MID-SEASON VEGETABLES
BEANS
Being somewhat tender, should not be planted until the ground is warm
in spring. Corn-planting time will do for the field and navy bean, but
the white podded string bean and the lima bean should not go into the
ground until all danger of frost is past and the ground is in growing
condition. At the present advanced cost of seed—fifty-five cents a
pound for the string and lima sorts with postage added by some dealers,
it will not do to take any chances by being in too much of a hurry to
get seed into the ground; neither will it pay to buy seed of any but
reliable dealers. There has never been a time when so much importance
attaches to choosing one's seed merchant wisely. Cheap seed never
pays, for the time lost in replanting seed of poor germination, or,
worse still, that comes untrue to name, giving one inferior or mongrel
vegetables, offsets, many times, the amount saved in money.
String beans are the first form in which this favorite vegetable
appears on the table and a very delicious and attractive dish they
make when such white wax or golden wax as Wardwell's Kidney, Davis's
Kidney Wax, Improved Golden Wax are selected; well grown plants of
these varieties, well laden with their long, wax-like pods are a joy
to the gardener; and if the pods are gathered as fast as they mature,
and this may be done as soon as they whiten, up to the time they are
fully grown, when they will still be sweet and tender, the bushes will
continue to bear heavily until cut down by the frost; this should
always be done whether the beans are wanted for use or not; they can
be canned, sold, or given away or fed to the pig—anything rather than
to check the vines' bearing. If one wishes to save seed for the next
year's planting, and this is worth while when such high prices prevail,
it will be well to set aside a row, or portion of a row, for seed,
allowing the first pods to ripen as this establishes the early bearing
characteristic of the plant.
In planting beans good soil should be chosen, but beans do not need
rich soil as many other garden vegetables do. It is said that beans
will grow on soil that will not grow anything else; this is rather an
extreme statement, but it is a fact that they will thrive where more
exacting plants will languish; this is accounted for by the fact that
the bean is a legume and so empowered to draw an important part of its
nourishment from the air in the form of nitrates, which it stores in
little pockets or nodules on its roots and so has a larder of its own
to draw on.
Open a drill a couple of inches deep and drop the beans at regular
intervals two or three inches apart, or they may be planted three or
four in hills, six inches apart; cover and tramp down the rows and draw
the rake lightly over them. Except for the distance at which they are
planted, all beans require practically the same treatment; they should
never be cultivated when wet or gathered or handled in any way; the
rule should be to give them a wide berth in wet weather; working among
them when wet is the cause of the disfiguring rust that makes them
unsalable and in bad cases uneatable. Wardwell's and Davis's Kidney Wax
are as free from rust as any of the white podded varieties and are the
best selections the amateur gardener can make.
For those who like a green podded bean the Stringless Green Pod is a
fine variety and very popular with gardeners. Giant Stringless, Green
Pod and Longfellow make up a trio of beans hard to beat.
Boston pea bean or navy bean is the best selection for baked beans;
these should be allowed to ripen their pods until quite dry. The usual
method of harvesting is to wait until all the beans are ripe in late
summer and harvest by pulling the vines and piling in heaps until dry;
this is not an economical way, however, nor specially adapted to the
small home garden; a better way is to gather the pods as fast as they
ripen, storing them in a dry, airy place until ready to shell easily;
if this is done many more beans will be produced and there will be no
loss from the earlier beans shelling out on the ground as they will
when the vines are left for the entire crop to ripen. Usually it will
be necessary to go over the vines about four times but the result will
be a much greater quantity of beans and all in the finest possible
condition; when left until all are ripe it will be found that there is
a considerable amount of mouldy or injured beans.
Lima beans require somewhat different treatment from the string or navy
bean; to begin with they require a much richer soil and the ground
should be well manured and a supplementary dressing of hen manure,
rabbit droppings or ashes about the plants when well established will
be of much benefit; they require more room in the row than the string
beans, not less than eight or nine inches with the rows two feet apart;
the beans should be planted about two inches deep, setting the seed
with the eyes downward and covering and tramping the rows. Rather late
planting is advisable for limas than for string beans and for very
early beans a few may be started in the hotbed and transplanted in the
open ground about the twentieth of May at the north—add or subtract
a week for each hundred miles north or south. The bean, having no tap
root and a broad spread of lateral roots, is one of the easiest plants
to transplant and by starting a hundred plants in the hotbed a much
earlier crop will be obtained; that will be filling up the time while
the open air planting is coming forward.
Another very important advantage in starting seed in the hotbed is the
larger per cent. of plants obtained; if good seed is used every one
may be depended upon to grow. The hotbed also affords protection from
the enemies that destroy the lima, one of the most destructive being
hens, and it will be wise to assure Biddy's absence from the garden
until the beans are showing their first leaves as the succulent looking
white seeds that first break through the ground have an irresistible
attraction for her and she will walk along the rows, nipping off every
pod as it appears; this seems to be due to curiosity as she does not
eat, but drops them on the ground; I have seen whole plantings of lima
beans destroyed in this way. English sparrows also are known to destroy
the tops. String beans do not offer the temptation that the limas do so
are seldom molested.
