Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by L. H. Bailey

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The seed for the main or fall crop should be sown in April or early May
in a seed-bed prepared by forking short well-rotted manure into a fine
soil, sowing the seed thinly in rows 8 or 10 inches apart, covering the
seed lightly and firming over the seed with the feet, hoe, or back of a
spade. This seed-bed should be kept moist at all times until the seed
germinates, either by close attention to watering or by a lath screen.
The use of a piece of cloth laid directly on the soil, and the bed wet
through the cloth, is often recommended, and if the cloth is always wet
and taken off the bed as soon as the seed sprouts, it may be used. After
the young plants have grown to the height of 1 or 2 inches they must be
thinned out, leaving the plants so that they do not touch each other,
and transplanting those thinned--if wanted--to other ground prepared in
the same manner as the seed-bed. All these plants may be sheared or cut
back to induce stockiness.

An ounce of seed will furnish about three thousand plants.

If in a private garden, the ground on which the fall crop is usually set
will likely be that from which a crop of some early vegetable has been
taken. This land should be again well enriched with fine, well-rotted
manure, to which may be added a liberal quantity of wood ashes. If the
manure or ashes is not easily obtained, a small amount may be used by
plowing or digging out a furrow 8 or 12 inches deep, scattering the
manure and ashes in the bottom of the trench and filling it up almost
level with the surface. The plants should be set about the middle of
July, preferably just before a rain. The plant bed should have a
thorough soaking shortly before the plants are lifted, and each plant be
trimmed, both top and root, before setting. The plants should be set
from 5 to 6 inches apart in the rows and the earth well firmed
around each one.

[Illustration: Fig. 303. Storing celery in a trench in the field.]

[Illustration: Fig. 304. A celery pit.]

The after-cultivation consists in thorough tillage until the time of
"handling" or earthing up the plants. This process of handling is
accomplished by drawing up the earth with one hand while holding the
plant with the other, packing the soil well around the stalks. This
process may be continued until only the leaves are to be seen. For the
private grower, it is much easier to blanch the celery with boards or
paper, or if the celery is not wanted until winter, the plants may be
dug up, packed closely in boxes, covering the roots with soil, and
placed in a dark, cool cellar, where the stalks will blanch themselves.
In this way celery may be stored in boxes in the house cellar. Put earth
in the bottom of a deep box, and plant the celery in it.

Celery is sometimes stored in trenches in the open (Fig. 303), the roots
being transplanted to such places in late fall. The plants are set close
together and the trenches are covered with boards. A wider trench or pit
may be made (Fig. 304) and covered with a shed roof.

[Illustration: Fig. 305. Swiss chard.]

CHARD, or SWISS CHARD,--is a development of the beet species
characterized by large succulent leafstalks instead of enlarged roots.

(Fig. 305). The leaves are very tender and make "greens" much like
young beets. They are cultivated exactly like beets. Only one variety is
offered by most seedsmen in this country, though in France and Germany
several varieties are grown.

CHICORY is grown for two purposes,--for the roots and for the
herbage. "Barbe de capucin" is a salad made from young shoots
of chicory.

The Magdeburg chicory is the variety usually spoken of, it being the one
most extensively grown. The roots of this, after being ground and
roasted, are used either as a substitute or an adulterant for coffee.

The Witloof, a form of chicory, is used as a salad, or boiled and served
in the same manner as cauliflower. The plants should be thinned to 6
inches. In the latter part of summer they should be banked up like
celery, and the leaves used after becoming white and tender. This and
the common wild chicory are often dug in the fall, the leaves cut off,
the roots packed in sand in a cellar and watered until a new growth of
leaves starts. These leaves grow rapidly and are very tender, making a
fine salad vegetable. One packet of seed of the Witloof will furnish
plants enough for a large family.

CHERVIL.--The chervil is grown in two forms,--for the leaves, and
for the tuberous roots.

The curled chervil is a good addition to the list of garnishing and
seasoning vegetables. Sow seeds and cultivate the same as parsley.

