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Home Vegetable Gardening

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What are termed the raw materials from which the universally known
"mixed fertilizers" are made up, are organic or inorganic substances
which contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash in fairly definite
amounts.

Some of these can be used to advantage by themselves. Those practical
for use by the home gardener, I mention. The special uses to which they
are adapted will be mentioned in Part Two, under the vegetables for
which they are valuable.

GROUND BONE is rich in phosphate and lasts a long time; what is called
"raw bone" is the best "Bone dust" or "bone flour" is finely
pulverized; it will produce quick results, but does not last as long as
the coarser forms.

COTTON-SEED MEAL is one of the best nitrogenous fertilizers for garden
crops. It is safer than nitrate of soda in the hands of the
inexperienced gardener, and decays very quickly in the soil.

PERUVIAN GUANO, in the pure form, is now practically out of the market.
Lower grades, less rich in nitrogen especially, are to be had; and also
"fortified" guano, in which chemicals are added to increase the content
of nitrogen. It is good for quick results.

NITRATE OF SODA, when properly handled, frequently produces wonderful
results in the garden, particularly upon quick-growing crops. It is the
richest in nitrogen of any chemical generally used, and a great
stimulant to plant growth. When used alone it is safest to mix with an
equal bulk of light dirt or some other filler. If applied pure, be sure
to observe the following rules or you may burn your plants: (1)
Pulverize all lumps; (2) see that none of it lodges upon the foliage;
(3) never apply when there is moisture upon the plants; (4) apply in
many small doses--say 10 to 20 pounds at a time for 50 x 100 feet of
garden. It should be put on so sparingly as to be barely visible; but
its presence will soon be denoted by the moist spot, looking like a big
rain drop, which each particle of it makes in the dry soil. Nitrate of
soda may also be used safely in solution, at the rate of 1 pound to 12
gallons of water. I describe its use thus at length because I consider
it the most valuable single chemical which the gardener has at command.

MURIATE and SULPHATE OF POTASH are also used by themselves as sources
of potash, but as a general thing it will be best to use them in
combination with other chemicals as described under "Home Mixing."

LIME will be of benefit to most soils. It acts largely as an indirect
fertilizer, helping to release other food elements already in the soil,
but in non-available forms. It should be applied once in three to five
years, at the rate of 75 to 100 bushels per acre, after plowing, and
thoroughly harrowed in. Apply as long before planting as possible, or
in the fall.


MIXED FERTILIZERS

Mixed fertilizers are of innumerable brands, and for sale everywhere.
It is little use to pay attention to the claims made for them. Even
where the analysis is guaranteed, the ordinary gardener has no way of
knowing that the contents of his few bags are what they are labeled.
The best you can do, however, is to buy on the basis of analysis, not
of price per ton--usually the more you pay per bag, the cheaper you are
really buying your actual plant food. Send to the Experiment Station in
your State and ask for the last bulletin on fertilizer values. It will
give a list of the brands sold throughout the State, the retail price
per ton, and the actual value of plant foods contained in a ton. Then
buy the brand in which you will apparently get the greatest value.

For garden crops the mixed fertilizer you use should contain (about):

)
Nitrogen, 4 per cent. ( Basic formula
Phosphoric acid, 8 per cent. > == for
Potash, 10 per cent. ( Garden crops
)

If applied alone, use at the rate of 1000 to 1500 pounds per acre. If
with manure, less, in proportion to the amount of the latter used.

By "basic formula" (see above) is meant one which contains the plant
foods in the proportion which all garden crops must have. Particular
crops may need additional amounts of one or more of the three elements,
in order to attain their maximum growth. Such extra feeding is usually
supplied by top dressings, during the season of growth. The extra food
beneficial to the different vegetables will be mentioned in the
cultural directions in Part Two.


