Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Northern and Eastern
farms is the home vegetable garden. Even where no orchard has been
planted, and where the ornamental surroundings of the home have been
neglected, a fairly well-kept garden in which are grown a number of
the staple kinds of vegetables is generally to be found. In many
cases the principal interest in the garden is manifested by the women
of the household and much of the necessary care is given by them. A
small portion of the garden inclosure is generally devoted to the
cultivation of flowers, and a number of medicinal plants is invariably
present. Throughout the newer parts of the country it is seen that the
conditions governing the maintenance and use of the vegetable garden
are somewhat different, and, while a number of vegetable crops may
be grown somewhere on the farm, there is wanting that distinction so
characteristic of the typical New England kitchen garden.
It would be impossible to make an accurate estimate of the value of
crops grown in the kitchen gardens of the United States, but from
careful observation the statement can safely be made that a well-kept
garden will yield a return ten to fifteen times greater than would
the same area and location if devoted to general farm crops. A half
acre devoted to the various kinds of garden crops will easily supply a
family with $100 worth of vegetables during the year, while the average
return for farm crops is considerably less than one-tenth of this
amount. A bountiful supply of vegetables close at hand where they may
be secured at a few moments' notice is of even more importance than the
mere money value.
Fresh vegetables from the home garden are not subjected to exposure
on the markets or in transportation and are not liable to become
infected in any way. Many of the products of the garden lose their
characteristic flavor when not used within a few hours after gathering.
By means of the home garden the production of the vegetable supply for
the family is directly under control, and in many cases is the only way
whereby clean, fresh produce may be secured. The home vegetable garden
is worthy of increased attention, and a greater number and variety of
crops should be included in the garden.--(F. B. 255.)
The development and extension of truck farming in the Atlantic coast
States have been coincident with the development of transportation
facilities throughout that section. In the beginning the points
affording water connection with the great consuming centers of the
North were those at which truck farming first became established. The
phenomenal growth of the great consuming centers of the country has
stimulated a corresponding growth and extension of the food-producing
territory, especially that capable of producing perishable truck
crops. The demands for vegetables out of season, followed later
by the continuous demand for fresh vegetables throughout the year
by the great cities, led first to the market gardeners located
near the cities supplementing their field operations by extensive
forcing-house enterprises. Naturally, the products from the greenhouses
were expensive and available only to the few who were able to pay
fancy prices for green products out of season. The improvement and
extension of the transportation facilities which came with the great
railway-building era of the United States made it possible to take
advantage of the wide diversity of climate offered along the Atlantic
coast of the United States to furnish these perishable products to the
great cities of the North and East.
Transportation facilities, together with cheap labor and cheap lands
at the South, have made it possible to produce in extreme southern
locations products out of season at the North in competition with
greenhouse products. The greater land area and the smaller amount of
capital involved in the production of crops at the South, even though
transportation charges were high, have enabled southern growers to
produce much larger quantities of the desired crops than could be grown
profitably under glass. It was therefore not many years before lettuce,
celery, tomatoes, radishes, beets, and bunch beans came to be regular
winter and early spring products of gardens located at great distances
from the centers of consumption.--(Y. B. 1907.)
It is only necessary to look around the village and town gardens in the
South to become convinced of the great need that exists for information
in regard to the proper care of the garden, and particularly that part
which is intended to give supplies to the table. There town gardeners
are very active in the early spring, and their enthusiasm often leads
them to go ahead and plant a great many things at a season too early
for their safety, so that a return of cold often compels the almost
entire replanting of the garden. But with the production of the early
crops in the garden, the enthusiasm of the gardeners oozes out under
the influence of the summer's heat, and the garden that at first looked
so neat in its spring dress becomes merely a weed patch. Few people
realize the advantage that long summers and sunny autumns give for the
production of a constant succession of crops in the garden, and still
fewer realize that in this climate the garden need at no season of
the year be abandoned to the weeds. One of the greatest troubles that
results from the common practice of allowing the garden to grow up in
weeds after the first peas, corn, cabbage, and tomatoes are secured,
is that these weeds are the places where the larvæ of the cut-worm
hide, and are ready to begin their destructive work as soon as the
garden plants are set in the spring. If the garden is kept clean and
cropped continuously all the year round, as it may and should be here,
there will be no cut-worms to bother the early plants. From January
to January there is no need in the South for any space in the garden
unoccupied by crops. From the time the earliest peas go into the ground
in January up to the time it is necessary to prepare for them the
following year there can be a constant succession of fresh vegetables
from the garden, by the exercise of a little forethought. And this
succession can be made still more perfect if there be added a frame
with some hotbed sashes for the production of lettuce, cauliflower,
radishes, carrots, etc., during the colder months; while all through
the winter there can be celery, kale, spinach and turnips.--(N. C. Bul.
132.)