An offensive odor is an
accompaniment of this disease. The fungus, under con-
ditions favorable to its growth, develops rapidly, some-
times appearing and destroying a crop in two days, but
always the germs of disease have been present before-
hand, possibly for weeks. The stems of the entire crop
should be burned, the land should be limed, and any
succeeding crop planted with seed from a district not
infected with the fungus, and the crop planted wide
apart between rows to admit of a thorough circulation
of air.
Cabbage Fungus.—Club-root in cabbage is a
name applied to the outward results which appear on
68 MARKET GARDENING.
cabbage, turnips, mangels, carrots, as a distortion’ and
enlargement, in spindle form, of the main root stem and
rootlets, occasionally to ten times the normal size of the
roots. This ugly growth is due to the attack of a fungus
which usually fastens itself upon the plant at an early
stage, and when once present remains permanently.
The spores seem to form a connecting link between the
vegetable and the animal kingdom, for though entirely
vegetable, they have tail-like appendages which, by
vibration, cause the spores to move over wet surfaces in
quite a life-like manner. Cabbage with club-root—and
no one can mistake the disease—should at once be burned,
and no attempt made upon that land to grow cabbage
for at least a year.
Pea Fungus.—A fungus attacking peas, espe-
cially late varieties, or early ones sown late, and known
as pea mildew, is developed by decaying material of weeds
or rubbish, and is forwarded, especially, under conditions
of moisture and heat. When a crop is once attacked
there is little hope of arresting its ravages, and the best
course is to pull up the plants and use the ground for
something else.
The Bordeaux Mixture, used to destroy fungus
growths, as scab and mildew on grapes, apples, pears,
and other fruits of hard wooded plants, is valuable also
in the treatment of garden vegetables and flowers suffer-
ing from fungus. .To make the mixture, take four
pounds fresh unslaked lime, six pounds copper sulphate
powdered, forty-five gallons of water, or in same pro-
portion ; slack the lime, making a creamy mixture. Pour
into a barrel, straining it through a sack. Fill up with
water and stir. The mixture will cost about one cent
per gallon.
The mixture must be applied in the form of fine
spray, applied with force by an effective pump or syringe.
For fruits it will be safe to make four sprayings.
HEREDITY IN. PLANTS. 69
N \
“Ist. Just as the flowers are opening. 2d. Ten days later,
and so on at intervals of ten days. Sometimes six or
seven sprayings are beneficial.
CHAPTER XII.
HEREDITY IN PLANTS.
Breeders of horses, horned cattle, sheep and swine,
acknowledge that merit or demerit is inherited, and it is
the same with plants; they can be improved by selection
and cross breeding, as the sexes are almost as distinctly
developed in vegetables and flowers as in animals, and,
with a few exceptions, present themselves to our notice
in three forms, viz. :
Sexes in Plants.—First—Bi-sexual, in which both
sexes are present as part of the flower, as seen in the
fully developed pistil and stamens of the apple and pear,
the cabbage and radish.
_ Second—Moneecious, in which the sexes are found
in distinct flowers produced by the same plant, as in
corn, melon, cucumber, squash.
Third—Dicecious, in which the sexes are borne on
distinct plants, as asparagus and spinach.
Remote Parents of Cultivated Varieties.—The
cabbage grower of to-day would scarcely recognize, in
the coarse wild cabbage of the seashore of Denmark, the
parent of our improved varieties; nor the celery lover
the bitter plant, as found in its native habitats; nor
the epicure in watermelons the bitter, indigenous melons
found covering whole districts in Africa. The present
development in plants is the result of heredity in selected
specimens. The original individuals of every garden
vegetable and every garden flower were caught, tamed
70 MARKET GARDENING.
and improved through cultivation and selection, cover-
ing longer or shorter periods of time. The same work
of selection and improvement of good qualities in vege-
tables is yet going on, and more earnestly than ever
before. The seed grower of to-day is doing the work,
the only fear is he is going too fast, introducing many
variations of little merit, rather than devoting himself
to the selection and preparation of varieties of suitable
quality.
. Selection of Varieties.—Were it not for hered-
ity the seed growers’ labors would be in vain, but, fortu-
nately, the man who finds a good thing im the green-
house, flower garden, vegetable garden, or in the field,
can seize upon it, and, by the aid of heredity, fix, after
a time, its valuable qualities for the benefit of all. But
it may be well to say he meets with many instances of
curious reversion to original types.