HOME MIXING

If you look over the Experiment Station report mentioned above, you
will notice that what are called "home mixtures" almost invariably show
a higher value compared to the cost than any regular brand. In some
cases the difference is fifty per cent. This means that you can buy the
raw chemicals and make up your own mixtures cheaper than you can buy
mixed fertilizers. More than that, it means you will have purer
mixtures. More than that, it means you will have on hand the materials
for giving your crops the special feeding mentioned above. The idea
widely prevails, thanks largely to the fertilizer companies, that home
mixing cannot be practically done, especially upon a small scale. From
both information and personal experience I know the contrary to be the
case. With a tight floor or platform, a square-pointed shovel and a
coarse wire screen, there is absolutely nothing impractical about it.
The important thing is to see that all ingredients are evenly and
thoroughly mixed. A scale for weighing will also be a convenience.
Further information may be had from the firms which sell raw materials,
or from your Experiment Station.


APPLYING MANURES

The matter of properly applying manure, even on the small garden, is
also of importance. In amount, from fifteen to twenty-five cords, or 60
to 100 cartloads, will not be too much; although if fertilizers are
used to help out, the manure may be decreased in proportion. If
possible, take it from the heap in which it has been rotting, and
spread evenly over the soil immediately before plowing. If actively
fermenting, it will lose by being exposed to wind and sun. If green, or
in cold weather, it may be spread and left until plowing is done. When
plowing, it should be completely covered under, or it will give all
kinds of trouble in sowing and cultivating.

Fertilizers should be applied, where used to supplement manure or in
place of it, at from 500 to 1500 pounds per acre, according to grade
and other conditions. It is sown on broadcast, after plowing, care
being taken to get it evenly distributed. This may be assured by sowing
half while going across the piece, and the other half while going
lengthwise of it. When used as a starter, or for top dressings--as
mentioned in connection with the basic formula--it may be put in the
hill or row at time of planting, or applied on the surface and worked
in during the growth of the plants. In either case, especially with
highly concentrated chemicals, care must be taken to mix them
thoroughly with the soil and to avoid burning the tender roots.

This chapter is longer than I wanted to make it, but the problem of how
best to enrich the soil is the most difficult one in the whole business
of gardening, and the degree of your success in growing vegetables will
be measured pretty much by the extent to which you master it. You
cannot do it at one reading. Re-read this chapter, and when you
understand the several subjects mentioned, in the brief way which
limited space made necessary, pursue them farther in one of the several
comprehensive books on the subject. It will well repay all the time you
spend upon it. Because, from necessity, there has been so much of
theory mixed up with the practical in this chapter, I shall very
briefly recapitulate the directions for just what to do, in order that
the subject of manuring may be left upon the same practical basis
governing the rest of the book.

To make your garden rich enough to grow big crops, buy the most
thoroughly worked over and decomposed manure you can find. If it is
from grain-fed animals, and if pigs have run on it, it will be better
yet. If possible, buy enough to put on at the rate of about twenty
cords to the acre; if not, supplement the manure, which should be
plowed under, with 500 to 1500 pounds of high-grade mixed fertilizer
(analyzing nitrogen four per cent., phosphoric acid eight per cent.,
potash ten per cent.)--the quantity in proportion to the amount of
manure used, and spread on broadcast after plowing and thoroughly
harrowed in. In addition to this general enrichment of the soil,
suitable quantities of nitrate of soda, for nitrogen; bone dust (or
acid phosphate), for phosphoric acid; and sulphate of potash, for
potash, should be bought for later dressings, as suggested in cultural
directions for the various crops.

If the instructions in the above paragraph are followed out you may
rest assured that your vegetables will not want for plant food and
that, if other conditions are favorable, you will have maximum crops.




CHAPTER VII

THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION


Having considered, as thoroughly as the limited space available
permitted, the matter of plant foods, we must proceed to the equally
important one of how properly to set the table, on or rather in, which
they must be placed, before the plants can use them.

As was noted in the first part of the preceding chapter, most tillable
soils contain the necessary plant food elements to a considerable
extent, but only in a very limited degree in _available_ forms.
They are locked up in the soil larder, and only after undergoing
physical and chemical changes may be taken up by the feeding roots of
plants. They are unlocked only by the disintegration and decomposition
of the soil particles, under the influence of cultivation--or
mechanical breaking up--and the access of water, air and heat.

The great importance of the part the soil must play in every garden
operation is therefore readily seen. In the first place, it is required
to furnish all the plant food elements--some seven in number, beside
the three, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, already mentioned. In
the second, it must hold the moisture in which these foods must be
either dissolved or suspended before plant roots can take them up.