For the home garden the bush limas are to be preferred as they take
less room and are easier to handle. The Improved Fordhook Bush Lima is
one of the best varieties if not the best. The New Wonder Bush Lima is
highly recommended. Beans may be planted every two weeks for succession
up to August. Dry limas that remain on the vines in fall may be used
for cooking in winter. Limas are not injured by light frosts as much
as the other varieties of beans; the pods cuddling under the thick
foliage are protected and one can frequently gather a mess after the
frost has cut everything else in the garden; the thick pods, too, are a
protection to the beans inside.
If it is desired to grow pole limas set the poles four feet apart each
way and plant five or six beans to each hill and thin to three when the
plants are up; when the plants have reached the top of the pole pinch
out the top; add a spadeful of well-rotted manure to each hill before
planting, mixing it thoroughly with the soil. Carpenteria is about the
best of the pole limas and Early Leviathan Lima is another good sort.
Wire netting may be used in place of poles and will be found more
convenient and economical. Treating the beans with farmogerm, Mulford
or other culture is advisable.
CABBAGE
For early cabbage sow seed in the hotbed or in flats in the house
and transplant to the open ground in May. Cabbage are not injured by
light frosts and can go into the ground earlier than most other garden
stuff; usually the early sorts are selected for first planting but
the late and winter sorts will, if started in heat, do about as well
as the early; it is largely a matter of handling. The Late Flat Dutch
is an excellent sort for the first planting as it is a very sure
header, giving large, flat heads of the best quality. In twelve years'
experience in growing this variety I have never found a diseased plant
nor, except in a year of very exceptional weather, a soft head. They
keep well over winter and are altogether a very satisfactory all round
cabbage.
In transplanting the plants from the hotbed to the open ground all but
the upper pair of leaves should be removed and these may have the upper
half clipped; this gives the roots a chance to establish themselves
before they are called upon to support top growth. Set the plants about
two feet apart each way, or the rows two feet apart and the plants
twenty inches; the nearer distance is tenable if one raises rabbits
as the lower leaves may be removed and fed to them, thus giving the
plants more room; they should close up the gaps between them when fully
grown as this shades the ground and conserves moisture—an important
feature in a dry season. The ground should be kept well cultivated and
free from weeds as long as work can be carried on among them and when
the cultivator can no longer be used the scuffle-hoe can be introduced
under and between them without injury to the leaves. In hoeing or
cultivating draw the earth up towards the plants.
When the heads are filled out and hard and it is not desired to gather
them they may be kept from splitting by pulling the roots loose on one
side and bending them over.
The principal enemy of the cabbage is the white butterfly and its
offspring—the green caterpillar. There are many ways of combating this
pest; the most effectual way, early in the season is dusting with Paris
green mixed with flour. A convenient way to apply is to take a quart
Mason jar, take the lid, remove the porcelain lining and punch the top
full of holes, fill the can with flour mixed with one teaspoon of fresh
Paris green and sift over the plants while wet with dew at the first
appearance of the pest; this should not be used after the heads have
formed; after this sprinkling with salt and working it in between the
loose leaves of the head is often effectual. Dusting with dry earth
sometimes has a deterrent effect on the worms.
The grey aphis is another most troublesome pest; this comes so
insidiously that the plants are well infested before their presence
is suspected. Spraying with kerosene emulsion is sometimes effectual
if the heads are not too far advanced. Spraying with zenoleum—a
tablespoonful to two quarts of water—will kill every louse it touches
and by its odor discourage any intending arrivals, but this should not
be used where the heads are at all advanced, though a hard rain would
rid the plants of the odor of both zenoleum and kerosene. Soapsuds,
especially whale oil and nicotine, are suggested and hand picking
of worms is not without its value. Spraying with hot water 140° is
effectual and safe and cleanses and stimulates the plants.
Cut worms are very destructive to cabbage when first set out; their
depredations may be guarded against by enclosing the stem of the plant
in a band of stiff paper when planting; this should go into the
ground an inch and extend up the stem two or three inches. Strewing
poisoned bait along the intended rows for a night or two is suggested
but this is a dangerous practice where there is poultry at liberty;
baiting after the plants are set is often successful, too, but the best
safeguard is to have a good supply of surplus plants in the hotbed.
The rows should be looked over the first thing in the morning after
planting to discover what plants have been cut and wherever a plant
is missing the worm should be looked for, and when found killed; this
is really the most satisfactory way of eradicating the pest. The worm
never goes more than two or three inches from the plant and will be
found somewhere just below the surface of the ground, usually under
some bit of roughage that makes a little hollow. If there is a piece
of sod or clover-land near the garden the cut worms will usually begin
their work from that side and if a planting of cabbage is made a few
days in advance of other plants this will serve as a trap for the worms
and hunting and killing them for a few days will make the planting
safe for the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers.
A little nitrate of soda sprinkled around the plants is a great
incentive to growth.