The tuberous chervil resembles a short carrot or parnsip. It is much
esteemed in France and Germany. The tubers have somewhat the flavor of a
sweet potato, perhaps a little sweeter. They are perfectly hardy, and,
like the parsnip, the better for frosts. The seed may be sown in
September or October, as it does not keep well; or as soon as the ground
is fit to work in the spring, it being slow to germinate after the
weather becomes hot and dry. One packet of seed will give all the plants
necessary for a family.

[Illustration XXIV. Golden bantam sweet corn.]

COLLARDS.--This is a name given to a kind of kale, used when young
as greens; also to young cabbages used in the same way.

The seed of any early cabbage may be sown thickly in rows 18 inches
apart, from early spring to late fall. The plants are cut off when 6 or
8 inches high and boiled as are other greens.

The kale, or Georgia collards, is grown in the South, where cabbages
fail to head. It grows to the height of 2 to 6 feet, furnishing a large
quantity of leaves. The young leaves and tufts that arise as the old
leaves are pulled off make excellent greens.

CIVES.--A small perennial of the onion family, used for flavoring.

It is propagated by division of the root. It may be planted in a
permanent place in the border, and, being completely hardy, will remain
for years. The leaves are the parts used, as the roots are very rank in
flavor. The leaves may be cut frequently, as they readily grow again.

CORN SALAD.--This is one of the earliest spring salad vegetables,
coming into condition with spinach, and needing the same culture.

Sown in the fall, and covered with straw or hay when cold weather sets
in, it will start into rapid growth when the covering is removed in
March or April. Or the seed may be sown in early spring, and plants will
be fit to use in six or eight weeks. One packet of seed will suffice for
a small family.

CORN, SWEET OR SUGAR.--This is the characteristic American table
vegetable, and one that every home-gardener expects to grow. Too often,
however, only one planting of one kind is made. The ears come to edible
maturity almost simultaneously, and a short season is the result.

The first planting of sweet corn should be made from May 1 to 10,
planting early, intermediate, and late varieties at the same time, then
at intervals of two weeks until the middle of July, when the late
varieties should be planted, thus having a succession from the first
crop until October.

The soil for corn should be fertile and "quick." The coarser manure left
from the preparation of the ground for small crops may be used to good
advantage. Corn for the garden is better planted in drills, the drills 3
feet apart, dropping the seed from 10 to 12 inches apart in the drills.
One quart of seed will plant 200 hills.

For extra early, Marblehead, Adams, Vermont, Minnesota, and Early Corey
are favorites. A most excellent extra early yellow sweet corn, with
kernels looking like small field corn, is Golden Bantam; the ears are
small and would probably not attract the market buyer, but for home use
the variety is unexcelled (Plate XXIV). For later crop, Crosby, Hickox,
Shoe Peg, and Stowell Evergreen are now popular.

CRESS.--Two very unlike species of plants are grown under the name
of cress,--the upland-cress and the water-cress. There are still other
species, but not much known in this country.

The upland cress, or the true pepper grass, may be grown on any garden
soil. Sow early in the spring. It makes a rapid growth and can be cut in
from four to five weeks. Succession of sowings must be made, as it runs
quickly to seed. The curled variety is the one usually grown, as the
leaves may be used for garnishing as well as for 'salads. One packet of
seed will be sufficient for each sowing. Any good soil will do. Sow
thickly in drills 12 to 18 inches apart. In summer it runs to seed
quickly, so that it is usually grown in spring and fall.

The water-cress is more exacting in its culture, and can be successfully
grown only in moist places, such as edges of shallow slow-running
creeks, open drains, or beds excavated near such streams. A few plants
for private use may be grown in a frame, provided a retentive soil is
used and attention given to watering the bed often. Watercress may be
propagated from pieces of the stem, used as cuttings. If one is fond of
water-cress, it is well to colonize it in some clean creek or pool. It
will take care of itself year by year. Seeds may also be used for
propagating it.

CUCUMBER.--The custom of putting down cucumber pickles in the home
kitchen is probably passing out; but both the pickling and the slicing
cucumbers, especially the latter, are still an essential part of a good
home garden. A stale or wilted cucumber is a very poor article of food.

