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Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes published by the Cornell University Press in the series THE LITERATURE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, 1991-1995, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. Hatt atolUge of AgricultttcE At Q^ontell UniiiErBUg Strata. ». S. SSbrarg MARKET GARDENING AND FARM NOTES Experiences and Observations or THE GAKDEN iJTD FIEU>. OF QTTEBEST TO THE AMATEUR GARDENER, TRUGKER AND FARMER BY BUEKET LAI^TDEETH Chief Bureau of Agriculture Centennial Inter-National Exhibition, Officier du Merite Agricole de France. NEW YORK ORANGE JTJDD COMPAITY 1915 COPTBIGHT, 1892, bt orange judd coMPAirr (^\u^o Pbinied in U. S. a. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L Page. Market Grardening 1 CHAPTER n. Location and Soils 17 CHAPTER m. The Science of Gardening 32 CHAPTER IV. Chemistry of the Garden 30 CHAPTER V. Stable Manure, Compost and Commercial Fertilizers 35 CHAPTER VI. Sowing Seeds 41 CHAPTER VH. Germination 44 CHAPTER Vm. TransplantiDg 61 CHAPTER IX. Succession, or the Rotation of Crops 64 CHAPTER X. Garden Insects 57 CHAPTER XI. Diseases of Garden Vegetable...,,. 65 IV MAEKET GABDENINQ. CHAPTER Xn. Heredity in Plants ^^ CHAPTEE XHL Saving Seed "^^ CHAPTER XIV. Seedsmen's Novelties and Responsibilities 78 CHAPTER XV. Weeds 82 CHAPTER XVL Hotbeds and Cold Frames 84 CHAPTER XVn. Market Ctardening Under Glass 94 CHAPTER XVni. Celery 113 CHAPTER XIX. Onion Culture 125 CHAPTER XX. Mushroom Culture 135 CHAPTER XXI. Roots for Stock Feeding 140 CHAPTER inm Packing and Shipping Vegetables 164 CHAPTER XXm. Implements for the Farm and Garden. 169 CHAPTER XXIV. A Half -Acre Garden 182 CHAPTER XXV. Calendar Indicating Operations for the Northern and Southern States 185 CHAPTER XXVI. The Grass Question 198 Index 214 MARKET GARDENING. CHAPTEE I. MaEKET GAEDEinirG. 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 «f 534,440 acres of land. The annual «xpei>ditnTes for f ertilizers being $10,000,000 The cost of seeds used amounting to $1,420,633 The number of men employed being 216,765 The number of women employed being 9,254 The number of children employed being 14,874 The number of Worses and mules employed being 75,800 The value of the Implements used l>eing $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- 1 MAKKET GAEDENING. poses, and the value of products raised, given by dis- tricts, is as follows : Districts. Acres. Value of products 6,838 108,135 25,714 45,375 37,181 111,441 36,180 36,889 107,414 1,083 3,833 14,357 43,184,218 Pli iladeiphia 21,102,621 2,413,648 4,692,859 Norf ollc 3,784,6% 13,183,516 Mississippi Valley 4,982,579 4,979,783 15,432,223 204,791 Mountain 531,976 2,024,345 Pacific Coast 534,440 $76,617,155 In the Philadelphia district, which includes Penn- sylvania, 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 $31,000,000. The nexb 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. As an 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. Cabbage 347,000 barrels. Kale 178,000 " Onions 4,800 " Kadishes 4,200 «' Irish potatoes 325,000 " Sweet potatoes 265,000 " Spinach 123,000 " Beans 80,000 boxes. Cucumbers 46,000 «• Tomatoes 360,000 " MARKET GARDENING. 3 In addition to the above there were shipped from the same city almost 1,0.00,000 watermelons. And yet it was considered a poor year. From the city of Mobile, in the next year, the shipments were : Crates of cabbage 68,309 Boxes of beans 46,178 Boxes of peas 1,278 Boxes of tomatoes 2,695 Barrels of potatoes 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 nnprecedented 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 modem agriculture. Formerly esculent 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 besins, 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 MABKET GAEDENXNa. cities, eyeii when snow clad and ice bound, the fruits of baliriy summer. From such a perennial field there are now offered, at ail 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 weU-to-do, but of every hotel and restaurant. Thtis, 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 com 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 especiaUy, 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 GAKDEKIKG. 6 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 attractiye and saleable, as a shipper and a close reader of miarket 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 estiinates 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 labor-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 eSpenses 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 MAEKET GAEDENXETG. of building, appliances and labor, would require a cash capital of eighty to one hundred dollar^ per acre. For example, a beginner in market gardening in South Jersey, on a five-acre patch, would need fiye 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 point, 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 t« 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 MAKKET GAEDENUSTG, 7 before the close of the first season, as he works under heavy expenses, 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 having 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 ahsolutely 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 charged for a market garden which the writer visited in the outskirts of Paris, Prance. 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 be. Transportation. — From many communications which the writer has received, he gathers that the m quirers imagine, because they are on a railroad a fev hours or a hundred miles or so from a shipping point, that they are well placed for market gardening. This 8 MABKET GAfiDENING. is mistake. True the railroad car or the steamer whioii ij to receiye articles so perishahle 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 liable 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 MABKET GAEDENLNG. 9 its destination and pay largely, hut 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 as in summer. Hence it will be seen that not only must there exist certain conditions as respects facUity 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 Tork and Philadelphia in close proximity, where gathering of perishable vege- tables and picking of fruit may be pursued till sunset, and the next moriiing 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 bn 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 sfeason in which crops are produced is a compensation for increased expenses. It may not be fuUy realized by all persons into whose hands this work may fall, that the time or season in which a vegetable deHcacy 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 MAEKET GAEDENIWa. 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 land. 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 plautintr 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 JtAEKET GAEDBNINQ. 