For winter cabbage sow seed in the open ground in May and transplant
into permanent rows as soon as large enough, giving the plants more
room than early cabbage. Late Flat Dutch, Wakefield, Danish Roundhead
and Dutch Winter or Hollander are all good sorts which will prove good
keepers and sellers.
If in setting out plants of winter cabbage it is found that there
are more plants than are needed, they may be allowed to remain where
they are and given a little protection, such as boards, cornstalks or
evergreens, and can be used for setting out the following spring.
CAULIFLOWER
Require the same general treatment as cabbage. They are set somewhat
closer in the rows and cultivated the same as cabbage; however, for
the best results it is desirable to transplant the cauliflower from
the hotbed into cold frames as soon as they have their second pair of
leaves, setting three inches apart each way and as soon as they resume
growth giving a light application of nitrate of soda, then transplant
when the weather is favorable. Cauliflower are quite hardy and not
injured by early fall frosts, making steady growth until severe cold
weather and many heads that have failed to fill during the fall will
fill out finely in November.
As soon as the curd, or head, forms and has made a little size the
leaves must be drawn over it and tied to exclude rain and light; this
must be done when the plants are perfectly dry and the weather clear,
a sunny day about noon is the best time for the work. If tied up when
wet or damp the heads will rot. If not tied up growth will start in
the heads, they will turn purple and green and be unfit for food. It
is upon the successful tying up of the cauliflower that its successful
culture depends; like the cabbage it requires a rich, well fertilized
soil and applications of nitrate of soda once a week during the
growing season will hasten the development of the head; wood ashes,
too, are beneficial.
The insect enemies of the cauliflower are those of the cabbage, but
they molest it in a somewhat lesser degree. The remedies to be employed
are the same.
There are two important varieties of cauliflower—the Snowball and
the Dry Weather. The former is a poor cropper in dry seasons unless
artificial irrigation can be supplied. The Dry Weather Cauliflower,
on the other hand, seems to be at its best in a dry season and will
give fine heads when the other fails. As one can not forecast what the
rainfall of any given season will be it is well to be provided against
any contingency by planting both varieties of cauliflower; by this
forethought one will be assured of a crop whatever the weather and the
snowballs that failed to head during August and September may come on
in October and November and give a late crop for pickling.
In the majority of gardens cauliflowers are grown exclusively for
pickling; this is a mistake for there is no vegetable more delicate and
toothsome than this; it outclasses cabbage and when fried in batter
or breaded with egg and cracker crumbs, it affords a most excellent
substitute for meat, indeed, it is really more acceptable when no meat
dish accompanies it; for this reason—its desirability as a table
vegetable—special pains should be taken to produce early heads, by
starting in hotbeds, transplanting into cold frames, fertilizing with
nitrate and giving special attention to thorough cultivation throughout
its growing period. If water can be supplied, a thorough drenching of
the roots once or twice a week, followed by a cultivation the following
morning to restore the dust-mulch, will be of much benefit.
The green cabbage worm is sometimes very troublesome on the heads and
leaves of cauliflowers and one should watch for the presence of the
white cabbage butterfly as this will indicate whether one may expect
an attack of caterpillars. If once the worms have become established
spraying with hot water of from 130° to 140° will exterminate all with
which it comes in contact, as worms are far more sensitive to hot water
than are the plants which they infect.
CORN
Is one of the most profitable of the garden's offerings; there is,
practically, no loss connected with it; a delicious vegetable for
the table in its green state, fresh from the stalk; it is equally
welcome when it appears sweet and toothsome from the can in winter or,
conserved in a dried state, is soaked and cooked the same as fresh
corn. There is no waste in the unused corn that remains ungathered on
the stalks for it may be saved for seed another year or fed to the
poultry, while the stalks, cut and cured, make excellent feed for cow,
horse or rabbits. Cut while green and made into ensilage it is the best
substitute for green feed in winter for any animal that eats green
food. Much green feed for stock may be secured from the corn patch
in summer by removing all the side shoots that do not bear ears and
feeding them to the pigs or rabbits. This is of benefit to the corn as
it allows all the strength of the plant to go into the ears instead of
being wasted in growing useless foliage.
Corn is a gross feeder and requires a deep, mellow, fertile soil, well
enriched with barnyard manure. Clover sod well manured and ploughed
will give the maximum amount of corn, but any good soil if fertilized
will produce good corn.
Corn is somewhat tender and should not be planted until the ground
is warm, but in the small home garden where a small amount of seed
is required a little risk may be run by planting early in May and
replanting if an early frost catches the crop. It is not, as a general
thing, the spring frost that does the most damage, especially with
field corn, it is the late frost that catches the corn still in the
milk that does the damage, so that anything that pushes the crop
along to maturity before danger of fall frost is of moment. This is
one reason why heavy fertilizing is so important,—it speeds up the
maturing of the corn and gets it beyond the danger line in time.
Sweet corn may be planted in drills or in hills, but I prefer the hill
method. Even in a small patch that can be worked but one way with a
horse or cultivator—there is always a hoe to take care of the space
between the hills.
