Farm Gardening with Hints on Cheap Manuring Part 6

Farmers should give far more attention to growing squashes, as they are much superior to pumpkins in food quality, both for the table and for stock.

There are numbers of excellent squashes now catalogued by the seedsmen which many farmers have never tried, but which are worthy of cultivation for market purposes. When a farmer by experiment has found a high-quality squash adapted to his soil, he has put himself in possession of a product of permanent market value.

PUMPKIN.--We especially recommend Mammoth Golden Cashaw and Winter Luxury. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

SQUASH.--Early varieties--Mammoth White Bush Scalloped, Giant Summer Crookneck. Winter-keeping varieties--Sweet Nut, Faxon, Chicago Warted, Hubbard, Early Prolific Orange Marrow. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

TOMATOES.

Tomatoes may justly be rated among the leading crops available to farm gardeners. There is always a brisk market for selected, carefully-washed tomatoes, packed in new baskets. Such produce is seldom offered in excessive quant.i.ties.

Any good corn land will produce good tomatoes. Excessive manuring is likely to stimulate the vines at the expense of the fruit. A little complete fertilizer or compost in the hills is desirable.

Tomato seed of early varieties should be started under gla.s.s. The seed is sown on heat and the plants once or twice transplanted, and put in the open ground as soon as danger of frost is over. Little is gained by setting out too early, when the ground is cool. The tomato is of tropical origin, and makes rapid growth only at a temperature of 65 or upward. Indeed, it is suspected that one of the worst diseases to which the tomato is liable, the blight, is encouraged, if not wholly caused by too early planting in the open ground.

=Varieties and Planting.=--At 4 feet apart each way, it will require about 2,700 tomato plants for an acre of land. In open field culture the tomato is always allowed to lie upon the ground. In garden culture, it is often tied to stakes or supported on trellises. Three ounces of seed will raise sufficient plants for an acre.

There are many varieties of tomatoes, including the early and late market sorts, the yellow kinds, and the little pear-shaped and plum-shaped tomatoes, both red and yellow, used in pickling. The ideal market tomato is one of medium size and smooth shape. It must have firmness and depth, and the quality of ripening evenly all over. There should be neither greenness nor wrinkles around the calyx, nor should the fruit be of irregular shape. As to color, it is a matter of taste and neighborhood preference. Some markets demand red and some purple fruit.

TOMATO.--We recommend, for earliest, Atlantic Prize and Money Maker; for second early and main crop, Brinton's Best, New Fortune; for late, Brandywine, c.u.mberland Red, Stone. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

=Successional Planting.=--If the first tomato plants be set in the open ground (at Philadelphia) May 15th to 20th, there should be at least one and preferably two later crops, because young, vigorous plants yield the most and best fruit. It is good practice to sow tomato seed in the open ground, say about middle of May, and again somewhat later. These out-of-door plants will come forward very rapidly, and will be ready to produce late summer and autumn crops.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Atlantic Prize Tomatoes, as they Appear for Sale on Fruit Stands, etc., during the Spring Months.]

=Cultivation.=--The tomato is of the easiest cultivation, and will grow even under neglect, but it so abundantly repays attention, that no farmer can afford to be careless about the matter. The nights of May are cool in the North, and the newly-set plant at first makes little growth. Cultivator and hand-hoe should both be kept in motion during this period, and in June also. In the latter month the tomato will make a sudden leap toward maturity, and will yield ripe fruit in July. The out-of-doors cropping season lasts for three full months.

The tomato is now grown under gla.s.s almost everywhere, and is to be had in the market during all the months of the year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Great B. B. (Brinton's Best) Tomato, Best for Main Crop.]

The out-of-doors season is profitably prolonged by picking all the mature or nearly mature fruit when the first frost comes, in October, and placing these unripe tomatoes on straw in a cold frame. Covered with straw and with the sash to keep out frost, the fruit ripens in a satisfactory manner for several weeks. Such a frame must be well ventilated or the tomatoes will rot rather than ripen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: New Fortune, one of the Best Second Early Tomatoes.]

=Diseases and Enemies.=--Tomato diseases, fortunately, are not numerous. Blight sometimes sweeps off a whole field of early-set tomato plants, on farms where later plantings are quite healthy. This favors the theory that blight results from weakness caused by early planting in cold ground. It is a fungous disease, and may sometimes be prevented by the use of Bordeaux mixture. The same remedy is the best known preventive of black rot.

Potato bugs may be either hand-picked or poisoned with Paris green.

The tobacco worm sometimes causes much damage to the tomato. All diseased or blighted tomato vines should be promptly burned, and the crop carried to new soil the following year.

=Marketing, Profits, etc.=--As already stated, choice tomatoes in clean baskets are always in demand, and a new basket will usually pay for itself on a single sale. The sum of $150 per acre may be quoted as the average gross receipts from tomatoes at present prices. This estimate is based on the low yield of a half-peck of fruit to each vine at 25 cents per basket. If sold retail, the tomatoes would command more money, while if sold in bulk to a canning factory the gross receipts might be larger or smaller, depending on the size of the general crop and other circ.u.mstances.

TURNIPS AND RUTA BAGAS.