The soil is naturally classified in two ways: first, as to the amount
of plant food contained; second, as to its mechanical condition--the
relative proportions of sand, decomposed stone and clay, of which it is
made up, and also the degree to which it has been broken up by
cultivation.

The approximate amount of available plant food already contained in the
soil can be determined satisfactorily only by experiment. As before
stated, however, almost without exception they will need liberal
manuring to produce good garden crops. I shall therefore not go further
into the first classification of soils mentioned.

Of soils, according to their variation in mechanical texture, I shall
mention only the three which the home gardener is likely to encounter.
Rocks are the original basis of all soils, and according to the degree
of fineness to which they have been reduced, through centuries of
decomposition by air, moisture and frost, they are known as gravelly,
sandy or clayey soils.

CLAY SOILS are stiff, wet, heavy and usually "cold." For garden
purposes, until properly transformed, they hold too much water, are
difficult to handle, and are "late." But even if there be no choice but
a clay soil for the home garden, the gardener need not be discouraged.
By proper treatment it may be brought into excellent condition for
growing vegetables, and will produce some sorts, such as celery, better
than any warm, light, "garden" soil. The first thing to do with the
clay soil garden, is to have it thoroughly drained. For the small
amount of ground usually required for a home garden, this will entail
no great expense. Under ordinary conditions, a half-acre garden could
be under-drained for from $25 to $50--probably nearer the first figure.
The drains--round drain tile, with collars--should be placed at least
three feet deep, and if they can be put four, it will be much better.
The lines should be, for the former depth, twenty to thirty feet apart,
according to character of the soil; if four feet deep, they will
accomplish just as much if put thirty to fifty feet apart--so it pays
to put them in deep. For small areas 2-1/2-inch land tile will do. The
round style gives the best satisfaction and will prove cheapest in the
end. The outlet should of course be at the lowest point of land, and
all drains, main and laterals, should fall slightly, but without
exception, toward this point. Before undertaking to put in the drains,
even on a small area, it will pay well to read some good book on the
subject, such as Draining for Profit and Draining for Health, by
Waring.

But drain--if your land requires it. It will increase the
productiveness of your garden at least 50 to 100 per cent.--and such an
increase, as you can readily see, will pay a very handsome annual
dividend on the cost of draining. Moreover, the draining system, if
properly put in, will practically never need renewal.

On land that has a stiff or clay sub-soil, it will pay well to break
this up--thus making it more possible for the water to soak down
through the surface soil rapidly--by using the sub-soil plow. (See
Chapter V.)

The third way to improve clay soils is by using coarse vegetable
manures, large quantities of stable, manures, ashes, chips, sawdust,
sand, or any similar materials, which will tend to break up and lighten
the soil mechanically. Lime and land plaster are also valuable, as they
cause chemical changes which tend to break up clayey soils.

The fourth thing to do in treating a garden of heavy soil is to plow,
ridging up as much as possible, in the fall, thus leaving the soil
exposed to the pulverizing influences of weather and frost. Usually it
will not need replowing in the spring. If not plowed until the spring,
care should be taken not to plow until it has dried out sufficiently to
crumble from the plow, instead of making a wet, pasty furrow.

The owner of a clayey garden has one big consolation. It will not let
his plant food go to waste. It will hold manures and fertilizers
incorporated with it longer than any other soil.

SANDY SOIL is, as the term implies, composed largely of sand, and is
the reverse of clay soil. So, also, with the treatment. It should be so
handled as to be kept as compact as possible. The use of a heavy
roller, as frequently as possible, will prove very beneficial. Sowing
or planting should follow immediately after plowing, and fertilizers or
manures should be applied only immediately before.

If clay soil is obtainable nearby, a small area of sandy soil, such as
is required for the garden, can be made into excellent soil by the
addition of the former, applied as you would manure. Plow the garden in
the fall and spread the clay soil on evenly, harrowing in with a disc
in the spring. The result will be as beneficial as that of an equal
dressing of good manure--and will be permanent.

