Home Vegetable Gardening by F. F. Rockwell (best novels to read to improve english .txt) ๐
"Sandy" in the sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary condit
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later. In plowing under tall-growing green manures, like rye, a heavy
chain is hung from the evener to the handle, thus pulling the crop down
into the furrow so that it will all be covered under. Where drainage is
poor it will be well to break up the subsoil with a subsoil plow, which
follows in the wake of the regular plow but does not lift the subsoil
to the surface.
TOOLS FOR PREPARING THE SEED-BED
The spade or spading-fork will be followed by the hoe, or hook, and the
iron rake; and the plow by one or more of the various types of harrow.
The best type of hoe for use after the spade is the wide, deep-bladed
type. In most soils, however, this work may be done more expeditiously
with the hook or prong-hoe (see illustration). With this the soil can
be thoroughly pulverized to a depth of several inches. In using either,
be careful not to pull up manure or trash turned under by the spade, as
all such material if left covered will quickly rot away in the soil and
furnish the best sort of plant food. I should think that our energetic
manufactures would make a prong-hoe with heavy wide blades, like those
of the spading-fork, but I have never seen such an implement, either in
use or advertised.
What the prong-hoe is to the spade, the harrow is to the plow. For
general purposes the Acme is an excellent harrow. It is adjustable, and
for ground at all mellow will be the only one necessary; set it, for
the first time over, to cut in deep; and then, set for leveling, it
will leave the soil in such excellent condition that a light hand-raking (or, for large areas, the Meeker smoothing-harrow) will prepare
it for the finest of seeds, such as onions and carrots. The teeth of
the Acme are so designed that they practically constitute a gang of
miniature plows. Of disc harrows there are a great many makes. The
salient feature of the disc type is that they can tear up no manure,
grass or trash, even when these are but partly turned under by the
plow. For this reason it is especially useful on sod or other rough
ground. The most convenient harrow for putting on the finishing
touches, for leveling off and fining the surface of the soil, is the
lever spike-tooth. It is adjustable and can be used as a spike-tooth or
as a smoothing harrow.
Any of the harrows mentioned above (except the Meeker) and likewise the
prong-hoe, will have to be followed by the iron rake when preparing the
ground for small-seeded garden vegetables. Get the sort with what is
termed the โbowโ head (see illustration) instead of one in which the
head is fastened directly to the end of the handle. It is less likely
to get broken, and easier to use. There is quite a knack in
manipulating even a garden rake, which will come only with practice. Do
not rake as though you were gathering up leaves or grass. The secret in
using the garden rake is not to gather things up. Small stones,
lumps of earth and such things, you of course wish to remove. Keep
these raked off ahead of where you are leveling the soil, which is
accomplished with a backward-and-forward movement of the rake.
The tool-house of every garden of any size should contain a seed-drill.
Labor which is otherwise tedious and difficult is by it rendered mere
playโas well as being better done. The operations of marking the row,
opening the furrow, dropping the seed at the proper depth and distance,
covering immediately with fresh earth, and firming the soil, are all
done at one fell swoop and as fast as you can walk. It will even drop
seeds in hills. But that is not all: it may be had as part of a
combination machine, which, after your seeds are plantedโwith each row
neatly rolled on top, and plainly visibleโmay be at once transformed
into a wheel hoe that will save you as much time in caring for your
plants as the seed-drill did in planting your seed. Hoeing drudgery
becomes a thing of the past. The illustration herewith shows such a
machine, and some of the varied attachments which may be had for it.
There are so many, and so varied in usefulness, that it would require
an entire chapter to detail their special advantages and methods of
use. The catalogues describing them will give you many valuable
suggestions; and other ways of utilizing them will discover themselves
to you in your work.
Valuable as the wheel hoe is, however, and varied in its scope of work,
the time-tried hoe cannot be entirely dispensed with. An accompanying
photograph [ED. Not shown here] shows four distinct types, all of which
will pay for themselves in a garden of moderate size. The one on the
right is the one most generally seen; next to it is a modified form
which personally I prefer for all light work, such as loosening soil
and cutting out weeds. It is lighter and smaller, quicker and easier to
handle. Next to this is the Warren, or heart-shaped hoe, especially
valuable in opening and covering drills for seed, such as beans, peas
or corn. The scuffle-hoe, or scarifier, which completes the four, is
used between narrow rows for shallow work, such as cutting off small
weeds and breaking up the crust. It has been rendered less frequently
needed by the advent of the wheel hoe, but when crops are too large to
admit of the use of the latter, the scuffle-hoe is still an
indispensable time-saver.
