Complete Text (Part 1)

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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through I lie lull lexl of 1 1 us book on I lie web al |-.:. :.-.-:: / / books . qooqle . com/| ...If. 5' JT.: •••sir ": « ::» ,-. •.5:.:s|fi . .5:; -fiS • ••- ..•••■a ■•TV i'M 'ft ' : :r8B i '■'■ ".'■ '' -"83 :ji3q ;» : *ii5i "•«?! ■•*•: _•■!•: s .-.-S3 ;.-rc:.:^ "•••■Jit ;• '■!:'! i «:- : 1 ■'■* I s :. hi ? HOW TO GROW VEGETABLES AND GARDEN HERBS A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK AND PLANTING TABLE FOR THE VEGETABLE GARDENER BY ALLEN FRENCH » » Nrln fork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON; MACMILLAN Ac CO., Ltd. . 1911 AH rights reserved €$\ i^ >$ Copyright, 1907 By the Macmillan Company Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1907 Reprinted May, 1911 • •••_ • •••*• • • • • . • •••••• • • • . . • •••/••• • • •• ••••• • • •••••• i • r ••• • ••• • •-•••••••••••• • ••• • • JBontit pieafant 9ntf J. Horace McFarland Company Harrisburg, Pa. J <Co a. . ®. 3 JFlotoer-<$arfcerter 238895 J PUBLISHER'S NOTE This is a new edition of the book previ- ously published under the title "The Book of Vegetables." TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ix PLANTING TABLE • « TABLE OF SEED-LONGEVITY AND OUNCE VALUES .... 300 INDEX 305 (vii) Jl PREFACE THIS book is designed to be of assistance to all who have to do with vegetable seeds, whether as buyers or as sellers. When a beginner in vegetable-gardening, I was painfully aware of my need of a convenient and reliable planting-table, giving particular directions for the cul- ture of all vegetables. I should have been saved mis- takes both ludicrous and vexatious by such a book, the general value of which I can best illustrate by a quota- tion from the English "Book of Asparagus," by Charles Ilott (the John Lane Company, publishers). The author tells the following: "Only a few weeks ago I was in a garden where there was a large bed of salsify. The owner was not satisfied with the plants, and told me he had changed his seedsman, because the salsify was poor and strag- gling. I examined the bed, and counted eight plants to the foot run. I turned to the other side of the bed, where broccoli was planted, and found them a foot apart from row to row and less in the rows. They were about three feet high, so I said, "Your broccoli is also a failure.". "Yes," he said, "no more seed from Messrs. So-and-so." I said, "Are you not blaming your seeds- man for your own ignorance?" He said, "Well, my (ix) x PREFACE gardener is of the same opinion as myself." I asked to see the gardener. He replied that he had not one now, but wanted one. I replied, "Yes, you certainly do want one." ... I then told him what I thought, and wondered how often our nurserymen and seedsmen are blamed for our incompetency." This instance of the loss of a summer's work from mere ignorance of proper planting distances, is but an illustration of one of the several ways in which a crop of vegetables may be, if not ruined, at least greatly lessened. In the culture of almost every vegetable there is some point to be observed which is essential to real success. The deep planting of one seed is as necessary as the shallow planting of another; the tenderness and hardiness of plants must be understood and considered. Besides these there are many points of knowledge brought out by recent investigations — as for instance in the fertilization or protection of the crop — which aid in increasing the normal yield. In spite of the evident need, these items have never before been brought to- gether in convenient form, thoroughly covering not merely classes of vegetables, but all the separate kinds. This book is intended, therefore, for seedsmen and their customers, that both may get full benefit from the seeds, the latter in good crops, the former in continued custom. That seedsmen have long recognized the need of such a book is evident from their catalogues, in which PREFACE xi they regularly publish brief directions for the culture of vegetables. These directions are, however, both short and incomplete, for in the space at their disposal the seedsmen cannot summarize all that it is of benefit to know of the culture of all vegetables. At the same time the handbooks on vegetable cul- ture, excellent as they are, treat vegetables as a rule in classes rather than individually, and do not mention many of the valuable sorts which are rare or of recent introduction. Dates and methods, as here outlined, are proper for the climate of the northern United States. Generally speaking, in stating planting-times the latitude con- sidered is that of the city of New York, but for