Change of Seed.—lIt is quite possible to grow the
same crop on the same land for successive years, but it
is a ruinous policy. Weown a plantation in Virginia,
upon a field of which, it is said, corn was grown succes-
sively and uninterruptedly for ninety years, but the pro-
duct had fallen to ten bushels per acre. The avoid-
ance of such a course of seeding is known as the system
of rotation of crops, that is, such an alternation of seeding
as to complete define a cycle of cropping in a term of
years. Now, no less important is a rotation in the seed
itself. The vegetable gardener generally purchases his
seeds from various sources, but the grain farmer some-
times blindly adheres to his own stock of wheat, rye,
oats, till it has lost its original character, and run down
in productiveness for want of healthy stamina.
Much is gained, then, by a change of seed of any
family of plants, by seed grown on a different soil; and
we urge our readers to make trial every year of a limited
quantity, be it only a few papers, or pounds, of old or
id
HEREDITY IN PLANTS. Val
new varieties from localities different from their own in
soil and climatic conditions. Many fungus growths in
cultivated plants are superinduced by a weak physical
development, so that everything points to the advantage
of a change of stock if a cultivator wants to make either
2 reputation in the community for good crops or a profit
on his product.
The gardener cannot change the climate of a local-
ity, but he can transport plauts from one end of the
earth to the other and, subjecting them to new condi-
tions of climate and soil, thus bringing about a variability
which, by selection and continued culture, can be per-
petuated, the new quality becoming hereditary. This
process of selection has given us our best types of vege-
tables and flowers.
Man can do little to cause variability, but he can
seize upon good forms when they do appear, and, by
annual selection in fixed lines, secure important results.
No doubt the edible plants of the older forms have been
handed down from days of barbarism, when man was
forced, at times, by hunger to eat almost anything he
could swallow, but their qualities have been improved.
At this day we can hardly believe. that the wild
species of carrot, parsnip and cabbage were the progeni-
tors of our cultivated varieties. Several years ago the
wild carrot of the fields was experimented with at Blooms-
dale Farm, and, after seven years of high culture and
careful selection, it had developed a root quite soft, juicy
and palatable. The writer has grown quite good-sized
and fairly edible tubers, after five years of cultivation,
from the wild potato of Mexico.
The work of selection and the results of heredity is
in no plant so clearly shown as in the cabbage, every
one of the two hundred, or more, forms being developed
from one original,—the wild plant of the sea coast of
western Europe, now developed into plants of many dif-
72 MARKET GARDENING.
ferent characters, as kale, when the terminal and lateral
leaf buds are active and open; as Brussels sprouts, when
each leaf bud forms a head; as cabbage, when the ter-
minal leaf bud alone is active, forming one head; as
cauliflower, when the terminal flower bud is checked,
producing a mass of succulent, edible, and, to a large
extent, abortive flowers.
The occasional appearance of the so-called pod corn,
otherwise primitive corn, developing among cultivated
species, may be the result of heredity, as it is quite pos-
sible the original maize was of this character, every
grain being covered by a distinct husk. But it is in the
‘‘melon family” that the greatest variations eccur; pos-
sibly there are four thousand varieties known, compris-
ing great variability in size, form and color of vine,
and color, shape and size of fruit and form of seed, one
variety being two thousant times larger than another.
Nearly all of this family will interbreed ; the canteloupe
and cucumber have been hybridized on Bloomsdale
Farm and grown there for several years as an interest-
freak of nature.
While heredity is a well marked principle in vege-
table life, there is a constant tendency to depart from
established forms, sometimes for the better, oftener for
the worse, for reversion is generally downward in the
scale of excellence. The reversion may be in the form
of a wild sport, or a distinct reproduction from a late or
a very remote ancestor.
Every experienced seed grower knows that the
purest crops will sometimes develop the wildest sports, for
instance, a crop of cabbage of apparently absolute purity
may produce a few plants like collards, the result alone
of reversion. ‘The seed grower is powerless to prevent
this natural physiological freak, and the gardener who
knows anything of seed production and vegetable varia-
bility deals more rationally with the seedsman than he
SAVING SEED. 3
who knows nothing of such matters, but thinks nature
should produce plants all as much alike as nickels from
the mint.