11 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 Tegetables be well chosen and well packed. The reader will obserye 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 East along the seaboard by steamer or coast railway lines from points as far south as Key West, inland up to Sb. 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 concentration, 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 13 MAEKBT GABDBlflirG. market, the greater the range of Tarieties he can ship successfully. Second : — That of too great diversification and the undertaking to grow too many kind^ of TCgetahles, requiring widely different conditions of soil and climate, the land, perhaps, heing 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. N"ow, 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, Savannah, Florida, and, still later, but before North- em 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 GAEDENING. 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 solving nearly every kind of seed in every month, and marketing crops. out of their usual seasons. For instance, egg plaait 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, in 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. Eight sach loads can 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 wiU add 14 MABKBT GARDENING. that one year the order for Bloomsdale and Eeedland 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 productSj they reap large profits. It is a 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 MABKBT GARDENING. 15 embrace several acres there will he 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 np 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 tliese 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 MAEKET GAEDBirnifQ. 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 cylin- 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 GAKDENING. 17 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 oyer an indefinite area ; this is a great mistake, as they are posi- tiyely 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. CHAPTEE II. LocATioif AND Soils. As a rule, 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. 3 18 MAEKET GAEDEKING. As snnliglit is the great factor, in the growth of vegetables, too much attention cannot be given to afford- ing uninteiTupted access for every ray of sun to the grow- ing crops, hence no houses, bams, 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 ofteu 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 iuto three divisions, as respects their origin : 1st. Sedimentary — A soil formed entirely out of til 8 local rocks. 3d. Drift — Soils formed out of divers materials, irregularly mixed and deposited without stratifioation. 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 : 1st. Gravelly — So styled from the abundance of small stones or pebbles of granite, slate, feldspar and limestone. 3d. 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 as is- required for plant nutrition, but rest and meliorating treatment will, in time, restore such soils to a fertile condition. Deainagb. 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 MAEKET GAEDENING. 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. In 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 primciples 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 roots 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 broadcast crops, wiU 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 TuU, a well known agricultural writer, many years ago said, "Tillage is manure," CHAPTEE III. The SciEsrcB of GAKDENiiirG. Gardening, as pursned 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 pursnits, 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, " It will not be doubted that, in reference either to indi- ^2 THE SCIENCE OF GAEDENrNQ. 23 viduals or to national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance." Webster, of our own generation, wrote, "Agriculture 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 Mfe 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 wiU certainly fail. 34 MAEKET GABDENINQ. 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 Eomans, they had acquired many facts per- taining to husbandry; they pruned, watered, fenced, forced, and retarded blossoms and fruit much as we do. Oato, 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 agi-iculture ? Without it men would live wandering lives, disputing with each other for the pos- THE SCIENCE OF GAKDEKING. 25 session of such animals as they could catch, and for the spontaneous fruits of the earth. Without agriculture there would he 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 afEords, 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 it a 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 36 MABKET GAEDEirarG. 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 evU, in connection with vegetation, was scarcely considered as belonging to gar- dening ; their eggs passed unnoticed, and the ravages of the larvae were looked upon frequently as atmospheric blights beyond control. KTow 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 Eevolution. 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 Eio 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 SCIEITCE OF GAKDENIKQ. 37 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 a^ 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 tiU 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 HAEKET GA.EDEiaU'Q. phosphates, nitrates, chlorides and carbonates of potash, lime, magnesia, iron and ammonia. Those ingredients that are deficient in quantity can be readUy added by the application of stable manure, which contains every- thing desirable, or by specifi'" 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 circum- 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 GAEDBKING. 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, proTided 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 public schools of our rural districts ! The time will come when, in this country, as in Europe, 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. Chemistrt of the Gaeden". 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 com. 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 CHEMISTET OF THE GAEDEIT. 31 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 eyery 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, howeyer, 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 httle gelatine, albumen and oil. The lime, ordinarily in the form of carbonate or sulphate, is not so pronounced in its efEects, 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. 33 MABEET GAEDBNING. 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 U cents per pound Nitrate of potassa 6} " " " Nitrate of soda 2J " " " Sulphate of ammonia ^ " " " Sulphate of lime i " " " 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 poirnds Nitrate of potassa 100 " Nitrate of soda 150 " Sulphate of lime IBO " Costing about sixteen dollars. For potatoes we recommend : Acid, bone phosphate of lime 250 pounds Nitrate of potassa 150 " Sulphate of lime ISO •• Costing about fifteen doUars. CHEMISTET OF THE GAEDEN. 