other places the difference in season can be roughly worked out by allowing six days 1 difference for each hundred miles of latitude. This will not cover, of course, wide differences of altitude, so that these will often have to be considered. Moreover, our springs are uncertain and variable, so that the planting-times here given are but an average, and for, each year the time of first planting will really be shown by the ground itself. "When the ground is fit," and "When the ground can be worked," are convenient gardeners' phrases, meaning when the frost is out and the ground sufficiently dry to be workable. This last will vary with local differences in soils, whether sandy (which is earliest), loamy (which is of medium season) or clayey (which is late). xii PREFACE With such local soil-conditions this book has noth- ing to do; if a man's soil is late it is both his misfortune and (if he has cultivated it for any length of time) his fault. He can improve it by the means suggested in the handbooks on gardening, or in the various govern- ment and state pamphlets, to which he is also referred for the general subject of soil -management. But if, as is most likely, his garden or his fields have soils differ- ing in character, he can learn from this book in which particular spot a given plant will best thrive. Fortu- nately, while undoubtedly plants have preferences, it is possible to grow most of them successfully on average soil. With each plant I have given a summary of its uses, its culture, and in case it is little known, its virtues. "Annual" means that a plant will, under natural con- ditions, go to seed and die in one season; "biennial" PREFACE xiii means that the plant requires two years for developing its seed; " perennial " means that, however often the plant may produce seed, its root lives on for a number of years. For each plant are given sowing-directions. I as- sume that nowadays no one grows vegetables in beds. Space is better utilized and labor is saved by growing the plants in drills or rows, except in the field-culture of various crops, sowed broadcast, with which this book has nothing to do. Broadcast sowing in the seed-bed is, of course, a recognized garden practice resorted to in special cases. The proper distance of rows from each other is prac- tically determined by the height and spread (whether above or below ground} of the plants : they should not crowd or shade each other. The distances here given are the smallest which can safely be used for hand culture. Convenience will in many cases lead the gardener to plant at greater distances if he has the space, while if he depends on horse-culture he must plant still farther apart, -usually thirty inches at the least. That is his affair. This book is intended to help not only the man with plenty of room, but also the man who, by means of intensive cultivation, must get all he can from a small patch. Indicating the distances that seed should be sown in the rows is intended to help in economizing seed as well as in the saving of labor. It is wasteful to sow an xiv PREFACE ounce of seed if a packet will do the work; and it is ex- asperating to spend time in thinning what never should have been sown. A "good stand " of anything makes troublesome thinning; while in the case of asparagus, unless early and savagely thinned, extermination of the superfluous plants is impossible without digging out their crowns. I suppose I need hardly say that seed should be fresh, and bought of a reliable dealer. If a gardener wishes to sow old seed, he should first test its viability. The simplest method is to lay a given number of seed between moist cloths, in a tin box or between two dinner-plates laid edge to edge; the percentage of ger- mination is thus easily found. As for the dealer, there is no excuse for not buying of one of the many reputable city houses, all of which prepay mail charges on seed ordered by the ounce or packet. Grocery-store seed is too often old and poor. It would be of value if I could give here the number of feet of drill that an ounce of a given seed will sow, or the number of plants that an ounce will produce, but this subject has never, so far as I have found, been reliably and extensively tested. Seedsmen^s statements on this point are (as I learn from the experiments of Professor Bailey, and from my own experience) merely guesses on the safe side. One ounce of the seed of corn- salad, often quoted as enough for fifty feet of row, is really, if good weight, enough for at least two hundred PREFACE xv feet. An ounce of good asparagus seed, traditionally equal to sixty feet of drill, will really sow five times as much. I have not, however, been able to study this