Farm Gardening with Hints on Cheap Manuring Part 3

BUSH BEANS (green pod).--We recommend Improved Round Pod Extra Early Valentine; also, New Giant Stringless Valentine.

BUSH BEANS (yellow pod).--Wardwell's Kidney Wax and Davis' White Wax are largely grown in the South for s.h.i.+pment North. Valentine Wax is recommended for the North. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

WHITE FIELD OR SOUP BEANS.--We recommend Day's Leafless Medium and New Snowflake Field. For descriptions of these and other varieties, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

POLE LIMA BEANS.--We especially recommend Ford's Mammoth Podded Lima and Siebert's Early Lima.

POLE SNAP BEANS.--Golden Andalusia Wax is one of the best yellow-pod pole beans, and Lazy Wife's one of the best green-pod sorts.

DWARF LIMA.--Dreer's, Burpee's and Henderson's represent three distinct types.

For full descriptions of beans, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

=Location.=--In choosing a spot for bean culture the farm gardener should select good mellow soil that has been manured the previous year. Fresh manure produces an excessive growth of vine at the expense of pods.

=Making Ready.=--Much stable manure, which is rich in nitrogen, should be avoided. In good ordinary soil, with some rotted manure from the previous crop, the bean plant will do well. It will obtain nitrogen, in great part, from the air, as already explained. Old manure is very favorable as a starter, as it contains the minute organisms mentioned in the preceding pages. Complete fertilizers or those containing phosphoric acid and potash must be supplied. Only nitrogen is derived from the air.

=Soil Inoculation.=--The soil of a new bean patch is sometimes inoculated with soil from an old patch, to get quick action of the bacteria (little organisms), which form the lumps or tubercles on the roots. The scattering of a little soil over the surface is all that is required.

Care should be taken to avoid the transfer of soil for this purpose from a patch affected with rust or blight, as diseases are carried from place to place with only too much ease.

=When to Plant.=--Beans may safely be planted when the apple is in bloom, in May; not so early as peas, as beans are less hardy. The ground should be dry and warm. Beans of all kinds demand shallow planting, as the seeds must be lifted from the ground in the earliest process of growth. The seed swells, bursts, sends a shoot (radicle) downward, and the two parts of the seed, called the seed-leaves, are pushed up into the daylight. Small round beans can take care of themselves, as they turn easily in the soil, but lima beans often perish in the effort to get above ground. This is why lima beans should always be planted eye down, and less than an inch deep. A half inch is deep enough for most beans. If lima beans are wanted extra early, they should be started on small squares of inverted sod, under gla.s.s.

The earliest bush beans yield marketable pods within forty to fifty days from planting; the pole beans in from seventy to ninety days from planting. There should be successional plantings made of the bush beans from the first date to within fifty days of frost. The different types of beans are fully and carefully described in the seed catalogues.

=Distances.=--Poles for beans should be set about 4 feet apart each way; or, in single rows, about 3 feet apart. Not more than three or four plants should be allowed to a hill. Wires stretched between posts, with strings down to the ground, are sometimes used. The bush beans are planted in rows 3 feet apart for horse culture, or half that distance where a hoe or hand cultivator is to be used. The plants in the rows should stand 3 or 4 inches apart for best yield.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plant of the New Valentine Wax Bean. The Earliest Wax or Yellow Podded Snap Short.]

=On a Large Scale.=--In large field operations, where the dried bean is the object in view, a clover sod is a favorite location. The ground is enriched by 400 or 500 pounds of complete fertilizer, and the beans are planted with a grain drill, using every fourth tube. The culture is by horse-power, and the vines are pulled by hand or by means of a bean-harvester, and threshed with a flail or grain thresher. These white grocery beans are sold everywhere in large quant.i.ties.

=Cultivation.=--All bean cultivation should be shallow. Nothing is gained by cutting the feeding roots. The climbing sorts twine "against the sun;" that is, in a contrary direction to the apparent motion of the sun. The shoots must be tied up several times, to keep them on their own poles.

