Chapter 11
Section 11 of Making Home Profitable. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Making Home Profitable by Kate St. Marr.
The Vegetable Garden. It is advisable to plan the garden on paper and make out seed lists early in the spring to save time later. Every family will, of course,
have specially preferred vegetables to take precedence over others, so individual taste alone can determine the allotted space for each variety. Our selection and plan was made with due regard for table pickles and preserves, all of which were bountifully supplied. Therefore, if your discrimination on such subjects is too undeveloped as yet to be trusted, accept our experience this year, and then you will know how to reconstruct it for your personal needs. When planning out on
paper, the second crop should be considered, as well as the spring sowings. One of the advantages of sending for seed early is that you are sure to get the varieties selected, whereas later in the season, the best is frequently sold out. When choosing a site, remember that a slight slope to the south or southeast is desirable. Size must depend very much on whether you intend having a separate berry patch or not. 100 feet by 75 feet will supply an average small family with vegetables
for the table, excepting winter potatoes, which should be a field crop. Protection from the northeast storms should be provided. Cedar or privet is the ideal hedge for such purposes, but it takes money and time, so while it is developing, resort to the serviceable hurdle fence made of brush. If the weather is fine, the last two weeks of March should see the patch of ground intended for the vegetable garden plowed and harrowed. Have well-rotted stable manure scattered
over the surface before plowing, which should be deep at first. After two or three days airing, plow again, running the furrows crosswise. Then harrow and roll and harrow again until every clod is broken up. Thorough preparation of the soil should never be shirked, for it is more than half the battle. Let me caution you not to have the plowing done if the ground be wet. Much of the disappointment which city people experience arises from the natural desire of the amateur
to get to work. Earth plowed, dug or hoed when wet or soggy will bake and crust all summer. The right consistency can be ascertained by picking up a handful and squeezing it. If it remains in a solid lump, it is too wet, but when it presses together easily and as readily falls apart when released, it is in just the right condition to work, will turn a clean furrow, and will readily crumble under the harrow. Sod ground is desirable for potatoes, so if there
is a strip of grassland which needs renewal, have it well plowed, harrowed, and marked off in rows 18 inches apart for the winter crop. Almost every old farmer has a theory about the way and size to cut potatoes for planting. After listening to and trying several methods, we have come to the conclusion that cutting large tubers in four and small ones through the center lengthwise is much better than dissecting carefully to separate every eye and then using two pieces when planting,
especially as the innumerable experiments made at the agricultural stations have revealed the fact that eyes gather nutriment for sustenance and grow from the potato itself, until the sprouts develop stems that form joints, at which point rootlets start, proving beyond doubt that, unless the piece of potato planted is large enough adequately to feed the eye or eyes it may contain, the root growth, which is required to furnish the subsequent tubers with food,
must be weakened. We plant one quarter potato to every foot in the row and cover from four to five inches deep, selecting ground which has been heavily manured the year before, and scattering wood ashes on the surface after the seeds have been covered. Failing this source, commercial fertilizer specially prepared for potatoes must be bought. Thorough cultivation is necessary to ensure a good crop. Soon, say seven or eight days after planting, run the harrow over the field to
kill the embryo weeds and level the surface. As soon as the plants show, cultivate again, but of course only between the rows and with an ordinary cultivator. Repeat at frequent intervals. It is estimated that it takes 15 bushels of potatoes after they have been cut into quarters to plant an acre, which should return 130 bushels of saleable potatoes, by which is meant large and medium-sized potatoes, small ones not entering into the calculation. There will be in all
probability about 30 bushels of these dwarfs, which are excellent fatting food for poultry and pigs when cooked and mashed up. The space intended for carrots require extremely good cultivation, for the soil must be thoroughly pulverized. Tie the seeds in a piece of cheesecloth, steep in water for 12 hours, then hang up in a warm room to drip and dry sufficiently to prevent their sticking together when being planted. Another aid we furnish these delicate
seedlings is to drop a radish seed every six inches because they germinate quickly and throw a strong seed leaf which breaks the crust over the row and allows the fragile carrot sprout free access. Allow two feet from the last row of potatoes, stretch the line, and with a pointed stick, draw a shallow drill in which to scatter the carrot seed. Covering must not be more than a fourth of an inch. Press down firmly. Between each two rows of carrots, allow one foot. Steep
and use only half the seed at first, planting the remainder 20 days later. With good ground in cultivation, you should have carrots late in June. A 30-inch space must divide the carrots from the beets. Prepare the ground as before, but make the drill a full inch deep, dropping the seed half an inch apart, the rows two feet apart. These should be ready for use the first week in June. Keep half the seed for late planting. Early turnips can start another two feet along.
Drill half an inch, the rows one foot apart. First of all, peas are semi-dwarf, but yield much better if given some support. We plant every two rows seven inches apart in a drill one inch deep, and when the peas are two inches high, we stick a brush between the rows, so making a hedge of vine when developed.
Twin rows should be two feet apart. For onion sets, make drills an inch and a half deep, placing the sets upright and from four to six inches apart. Firm the earth all around and the fourth of an inch over them. These will furnish early onions for cooking.