There remains one task connected with gardening that is a bug-bear.
That is hand-weeding. To get down on oneโs hands and knees, in the
blistering hot dusty soil, with the perspiration trickling down into
oneโs eyes, and pick small weedlets from among tender plantlets, is not
a pleasant occupation. There are, however, several sorts of small
weeders which lessen the work considerably. One or another of the
common types will seem preferable, according to different conditions of
soil and methods of work. Personally, I prefer the Langโs for most
uses. The angle blade makes it possible to cut very near to small
plants and between close-growing plants, while the strap over the back
of a finger or thumb leaves the fingers free for weeding without
dropping the instrument.
There are two things to be kept in mind about hand-weeding which will
reduce this work to the minimum. First, never let the weeds get a
start; for even if they do not increase in number, if they once smother
the ground or crop, you will wish you had never heard of a garden.
Second, do your hand-weeding while the surface soil is soft, when the
weeds come out easily. A hard-crusted soil will double and treble the
amount of labor required.
It would seem that it should be needless, when garden tools are such
savers of labor, to suggest that they should be carefully kept, always
bright and clean and sharp, and in repair. But such advice is needed,
to judge by most of the tools one sees.
Always have a piece of cloth or old bag on hand where the garden tools
are kept, and never put them away soiled and wet. Keep the cutting
edges sharp. There is as much pleasure in trying to run a dull
lawnmower as in working with a rusty, battered hoe. Have an extra
handle in stock in case of accident; they are not expensive. In
selecting hand tools, always pick out those with handles in which the
grain does not run out at the point where there will be much strain in
using the tool. In rakes, hoes, etc., get the types with ferrule and
shank one continuous piece, so as not to be annoyed with loose heads.
Spend a few cents to send for some implement catalogues. They will well
repay careful perusal, even if you do not order this year. In these
days of intensive advertising, the commercial catalogue often contains
matter of great worth, in the gathering and presentation of which no
expense has been spared.
FOR FIGHTING PLANT ENEMIES
The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies are of two
sorts:โ(1) those used to afford mechanical protection to the plants;
(2) those used to apply insecticides and fungicides. Of the first the
most useful is the covered frame. It consists usually of a wooden box,
some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight high, covered
with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or mosquito wire. The
first two coverings have, of course, the additional advantage of
retaining heat and protecting from cold, making it possible by their
use to plant earlier than is otherwise safe. They are used extensively
in getting an extra early and safe start with cucumbers, melons and the
other vine vegetables.
Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as tomatoes or
cabbage, from the cutworm, are stiff, tin, cardboard or tar paper
collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be put
around the stem and penetrate an inch or so into the soil.
For applying poison powders, such as dry Paris green, hellebore and
tobacco dust, the home gardener should supply himself with a powder
gun. If one must be restricted to a single implement, however, it will
be best to get one of the hand-power, compressed-air sprayersโeither a
knapsack pump or a compressed-air sprayerโtypes of which are
illustrated. These are used for applying wet sprays, and should be
supplied with one of the several forms of mist-making nozzles, the non-cloggable automatic type being the best. For more extensive work a
barrel pump, mounted on wheels, will be desirable, but one of the above
will do a great deal of work in little time. Extension rods for use in
spraying trees and vines may be obtained for either. For operations on
a very small scale a good hand-syringe may be used, but as a general
thing it will be best to invest a few dollars more and get a small tank
sprayer, as this throws a continuous stream or spray and holds a much
larger amount of the spraying solution. Whatever type is procured, get
a brass machineโit will out-wear three or four of those made of
cheaper metal, which succumbs very quickly to the, corroding action of
the strong poisons and chemicals used in them.
Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, prong-hoe and spading-fork already mentioned, very few are used in the small garden, as most
of them need not only long rows to be economically used, but horse-power also. The onion harvester attachment for the double wheel hoe,
costing $1.00, may be used with advantage in loosening onions, beets,
turnips, etc., from the soil or for cutting spinach. Running the hand-plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other deep-growing
vegetables will aid materially in getting them out. For fruit picking,
with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of
a long handle, will be of great assistance, but with the modern method
of using low-headed trees it will not be needed.
Another class of garden implements are those used in pruningโbut where
this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp jackknife
and a pair of pruning shears (the English makes are the best, as they
are in some things, when we are frank enough to confess the truth) will
easily handle all the work of the kind necessary.
Still another sort of garden device is that used for supporting the
plants; such as stakes, trellises, wires, etc. Altogether too little
attention usually is given these, as with proper care in
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