The rows should be three feet apart and the corn in hills three feet
apart, or if planted in rows make the rows four feet apart and the
corn twelve inches apart. Drop several kernels in each hill and thin
to three plants to a hill when the corn is up and danger of frost
is passed. One pound of seed will plant a hundred hills or from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet of row. If hard frost threatens
just as the corn is coming through the ground, throwing earth over it
with a hoe will often afford sufficient protection to save it.
In a small garden patch it is not much work to stick a mark of some
kind in the center of each hill and if this is done cultivation can
commence at once and a hard crust be prevented from forming; this will
hasten the germination of the seed and insure the elimination of weeds
at the start.
There are many varieties of sweet corn advertised, each seedsman
having his own favorite specialty, but there are really but two that
one need take into consideration—the old, reliable Stowell's Evergreen
and the new Bantam Evergreen—a cross between that exceptionally sweet
corn, the Golden Bantam, and Stowell's Evergreen, and combining the
great qualities of both parents, the delicious sweetness and tenderness
and earliness of Bantam with the more generous size and more tender
skin of the Evergreen. Plant these two varieties and have the best to
be obtained in sweet corn. One planting of Evergreen will give big
generous ears of late corn, while for succession the Bantam may be
planted every two weeks up to July.
When the corn is a couple of feet high it will be well to go through
the patch and remove all suckers or barren stalks so as to conserve all
the food and moisture for the production of ears.
In addition to barnyard manure, wood ashes is an important fertilizer
for corn, supplying the potash so essential to its growth; this may be
put in the hill at the time the corn is planted or may be scattered
about the plants after they are up and hoed into the soil; it should
not be applied in connection with manure as it has a tendency to
release the ammonia content of the manure, but should be applied
independently. Droppings from the poultry house may be used in the
growing of the corn crop, placing about a teacupful in a hill, but not
in contact with the seed. Several barrels of dry droppings should be
saved during the winter for just this extra fertilizing in the kitchen
garden.[3]
Corn is very easily transplanted so that where there is a failure of
the corn to germinate in some hills and an over supply in others, the
extra plants may be lifted carefully with the spade or trowel and
slipped into holes prepared for them where wanted. Last season I had
an interesting experience transplanting an entire row of corn, over a
foot high. A row of okra had been planted across the garden but failed
to appear on schedule time and was finally given up and corn planted
in its place; the corn came up and had made several inches of top when
to my surprise the okra appeared. It was evident that the two robust
plants could not occupy successfully the same ground and I did not
wish to sacrifice either, so an equal number of hills were prepared in
another part of the garden, fertilized with poultry droppings and ashes
and the hills of corn, then over a foot high, lifted, one hill at a
time, on a spade and carried and slipped into their holes, and not a
plant seemed aware that anything had happened to it; certainly there
was no check to the growth, but, by lifting on the spade with plenty
of soil adhering, the roots were not disturbed in the least.
Corn has so few enemies that it is scarcely worth while to consider
them, the principal one being earworm—a small worm that eats out the
tip of the ear; they can be poisoned by dropping Paris green in the
axils of the leaves when the plants are young.
CUCUMBERS
For slicing for the table should be planted as soon as the ground is
warm or a few seed may be planted on pieces of inverted sod, or in pots
or paper bands in the hotbed and transplanted into the open ground
about corn-planting time or when the danger of frost is past; this will
give several weeks' start on outdoor planting and will also make the
plants practically immune from attacks of the striped beetle. Beetles
will of course appear, but by the time of their arrival the plants will
have attained sufficient size to withstand their attacks, particularly
will this be the case if protected with dry earth, sifted over the
leaves to roughen them or the application of tobacco tea or tobacco
stems or leaves about the plants.
Pieces of sod, about four inches square, should be cut and placed
earth-side up close together in the warmest part of the hotbed and
several seeds planted on each piece and the whole covered with a fourth
of an inch of earth. When ready to transplant lift the pieces on to a
flat board or carrier and slip into a hole prepared for them with as
little disturbance as possible and press the soil firmly about them so
that the air will not get underneath and dry the roots.
There is not too much room for vine vegetables of any sort in the small
kitchen garden and if desired the early cucumbers for table use may be
grown on netting. The Japanese cucumber is a climbing sort especially
addicted to this manner of growth, bears fine, large fruit of most
excellent quality and the position on the wire, away from the soil and
damp ground, produces a most attractive fruit, free from the yellow
blanching that is present on the cucumbers grown on the ground. Last
year among a number of these Japanese plants there occurred one or two
plants of a snow white cucumber that I found very superior in crispness
and flavor to the green fruit. Owing to early frost I was not able to
secure seed of this interloper. Mr. Burbank's cucumber seed did not
produce a single white seed. This is not, however, a climbing sort, but
all vines which have tendrils can be grown on netting. Squash even will
grow, bear and seem to enjoy the experience.
Cucumbers when grown for the table should be gathered as soon as of
slicing size, whether wanted or not, as allowing the fruit to ripen
on the vine stops production; this is especially imperative in the
case of pickles which must be removed as soon as of sufficient size
to use. The small pickles of an inch and a quarter or less should be
gathered first and larger pickles left until the latter part of the
season as gathering the cucumbers while very small increases the vine's
productiveness and there will always be enough overlooked to supply the
larger sort of pickles.