CHAPTER XIII.
SAVING SEED.
Gardening at the present day is quite distinct from
that of the past, for, while it has been, from ancient
times, termed an art, it may now, in its advanced condi-
tion, be termed an art supported, explained and digni-
fied by nearly every science, all being called upon to
account for the natural phenomena of plant germination,
vegetation and maturity.
Though very few market gardeners are scientific
men, still, the progressive one nowadays gives consider-
able thought to matters truly scientific. For instance,
the chemical results affecting plant development through
the application of salts, of potash, soda, and other chem-
ical substances used as fertilizers, upon soils of sedi-
mentary, drift, or alluvial formation. For example, green
sand marly soils, requiring distinct applications from
soils of decayed red sandstone, and again, scientific, as
respects botanical and physiological differences, plant
subsistence, pollination, reversion, etc.
Systematic results, as affects species, can now gen-
erally be accounted for by the thoroughly intelligent
student of plant life and culture, and if system is pretty
well assured and the causes of such results fairly under-
stood, gardening is on the direct road to become a sci-
ence, and is certain to be so classed by the end of the
century, though of course, in its higher walks, having
but few practitioners amid the nations of the earth.
74 MARKET GARDENING.
Few farmers or gardeners have the patience, the
inclination or the training, to be close observers of the
habits of plants under different climates and soils, fre-
quently so modified as to appear in new forms, the mod-
ifications covering all the results of pollination and
selection ; consequently those who have acquired this
habit of observation are marked men in their respective
communities.
The variations in cultivated plants, due to the fancy
or caprice of the seed grower, is not the only difficulty
experienced by the purchaser of seeds who desires par-
ticular qualities ; but equally difficult is the identification
of fruits, flowers and vegetables under the various names
by which they are sold, some particular varieties having
a dozen names in as many locations, indeed, as many in
the same locality. Of course, this can only be corrected
by the natural determination among seed growers and seed
merchants to refrain from the manufacture of names to
advance the sale of their stocks in hand, but this is not
likely to be soon realized, as there is no court or author-
itative bodies to forbid the multiplication of names.
Nevertheless, an effort is now being made to have estab-
lished by Congress a national plant register, which, it is
designed, shall give the description and history of every
newly introduced fruit, vegetable, grain, flower or fiber,
the record being official and authoritative. The bill,
however, if passed, will not prevent Tom, Dick or Harry
from introducing a plant by whatever name, good or
bad, old or new, and the utmost that can be expected is
that honest originators will register their introductions,
and even some of these may not, through studied pur-
pose or caprice.
In England an official record has been kept for years
by the Royal Horticultural Society, which issues certifi-
cates to the exhibitors, for the first time, of new plants
of merit. The introducers of good plants thus get a
SAVING SEED. 15
society notice, which is generally copied in all the agri-
cultural or horticultural journals, but the plant is very
likely to appear the next year under a half dozen new
names, though of course it can never again be registered.
However, this renaming does not prevent it from heing
sold at very high prices, for the more extravagant the
name and the higher the price the more dupes to buy it.
Every gardener can save seed by permitting certain of
his plants to stand long enough, but usually such a
course does not pay, for the reason that garden space is
generally so valuable that crops reaching edible condi-
tion must be cleared away to make room for others in
their season, and again, that on fields of limited extent,
crops of various sorts of peas, beans, corn, melons,
squash and cucumber become each within its own family
hybridized, or interbred, so that crops grown from seed
raised in the garden present in one lot all the qualities
of the various crops of the preceding year, and always
the poor qualities will be found to predominate, as with
vegetable, like animal life, the coarse, ill bred types are
the most precocious and prolific. Still, it is occasionally
worth the time and labor of the amateur to experiment
in seed saving, for it certainly affords interesting instruc-
tion, whether the return be profitable or not, and it can-
not be doubted that the very cross-fertilizing, consequent
upon the crowding of crops in gardens, has been the
origin of many valuable hybrids. This cross-fertilizing
occurs during the flowering season, and results from the
pollen, a light powder, produced by the organs of the
male flower of one sort of bean, corn, melon, or other
plant, falling upon the female organ of the flower of some
other variety of the same family. The pollen, carried
by the wind, or borne on the bodies of insects, may be
carried for miles. Corn has been known to intermix
when planted hundreds of yards apart, or on opposite
sides of a dense woodland, or on opposite sides of a river
76 MARKET GARDENING.
a mile in width. This natural disposition of established
sorts to cross-breed has been taken advantage of by
expert gardeners desiring to unite in one individual the
good qualities of others. For instance, a very early
pointed cabbage may be crossed with a very late flat one,
with the view of producing a variety, uniting the good
qualities of both; or with canteloupes, a poor variety
with a showy netting may advantageously be crossed with
a rich flavored sort without netting, and the result be a
very desirable development, and so on with other plants
without limitation.