33 For turnips, ruta baga, corn, sorghum : Acid, bone phosphate of lime 300 pounds Nitrate of potassa , loo " Sulphate of lime 200 *• Costing about thirteen doUars. For beans, peas and clover : Acid, bone phosphate of lime 200 pounds Nitrate of potassa 150 " Sulphate of lime 200 " Costing about fourteen dollars. For wheat, barley, oats and pasture : Add phosphate of lime 100 pounds Nitrate of potassa 100 " Sulphateof ammonia 100 ** Sulphate of lime 100 " 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 efiBcient 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 uncat grass, renders the soil quite as fertile by the retention of nitrogen as by the 3 34 MAEKET GAEDEKINS. direct Talue 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 com. Eye has proved to be the best green manure sown in October or November, and, when prop- erly put in, wUl 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 AprU or May, and early enough, except in the far South, for crops of potatoes, onions, melons and com. Eye, 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 FEETILIZEES. 35 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 ia 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 under, 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. OHAPTEE V. Stabie Manuke, Compost and Commekcial Pbetilizees. stable manure of good quality cann.jt be obtained in every locality, and it may be practical to consider, ;irst, how poor stable manure can be improved, and, secondly, how a poor grade may be mixed with other materials to form a compost. 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 36 MARKET 6AKDENIN0. 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 ANB FBETILIZEKS. 37 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 indiEEerent 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 it is 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 : Two 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 MAEKET 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 adyisable, 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 fiye or six inches, that the lye may dampen every portion. COMMBKCIAL FeBTILIZERS. 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 England 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 FEKTILIZEKS. 39 ments sometimes containing as mucli nitrogen as phos- phoric acid, and also a large percentage of potash. The chief merit of Peruyian guano is dne to the fact that it has been accumulated in a region where it never rains, as npon the Chincha Islands, or only occa^ sionally upon the Labos Islands, and though fifty per cent, of PeruTian 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 droppiags from birds, and other materials, aU deriyed from the weeds and fish of the sea. There are other bird guanos collected from Tarious 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 sonrces 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 from 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 ont of sea water. Before crude salts can be advantageously sold and transported they have to 40 MARKET GAEDENING. 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 being 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 hia 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, bat as respects SOWING SEEDS. 41 human foods. He is thus lifted ahore 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 wUl 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. CHAPTEE VL SowiKG 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 MAEKET GAEDBKINQ. 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 yariations in processes. Much disappointment ia the garden often results from ignorant practices, as from unseasonable sowing, as from too deep or too shallow covering, from injudi- cious selection of varieties, from ineflBcient 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 FOB A ROW ONE HUNDRED YARDS LONG. One ounce of cabbage, cauliflower, ooUards, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, egg-plant, kale, kohl-rabi, pepper, squash, pumpkin, tomato, tuinlp. SOWING SEEDS. 43 Two ounces of onion, leek, lettuce, endiTe, parsley, canxeioupe. Three ounces of carrot, cress, celery, chervil, water melon, parsnip, herbs. Four ounces of cucumbers, nasturtium, rhubarb, salsify, scorzonera. Five ounces of beet. Six ounces of radish, spinach. Eight ounces of com salad. Twelve ounces of okra, asparagus. One pint of field corn. One quart of sugar com. Three quarts of bush beans, peas. In a country of such diversity of soil and climate as the United States, it is difficnltj 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 difEering 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 oah bursts its leaf buds, sow beet, carrot, celery, lettuce, parsnip, radish, salsify, turnip, tomato. When the Uachlerry is in bloom sow those seeds which will 44 MAEKBT GAEDENING. thrive only in warmer soil, as the bean, com, ciicumher, cantelonpe, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, okra. No occupation of business, no occupation of pleas- ure, afiords 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 lalDor should leave gardening alone, because it is a perpetual combat with enemies, rain, drouth, frost, heat, weeds, insects, and the unexpected from every quarter. CHAPTER Vn. Geeminatiok. 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^a 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 j and they OEBMIITATIOir. 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 raries, 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 MAEKET SABDENXNG. 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 iu 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 com, 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. GERMINATIOK. 47 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, tinder 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 cotton, 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 scale 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 MAEKET GAEDENIITG. germination tte 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. Eadish, if of American growth, should have a vitality of ninety 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 com, 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 MAEKET 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- growiag regions abroad and the injurious efEects 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 Eu- 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 larvae at time of sprouting, conditions of moisture and temperature. The seedsman who guaranteed his seed would either be a fool or a knave. ' 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 ; TEANSPLAITTIKG. 