Cucumbers for pickling should not be sown before June and may be
planted at any time after that up to mid-July. Plant in hills from
four to six feet apart spading in a spadeful of manure in each hill;
thin out to three or four plants in a hill when danger of bugs is
past; spray with Bordeaux Arsenate of Lead three ounces to a gallon of
water, when in danger of beetles or blight; the combination of lead and
Bordeaux mixture covers both emergencies.
Keep the ground well cultivated as long as the vines will allow;
pinch off the ends of all the vines when about a foot long to induce
branching; when the plants begin to bloom notice the presence or
absence of bees. Some years the curcubita family fails signally in
setting fruit and this is usually caused by lack of pollenization by
the bees. On a small patch one may substitute cross-pollenization by
carrying pollen from one blossom to another with a camel's hair brush
or by shaking the blossoms against each other, but a preventative
measure would be to raise a colony or two of bees. Sometimes the
presence of some plant especially attractive to bees will lure them
away from the melons, cucumbers and like plants. Two years ago the
presence of a patch of vetch proved so attractive to the bees that it
was not until late in the season that the flowers of a nearby patch
of winter squash and citron received sufficient attention to set any
fruit. The air was resonant with the hum of bees, but not one was to be
seen on the vines.
There are any number of good cucumbers to choose from for general crop.
Early Fortune has proved a favorite in my garden. It is a good bearer
and quality and appearance are all that could be asked. The Davis
Perfect, Arlington White Spine, and Westerfield's Chicago Pickle are
all satisfactory sorts to grow.
EGGPLANTS
Are very tender when small, so they should be started in the warmest
part of the hotbed, or in a warm, sunny window in flats. When they have
grown their first pair of true leaves they should be transplanted—if
at all crowded, into other flats or other rows in the hotbed, setting
them two inches apart each way and grown on, given sufficient water and
occasional cultivation, but not sufficient to disturb the roots, until
time to plant out in the open ground; this should not be done until
the nights and soil are warm as a check at this time will mean a late
setting of fruit.
Eggplants are considered one of the difficult things to grow;
personally I have seldom lost a plant except at the hands, or mouth
rather, of cutworms, but I have frequently gotten an unsatisfactory
setting of fruit. However, one must have certain standards to adhere to
in their culture, the first of which is heat in all the early stages
of their growth, the second, rich soil, with occasional supplementary
dressings of nitrate of soda, and thorough cultivation.
The plants require considerable room when mature and should not be set
closer than three feet each way.
The principal enemy of the eggplant is the potato beetle which is quite
as partial to egg plants as to potatoes. Spraying with Paris green
or arsenate of lead is effectual before the fruit has formed but hand
picking is more satisfactory and where only a few plants are grown for
family use, quite as practical. It is not the mature beetle that eats
the leaves but the young beetles that hatch from the mass of yellow
eggs laid on the under side of the leaves, so at the first appearance
of the old bugs search should be made for the mass of eggs and these as
well as the parent beetle destroyed; by this means no beetles can get a
start. It is always good practice to avoid, as far as possible, the use
of poisonous insecticides in the kitchen garden; while their use may do
no harm on vegetables that have not set their fruit, there is always
a tendency to grow careless in their use and to continue it after the
safety zone has been passed.
New York eggplant is the standard variety for all but the northern
states; it is of the highest type, spineless and of a rich, purple
color, large and borne in abundance; it is not as early as Black
Beauty, long a favorably known sort, which is about twelve days
earlier; Very Early Dwarf Purple is still earlier and Black Pekin is
another good sort. In the northern states the earliest variety should
be planted, but the eggplant has one remarkable characteristic—for a
plant so tender in its early stages it seems, when fully grown, almost
immune to cold and early frost, and I have often gathered unharmed
fruit after severe frost had cut most everything else in the garden.
Throwing some loose stuff—clover hay, corn fodder or weeds—over
the plants on a cold night will usually save them and a spell of
warm weather that usually follows the first hard frosts may bring on
immature fruit to a usable size. It requires about five months from the
sowing of the seed to produce usable fruit so it will readily be seen
that it is important to start the seed in the hotbed, greenhouse or in
the house and to take every precaution to grow them on rapidly without
any check.
OKRA
So well and favorably known in the southern states, is practically
unknown in the north, except as its acquaintance is made in the
chicken gumbo of the commercial soups and a few other vegetable and
meat preparations. It should, however, form a staple vegetable of the
kitchen garden and, once its merits are known, would, doubtless, become
as popular north as it is south. Though its use is chiefly associated
with the preparation of soup it has other, equally acceptable, uses.
It is an excellent addition to hash, adding both richness and flavor;
added to tomatoes it imparts a fuller, richer flavor and used alone,
fried, is excellent. A small amount of meat, with the addition of
potatoes, okra and onion, the last two fried tender before adding the
meat and potatoes, makes a most satisfying one-dish meal.