=Diseases.=--The worst bean enemies are rust and blight. In new soil, with good weather, these troubles seldom appear. During prolonged wet weather there seems to be no help for them. Spraying with Bordeaux mixture is a preventive. The spraying should be done in advance of blossoming. The seed is sometimes soaked in Bordeaux mixture for an hour where rust is antic.i.p.ated. Prevention is better than cure, and new soil and fresh seed are the best precautions. Diseased vines should be burned.

=Insects.=--The weevil which attacks the bean is closely allied to the pea weevil. Some practical people say there is no remedy known; others recommend heating the beans to 145 for an hour; others use bisulphide of carbon in a closed vessel, along with the beans.

=Profits.=--By far the largest cash receipts per acre are obtained by selling beans in their fresh state; preferably in the pods. The production of bush beans (pods) may run up to 75 or 80 bushels per acre, or even more. Lima beans are more profitably sold in the pods than sh.e.l.led, though some markets demand the sh.e.l.led article. The consumer gets a fresher and better article in the pods, and the producer is saved much trouble, and this method should be encouraged. Beans should be cooled, if possible, before s.h.i.+pment in bulk to distant markets, thus avoiding danger from heating, moulding and spotting.

BEETS.

Beets are produced in enormous quant.i.ties by market gardeners near all large cities, both under gla.s.s and in the open ground. They also have a place in the farm garden, as they are of easy culture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Crosby's Improved Egyptian, the Earliest Blood Turnip Beet.]

Excellence in the table beet depends partly on variety, but mainly on the quickness of growth. Sweetness and succulence result from high culture in rich, mellow soil.

Mangels and sugar beets, of course, have a place on every farm, for stock-feeding purposes, and table beets may also be grown, if good soil is available, for market purposes. The winter-keeping sorts are frequently in demand, and may be included among the farmer's cash crops.

No amount of stable manure is excessive in beet-growing. Partially rotted manure is best. For horse culture the rows should be 3 feet apart. Five to six pounds of seed will plant an acre.

PLANTING.--Planting may be done as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, as the beet is hardy, and not injured by a little frost; and successional plantings may be made until June. The June sowing will produce autumn beets, which can be stored for winter use or sale.

It is well to soak the seed in tepid water before planting; it should be scattered thinly in the rows and lightly covered. In dry weather the soil must be pressed firmly on the seed, to insure sufficient moisture for germination. The plants in the rows should be thinned out to 3 or 4 inches.

It is very important to remember that the more s.p.a.ce each plant has about it the sooner will it reach a marketable size. Beet plants standing 5 inches apart in the row will be ready long before plants standing only 2 inches apart.

Beets vary in shape very considerably. Some are round and some are long, with intermediate grades. The turnip-shaped beets are the earliest, while the half-longs and longs are the heaviest. For market purposes, if sold in bunches, the round ones are the most profitable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ford's Perfected Half-long Beet. The Best Winter Keeper.]

The color of the foliage varies greatly; but the color of the leaf is not always typical of the root. Some of the blood beets have green leaves. There are many shades and colors of the roots, from deepest blood red to white, with zones of pink. The beet is an excellent and highly esteemed article of food, and is always in demand.

BEETS.--For earliest, we especially recommend Crosby's Improved Egyptian and Surprise; for winter, Ford's Perfected Half-Long.

Please see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

=Marketing and Storing.=--A bunch contains five, six or seven beets, with tops tied together and superfluous leaves cut off. The bunching and topping may be done in the field, and the bunches afterward washed in a tub of water, by means of a scrubbing brush. It always pays to send roots to market in a clean and attractive condition.

Winter storage in cellars, under sand, is often practiced; or the beets may be kept in pits in the open ground, covered with straw and earth.

=Enemies.=--The beet is remarkably free from enemies of any kind. The root sometimes cracks, and is occasionally attacked by insects, but the farmer or gardener has little to fear if soil be good and weather be favorable. All farmers attending market should have a few beets to help make up the weekly load for the wagon.

CABBAGE.