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. CHAPTEE 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 laud 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 be 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 destrnction of the rootlets, but lifted with a trowel or similar tool, and when out of the ground TEA5rSPtANTl2S-G. 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, leaying 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 recoTer from the setting, as hoeing mellows the soil and has a Titalizing 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 garden, 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 MAllSET GARDENING. of the soil under a mulch renders ordinary cultiyation unuecessaiy. Every cultivator not familiar with the merits of mulching should make some experiments, the material always being cheap, indeed, often in the way, d presenting a problem as to its disposition. 'il CHAPTEE IX. ScrCCESSION, OR THE EOTATION 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 be ignorant of literature and polite accomplishments, but they are, nevertheless, specialists, and if successful oper- ators in the advanced system of gardening, may proTe themselves to have acquired a technical knowledge whicli 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 BOTATION OF CEOPS. 55 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. N"ow, 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 Grulf States the practice is quite distinct from that of the Oarolinas, and in the Caroliuas equally distinct from bhat of the corn and wheat growing districts of the Bast 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 an 1 celery plants. Onions by kale, turnip and winter rad- ishes. Spring spinach by beans and tomatoes. Spring radishes by cabbase, for early autumn use. Lettuce by beans and tomatoes. Beans by kale, turnip, winter rad- 56 MAEKET GAEBEU^ING. ishes, anttunn lettuce and celery. Early carrots by autumn spinach, kale, tuinips, 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 com 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 afEord 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 Tegetable 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. CHAPTEE 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 going 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 suflBcient 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 witb 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 : Eepellants, as gasoline, tar, kerosene, sulphur powder, which act by overcoming the natural odor of plants attractive to cer- 57 58 MAEKBT 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 preTen- 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 tlje habit of night moths and bugs to fly into lamps or other lights, and that the incli- nation lias 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 larvae, or slugs, are most ravenous .destroyers of the cuticle or outer hark 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 voracious 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 «lug is certain to kill it. White Grub — The white grab is the larvae 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 tUl the second summer, when they attack the roots of plants. They remain as grabs in the earth for nearly three years, by which time they reach a length of two 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 diflBcult 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 wiU 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 GAEDBNING. are the grubs of snap-beetles, brown-black insects which, when laid over on their backs, hare the singular power of snapping and springing Tiolently 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 larvae 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, ravenously attacking the seed, roots and stems of almost any yonng vegetable, and when disturbed, coiling quickly iuto 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 hellebore has been found efiective 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 green. 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 secnring 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. QAEDEN INSECTS. 61 for in some seasons plants of squash, cucumber, melons, pumpkin, taving six or scTen leaves large as a man's hand, are completely eaten ofE 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 ofE 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 larvae, 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 larvae will follow. On Eeedland 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. Experiments made at Bloomsdale J'arm 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 c9,nteloupes least of all. As the French wine growers kill the phylloxera insect feeding on the roots of the grape by the poisonous 63 MAKKET GAEDENING. 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, tlie 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 insuffi- 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 lettuce. It is the larvae 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 BO poisonous an article to a plant which might enfold GAKDEH IKSECTS. 63 the poisonous compound witliin 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 efEective. 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 efEective, 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 pknt 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 rata 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 GAEDENIIS-G. green, hellebore and slug shot, but as the insect enters the most intricate folds of the leares 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 kerosenCj 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 larvae, as a preventive against a like attack the succeeding year. All sickly onions should be removed and bnmed, 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 efiBciency 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 GAKDEK VEGETABLES. 65 land of a slovenly farmer, infests the entire district next year, no matter how diligently other farmers apply themselres to its eradication. Insects attacking garden plants may, in a slight degree, compensate for their injuries, by the agreeable study they afPord to one of an investigating turn ol mind. The eggs can be gathered and hatched under glass, or, better, under wire gauze, and the larvae 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. CHAPTEE XI. Diseases of Gabdest 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 sufEer equally with the parasite. The Legislature of the State of New York has set ? good example by the passage of a law authorizing the 5 66 MAEKEl 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. 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 GAEDEN VEGETABLES. 67 from its natural habitat till our cultivated frontier reached its home, and then it spread East 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 gerrhs 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 MAEKET GAEDENING. 