Part 11

EXTRA EARLY PREMIUM GEM.--This variety is about ten days later than the American Wonder, and grows from twelve to fourteen inches in height. The peas are remarkably fine in quality, and I have planted it for several years as my main variety.

PRIDE OF THE MARKET.--A new pea that I have grown the past two seasons, and find of very superior merit. The price of the seed has been too high to admit of extensive planting, but with these three dwarf kinds, the only ones planted for the table this last season, I can say that I have never been better supplied, or with finer peas. This variety grows about a foot and a half in height and bears a very heavy crop of pods, which latter and the peas that they contain are of unusual size and substance.

LAXTON’S EVOLUTION.--This variety is a novelty in the way of peas; in the other varieties the object having been of late years to have the pods all mature as nearly as possible at the same time; this object has been sought for the benefit of the market gardeners, while in this new variety we have a kind which will, from its everbearing habits, be a great boon to the family gardener. The vines grow about three feet high, and bear continuously, for a space of nearly three months, an abundance of handsome, large pods, each of which contains eight to ten wrinkled peas, the pods being borne in clusters of two, which facilitates the picking. Like all wrinkled varieties, the quality of this remarkable pea is most excellent.

CHAMPION OF ENGLAND.--This is a large growing late sort, and is very productive, with peas of delicious flavor. The vines grow to four or five feet in height, and this past summer I ate them in perfection fully a month after the other varieties had disappeared from the table.

COPYRIGHT, 1887, By W. ATLEE BURPEE.

BURPEE’S QUANTITY.]

PEPPERS.

The seed should be sown about the middle of March, in the hotbed, if wanted for summer use, and as soon as the nights are warm they should be planted out. They can be sown in the open ground if the fruit is not wanted for use before fall. As they are used in preparing various kinds of pickles, etc., it would probably be the better plan to plant some at both times. When about six inches high, they should be transplanted to the rows where they are to fruit, and should be set about two feet apart in the row. Where room is scarce, I usually set two pepper plants between each hill of cantaloupes, as they grow well above the vines and are not at all in the way, while having the ground shaded from the hot sun by the vines of the melons, the surface being kept cool and moist by their broad leaves, is of great advantage to the peppers. In choosing varieties, those kinds having the mildest flavor and handsomest appearance should be selected.

VARIETIES OF PEPPERS.

BURPEE’S RUBY KING.--This variety produces the handsomest, and at the same time the largest and mildest peppers that I have ever grown; one specimen this season being six inches long and over ten inches in round circumference. When ripe the fruit is a beautiful, bright, ruby-red color, and the flavor is mild and pleasant, being much milder than in any other variety of red pepper.

BURPEE’S GOLDEN UPRIGHT.--In this variety the fruit grows in a different manner from any other large pepper that I have ever seen; it grows upright on the fruit stems, instead of pendulous. The fruits are large and handsome, being about four to five inches in length, and are of rich golden yellow tinged with red. In taste it is as mild as the Ruby King--the two making a very fine contrast when used together.

BULL NOSE AND GOLDEN DAWN are the finest of the older kinds, but do not compare with the two above given, either for size or mildness of flavor.

RED CLUSTER.--This is one of the finest varieties that I have ever grown; it is low and bushy in growth, and is covered with a profusion of thin, round peppers, about three inches in length and one-quarter inch in diameter at the base, tapering to a long, sharp point. When ripe, the fruit is a brilliant coral red, and a plant covered with fruit looks like some brilliant-foliaged plant that has escaped from the flower garden. It is very hot and pungent in flavor, and an idea of the productiveness can be had from the fact that over twelve hundred were counted on a single plant this last summer.

PUMPKINS.

These take up so much room that they properly belong in the corn field, or in a patch of their own, in one of the cultivated fields. If there is no place for them outside the kitchen garden, and they can be kept far enough away from the squashes and cantaloupes, they can be planted about every twenty feet, in every fourth row of potatoes or sweet corn. They should not be planted until the corn or potatoes have grown three or four inches high, or they will be in the way of cultivating these crops. If one row of the corn were left out, and a row of pumpkins planted, it would probably be the most satisfactory way to grow them, as the tall growing corn, of which there should be at least five rows between them and any other vines, would prevent the pollen from mixing, and as the hills need only be four or five feet apart, a great many could be raised in a row. The pumpkins must all be gathered in and stored before any heavy frosts, as it will spoil and start them to rotting.