It is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, requiring the same culture
as corn; making the rows three feet apart, and planting the seed in
drills and thinning to ten inches apart in the row. Perkin's Long Pod
is the best general variety and the pods should be gathered when half
grown, whether needed or not, to prevent checking the production.
PEPPERS
Like the eggplant require much heat in starting and should be given
the warmest position in the hotbed—about the central sash, towards
the front—so that they may not be overtopped by other, taller growing
plants, for the pepper grows but slowly for the first few weeks of its
existence.
The seed germinates slowly, taking from two to three weeks to appear;
it may be sown thinly in drills, or broadcasted, covering sufficiently
to conceal the seed and placing paper over the plot to prevent drying
out. If started in flats in the house the plants may be transplanted
into other flats when they have made one pair of true leaves; if not
crowded in the hotbed they may be allowed to remain where they are or
be transplanted into fresh rows, setting them a couple of inches apart
each way.
They should not be planted out in the open ground until the soil and
nights are warm as a check at this time will mean late fruiting and
failure to ripen. Make the rows from twenty-four to thirty inches apart
and set the plants eighteen inches apart in the row. Before planting
spade a forkful of old manure or henhouse droppings into each hill for
the pepper is a heavy feeder and requires good soil.
Protect the plants on cold nights if frost threatens and keep the
ground well cultivated.
If the peppers are to be grown in the north such varieties as mature
their fruits early should be selected. Crimson Giant is about the
earliest; the plants are large and bear abundantly. The Upright
New Sweet Pepper is also early, a good bearer and its habit of
fruiting—holding the fruit erect instead of drooping—makes it very
easy to gather; it is a medium-size pepper, just right for stuffing
for mangoes and a desirable size to pickle for winter use in salads;
if the top and bottom are removed it leaves a broad ring which is
very lovely when filled with salad and garnished with parsley and
well-blanched endive; the parts removed may be used as pickles or added
to mixed or chopped pickles.
Magnum Dulce is an excellent sort for baking when stuffed with meat
or force-meat or fried. Pimento is a new salad pepper very attractive
in shape and form but does not do so well in the north as some of the
older sorts; however, some seasons it can be successfully grown and a
few plants set out will be well worth taking pains with. In the warmer
sections and in favorable seasons at the north one can grow the fiery
Tabasco Pepper from which the Tabasco sauce of commerce is made and
so prepare one's supply of this expensive relish; it requires early
planting and great attention to heat and sunshine to succeed.
The little Celestial Peppers are so very attractive when grown in pots
that florists offer them along with other greenhouse stuff; they can
just as well be grown in one's own hotbed or house and make welcome
gifts to the young housekeeper or the city dweller who does not have
the advantage of a country garden to furnish condiments and relishes.
The little plants can be grown in pots from the start or small plants
in the garden can be taken up and potted and will hold their tiny
scarlet fruit all winter, producing more as the first is removed. For
the sunny kitchen or dining room window nothing is prettier or more
ornamental than a window box filled with these little red peppers,
parsley and endive.
Cayenne peppers can be grown for the making of pepper vinegar; the
seeds are used for this, being separated from the husk when dry and put
into quart bottles filled with white wine vinegar; in a few weeks the
vinegar will be ready for use. The hulls may be saved and put in cans
of mixed pickles, a few hulls adding a piquant hotness; they may also
be added to pickled onions and to cauliflower.
As peppers are extremely sensitive to frost every effort should be made
to bring them along rapidly so that they may mature their fruit in
season; light application of nitrate will assist and the use of poultry
droppings in preparing the bed will be of use; in dry weather a wetting
with water from the laundry will do much good. If it is possible to
pipe or carry water with hose to the garden a shallow trench may be
made along the pepper rows and water turned in as required. Protecting
with papers or other covering on frosty nights may save a crop but the
covering should not rest on the plants as the frost will likely strike
through; hay or corn fodder would be likely to give better protection.
TOMATOES
Are one of the most important vegetables of the home garden not alone
as a summer vegetable, but also as an important part of the winter
cuisine, more tomatoes being canned for winter use than all other
vegetables.
Tomatoes require no expert care to grow; they are one of the easiest
managed of vegetables, but they do require heat for starting if they
are to be got to bearing in season to give a bountiful crop before
frost. It takes about four months from the time the seed is sown to
produce a crop of the main crop tomato. Some of the very early sorts
will come into bearing early in July; unfortunately, however, these
very early varieties lack the full, delicious flavor of the later
fruit. The tomatoes should not be set in the open ground until all
danger of frost is over; they should be given rich soil and a spadeful
of manure added to the hill in which they are planted. If the plants
are allowed to lie on the ground make the hills four feet apart each
way, but if they are to be staked or trained on a trellis three feet
will give sufficient room; both methods of culture have advantages;
the latter keeps the fruit up off the ground, makes pickling easy and
perhaps produces more perfect fruit; less room is required for growing
the same number of plants than would be required for the former method.
The first method has this advantage,—the plants suffer least in a
dry season as the vines shade the ground, and prevent the excessive
evaporation of moisture and require, accordingly, less cultivation;
then the branches will root wherever they touch the soil and so draw
moisture and nourishment from it; a much larger amount of fruit is
produced from plants allowed to rest on the ground, and if straw is
laid under the plants it will keep them from getting soiled and rotting
if the season is wet.