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 Tegetable 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 J-ff PLANTS. 69 1st. 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. Heeeditt 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-sexnal, 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 — Monoecious, in which the sexes are found in distinct flowers produced by the same plant, as in corn, melon, cucumber, squash. Third — Dioecious, in which the sexes are borne on distinct plants, a,s 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 ou]- 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 GAKDESriNG. 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 q-uality. 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 in 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. — It is quite possible to grow the same crop on the same land for successive years, but it is a ruinous policy. We own a plantation in Virginia, upon a field of which, it is said, com Tvas 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 HEEEDITT IN PLANTS. 71 new Tarieties 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 a 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 plants 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 ?areful 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 GAEDENING. 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 cheeked, producing a mass of succulent, edible, and, to a large extent, abortive flowers. The occasional appearance of the so-called pod com, 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 occur; 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 thousand 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- tahle life, there is a constant tendency to depart from established forms, sometimes for the hetter, 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. 73 who knows nothing of such matters, but thinks nature should produce plants all as much alike as nickels from the mint. CHAPTER XIII. Sating 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, gai'dening 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. 'J'4 MAKKET GASDENING. Few farmers or gardeners have the patience, the inclination or the training, to be close observers of the habits of plants under difEerent 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 quahties ; but equally diflficult 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 oflBcial 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 ofiScial record has been kept for years by the Eoyal 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 SATINS SEED. 75 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 being 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 donbted 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 otlier 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. Com 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 MAEKET 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 bj crossing his selected plants 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 NOYELTIES AND KF.SPONSIBILITIES. 77 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 difEerent results as to development. CHAPTEE XIV, Seedsman's Novelties and EispoNSiBiLiriES. 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. Ifovelties 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 resultfid 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 GAEDENIifG. much disguised tumbug 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, tiU 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 bbsponsibilities. 79 Seedsmen's Kesponsibilities. A reriew of the seed catalogues, price lists and pub- lications of American, English, French and German seed merchants and seed farmers, will reyeal 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, deyelopment of plants, and in the perfection of growth, fruit or flower. To clearly convey the position taken by European seed merchants upon this subject of responsibility, four forms of disclaimer, as published by as many well-known foreign seedsmen, are here given, aU others using the same or similar forms : 1st. " 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 being 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." 4:th. " We give no warranty, express or implied, as to description, quality, productiveness, or any other 80 MARKET GAEDENING. 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 obsarvable, 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 excellence, medi- ocrity or inferiority. KOVELTIES AND EBSPONSIBILITIES. 81 Irregularity in 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 inattention 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 Europe, the phraseology, in general, being about the same. !N"o 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 varations 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 hare room, that crowding by another, even of its own species, is injurions, and that a plant so crowding another is a weed. A weed, then, is a plant out of place, not neces- sarOy a noxious plant, or a wild plant. The ordinary understanding adopts the term weed to designate an unattractive plant, without special value. On the farm the term weed is used to designate an intruder among cultivated crops, an uninvited guest. As a rule, those plants recognized as weeds are of foreign origin, the seed being brought to this country through commerce, transported here with other seeds, or in pack- ing material of hay or straw. As an example may be cited the one hundred new plants which appeared and were scattered all over Fairmount Park after the Cen- tennial Exhibition, which were mainly from the forty countries represented. The delicate ones succumbed under our cold winter; many of the hardy ones still exist, spreading far and wide over the surrounding country. It is a curious fact to note that foreign weeds have taken a firmer place in our own garden and field than our aboriginal weeds, which have disappeared before the march of the invader as native tribes have succumbed before the descendants of the Europeans. All of our cultivated plants have their wild originals, and many of 83 •WEEDS. 