VARIETIES OF PUMPKINS.

SMALL SUGAR.--This is very handsome and prolific, of small size, the pumpkins averaging about ten inches in diameter; the skin is a deep orange yellow. It is very fine grained in flesh, sweet in taste, and an excellent keeper.

GOLDEN MARROW.--Of round shape, slightly ribbed and flattened at the ends; the skin is a rich golden orange color; the flesh is of extra quality, and very soft and tender when cooked. It is a splendid keeper, vigorous grower, and keeps well throughout the winter.

RADISHES.

These should be sown as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, and successive sowings should be made every two or three weeks, as recommended with peas, lettuce, etc. Do not sow too many at one time, but sow frequently, that they may be had fresh and crisp; they soon become either hollow, or hard and woody, if allowed to stand long after they are of sufficient size for use. Where there is glass enough to spare, it is an excellent plan to sow two or three rows in the hotbed at each planting of seeds, which will furnish them for use several weeks before they can be had from the garden.

There is a general impression that radishes do not do well except in very light soil, while my experience is that it is mainly a matter of manure and cultivation, and that good radishes can be raised early in the season on the heaviest of soils, though later in the season they will not succeed unless the soil be favorable. Where “Night Soil” can be obtained and composted with ashes, it will make the finest kind of manure for the radish bed; but it should be applied with judgment, as it will burn up any crop if applied too heavily. This manure can hardly be so readily applied in a special location in the garden worked by horse power, and I strongly disapprove of making “beds” in such a garden; it should be kept as level as possible, that all the cultivation may be done with the wheel and horse hoes; while “beds” mean lots of slow hand work, and hard beaten ground in the paths and edges, that are perpetual sources of weeds; while in the level garden the location of rows and crops can be continually shifted, every portion of the ground being used, and none escaping cultivation.

For the earliest plantings, the small, very early kinds should be used, and these will grow the finest radishes of the season, fresh, crisp, and slightly pungent. For summer use, the large summer kinds, of very mild flavor, should be selected. These latter should be planted from the first of June until the first of August, after which I begin to sow the small early kinds again, having found that I can grow them as fine and palatable as in the spring. In sowing these in the kitchen garden I sow a part of a row at a time, in the portion worked with the wheel hoe, where the rows are about one foot apart; the seed is sown thinly in the drills, and if it comes up too thickly, should be thinned out to one inch apart for the small kinds and two inches for the larger ones. The seed should be sown from one-half inch to one inch in depth, according as it is early or late in the season or in heavy or light soils. The radishes should be pulled early in the morning and kept in fresh water in a cool cellar until used, so as to have them fresh, brittle and crisp. The large winter varieties are not much raised, except by the Germans, being rather too pungent for the American taste. The seed is generally mixed with the turnip seed and broad-casted or drilled in together, but if I were planting them, I would think it much better to sow them in drills and cultivate separately.

VARIETIES OF RADISHES.

BURPEE’S EARLIEST (Scarlet Button).--I have grown this new radish for two seasons and consider it the earliest and finest radish that I have ever grown. It is the earliest, about one inch in diameter, handsome, crisp and brittle. The color is the deepest scarlet. It has very small leaves, and a great many can be grown in a small space, rendering it very valuable for forcing. Last winter I sowed seed between the rose bushes in my forcing houses and kept my table supplied, and had large quantities to sell.

Natural size, when ready for use.]

EARLY LONG SCARLET SHORT TOP.--This is a fine selection of the long, slender scarlet radishes so generally seen in the spring, and is preferred by some to the round or turnip radishes. It is very early, tender, crisp and fine flavored; the roots averaging half an inch in diameter at the top and tapering from that throughout their length of four or five inches.

EARLIEST CARMINE, OLIVE-SHAPED.--A very early radish, of a rich carmine color, and while not so early as Burpee’s Earliest, attains fully twice the size; the roots are of an even, regular olive shape and very fine quality. It is an excellent radish for forcing, on account of its size and appearance and the small growth of top which it makes, enabling many to be grown in a small space.

SUMMER VARIETIES OF RADISHES.