Where the plants are to be staked a six foot stake should be set at
each hill at the time the plant is set and the plant tied to it at
intervals as it grows. Pinch off the top as soon as it reaches the top
of the stake and remove all but a few of the side branches, pinching in
those that remain to make a shapely plant. I think the rack system of
training is preferable to the stake.
A long trellis or rack, about eighteen inches or two feet high and two
feet wide, is constructed of narrow strips of wood and placed over the
tomato rows, the plants growing up through the center of the frame and
spreading out on top of it. This gives more bearing surface and the
vines do not need to be tied to the wood; such a trellis can be used
for several years in succession if stored away in a dry place when not
in use. The wire tomato supports on the market are good but costly and
quite as satisfactory ones can be made at home from the wire or wooden
hoops from barrels, stapled to stout stakes sharpened at one end. About
three hoops should be used and three stakes. These, too, can be stored
away for future use so that the first outlay is the last for a number
of years.
In setting out the plants from the hotbed select those with the
stoutest stalks; it is not material whether they have grown tall or
keeled over in the hotbed or not if the plant appears vigorous with a
robust stem. If one has a good supply of plants to draw from one can
discard all but the best.
[Illustration: _The reward of your hours of pleasant labor_]
Prepare the hills in advance by forking in a forkful of old manure; if
the plants are long, make a trench two-thirds the length of the stem
with a deeper hole at one end; place the root in the hole and bend the
top carefully into the trench, turning the tip up straight so that it
stands four or five inches above the ground, draw in a part of the
earth and fill the trench with water, fill in the remainder of the
soil, pressing snugly, make a fine dry mulch about the plant and the
work is done. The long stem buried in the trench will send out roots
all its length and will have a much greater root system than a plant
set with just a few inches of stem in the ground; such a plant set in
such a way, invariably lives and makes a strong plant, but to plant it
with only the root part under the ground would only invite the loss of
the plant.
The plot should be looked over the following morning to see if cut
worms have cut off any of the plants during the night and to restore,
if necessary, the dust-mulch.
Plants grown on stakes or trellises are more susceptible to frost than
those grown on the ground as the soil holds the heat and it is an
easy matter to cover a considerable number of plants at one time with
tarpaulin or even newspapers and this should be done when there is even
a slight prospect of frost. The thermometer should be watched in the
late fall and if it is going down towards nightfall those plants which
one wishes to save should be protected.
After the first three hard frosts there are usually two or three
weeks of fine weather and it is at this time that tomatoes and other
perishable garden stuff command the highest price and those who are
fortunate enough to have a surplus to sell can realize a neat little
sum that will more than pay for the trifling trouble involved.
I am often asked which is the best tomato for the home garden and
have no hesitation in saying that, all things considered, there is no
better tomato raised, for an all season crop, than the Dwarf, Improved
Stone. There are earlier tomatoes and larger tomatoes. The Early
Detroit is earlier, but not very much so, and it does not compare in
size and quality with the Stone. Ponderosa is a much larger tomato but
the quality is not up to the Stone nor is its freedom from cracking
and irregularity to be compared to the Stone. Then the Stone is such
a satisfactory plant in the way of foliage and stem, so heavy and
rugged, the thick, crumply leaves are very distinctive and the plants
always command attention even when not in fruit. The fruit is quite
as large as best requirements demand and it slices beautifully for
the table and canned is entirely free from that peculiar taste that
characterizes the commercial tomato.
Earliana is the earliest and the most popular sort of the extra early
tomato and a few plants for early use will be worth while. There is
also a new ball-shaped tomato, New Globe, that is good for slicing
as it gives a number of fine slices just alike instead of the three
usually obtained from a flat tomato, only one—the middle—being
perfect. So if one wants a variety in the garden one may plant with
entire confidence the Dwarf Stone and Vaughan's Improved New Stone and
add for variety the Earliana and the New Globe.
SQUASH
ENGLISH MARROW
In sections where the eggplant does not do well, or where one lacks the
skill to succeed with it a very satisfactory substitute will be found
in the English marrow; this is a bush form of the vegetable marrows and
occupies about as much ground as an eggplant. The vine sorts are such
rampant growers that they require a garden to themselves or at least a
walled enclosure, but they are very profitable to grow as they produce
enormously and the fruit is excellent fried like eggplant; few, if any,
persons would be able to distinguish between them and the difference,
if any, would be in favor of the marrow.
Rich warm soil is required for all the squash family and the bush
varieties are no exceptions. Give in addition to the usual manuring of
the garden a good forkful of manure in each hill. Space the hills four
feet apart each way and plant several seeds in each hill to provide
for the appetite of the squash bugs which make no exception in favor
of bush varieties; when danger of bugs is past the plants should be
thinned to three or four plants in a hill.