83 our most ornamental flowers have been discovered away from the haunts of man, but whatever the form, color or habit of plants, injurious to other crops or exhausting the soil without profit, they are designated as weeds. Classification of Weeds. — These pestiferous plants may be divided into three classes: Annuals, developing seed and dying *'ie same season; biennials, taking two years to perfectly develop and produce seed, and then die ; perennials, covering several seasons of growth and seeding. These three classes may be di- vided as respects the character of underground growth, some producing surface roots, as rag weed, easily pulled up, others producing rod-shaped roots, as wild carrot, which can be extracted entire; other bulbs, as buttercups or garlic, very difficult of eradication, while others are tubers, as coco grass, a troublesome class, and still others, producing subterranean root-stems, as Can- ada thistle, having numerous buds, each capable of developing new plants. Destroying Weeds. — All these weeds, when in their first stages of growth, may be kept in check, if not entirely destroyed, in the garden, by plucking them when an inch or so high, or with a hoe or knife cutting them off, or by disturbing the soil vrith a cultivator, by turning under with a plow, or by smothering with mulch or waste material. Noxious weeds never should be per- mitted to mature their seeds; if not destroyed they should certainly be so cut dovm and kept cut down as to prevent seed development. State Laws Respecting Weeds — In some States there are legislative enactments requiring the destruction of the Canada thistle, recognized everywhere as one of the most persistent and dangerous of encroach- ing weeds. lb would be well if a similar statuCe was adopted by all the States, and applied to other weeds, as mustard, ox-eye daisy, wild carrot, which careless 84 MAEKET GAEDENINQ. farmers allow to propagate on their lands, t.o their own disgrace and to the manifest injury of their neighbors. A very intelligent French agriculturist, once visiting the writer, after making a tour of the United States, said the American farm was the most slovenly he had ever looked upon ; and it is quite true, for, as a rule, every farmer in this country has more land than he can prop- erly attend to, and, at the best, but few have had that education in the economy of space which has been so intently studied in Europe. CHAPTER XVL Hotbeds and Cold Eeames. The ordinary size of a convenient hotbed, may be ten feet, by six or seven feet wide, or it may be only of the dimensions of a common window sash, three feet by four feet, more or less. The shape has nothing to do with the definition, which may be to the effect that a hotbed is a box covered with glass, the whole placed upon a bed of soil resting on a bed of fermenting stable manure, the heat from which, rising in the form of vapor, warms and moistens the soil within the box, while, at the same time, the sun's rays, passing through the glass, are retained to warm and vivify the surface. Seeds sown within such a box will germinate in less time than without such protection. As an illustration of the varying forms which hotbeds may take, the writer may say that he once saw an eflScient hotbed full of vig- orous vines of egg plant, made of a large oil or whisky barrel, with the head and. bottom knocked out, and then let down half way into the earth and banked up all around with soil. In the bottom, six inches of stone were placed for drainage, nnd then eighteen inches of HOTBEDS AKD COLD FRAMES. 85 rich, nnfermented horse manure, six inches of fine rich earth, rising to within ten inches of the top of the bar- rel, the open top covered with a discarded window sash. We do not recommend sucli a hotbed, but it is an exam- ple of the simplicity with which one can be made. With a full understanding of the cardinal principles of so applying the manure as to make it hold the heat of fer- mentation, to handle the sash so as to collect and accu- mulate the sun's heat, it matters little what form the box assumes. The location of the hotbed has much to do with its success or failure. It should only be placed on land always free from flooding, preferably on a declivity, with good subsoil drainage, sheltered from cold winds, and facing south or southeast. As an example of a hotbed frame, we will describe it as a box for one, two or four sashes, each seven feet long by three and one-quarter feet wide. This dimension of sashes is given because it is easy to handle. The width named will allow for four lengths of 8x10 glass placed lengthwise. Whatever the dimensions of the sashes, all should be alike, so as to be interchangeable. The frame may be permanent, of brick or stone, or, temporary, of boards. The frame may be regularly built by a carpenter, with strong cor- ner pieces, or the gardener can do all the work himself and attain just as practical results. Doing the work himself, he may proceed as follows : The length and breadth of the bed having been decided upon, excavate a space two feet wider and two feet longer than the indi- cated dimensions. After the excavation is completed, drive down at the four corners, and at intervals between the corners, posts of proper lengths, four by four inches square, to which nail the side boards ; the posts on the back of the frame rising twelve to fifteen inches above the surface level, and those in front of the frame six to eight inches, nailing the boards only to those portions 86 MAEKBT GAEDEKING. of the post wLich are above the earth level, the boxes, as it were, standing on stilts, it being desirable to use as little lumber as possible. The excavation is for the purpose of keeping the material and contents of the bed as much removed as possible from frigid air ctirrents, and thus economize manure. Into the excavations of eighteen or twenty inches in depth throw one foot in thickness of cornstalks, leaves, half rotten straw and coarse manure, these princi- pally for preventing dampness or facilitating drainage ; on top of this coarse strata spread a layer of three to four inches of good horse-stable manure just beginning to ferment, avoiding pig and cow manure, as they do not heat. The manure for hotbeds must be well manip- ulated, that the fermentation may be prolonged, and this is best done by shaking out the manure loosely with forks, and, if exceedingly rich, mixing it with some poorer material, otherwise the fermentation wiU be too fierce and of too short duration ; indeed, to secure thor- ough mixing, it is well to turn the manure intended for hotbeds at least three times, at intervals of two days, and, when transferring the manure from the pile to the bed, it should be done quickly, that the manure be as little exposed to the chilling influence of the air as possible. Tramp the manure down and spread it evenly from end to end and side to side ; when done repeat with a layer of three or four inches, and when this is spread and well tramped down, add a third layer of the shortest and best unfermented manure, as this subsequently will be a feeding ground for plants, the various layers of manure making twelve to fourteen inches in total depth. If the spreadiog and trampmg and quality of material be not regularly distributed in the bed, it will be irregu- lar and the plants ihe same. For early beds use the manure liberally. Verj late beds can be made without HOTBEDS AND COLD FRAMES. 