It is one of the valuable qualities of lime, and also of gypsum to even
a greater extent, that while it helps a clay soil, it is equally
valuable for a sandy one. The same is true of ashes and of the organic
manures--especially of green manuring. Fertilizers, on sandy soils,
where they will not long be retained, should be applied only
immediately before planting, or as top and side dressing during growth.

Sandy soil in the garden will produce early and quick results, and is
especially adapted to melons, cucumbers, beans and a number of the
other garden vegetables.

GRAVELLY SOIL is generally less desirable than either of the others; it
has the bad qualities of sandy soil and not the good ones of clay,
besides being poorer in plant food. (Calcareous, or limestone pebble,
soils are an exception, but they are not widely encountered.) They are
not suited for garden work, as tillage harms rather than helps them.

THE IDEAL GARDEN SOIL is what is known as a "rich, sandy loam," at
least eight inches deep; if it is eighteen it will be better. It
contains the proper proportions of both sand and clay, and further has
been put into the best of mechanical condition by good tilth.

That last word brings us to a new and very important matter. "In good
tilth" is a condition of the soil difficult to describe, but a state
that the gardener comes soon to recognize. Ground, continually and
_properly cultivated_, comes soon to a degree of fineness and
lightness at once recognizable. Rain is immediately absorbed by it, and
does not stand upon the surface; it does not readily clog or pack down;
it is crumbly and easily worked; and until your garden is brought to
this condition you cannot attain the greatest success from your
efforts. I emphasized "properly cultivated." That means that the soil
must be kept well supplied with humus, or decomposed vegetable matter,
either by the application of sufficient quantities of organic manures,
or by green manuring, or by "resting under grass," which produces a
similar result from the amount of roots and stubble with which the soil
is filled when the sod is broken up. Only by this supply of humus can
the garden be kept in that light, friable, spongy condition which is
absolutely essential to luxuriant vegetable growth.


PREPARING THE SOIL

Unless your garden be a very small one indeed, it will pay to have it
plowed rather than dug up by hand. If necessary, arrange the
surrounding fence as suggested in the accompanying diagram, to make
possible the use of a horse for plowing and harrowing. (As suggested in
the chapter on Implements), if there is not room for a team, the one-
horse plow, spring-tooth and spike-tooth cultivators, can do the work
in very small spaces.

If however the breaking up of the garden must be done by hand, have it
done deeply--down to the sub-soil, or as deep as the spading-fork will
go. And have it done thoroughly, every spadeful turned completely and
every inch dug. It is hard work, but it must not be slighted.


PLOWING

If the garden can be plowed in the fall, by all means have it done. If
it is in sod, it must be done at that time if good results are to be
secured the following season. In this latter case, plow a shallow
furrow four to six inches deep and turning flat, as early as possible
in the fall, turning under a coating of horse manure, or dressing of
lime, and then going over it with a smoothing-harrow or the short
blades of the Acme, to fill in all crevices. The object of the plowing
is to get the sods rotted thoroughly before the following spring; then
apply manure and plow deeply, six to twelve inches, according to the
soil.

Where the old garden is to be plowed up, if there has not been time to
get in one of the cover crops suggested elsewhere in this text, plow as
late as possible, and in ridges. If the soil is light and sandy, fall
plowing will not be advisable.

In beginning the spring work it is customary to put on the manure and
plow but once. But the labor of double plowing will be well repaid,
especially on a soil likely to suffer from drouth, if the ground be
plowed once, deeply, before the manure is spread on, and then cross-
plowed just sufficiently to turn the manure well under--say five or six
inches. On stiff lands, and especially for root crops, it will pay if
possible to have the sub-soil plow follow the regular plow. This is, of
course, for thoroughly rotted and fined manure; if coarse, it had
better be put under at one plowing, making the best of a handicap. If
you have arranged to have your garden plowed "by the job," be on hand
to see that no shirking is done, by taking furrows wider than the plow
can turn completely; it is possible to "cut and cover" so that the
surface of a piece will look well enough, when in reality it is little
better than half plowed.


HARROWING

That is the first step toward the preparation of a successful garden
out of the way. Next comes the harrowing; if the soil after plowing is
at all stiff and lumpy, get a disc-harrow if you can; on clayey soils a
"cut-a-way" (see Implements). On the average garden soil, however, the
Acme will do the work of pulverizing in fine shape.

