Part 7

Salsify

A vegetable that ought to be grown a great deal more than it is. Its popular name of "vegetable oyster" is not a misnomer, for it has a distinct oyster flavor. Many persons prefer it to the bivalve, when it is cooked properly. Being hardy, it can be left in the ground over winter, or it can be dug and stored in the cellar along with parsnips and carrots for use in winter. Sow early.

Squash

Probably the best variety of summer squash for home use is Giant Crook Neck. For winter use the Hubbard stands at the head of the list. These favorite vegetables require a rich soil. They should be planted in hills about three feet apart. Have the soil rich. Keep watch of them, for they are liable to attacks from beetles. It is well to sprinkle a handful of tobacco-dust about the young plants. As they become larger they can be sprayed with the Nicoticide infusion heretofore spoken of.

Spinach

Desirable for "greens." Sow as early in the spring as the ground is in good working condition. Have the soil quite rich to force a tender, succulent growth. Sow for succession, a month apart. The Long-Season variety is the best I have any knowledge of.

Tomato

Start this plant in the hotbed if you have one. If not, sow in the open ground as soon as it has become warm. To secure a very early crop the plants must be started as early as March. When three or four inches high transplant from hotbed to cold-frame, but do not put into the open ground until all danger from frost is over. If you are without hotbed facilities I would advise purchasing plants from the gardener, who tries to supply his customers with strong and healthy plants very early in the season. Plants from seed sown in the open ground will be so late in ripening a crop, as a general thing, that they will not afford satisfaction. Standard varieties are Stone, very solid and firm-fleshed and of fine quality, and Ponderosa, very large, fine-flavored, and almost seedless.

VIII

SMALL FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE

Quite as important as garden vegetables is the small-fruit department of each home that is living up to its privileges. Of course there will be no room for raspberries and blackberries on the little home lot, but one can have a row of strawberries there, in almost all cases, and a few currant-bushes can be tucked away in nooks and corners where quite likely nothing else would be grown if the tiny space were not given up to them.

There are places all over the country where a collection of small fruit ought to be grown, but which are without it. Why?

There are several answers to the question. One is: Neglect to live up to the possibilities of the place because of carelessness, or possibly because the owner is distrustful of his ability to grow them successfully. Another is: The impression that these plants are so exacting in their demands that none but skilled gardeners are warranted in undertaking their culture. And a third one is: The uncertainty of being unable to take them through our severe Northern winters safely.

The first objection is met with the argument that the man who is obliged to work for a living, and has a family to support, has no excuse for neglecting to avail himself and those dependent on him of all the good things that can be grown from the plants named, if he owns a piece of ground large enough to accommodate a small collection. The second objection is not justified, because it is an easy matter for any man to learn how to care for small fruits if he sets about it with the intention of mastering its details. There is really no basis in fact for the third one, for we have, to-day, varieties of each kind of small fruit that are entirely hardy at the North if properly cared for in the fall.

There should be a strawberry-bed, large or small, in every garden, if I had my way about it.

Here I suppose some reader will meet me with the objection that "strawberries don't pay. They require too much care, and the beds soon run out, and then everything has to be done over again."

Now I claim that strawberries do pay if they get the right kind of treatment. No one has a right to expect much from them if he simply sticks a plant into the soil and leaves it to take care of itself thereafter. Strawberries cultivated in this manner don't pay, I admit. And it is well that they do not, for no one has a right to expect much, if anything, from a plant of any kind that he isn't willing to take good care of. While the strawberry will not take care of itself, it really requires no more attention than most other crops. And as to "running out," that cuts no figure, when you come to think about it, because "doing things all over again" amounts to no more than planting vegetables each season. This has to be done yearly, and strawberries will demand only annual attention, thus putting the two classes of plants on practically the same basis.

I am aware that some writers on strawberry culture have ventilated a good many far-fetched ideas of their own in print relative to the culture of this plant, and so elaborate and complicated are some of these theories that many an amateur has, after reading them, abandoned the idea of having a strawberry-bed. But it is a fact susceptible of proof by any man who gives it a trial that strawberry culture may be made a success without adopting the views of persons who seem to think that theory is more important than common sense.

The simplest method of strawberry-growing that I know anything about is what is called the "one-crop system."

Set the plants in rows three feet apart, to allow the use of the cultivator between them. Let the plants be a foot apart in the row. Keep the ground between the rows well cultivated, and in the second summer, when the plants are bearing their first crop of fruit, allow them to send their runners into the space between the rows and take root there. When these young plants have fully established themselves--which will be by the end of August, as a general thing--take a spade and cut down between them and the old plants. Then dig up the old plants, making the place where they grew a space between rows. Next season train runners from the bearing plants back into the old row. By thus alternating the location of the plants you keep the garden supplied with one-year-old ones from which you get but one crop of fruit. This method is so simple that any one can understand it, and it has the indorsement of some of our most up-to-date gardeners who recognize the fact that one full crop of berries is about all that can be expected from the strawberry. Of course older plants will bear fruit, but never of the quantity and quality which is obtained from strong, healthy young plants whose vitality has not been drawn upon by the production of a heavy first crop.

This one-crop system makes it possible to grow fine berries without giving the plants more care than is required by ordinary vegetables.

The soil for strawberries should be rich and mellow, and should be kept entirely free from weeds.

It is a good plan to spread clean straw between the rows before the crop ripens, to keep the fruit from coming in contact with the ground or having sand washed upon it by heavy rains.

The best variety of strawberry that I have ever grown is Brandywine. It is very productive, bears large berries, has a most delicious flavor, and is never hollow-hearted. It ripens in mid-season.

The best late variety, allowing me to be judge, is Gandy. This kind requires a very rich soil. Where it can be given this, no more satisfactory late-cropper can be grown. The two varieties named above combine all the best qualities of this most popular fruit.

Several times in the last few years the announcement has been made that a fall-bearing strawberry has been produced, but as it was of European origin it did not prove satisfactory under American conditions. Of late, however, some of our most progressive small-fruit growers have succeeded in growing two varieties that promise to be really good fall-croppers. These produce, if allowed to do so, their main crop at the same time as other varieties, and keep on bearing until frost. But in order to secure a good crop late in the season it is advisable to cut away all buds that appear in June, keeping the strength of the plant in reserve for the fall crop. It is well to mulch these plants during the hot, dry weather of summer. These fall-bearing varieties are on the market under the names of Superb and Progressive.

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The blackberry responds generously to good treatment, bearing enormous quantities of large, juicy berries of most delicious flavor when given proper care.