matter thoroughly, and in the absence of reliable data I have not ventured to give, under each heading, the number of plants or feet of row that can be got from an ounce of seed. I have, however, appended a table of supposed ounce-values, which may be of some help to a gardener in making his list of purchases. Accurate cor- rections will be welcome. The depth of planting makes little difference in the case of some seeds, but much in others. Celery seed sown too deep, for instance, will never come up, so that ignorant sowing may mean the loss of the chance to raise a crop. At the same time, again, summer peas planted too shallow are in danger of mildew. It is well, therefore, to pay attention to this matter. Thinning is a subject which is too little considered. It requires some heroism to thin properly, even with experience of the results. My quotation from Ilott shows the value of thinning, which should always be rigorously practiced. The distances here given are usually the least that can safely be allowed, for the ad- vantage, as above, of the man with a small garden. But even he must thin, for however rich his ground may be, no man can raise two prime parsnips, for in- stance, where there is room for but one. In the body of the book I have given none of the XVI PREFACE common cultural directions. Here let me say that I as- sume that every autumn the ground will be deeply ploughed or dug over, and that in spring it will be put in good surface-condition for sowing. During the grow- ing season I assume that weeds will not be allowed to grow, and that after rains, and between them whenever necessary, the surface of the soil will be stirred with the hoe, rake, or cultivator, to kill the sprouting weeds and to preserve the surface- mulch. F!g; & Types of wheel-hoes, or liand cultivators. This surface-mulch may be defined — for the benefit of the beginner — as a dust blanket above the moist earth, to prevent its drying out. For it may be broadly said that so long as the ground looks wet it is losing its moisture, while as soon as the surface has been broken and refined to powder the evaporation is stopped. This work is done, on small areas, by the hoe and rake, and on larger areas by the cultivator. The garden must be a small one in which the hand-cultivator, or wheel -hoe, will not soon save its cost in economy of time and PREFACE xvii labor, while in a large garden the horse-cultivator is a necessity. Regular and persistent cultivation is essential to success in gardening, and is the best of the two methods for bringing the garden through a drought. The other method, irrigation, is laborious, expen- sive, and seldom entirely successful. It is best applied by leading the water alongside the plants in furrows dug for the purpose; the ground should be soaked, the furrows closed and mulched. But for an ordinary drought cultivation is sufficient. Besides cultivating regularly, I assume that all gar- deners keep their soil rich by generous applications of manure or chemical fertilizers — preferably both. A few plants seem to be injured by overfeeding, especially those root-crops which suffer upon ground that has been recently manured. These plants I have indicated, but in general all plants thrive best upon rich soil, and the oft-repeated rule for vegetable gardens is : Give too much, in order to be sure to have enough. Such directions for fertilizing as I have given in the book are (over and above the necessary general fertiliz- ing) for the special needs of special crops. Knowledge of this subject is however as yet too inexact for me to be in all cases either positive or precise. Experiment stations all over the country are at present working upon this problem of fertilizers for special crops, a so- lution of which problem will take fewer dollars from the farmers 4 * pockets and put more into them — but that xviii PREFACE millenium has not yet come. Even where I have given specific directions, it is to be remembered that these, for extensive gardening, will always be modified by soil- conditions. For the general subject of fertilizers I refer my readers to Professor Edward B. Voorhees 1 standard book upon the subject, to his Farmers' Bulletion No. 44, and to the reports of himself and others in the bulletins of the New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and Rhode Island experiment stations. The study of the question of home-mixed fertilizers I commend to all who are interested in fertilizer economy and the im- provement of their crops. For general gardening pur- poses they will find Professor Voorhees 1 "basic fertilizer mixture" (nitrogen 4 per cent, phosphoric acid 8 per cent, potash 10 per cent) one of the best. I assume