The gardener, possessing a greenhouse, can conduct
experiments in hybridizing with more convenience and
certainty in results than in the open garden, as inclem-
ent weather will not interfere with his labors, nor insects
defeat his purposes by crossing his selected piants from
unknown sources.
Seed Growers.—The professional seed grower
aims to produce his general stock of seed without hy-
bridization. He starts with approved forms and, grow-
ing them apart, endeavors to strengthen or extend the
desirable qualities of size, color, flavor, hardiness, or
time of maturity. But all seed growers do not look
upon a vegetable or fruit with the same eye and mind,
consequently their conceptions of merit vary, and so do
the plants which they pick out for select stock for the
ensuing year. Thus it comes that seeds sold under the
same name produce very different types of plants. One
sugar corn grower may select his Evergreen, with short
jointed stocks, having ears near the ground; another
may pay no attention to the position of the ears, but
select his seed alone for the size and shape of ear and
depth and lightness of grain; or one squash grower may,
for years, choose his from which to save seed as respects
closeness of setting upon the vine, outward shape and
color of fruit; while another may dwell principally
NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. Wirt
upon thickness of flesh texture and flavor. With this
variability in the whims of seed growers, it cannot be
wondered at that seeds sold under the same name pro-
duce widely different results as to development.
CHAPTER XIV.
SEEDSMEN’S NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.
There cannot be any good reason advanced why the
seed grower should not seize upon and perpetuate vege-
table hybrids or sports whenever they present new and
desirable features, even though the plant, on the whole,
is no better than some other well known sort. Novelties
may often show no practical improvement, in any sense,
being simply a variability of questionable utility in form,
size or color; nevertheless, the effort to develop novelties
has resulted in an improvement in vegetables and flow-
ers to such an extent that, in the manner of general
excellence, the cultivated plants of the present day are
far in advance of those of twenty years ago.
Demand for Novelties.—Novelties in vegetables
and flowers are all right, so far as they are true novel-
ties, and selected by practical seed-growers, but, unfor-
tunately, many so-called novelties are not the result of
culture or selection by practical workers in the field, but
altogether the product of the sensational seed merchant,
who does his farming at his desk, his plow being his
pen, drawn by an imagination so fertile as to have ex-
hausted the vocabulary of the English language, to
which he adds pictures and illustrations, ofttimes por-
trayed in such an undignified and offensive manner as
to bring his business down to the level of the mounte-
bank. In no business of the present day is there so
78 MARKET GARDENING.
much disguised humbug and open misrepresentation as
in the seed business,—misrepresentation in description of
color, form and merit of vegetables and flowers, due, on
one hand, to ignorance, and on the other, to design, by
illustration or pictures of monstrous and impossible veg-
etables and flowers; also in the illustration of seed stores,
offices, seed-packing rooms, and published statements of
sales, all schemes to catch the eye and take the money
of the confiding gardener.
This reprehensible practice, originated by English
seedsmen, has been adopted in this country, and, as
Americans do not like to be outdone by Britons, they
have gone, not one better, but advanced by strides and
jumps, till the Englishman hides his head in abashment
at his own insignificance.
It will, however, remain for the planter of novelties
and specialties to determine for himself, whether they
develop features of superior excellence upon his soil and
under the conditions of his climate. On some soils they
may possess very desirable qualities, and entirely fail on
others. Merit in vegetables covers a wide range of char-
acter. It may consist of coloring, form, size, texture,
flavor, precocity, productiveness, or freedom from dis-
ease, sunburn or decay, resistance to insect depredations,
and excessive heat or cold, wet or drought. All these
qualities are subjects for study in the field by the ob-
serving seed grower, market or private gardener, for
these cannot be determined at the desk of the modern
catalogue manufacturer. So much humbug has been
thrown into the seed catalogues of the past ten years,
that the intelligent gardener has had his eyes opened,
and he is now discriminating between those dealers who
can advise technically and those who have no training
in the field.
NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 79
SEEDSMEN’S RESPONSIBILITIES.
A review of the seed catalogues, price lists and pub-
lications of American, English, French and German
seed merchants and seed farmers, will reveal the fact
that they all disclaim responsibility for the consequences
of planting seed obtained from them. They emphatic-
ally declare they cannot, and will not, be held responsi-
ble for the varying results of seed sold by them and
planted by their customers, consequent upon influences
of soil, rainfall, drouth, periods of sowing, inexperience
of sower, and the many other causes which produce con-
flicting results in the germination of seed, development
of plants, and in the perfection of growth, fruit or flower.
To clearly convey the position taken by Kuropean
seed merchants upon this subject of responsibility, four
forms of disclaimer, as published by as many well-known
foreign seedsmen, are here given, all others using the
same or similar forms:
Ist. ‘‘ We herewith desire to remind our customers,
that whilst using our utmost care to supply seed only
of such quality as to insure entire satisfaction, we give no
warranty as to description, quality or productiveness,
there being too many causes, known and unknown,
which prevent good seeds from germinating.”
2d. ‘‘We wish it to be distinctly understood, that
while we exercise the greatest care to supply all seeds
pure and reliable, we are not, in any respect, liable or
responsible for the seeds sold by us, or for any loss or
damage arising from any failure thereof.”
3d. ‘‘We send out only seeds that will, to the best
of our belief, give entire satisfaction ; it must, however,
be expressly understood that immunity from error bemg
unattainable, and success more often dependent on cli-
matic or local influences than is generally supposed, we
warrant neither description, growth nor productiveness
of any goods we sell, nor will we hold ourselves in any
way responsible for the crop.”
4th. ‘‘We give no warranty, express or implied,
as to description, quality, productiveness, or any other
80 MARKET GARDENING.
matter of any seeds we send out, and we will not be, in
any way, responsible for the crop. If the purchaser does
not accept the goods on these terms they are at once to
be returned.”
No seedsman with any security to his property rights
could conduct a business where he would be subject to
suits at law by every merchant and gardener who might
be inclined to lodge at his door the material results of
crops. Every observing worker in the garden can recall
most contradictory experience in the sprouting and grow-
ing of crops. For instance, in April, 1890, the writer _
drilled, on Bloomsdale Farm, many acres of bush beans of
various sorts, and in the trial grounds planted samples of
these and many other lots. These field crops and the
trial ground plantings were repeated in May. ‘The
spring temperature was cold and the earth kept con-
stantly cold and damp by frequent rains; the results
were so contradictory as to be beyond explanation. For
example, a special variety, doing well in the field, did
badly in the trial ground; or the same variety, doing
well in trial grounds, did badly in the field. In every
case the highest results were accepted as indicative of the
percentage of vitality, though the same lot of beans may
have exhibited the wide range of from twenty-five to
ninety-five per cent of germination.
The same irregular results are obsorvable, not only
in germination, but in subsequent growth, and all the
way to maturity of form, size and quality of vegetable,
fruit or flower from seed out of the same bag, all conse-
quent upon natural or artificial condition of soil, tempo-
rary influence of temperature by day, and quite as often
by night; sunlight, rainfall, favorable influence to urge
into rapid growth, or unfavorable conditions to check
progress often occurring at that period of the plant’s
development, determining its merit for exce!lence, medi-
ocrity or inferiority.
NOVELTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 81
Irregularity im sprouting is often observable with
seeds just harvested, particularly so with corn and beans,
as it would seem nature intended they should become
dry or dormant before sprouting into new life. Seeds
of cabbage, turnip and radish are liable to grow moldy
if kept in bags without ventilation, and often the seed
merchant is blamed for the attention of the consumer
himself.
The writer has known of many instances where
freshly harvested, and, consequently, soft seeds of turnip,
cabbage and radish, shipped because the consumer
insisted upon having fresh seeds, proved, upon examina-
tion later on in the season, after having been kept in
bags as shipped, to have taken on a moldy smell and, on
trial, to have fallen from ninety or ninety-five per cent.
vitality to fifty per cent. Sugar corn is very liable to
injury when stored in bags, and new beans shipped early
in autumn are almost certain to sweat.