87 any, as tbe sun, in late spring, will give sufficient heat. Manure for Hotbed. — As fresh horse-Stable ma- nure, when used alone, is very heating and soon subsides, it is best to mix it with leaves or half rotten straw, as seed may be burned over manure of too high temperature. Of course it is impossible to indicate fixed dates for sow- ing, over a country so broad as this, and with such a variety of climatic conditions. The beginner can get his best hints for procedure from a gardener resident in his district, or others not far removed from it. Any recommendations here simply apply to the Atlantic Middle states, and even there the practice is very diverse. Tomatoes and egg plants are best sown from the first to the fifteenth of March, otherwise they attain too large a size before a right opportunity for transplanting may present itself. The writer, and all others of experience, find it always best to make two sowings. Cost of seed is a mat- ter of little importance, as compared with securing a sat- isfactory stand of plants. A gardener bad better pay three dollars per pound for good seed than one dollar for seed that will not germinate, or, still worse, to prove, after germinating, to be of inferior quality, as thus his time and labor would be wasted. As it is always desirable to have the crop started ajiead of the weeds natural to the soil, the writer suggests the soaking of the seeds before the bed is made, that when the bed arrives at the proper condition the seed may have germinated and be ready to sow. Sowing Seeds in Hotbeds. — "With either tomato, egg plant or cabbage, mix the seed with three times its bulk of sifted sand, white sand preferred, that the seed maybe better distributed; soak in tepid water for one hour and place the mixture of sand and seed in shallow boxes or pans, carefully labeled, and kept in a warm place till the seeds show signs of germinating. Some 88 MAEKET GAEDEFISTG. Tarieties will take longer than others, and different crops of the same variety will take different periods to sprout. Seed thus treated and sown on a properly prepared bed will often show a green line twenty-four hours alter sow- inlants 20 Norfolk district 2 Novelties 77 November calendar 196 Oak 43 October calendar 196 OUy seed 46 Onion fly 64 Onions 2, 46,126,132 Oranges 16 Orchard grass 206 Over production 12 Packages 166 Packing vegetables 164 Parsnip 62, 162 Pasture field 208 Pea fungus 68 Peas 3, 10, 16, 16, 45, 68 Pepper 62 -Perennial rye grass 206 Perishable vegetables 7, 103 Peruvian guano 39 Philadelpliia district 3 Phosphoric plants 30 Phosphate of lime 31 Plant pit 93 Pollen 75 Potash 30,31,32,39 Potato bug 60 Potato fertilizer 32 Potato plants 30 Potato vine fungus 67 Potatoes 2,3, 10, 12,16,32 Products 10, 110 Profit in gardening 1,6 Profits 6,9 Pul verization 20 Qualitv 168 Quantity of seed 42, 181 OJiotal.ions 168 Radislies 2, 46, 52 Kaspberries 15 Ked top gi-ass 205, 208 Kfiital 7 Roots for stock feeding 140 Roots, saving 147 Rotation 54 Eye 34,201 Eye grass 206 Salt 128 Saving roots 147 Saving seed 74 Science of gardening 22 Seasons 3, 9, 11, 43 Seed beds 51 Seed drills 15,128, 173 Seed testing 46 Seeds 1, 41, 42, 46, 70, 73, 76, 134 Seeds in a pound 209 Seedsmen's responsibilities... 77, 79 September calendar 194 Sexes in plants 69 Sheep farming 200 Shipments 168 Shipping vegetables 164 Soil 8, 17, 18, 19, 103, 107, 112 Sorting vegetables 166 South Atlanta district 3 Sowing seeds 41, 87, 90, 144 Spawn 135 Spinach 2, 10,45 Squash 10 Squash bug 60 Stable manure 13, 14, 36, g6 , Starchy seed 46 Storing 120 Strawberries 10, 12,15 Succession 64, 55 Sugar beets 154 Sulphate of ammonia 31 Sun houses Ill Sunlight 18 Superphosphate 13, 14, 31 , 38 Systems ., 11 Tanks 118 Testing seeds 46, 47 Texas blue grass 204 Thinning out 56, 146 Tillage 17,20,21 Timothy 204, 204 Tomatoes 2, 3, 4, 10, 62, 168 Transplanting 51, 89, 111 Transportation 7, 15 Trowel 56 Truck farming 2 Turnip 52, 142, 148, 150 Turnip fertilizer 33 Turnip fly 64 Value of products 2 Variability 71 Varieties of beet 153 Varieties of carrot 169 Varieties of onion 126 Vegetables 3, 4, 7, 65, 164 Ventilation 102, 106, 165 Vitality 45,47,60,134 Watering l™ Watermelon 3 Weeds 82, 83 Wheat fertilizer 32 White gittb .' 59 Winter vegetables 4 Wire worm 59 Wood ashes 31, 39 Wool 201 The Management and Feeding of Cattle By Prof. Thomas Shaw. The place for this book will be at once apparent when it is stated that it is the first book that has ever been written which discusses the man- agement and feeding of cattle, from the birth of the calf until it has fulfilled its mission in life, whether on the block or at the pail. The book is handsomely printed on fine paper, from large, clear type. Fully illustrated. 554x8 inches. 496 pages. Cloth. . . , Net, $2.00 The Farmer's Veterinarian By Charlfs William Burkett. This book abounds in helpful suggestions and valuable information for the most successful treatment of ills and accidents, and disease troubles. A practical treatise on the diseases of farm stock; containing brief and popular advice on the nature, cause and treatment of disease, the common ailments and the care and management of stock when sick. It is profusely illustrated, containing a number of halftone illustrations, and a great many drawings picturing diseases, their symptoms and familiar attitudes assumed by farm animals when affected with disease, and presents, for the first time, a plain, practical and satisfactory guide for farmers who are interested in the common diseases of the farm. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 288 pages. Cloth. Net, $1.50. First Lessons in Dairying By Hubert E. Van Norman. This splendid little book has been written from a practical point of view, to fill a place in dairy literature long needed. It is designed primarily as a practical guide to successful dairying, an elementary text-book for colleges and for use especially in short-course classes. It embodies underlying principles involved in the handling of milk, delivery to factory, ship- ping station, and the manufacture of butter on the farm It is written in a simple, popular way, being free from tech- nical terms, and is easily understood by the average farm boy. The book is just the thing for the every-day dairy- man, and should be in the hands of every farmer in the country. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth. Net, $0.50. A Dairy Laboratory Guide By H. E. Ross. While the book is intended primarily for use in the laboratory, it should be of value to the practical dairyman. The time has come when the suc- cessful dairyman must study his business from a purely scientific point of view, and in this book the scientific principles, upon which dairy industry is based, are stated clearly and simply, and wherever it is possible, these prm- cioles are illustrated by practical problems and examples. 