Part 17

Seed of kohl rabi, early cabbage and cauliflower should be sown in a hotbed, and the plants transplanted to the open ground when four inches high.

Kohl rabi is grown for its turnip-shaped bulb, which is formed above ground, by the expansion of the stem. The bulb should be used while young and tender, as age detracts from its good quality. Set the plants eight inches apart in the row. For later use sow seed in drills and thin to the proper distance apart. When well grown and properly prepared for the table, the kohl rabi is one of the most desirable of vegetables, and should be in every garden. Early White Vienna is the best variety.

Plant early cabbage in rows, with plants eighteen inches apart in the row. After trying several different sorts I have decided upon Early Jersey Wakefield, Early Flat Dutch, and Fottler’s Brunswick, as the best varieties for this latitude, and, as the cabbage worm has made late cabbage an uncertain crop for several years past here, in southern Illinois, we have planted largely of the Early Flat Dutch cabbage and had it picked and put up before the cabbage worm made its appearance. This I know, from experience, to be better than the use of all the insect powders combined.

To grow cauliflower to perfection, the ground needs extra heavy manuring, and the plants must be supplied with an abundance of water as soon as heads begin to form. Plants should stand the same distance apart as early cabbage. The outside leaves should be pinned together over the centre, to shield the head from the direct rays of the sun, which often cause it to turn green, thus rendering it inferior in quality or entirely unfit for use. Early Snowball and Erfurt are both good and reliable. Nowhere does success depend more on the quality of the seed than in the cauliflower.

SWEET CORN.

Sweet corn should be planted as soon as the ground is reasonably warm, in hills, three feet apart, three plants to a hill. The season for sweet corn can be greatly prolonged by planting early and late sorts, at intervals of a few weeks. There are many good early kinds, but I think the best late variety is Stowell’s Evergreen, which produces ears of the largest size, that remain in a condition fit for the table longer than those of any other variety of sweet corn.

POTATOES.

If you wish to enjoy new potatoes early in the season, your seed potatoes must be planted as early in the spring as the ground can be prepared. Plant them one foot apart in the row and cover with the corn plow. I would advise the planting of medium-sized potatoes in preference to large ones cut to pieces. If large ones must be used cut them a few days beforehand, so that the newly cut surface may dry before planting, otherwise, there is danger of the pieces rotting in the ground, especially if there is much rain immediately after planting. The Early Ohio gave us excellent returns for several years in succession.

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We will next take under consideration that portion of the garden devoted to the vegetables requiring the greater part of the season to mature. The most important of these are:--

EGG PLANTS, TOMATOES, POLE BEANS, BEETS, CARROTS, LATE CABBAGE, CUCUMBERS, SQUASHES AND SWEET POTATOES.

Sow Egg Plant and Tomato seed in a hotbed and remove the young plants to a cold frame when three inches high, from whence do not remove them till the weather is settled and warm.

Egg Plant will repay the extra care it requires, and should be in every garden. Handle the plants very carefully in transplanting, and never remove them to the open ground before the nights are warm. At the North plants may be grown in flower pots plunged in a cold frame till the weather is sufficiently warm. Plants should stand 2½ feet apart in the row, and the soil should be very rich and warm. New York Purple is the leading variety, but those who succeed with the Black Pekin cannot fail to be pleased with its large, glossy fruits.

When all danger from frost is over, carefully transplant the Tomato plants from the cold frame to the open ground, to stand two feet apart in the row. As they grow tie them up on a trellis and remove all superfluous branches, so as to give the growing fruit the benefit of full sunshine, without which it will be of inferior quality and scarcely worth the having. Nothing can be worse than allowing tomato plants to grow along the ground at will without any support. Better it would be not to grow any at all than to degrade them in that manner. Make a small trellis, four feet high, by nailing a few pieces of lath across small stakes driven into the ground. I regard Livingston’s Perfection as an excellent variety, and have grown extra large specimens of the Mikado, which, by the way, seems to have been cast in the same mold as the Turner Hybrid. Be this as it may, I can heartily recommend either variety to all wishing to grow fine, solid, enormous-sized tomatoes.

POLE BEANS, as the name implies, require poles or some other support for the vines to twine upon. The poles must be set firmly, to prevent being blown over by the wind. Where poles are not procurable, the vines may be trained upon strings stretched up and down along two wires, which are stretched and firmly fastened to posts or stakes, one wire above and the other below. Pole Bean trellis, seven feet high, can be purchased, and will answer the purpose for which they are intended. The best pole bean of its kind is the Large White Lima. Being very tender, it should not be planted before the ground is warm. The beans will come up sooner if the eye in the seed is placed downward. The seed should be lightly covered with mellow soil, as this bean, considering its size, has less penetrating power in coming up than any other kind. In rainy seasons I have covered the seed with coffee grounds, which never became compact or hard from the beating rains, and nearly every bean came up nicely, while those covered with earth were almost a total failure. The Large White Lima is generally considered difficult to grow, but I cannot say so, as I have grown it without much difficulty, and had beans to perfection by the pailful throughout the summer. Mine were planted in very rich soil and the rows were about four feet apart, three plants to a hill, and the hills two feet apart. If supported by a trellis, beans should be placed one foot apart in the row. The above applies to all pole beans, whether Limas or string beans. Of the latter class of beans I have found White Creaseback a variety of great merit. Southern Prolific and Dutch Case Knife are also good. At the North, where the seasons are too short for the Large Lima, the Small Lima or Sieva, as it is also called, should be planted.