If, even after harrowing, the soil remains lumpy, have the man who is
doing your work get a horse-roller somewhere, and go over the piece
with that. The roller should be used also on very sandy and light
soils, after the first harrowing (or after the plowing, if the land
turns over mellow) to compact it. To follow the first harrowing (or the
roller) use a smoothing-harrow, the Acme set shallow, or a "brush."


FINING.

This treatment will reduce to a minimum the labor of finally preparing
the seed- or plant-bed with the iron rake (or, on large gardens, with
the Meeker harrow). After the finishing touches, the soil should be
left so even and smooth that you can with difficulty bring yourself to
step on it. Get it "like a table"--and then you are ready to begin
gardening.

Whatever implements are used, do not forget the great importance of
making the soil thoroughly fine, not only at the surface, but as far as
possible below Even under the necessity of repetition. I want to
emphasize this again by stating the four chief benefits, of this
thorough pulverization: First, it adds materially in making the plant
foods in the soil available for use; secondly, it induces the growing
plants to root deeply, and thus to a greater extent to escape the
drying influence of the sun; thirdly, it enables the soil to absorb
rain evenly, where it falls, which would otherwise either run off and
be lost altogether, or collect in the lower parts of the garden; and
last, and most important, it enables the soil to retain moisture thus
stored, as in a subterranean storage tank, but where the plants can
draw upon it, long after carelessly prepared and shallow soils are
burning up in the long protracted drouths which we seem to be
increasingly certain of getting during the late summer.

Prepare your garden deeply, thoroughly, carefully, in addition to
making it rich, and you may then turn to those more interesting
operations outlined in the succeeding sections, with the well founded
assurance that your thought and labor will be rewarded by a garden so
remarkably more successful than the average garden is, that all your
extra pains-taking will be richly repaid.




Part Two--Vegetables


CHAPTER VIII.

STARTING THE PLANTS


This beautifully prepared garden spot--or rather the plant food in it--
is to be transformed into good things for your table, through the ever
wonderful agency of plant growth. The thread of life inhering in the
tiniest seed, in the smallest plant, is the magic wand that may
transmute the soil's dull metal into the gold of flower and fruit.

All the thought, care and expense described in the preceding chapters
are but to get ready for the two things from which your garden is to
spring, in ways so deeply hidden that centuries of the closest
observation have failed to reveal their inner workings. Those two are
seeds and plants. (The sticklers for technical exactness will here take
exception, calling our attention to tubers, bulbs, corns and numerous
other taverns where plant life puts up over night, between growth and
growth, but for our present purpose we need not mind them.)

The plants which you put out in your garden will have been started
under glass from seed, so that, indirectly, everything depends on the
seed. Good seeds, and true, you must have if your garden is to attain
that highest success which should be our aim. Seeds vary greatly--very
much more so than the beginner has any conception of. There are three
essentials; if seeds fail in any one of them, they will be rendered
next to useless. First, they must be true; selected from good types of
stock and true to name; then they must have been good, strong, plump
seeds, full of life and gathered from healthy plants; and finally, they
must be fresh. [Footnote: See table later this chapter] It is therefore
of vital importance that you procure the best seeds that can be had,
regardless of cost. Poor seeds are dear at any price; you cannot afford
to accept them as a gift. It is, of course, impossible to give a rule
by which to buy good seed, but the following suggestions will put you
on the safe track. First, purchase only of some reliable mail-order
house; do not be tempted, either by convenience or cheapness, to buy
the gaily lithographed packets displayed in grocery and hardware stores
at planting time--as a rule they are not reliable; and what you want
for your good money is good seed, not cheap ink. Second, buy of
seedsmen who make a point of growing and testing their own seed. Third,
to begin with, buy from several houses and weed out to the one which
proves, by actual results, to be the most reliable. Another good plan
is to purchase seed of any particular variety from the firm that makes
a leading specialty of it; in many cases these specialties have been
introduced by these firms and they grow their own supplies of these
seeds; they will also be surer of being true to name and type.

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