90 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth Net, $0.50 C0) - ' Profitable Stock Raising By Clarence A. Shamel. This book covers fully the principles of breeding and feeding for both fat stock and dairying type. It tells of sheep and mutton raising, hot house lambs, the swine industry and the horse market. Finally, he tells of the preparation of stock for the market and how to prepare it so that it will bring a high market price. Live stock is the most important feature of farm life, and statistics show a production far short of the actual requirements. There are many problems to be faced in the profitable production of stock, and these are fully and comprehensively covered in Mr. Shamel's new book. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 288 pages. Cloth. Net, $1.50 The Business of Dairying By C. B. Lane. The author of this practical little book is to be congratulated on the successful manner in which he has treated so important a subject. It has been pre- pared for the use of dairy students, producers and handlers of milk, and all who make dairying a business.- Its pur- pose is to present in a clear and concise manner various business methods and systems which will help the dairy- man to reap greater profits. This book meets the needs of the average dairy farmer, and if carefully followed will lead to successful dairying. It may also be used as an ■elementary textbook for colleges, and especially in short- ourse classes. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 300 pages. Cloth. Net, $1.25 Questions and Answers on Buttermaking By Chas a. Publow. This book is entirely different from the usual type of dairy books, and is undoubtedly in a class by itself. The entire subject of butter-making in all its branches has been most thoroughly treated, and many new and important features have been added. The tests for moisture, salt and acid have received special attention, as have also the questions on cream separa- tion, pasteurization, commercial starters, cream ripening, cream overrun, marketing of butter, and creamery man- agement. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth. Net, $0.50 Questions and Answers on Milk and Milk Testing By Chas. A. Publow, and Hugh C. Troy. A book that no student in the dairy industry can afford to be without. No other treatise of its kind is available, and no book of its size gives so much practical and useful information in the study of milk and milk products. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 100 pages. Cloth Net, $0.50 (3) Bean Culture By Glenn C. Sevey, B.S. A practical treatise on the pro- duction and marketing of beans. It includes the manner oi growth, soils and fertilizers adapted, best varieties, seed selec- tion and breeding, planting, harvesting, insects and fungous pests, composition and feeding value; with a special chapter on markets by Albert W. Fulton. A practical book for the grower and student alike. Illustrated. 144 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth.- $0.50 Celery Culture By W. R. Beattie. A practical guide for beginners and a standard reference of great interest to persons already en- gaged in celery growing. It contains many illustrations giving a clear conception of the practical side of celery culture. The work is complete in every detail, from sowing a few seeds in a window-box in the house for early plants, to the handling .and marketing of celery in carload lots. Fully illustrated. ISO pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 Tomato Culture By Will W. Tracy. The author has rounded up in this book the most complete account of tomato culture in all its phases that has ever been gotten togetiicr. It is no seconri- hand work of reference, but a complete story of the practice ' experiences of the best-posted expert on tomatoes in the world. No gardener or farmer can afford to be without the book. Whether grown for home use or commercial purposes, the reader has here suggestions and information nowhere else available. Illustrated. 150 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. $0.50 The Potato By Samuel Feaser. This book is destined to rank as a standard work upon Potato Culture. While the practical side has been emphasized, the scientific part has not been neglected, and the information given is of value, both to the growej- and to the student. Taken all in all, it is the most complete, reliable and authoritative book on the potato ever published in Amer- ica. Illustrated. 200 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . . $0.75 Dwarf Fruit Trees By F. A. Waugh. This interesting book describes in detail the several varieties of dwarf fruit trees, their propagation, planting, pruning, care and general management. Where there is a limited amount of ground to be devoted to orchard purposes, and where quick results are desired, this book will meet with a warm welcome. Illustrated. 112 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $o-S0 (6) Cabbage, Cauliflower and Allied Vegetables By C. L. Allen. A practical treatise on the various types and varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, coUards and kohl-rabi. An explanation is given of the requirements, conditions, cultivation ahd general man- agement pertaining to the entire cabbage group. After this each class is treated separately and in detail. The chapter on seed raising is probably the most authoritative treatise on / this subject ever published. Insects and fungi attacking this class of vegetables are given due attention. Illustrated. 126 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $0.50 1 Asparagus By F. M. Hexamer. This is the first book published in America which is exclusively devoted to the raising of aspara- gus for home use as well as foi' market. It is a practic?' and reliable treatise on- the saving of the seed, raising of the plants, selection and preparation of the soil, planting, cultiva- tion, manuring, cutting, bunching, packing, marketing, canning and drying, insect enemies, fungous diseases and every re- quirement to successful asparagus culture, special emphasis be- ing given to the importance of asparagus as a farm and money crop. Illustrated. 174 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . $0.50 The New Onion Culture By T. Grbiner. Rewritten, greatly enlarged and brought up to date. A new method of growing onions of largest size and yield, on less land, than can be raised By the old plan. Thousands of farmers and gardeners and many experiment stations have given it practical trials which have proved a success. A complete guide in growing onions with the great- est profit, explaining the whys and wherefores. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 140 pages. Cloth $0.50 The New Rhubarb Culture A complete guide to dark forcing and field culture. Part I — By J. E. Morse, the well-known Michigan trucker and originator of the now famous and extremely profitable new methods of dark forcing and field culture. Part II — Com- piled by G. B. FisKE. Other methods practiced by the most experienced market gardeners, greenhouse men and experi- menters in all parts of America. lUustratea. 130 pages. 5x7 inches. Clot'' $0.50