In the United States the leading seedsmen publish
a disclaimer to the same effect as their brethren in
Kurope, the phraseology, in general, being about the
same. No sensible gardener would take exceptions to
this, as it is only such a precaution as he himself would
take, knowing full well the variable results of climate,
soil, rainfall, and variations in the action of manures.
CHAPTER XV.
WEEDS.
An old adage among the English wheat growers is,
‘‘that the greatest weed in wheat is wheat,” implying
that a plant of wheat properly developed must have
room, that crowding by another, even of its own species,
is injurious, and that a plant so crowding another is a
weed. 176
HOtbedst in. sc. 61, 84, 88
Implements................. 1, 14, 169
Insecticides... ..-.----0- eee eereee 57
IMWHXCSo6 sooonaaneono Osco aao2e sso 26, 57
Intermediate beds. ............ 51, 91
IPMBISR AMOI. Gooocanocoadanoccnoc oss 202
January calendar................ 185
JULY CALEM OAT ae = ae wiare = arate 192
June calendar......: 5 Wesecnoonso* 191
Kalle ias 1.4 eines eee eee 2, 10
Kerosene emulsion .............. 64
Kohl 2abi.. oc... sense eee 161
Labor. se ao. . sees eee 1, 101
Late 'CLrOPS s- <2 mite eee 7
TUAW. ojos 'sre «isve oyeinislouciche Se eee 213
Ott CG etersie=« |e verereiotelers 45, 52, 103, 108
INDEX. 215
ILIWING oo 00500000000 00ndc00000000000 SH IRE) PALISISG oo oop o00 voc do0ooHouacKe 206
ILOCHUIOM, sang ssooascudsagaLbosoUs Ty JUOISEN apo oe aceemee ooo rocoMpacaenoo se 128
ILO Ges ceganocduccouboscooebeDG 36 | Saving roots................2+.5-- 147
Lye, fermenting..................- 87 | Saving Seed....... 6... ccc cece eeee 74
VEAINUUT OS hes. x cists cresereterciaveysie e's 35, 36, 87 | Science of gardening ............ 22
Manures, @reen...........---..-.- 38) || SGRISOMIES Sooedpoodocnopensode 3, 9, 11, 48
Mangel wurzels.................. TDM ESCEM WES .....:2/ cco cee a crectcen wen 51
March calendar.................- STE SEe CaCl Si eretciecreeteloelnerelse 15, 128, 173
Market gardening............ 2,4, 94) Seed testimge’.................0209- 46
May calendar..................... 190 | Seeds . oa 41, 42, 46, 70, 73, 76, 134
IWIGIOMG) So ceneeneeeapap so adeeens naan 10| Seeds in a pound Sean Meaty tok 209
Mixed @1rasseS ..........2.--...-.- 207 | Seedsmen’s responsibilities...77, 79
MUG@TISUTMURS 5508 50 goa Ga90 S500 00D sb50 44) September calendar.............. ‘194
Monthly calendar.......... Be Bobb 185 | Sexes in plants................... 69
VI CMI GS) tee cece sede cece seen ee ae 53 | Sheep farming.................... 200
Mushroom eulture....... 135, 1388, 189 | Shipmments......................-. 168
New England district............ 2 shipping vegetables............. 164
Nitrate of soda................... Gil || SOillleds os50 cour 8, 17, 18, 19, 103, 107, 112
INTROS 6660 socongosdsenaaue 30, 31, 40 | Sorting vegetables Son doneasbo acco 188
Nitrogenous plants............... 20) South ‘Atlanta GHStTIChe esse
Norfolk district .................. 2| Sowing seeds........... 41, 87, 90, ad
INO\WGELUNES 32 Soon oaeaee aoe eaeoenomard Ti || SPBWills oo cc oenaosconsea se000g0g 900 135
November calendar He ob Suace ame an 1G3 || SUUTZCNN <6 Goon oceanasosccus0ne 2, 10, 45
OHI 5 so.5cthbooodunoggooeudeoees case 43 || SIGIMAISIN 6 - So Goda ocoe boen doo noTONaRe 10
October calendar................: IGS | SC WAIN LOWE oo coho ost sos oscucdDs 60
Ow SSCS soocqooussuassaonsenees 46 | Stable manure........... 13, 14, 35, ¢6
(COMMON TihYco cacdocsoogod babe Benuanes 64 | Starchy seed................:.-... 46
Onions................-. 2, 45, 125, fe WOVE sae coso ued sooounoD condseod 120
ORANGES asd oomedeesood saan see ooeeE Strawberries..............-- 10, 12, 15
Orchard grass ................-..- 206 Suceession ..............---+:- 54, 55
Over production.................. 12) Sugar beets. ............-.+-05---- 154
IPEKC RR GOS 650 aeuouado Boe deceees 165 | Sulphate of ammonia............ 31
Packing vegetables.............. 164) Sun houses...........-..-.-000---- ut
J ERW ASIN D dein Oe DOMBen Dabo peer BP G2 || SMIMITVENGTG cs osnocsodooos ss900085 8008
TEMISUUTRS) TINGLE S Sogo cond bong peooasuS 208 | Superphosphate.........