To repel the squash vine borer scatter a handful of tobacco dust about
the plants and at the first appearance of wilt in the leaves examine
the stems carefully for the point where the worm found entrance and
either slit the stalk sufficiently to uncover the worm or run a wire up
the stalk until he is encountered and killed; then if possible, bury
the wound in soil so that the branch may be saved; if, however, there
is too much injury done or the wound is too high up it will be best to
remove that part of the branch; at the same time the rest of the plants
should be carefully examined for other signs of injury, and the ground
inspected for larvæ. For yellow striped beetle and blight spray early
and repeatedly with Bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture.
The marrows are finer eating when only two-thirds grown. They should
be peeled, sliced and covered with salt for an hour, then rinsed and
drained and breaded and fried the same as eggplant, or, if preferred,
may be cooked and mashed like summer squash. They are good either way.
TURNIPS
Have an important place in the garden as they may be used as a catch
crop almost any time during summer. Wherever vacancies occur in rows
of early vegetables and it is inconvenient owing to lack of seed or
other reasons to replant with the same vegetable, then one may have
recourse to the ever useful turnip and fill in the hiatus with that.
Turnips are at their best when young and tender, about three inches
in diameter, and a constant succession can be assured by planting in
this way or where the first crop of vegetables has been removed. For
fall and winter use sowings may be made in July and August. Success
frequently results from sowing among the sweet corn just before the
last cultivation; with favorable weather a crop will mature before
severe freezing weather and turnips are the better for a touch of frost.
Open a shallow drill with the hand plough or by dragging the corner
of the hoe along the row and scatter the seed very thinly. If the
planting is in full rows make them a foot or fifteen inches apart. As
soon as the plants are large enough, thin to stand three or four inches
apart; this is important as fine, smooth roots cannot be produced if
crowded.
The turnip maggot is the greatest enemy the turnip has and it sometimes
appears in gardens that have been entirely free from it and I think
is brought in the seed. It is the same little worm that works its
tortuous way through and around the radish and, although I have never
grown a wormy radish, still last season an entire planting of turnips
were ruined by this pest, so as I was quite sure it was not previously
present in the soil I am forced to the conviction that I bought and
planted it together with the seed. Moral—Buy seed of reliable dealers
and examine carefully for worm holes before planting.
The Purple-top White Globe is a most popular market sort. Snowball
is a white variety of fine appearance and early maturity and if used
young is very tender and sweet. Early White Egg is another good early
sort and for those who like a yellow turnip the Yellow Globe is a
satisfactory sort. It makes a larger root than the others and is
excellent both for table use and for feeding stock. It is a dependable
root for feeding Belgian or other hares as it keeps well, buried in
earth in a frost-proof cellar, and when gathered for winter use the
tops can be piled in a cool place and fed to the bunnies. Of course
this applies to all turnips which are grown for winter use.
The planting of turnips, radishes and cabbage should be watched
closely for signs of the root maggot. The presence of a little,
dark-colored fly about the plant is always cause for suspicion and
when seen it will be well to take precautionary measures. As tobacco
in any form is obnoxious to most insect life, the strewing of tobacco
dust on the ground will usually drive these flies away and prevent
the laying of eggs, but the trouble is that they may have already
laid eggs before being discovered. Hot water poured around the plant
in sufficient quantity to soak the soil an inch or so will often
destroy the eggs and larvæ too. Soaking the ground with Paris green
solution—a teaspoonful of the poison to a large watering pot of water
is sufficient and the solution must be kept stirred to prevent its
settling—will destroy the maggot, but it may also poison the turnip so
is not to be recommended; also, if the worm has attacked the radish or
turnip and rendered it unsightly and unfit for the table, tobacco and
hot water then are the two safest and most reliable applications and
the hot water over the tobacco is especially effective.
Disks made from heavy tar paper are sold for the protection of cabbage
and cauliflower plants and may be cheaply made at home and though a
little more trouble to apply about turnips and radishes still are
practical and better than losing the crop. The disks may be either
round or square and should be about three inches in diameter with a
hole the size of the stem in the center and a slit extending out from
the hole on one side to the edge; this allows the disk to be slipped
around the stem of the plant. A leather punch which will cut a quarter
of an inch hole may be used and the slit made to the center of the disk
and the hole then cut. The disk lies flat on the ground and prevents
the entrance of the fly to deposit the egg and the tar paper repels.
[Footnote 3: Corn should not be planted in single rows for this
reason:—when the corn blooms the pollen is carried from ear to ear,
and from plant to plant. If a single row is planted broadside to
the prevailing wind, the pollen is dissipated and the corn remains
unfertilized and produces no ears. Three or more rows insures against
this loss of pollenization. If only a limited number of hills are to be
planted it will be better to plant them in blocks rather than in one
or two long rows. Corn that matures at different seasons should not
be planted in parallel single rows as the result would be the same as
one single row—the corn not blooming at the same time. Again, corn of
two different sorts should not be in adjoining, parallel rows, rather
should each kind be planted in blocks to avoid hybridizing. Where it
is necessary to give a long strip of land to the sweet corn it may be
divided into blocks, especially if the strip extends from north to
south, as the prevailing winds are quite uniformly from east or west and
there is little trouble with cross pollenizing from south to north.]