Sow BEET and CARROT seed as early in spring as possible. Sow in drills and thin beets to five inches and carrots to three inches apart in the drill. To have Beets early we sometimes sow seed of an extra early variety in the hotbed and transplant to the garden when plants are a few inches high. The same may be done with early carrots. Sow Early Scarlet Horn Carrot for early use and Long Red Coreless for fall and winter. Eclipse is one of the best early Beets and Long Blood Red is the very best late variety.

Sow late CABBAGE seed in a seed bed, when danger from frost is over, and when plants are three inches high, plant them in rows three feet apart, with plants 2½ feet apart in the row. Late Flat Dutch, Burpee’s Surehead and Large Late Drumhead are reliable sorts.

CUCUMBER and SQUASH seeds should under no consideration be planted before the weather is settled and warm, as the young plants are extremely tender and sensitive to cold. Cucumber hills should be four feet apart each way, and squash hills should be six feet apart. Scatter about a dozen seeds in a hill, and when the second pair of leaves have formed, remove all but three of the strongest plants. No fruit should be permitted to ripen on cucumber vines, as this greatly weakens the plant and prevents it from further setting fruit. Pinching off the tips of winter squash vines when they are about three feet long increases their productiveness. Early Green Cluster, White Spine, and London Long Green are good varieties of cucumbers. The list of desirable squashes is long, but whoever grows the Pineapple and the Brazil Sugar Squash for early use, and the Essex Hybrid and Hubbard for winter use, will not be disappointed.

The term “hills,” as used here and elsewhere in this paper, does not imply heaped-up soil, but simply means that several seeds are to be planted together in one place, on a level with the rest of the ground. This I have found to be better than heaping up the ground to form hills, which soon dry out and are difficult to water.

The only plant requiring hills or ridges is the SWEET POTATO. Throw several furrows together with a plow and draw the soil up with a hoe, to form a tapering ridge; two feet high and three feet wide at the bottom. The plants, which are obtained by planting the tubers in a hotbed, are planted two feet apart on top of this ridge. Being of tropical origin, the sweet potato plants should never be planted till danger from frost is over. One hoeing is generally sufficient, as the vines soon cover the ridge, but these should not be allowed to take root, as that diminishes the productiveness of the plant. Late varieties are of better quality than the early ones.

PEPPERS, GUMBO AND LEEKS.

No garden is complete without at least a few plants of peppers, gumbo and leeks. To grow PEPPERS to perfection, the young plants should be grown in the hotbed and be transplanted to very rich soil, from twelve to eighteen inches apart, according to variety. When they commence blooming, a liberal quantity of hen manure should be strewn around each plant and be hoed in. This will increase the product wonderfully. Burpee’s Ruby King and Golden Dawn are two superb new varieties.

GUMBO, or OKRA, is grown for its seed pods, which are used in soups and stews. Plant the seed eighteen inches apart, when the ground is warm, in spring, and use the pods while young and tender.

Sow LEEK seed very early, in a seed bed, in a sheltered place, if possible. When plants are about six inches long, transplant them to trenches six inches deep, with very rich soil at the bottom. Fill up the trenches as the plants grow, and later draw soil up to them. As a result, you will have fine, large leeks, blanched a foot long, which may be kept all winter if dug up with the roots on, and stored in moist sand in the cellar. Aside from being valuable for soups and salads, blanched leek makes an excellent dish when sliced and cooked like green peas. This fact does not seem to be generally known, as well-grown leek is so seldom seen in kitchen gardens.

We will now go back again to the ground adjoining the parsnips and salsify. The early vegetables will mature and be harvested one after the other, so that there will be enough vacant ground in time for--

CELERY, ENDIVE, TURNIPS, WINTER RADISHES, KALE, CORN SALAD, WINTER LETTUCE AND WINTER SPINACH.

Sow CELERY seed in a hotbed or cold frame. When a few inches high, plant five inches apart, in a bed, in the open ground, which should be especially prepared for the purpose by extra heavy manuring. Let the plants remain in this bed, to grow strong and stocky. Never let the ground in this bed become dry; give thorough cultivation and cut off the tops of the plants once or twice, to make them grow stocky. When six or eight inches high, lift the plants carefully and set them six or eight inches apart, in trenches a foot wide and fourteen or more inches in depth. Several inches of rotted stable manure should be mixed with the soil at the bottom of the trench. When planting, firm the ground well around each plant. Supply enough water to keep the ground at the bottom of the trench very moist all the time. As the plants grow, press soil around the bottom of each plant and tie together at the top with string, to keep the stems straight and in an upright position. The blanching or earthing up is done by gradually filling up the trench with ground as the plants grow. Care should be taken not to get any ground into the hearts of the plants and never to earth up while they are wet. Sowing seed in the open ground and growing plants on the level surface may do for cool northern latitudes, but my experience is that it will not do here in southern Illinois. Boston Market and Crawford’s Half Dwarf are as good as any of the taller varieties, and are more easily blanched.

Seed of ENDIVE should not be sown early, as this plant is grown chiefly for late summer and autumn salad. In this latitude we sow at intervals from the middle of June to the 1st of August. Seed may be sown either broadcast or in drills, but the plants should be thinned so as to stand from six to nine inches apart. It may also be sown in a seed bed and be transplanted to the proper distance apart. When the plants are full grown, tie all the outside leaves together over the heart, to blanch the inner leaves, which will take about a week. To keep up a constant supply, some should be tied up every few days. Never tie up when the leaves are wet or they will soon decay. Green Curled and Batavian are both very good.