MC pM Sete ete eleicia) vale otek Sefer @S3 | SHSUSITNE soccodacasnsoscocnccuon|aD
IPRS Soon Son omO meee 85, Hs alia, WG, Gay GI MEMS) Saba S60 00enn0d0 occ 5000 bo0K
IESTDDSIS obo Dood soem obomAusUagooaseN 52| Testing seeds.............--.--- 6
Perennial rye grass.............. 206 | Texas blue grass
Perishable vegetables......... 7, 103 | Thinning out..................
Peruvian @uano.................. Big) || AUN. 36 coasescoccassodcscce 7
Philadelphia district ............ 3 | Limothiy......-----+------,---
Phosphorie plants ............... 30 | Tomatoes............ ,
Phosphate of lime ............... 31| Transplanting...........--
IPI, [Es on poopo od boooAbeanecoedc 93 | Transportation...............---
MOM Bete sere isiartsier= 6 toeiecieie se eisiecs wists 753 || GUROGVEN soos cocasena cosavssc concede
IXOUGISIMN 5 co coco cog cne00GeE 30, 31, 32, ae Truck farming.........---------s-
Potato bug................-....... “NOBBANTD) caanedodecanbecc
Potato fertilizer.................. 32 Turnip fertilizer
Potato plants..................... 30 | Turnip fly. ......--------+---++---:
Potato vine fungus............... 67 | Value of products...........-..-- 2
Potatoes..........-.. 2, 3, 10, 12, 16, 32} Variability ...................-..- 71
METOOMUCUStis place selene oss 10, 110 | Varieties of beet...........-.... 2153
Profit in gardening .............. 1,6) Varieties of carrot..............- 159
IPTROMIIS 5 Gougs en eed endo nencoeeemees 6,9| Varieties of onion..........-.--.- 126
RUUVEVUZATION cece ce = oe tec s 250. 20 | Vegetables ....-....-.-- 3, 4, 7, 65, 164
QUINN ng pa BS Boece ODesSan eee comEaee 168 | Ventilation .........-..-. 102, 105, 165
Quantity of seed.............. GO), ISHN WAM MMINY 5 Goo0 050s0c0bn0a0 45, 47, 50, 134
Quotations.....................--- 168 | Watering... .......---+. eee ee eee age
ARVAIGUISINESn cictayeip-cieic seie os oasis ae 2, 45, 52 | Watermelon........-.-.--.--+----
AVASPIDCLEVCSs.-\-c0- 2c. sc 2 cece soe 10 || WYRE nc cons caccodocganocgadecss 82, 83
Red top @rass ...............- 205, 208 | Wheat fertilizer..............---- 32
IRGMUGHG 3656 doc pce e Aer een aenneane 7| White grub..............--.-.---- 59
Roots for stock feeding.......... 140 | Winter vegetables ........------- 4
Roots, Saving..................065 147 | Wire worm................-------- 59
PEP EU TT OMe ape a arc iareley wjnisys, Sisieoeye tia ei asese 54] Wood ashes ........-..+e.00--- 31, 39
LENE) o000 CGO AGE fevaveters dovoudaboco0 34, 201 | Wool....... Riefehelofelercrciniehettcloteteleieioisrat 201
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