Turnips and ruta bagas are closely related. The latter are turnips in fact, and are frequently called Swedes. The common method on many farms is to sow turnips broadcast, but it is a far better practice to sow both these and the ruta bagas in drills, so that they can be kept clear of weeds and worked by horse-power. Not only are these advantages secured, but the row system makes it possible to take out the superfluous plants, and secure roots of uniform size and shape.

Turnips and ruta bagas have high economic value as foods, both for humanity and for live stock.

=Turnips.=--Turnips are grown for market purposes both in spring and in fall. In the spring the seed should be sown early, in mellow soil.

For the fall crop the seed may be sown either in July or August. The rows in garden or field may be as close as can be conveniently worked.

TURNIP.--For earliest, we recommend Purple Top and White Milan.

For fall crop, Mammoth Purple Top Globe and Golden Ball. For descriptions, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Budlong or Breadstone Turnip.]

=Ruta Bagas or Swedes.=--The seed of ruta baga or Swedish turnip should be sown (in the lat.i.tude of Philadelphia) in July, a little earlier than the seed of the common turnip. The ground should be well enriched with rotted manure, the rows 2-1/2 to 3 feet apart, the seed covered to the depth of half an inch, and the plants afterward thinned out so as to stand 6 or 8 inches apart in the row. The crop is almost always large and satisfactory.

RUTA BAGA.--We recommend Myer's Purple Top Beauty and Budlong.

For descriptions, see our "Garden and Farm Manual."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Myer's Purple Top Beauty Ruta Baga.]

=Storage.=--Turnips of all kinds sell well in the winter markets, to say nothing of their high value as stock foods. They are easily preserved in root cellars, covered with sand, or in pits in dry soil, covered with straw and earth to prevent freezing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Distribution of Water through Home-made Hose Pipe. An Ill.u.s.tration from our New Book--"Irrigation by Cheap Modern Methods."

No Gardener should miss Reading this Work. See page 125.]

CHAPTER IV.

VEGETABLES SUITED TO FARM CULTURE IN SOME LOCATIONS.

In this portion of the book are grouped a number of vegetables not adapted to every farm or location. The list includes celery, water cress, cuc.u.mbers, egg plants, kale, lettuce, melons, mushrooms, onions, peas, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, sweet potato, etc. Where favored locations for their production exist on farms they may be grown with profit, if markets are accessible.

CELERY.

On very many farms there are meadows with deep, rich soils that are now lying under gra.s.s; or, worse, under tussocks and swamp weeds. Some locations are subject to disastrous overflow during freshets, but innumerable spots exist where such meadows could with safety be converted into celery gardens, capable of easy irrigation, either situated above the level of floods or susceptible of artificial protection by means of cheap embankments. Such situations are entirely too valuable to use for pasturage. They are the truck gardens of the future.

=Perfect Celery.=--The object in celery-growing is to produce thick, robust, tender, solid, crisp, sweet leaf stalks, free from rust or insect attacks. The essentials are rich land and plenty of water, and skill is required in the two points of bleaching and storing. But there are no mysterious processes to be learned. The Kalamazoo growers have, it is true, a rare advantage in their deep muck soil, with a permanent water level only a few inches or feet below the surface, but their success depends on accuracy of working detail almost as much as on perfection of soil. It is not necessary to go to Michigan for good celery ground.

=Fertilizers.=--The best known fertilizer for celery is thoroughly rotted barnyard manure. Fresh manure is to be avoided for several reasons. It is less available for plant food, more likely to produce rust, and more liable to open the soil and render it too dry.

Commercial fertilizers are not infrequently used, but there is a decided preference among many celery growers for the rotted stable product. Shallow plowing (5 inches) is practiced, as celery roots do not go deep.

=Planting.=--It requires from 20,000 to 35,000 celery plants to the acre, according to their distances apart. In the intense culture at the great celery centres two crops (and even three crops) of celery are grown upon the land per year, by a system of planting between rows, but in the operations of farm gardeners not more than one crop per season is grown. This may follow an earlier market crop, such as peas, beans, onions or sweet corn, though where the farmer is hard pushed with other work, the celery may be grown without any other crop preceding it, but not upon newly-turned sod land, as the earth should be loose and mellow.

Seed for early celery must be started under gla.s.s, but the farmer will find his best celery market in the autumn. April will, therefore, be ample time for sowing the seed, which should be scattered thinly in rows in finely-raked mellow soil in the open ground, and covered lightly. The seed is very slow to germinate, and the bed should be copiously watered until the plants are well started. In small operations, it is well to transplant at least once. In large operations, the plants are thinned out in the original rows, and carried from thence direct to the field. The upper leaves and the tips of the roots are cut off, and the plants are set firmly in the soil by means of a dibber.

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. & S. Golder Self-Blanching Celery Prepared for Market.]

=Dates and Distances.=--July is a proper time for setting out celery; preferably after a rain or during dull weather. The rows may be from 3 to 5 feet apart, depending on the purpose of the planter, and the plants 5 or 6 inches apart in the rows. If the celery is to be stored for blanching, 3-feet rows may be used. If it is to be blanched in the field, the distance between the rows should be greater, so that more loose soil will be available for hilling.

One ounce of celery seed will furnish 2,500 to 3,000 plants. A half pound is sufficient to furnish plants for an acre.

Even on good ground celery should not be set out later than August 15th (in the lat.i.tude of Philadelphia), and preferably earlier.