For onion seed, the soil cannot be too carefully prepared, for, like carrots, they are long and germinating and extremely fragile. A few radish seeds can again be used as pioneers. Instead of commercial fertilizer, the poultry droppings are used for onions, being reduced to a powder by grinding in an old chopping machine. Sprinkle freely within one inch of the center of the row and from three to four inches each side
of it. Unless rain falls within a few days, water very thoroughly with a sprinkler. Hen droppings seem especially desirable for all bulbs and tubers. Lettuce seed requires well-enriched soil. Drill one-fourth of an inch deep, the rows one foot apart. From the time seeds are put into the ground, cultivation must be continual, raking between rows being frequent enough to destroy embryo weeds. Ten minutes light work with a rake before weeds develop will save hours of hard labor
with a hoe. Cultivation is required not only to destroy weeds, but to supply air and encourage all the moisture from the subsoil to travel upward, so nourishing the plant roots as they develop and preventing the soil from baking. Not cultivating the ground around the plants is as injurious to their health as shutting a child in an unventilated room. Lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower plants should now be planted. Prepare the rose as for seed and with the pointed
stick used for marking the rose, make holes directly under the line, nine inches apart for lettuce, one foot for cabbage and cauliflower. Put a little water into the hole, pack the earth around the root and stem, water copiously, then draw dry earth up over the wet surface to prevent the moisture from evaporating or a crust forming. To promote root growth, cut off half the length of the outer leaves with a pair of sharp scissors. If possible, provide some protection until the
plants are established. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants should be bedded out about the 20th of May. Tomatoes and eggplants stand two and one-half feet apart, each one in ground very heavily enriched to a depth of three feet and a circumference of two feet. Pursue the same method of planting as for cabbage, except that instead of cutting the leaves across, nip out the two hard leaves of each plant. Checking top growth makes the plant branch and form a stocky bush
instead of a spindly top growth that will break under the weight of fruit when it forms. If the home is to be an ideal haven of rest, it must be pretty. Economy may prohibit buying plants for the flower garden, but the exercise of a little forethought will enable you to have a lovely display of flowers all through the summer at a nominal cost. Procure some shallow boxes from your grocer. They should not be more than three inches deep and about 18 inches long and one foot
wide. If it is not possible to get what you want, saw a six or seven inch box in half, using the lid as a bottom for the second box. Have the mold thoroughly pulverized before sowing and prepare an extra quantity to use for covering the seeds. This I do by half filling a rather fine colander and shaking it over the box until there is an even layer over the seeds. The average small flower seed should not have more than the fourth of an inch over it. A board that will fit inside the box
should be pressed down hard to ensure the seeds being firmly embedded in the mold. Otherwise, the air gets around them and dries up and kills the first frail germs of life. After planting and patting down, sprinkle lightly and stand the boxes in a south or southwest window in a living room where the temperature averages 60 degrees. The boxes must be watched for what is called damping off. It can easily be detected by the sickly appearance of the seedlings,
followed by a shriveling or burning of the stem close to the earth. The moment the danger signal is noticed, prick out into fresh boxes of corresponding size or a trifle deeper. The seedlings need not be planted more than a half an inch apart. Prepare the mold in the boxes the same as you did for the seeds. Pat down, and with a toothpick, make the holes in which the baby plants are to be put,
firming the earth around them gently with the forefinger of each hand. Should no suggestion of debility appear among the seedlings, still prick out into fresh boxes when the second leaves unfold. Bovee potatoes for early garden crop, one peck, 75 cents. Carrots, ox heart, one ounce, 10 cents. Cauliflower, early snowball, one packet, 25 cents. Celery, one packet, 10 cents. Beets,
2 ounces, 20 cents. Brussels sprouts, 1 packet, 10 cents. Cabbage, Jersey Wakefield, 1 packet, 15 cents. Cabbage, Autumn King, 1 packet, 15 cents. Kale, dwarf green, 1 ounce, 10 cents. Lettuce Boston Market 1 ounce 15 cents Peas First of All 1 pint 15 cents Peas Petite Paris 1 half a pint 10 cents Peas Champion of England 1 quart 30 cents Turnips Early Flat Dutch 1 packet 5 cents. Turnips Purple Top Aberdeen 1 packet 5 cents.
Turnips Rutabaga 1 packet 10 cents. White Onion Sets 1 quart 25 cents. Red Onion Sets 1 quart 25 cents. Onion seed, prize taker, one ounce, 20 cents. Cucumber, white spine, one packet, 10 cents. Eggplant, New York spineless, one packet, 10 cents. Tomato, crimson cushion, one packet, 10 cents. Pepper, Ruby King, one packet, 10 cents. Muskmelon, Delmonico, one packet, 10 cents.
Squash, Long Island, Summer, one packet, 10 cents. Squash, Gregory, Winter, one packet, 10 cents. Green bush bean, the longfellow, one packet, 10 cents. Pole lima bean, leviathan, one packet, 10 cents. Okra, long green, one packet, 5 cents. Radish, scarlet turnip, one ounce, 10 cents. Corn, Country Gentleman, one packet, 15 cents.
Herbs, Parsley, Sage, Summer Savory, Thyme, Marjoram, Aniseed, Wormwood, Saffron, Tansy. One packet each, 40 cents. Total cost, $4.95. End of Section 11, read by Ellen Corcoran.