Early cabbage is not a farm gardener's crop at the North, though in the Southern States the early varieties can be grown by farmers for s.h.i.+pment to the great Northern markets. The Northern farmer, unless provided with gla.s.s, usually finds more profit in the later and larger sorts, which mature in autumn.

=Soil.=--Rich, loamy soil, containing much clay, is best for this vegetable, which is a rank feeder. Large amounts of manure are demanded. The manure is best applied in a partially rotted form, as fresh manure of any kind (especially hog manure) is liable to produce the disease or deformity known as club-root, the spores of the disease apparently being in the fresh manure; though land too long cropped with cabbage is likely to produce the same disease without the application of fresh manure of any kind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage.]

=Seed.=--It is of especial importance that good seed be planted, as cabbage varies so much and shows such a disposition to go back to undesirable types that great dissatisfaction and loss attend all experiments with poorly-selected seed. The choice of seed not infrequently determines the size and success of the crop. Expert cabbage growers are well aware of this fact.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Johnson & Stokes 'Market Gardeners' No. 2, Valuable for Early Summer or Winter Cabbage.]

=Planting.=--The manure should be broadcasted, and an ample amount used, with a high-grade fertilizer in the row. The young plants, previously started in a seed-bed, should (at the North) be set out in July. The seed for late cabbage is planted in May. A quarter pound of seed will give enough plants for an acre.

The rows should be 4 feet apart, and the plants 2-1/2 feet apart in the rows. These distances favor good cultivation and quick growth. In some parts of New England the seed is sown in the open field, in rows where the cabbage is to grow, but the practice of transplanting from seedbeds is found most satisfactory.

The rainfall here usually insures a fair crop of cabbage, but any crop which requires transplanting in midsummer is liable to delay or injury in case of protracted dry weather. Hence, irrigation is desirable. At the distances just recommended for planting (4 2-1/2 feet) there would be 4,356 plants to the acre. In the case of such varieties as Johnson & Stokes' Earliest and Jersey Wakefield cabbage, where the number of plants per acre would be perhaps 10,000, the Michigan Experiment Station obtained 5,000 more marketable heads per acre under irrigation than where water was not used upon the growing crop. (This fact is mentioned in a book on irrigation just issued by the publishers of this book).

=Varieties.=--The earliest varieties of cabbage have small, conical heads; the midsummer sorts mostly round heads; and the late or drumhead sorts have large, flat heads. There are cabbages which never head; as, for instance, the collards of the South; and there are varieties of crinkled-leaf cabbages, known as the Savoy types. The kales are closely related to the cabbages. Both cabbages and kales have purple-colored forms, sometimes called red forms.

CABBAGE.--For early varieties for the South, we recommend Johnson & Stokes' Earliest, Early Jersey Wakefield and Charleston Wakefield; for both early and late in the North, Johnson & Stokes' Market Gardeners' No. 2, Louderback's All the Year Round; for late varieties for the North, New Rock Head Winter, Johnson & Stokes' Matchless Flat Dutch, Danish Ball Head. The Johnson & Stokes' Hard Heading Savoy Cabbage is of rare excellence. For descriptions of the many varieties of cabbage, please see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

=Cultivation.=--Thorough horse cultivation between the rows should be supplemented by a hand-hoe between the plants in the rows. The cultivation must be good and continuous until the heads begin to form.

=Diseases and Insects Enemies.=--Club root has been mentioned. It is a fungous trouble. The best remedy is new ground. The black flea on very young plants can be conquered with air-slacked lime or wood ashes. The cut worm is troublesome only in spring; not with late cabbage. The root maggot is sometimes very destructive, both with cabbage and cauliflower. New ground is the most satisfactory remedy. Green aphides or lice often follow lack of strength in the cabbage. Pyrethrum powder, air-slacked lime, kerosene emulsion, etc., are used as remedies for lice. The pyrethrum may be used dry or in water, at the rate of a tablespoonful to two gallons. The green cabbage worm, one of the worst of all enemies, can be pretty effectually checked by means of air-slaked lime dusted over the leaves. Other caterpillars yield to the same treatment.