For early use, the cucumber is usually started in a hotbed or coldframe
by sowing the seed on pieces of sod 4 to 6 inches square, turned grass
side down. Three or four seeds are placed on or pushed into each piece
of sod and covered with 1 to 2 inches of fine soil. The soil should be
well watered and the glass or cloth placed over the frame. The roots
will run through the sod. When the plants are large enough to set out, a
flat trowel or a shingle may be slipped under the sod and the plants
moved to the hill without check. In place of sod, old quart berry-boxes
are good; after setting in the hill the roots may force their way
through the cracks in the baskets. The baskets also decay rapidly.
Flower-pots may be used. These plants from the frames may be set out
when danger of frost is over, usually by the 10th of May, and should
make a very rapid growth, yielding good-sized fruits in two months. The
hills should be made rich by forking in a quantity of well-rotted
manure, and given a slight elevation above the garden--not high enough
to allow the wind to dry the soil, but slightly raised so that water
will not stand around the roots.

The main crop is grown from seed planted directly in the open, and the
plants are grown under level culture.

One ounce of seed will plant fifty hills of cucumbers. The hills may be
4 to 5 feet apart each way.

The White Spine is the leading general-purpose variety. For very early
or pickling sorts, the Chicago, Russian, and other picklings are good.

The striped beetle is an inveterate pest on cucumbers and squashes (see
page 201).

[Illustration: Fig. 306. West Indian gherkin (_Cucumis Anguria_).]

The name gherkin is applied to small pickling cucumbers. The West India
gherkin is a wholly distinct species, but is grown like cucumbers.
(Fig. 306.)

DANDELION.--Under domestication the dandelion has been developed
until quite unrecognizable to the casual observer. The plants attain a
large size and the leaves are much more tender.

Sow in spring in well-manured soil, either in drills or in hills 1 foot
apart. A cutting of leaves may be had in September or October, and some
of the stools may stand until spring. The delicacy of the leaves may be
improved by blanching them, either by the use of boards or earth. One
trade packet of seed will supply a sufficient number for a family. The
whole plant is destroyed when the crop of leaves is taken.

The seed may be selected from the best field-grown plants, but it is
better to buy the French seed of the seedsmen.

EGG-PLANT.--The egg-plant or guinea squash has never become a
popular home-garden product in the North. In the South it is
better known.

Unless one has a greenhouse or a very warm hotbed, the growing of
egg-plants in the North should be left to the professional gardener, as
the young plants are very tender, and should be grown without a check.
The seed should be sown in the hotbed or the greenhouse about April 10,
keeping a temperature of 65 deg. to 70 deg.. When the seedlings have
made three rough leaves, they may be pricked out into shallow boxes, or,
still better, into 3-inch pots. The pots or boxes should be plunged to
the rim in soil in a hotbed or coldframe so situated that protection
may be given on chilly nights. The 10th of June is early enough to
plant them out in central New York.

[Illustration: Fig. 307. Black Pekin egg-plant.]

The soil in which egg-plants are to grow cannot well be made too
"quick," as they have only a short season in which to develop their
fruits. The plants are usually set 3 feet apart each way. A dozen plants
are sufficient for the needs of a large family, as each plant should
yield from two to six large fruits. The fruits are fit to eat at all
stages of growth, from those the size of a large egg to their largest
development. One ounce of seed will furnish 600 to 800 plants.

The New York Improved Purple is the standard variety. Black Pekin (Fig.
307) is good. For early, or for a short-season climate, the Early Dwarf
Purple is excellent.

ENDIVE.--One of the best fall salad vegetables, being far superior
to lettuce at that time and as easily grown.

For fall use, the seed may be sown from June to August, and as the
plants become fit to eat about the same time from sowing as lettuce
does, a succession may be had until cold weather. The plants will need
protection from the severe fall frosts, and this may be given by
carefully lifting the plants and transplanting to a frame, where sash or
cloth may be used to cover them in freezing weather.

[Illustration: Fig. 308. Endive tied up.]

The leaves, which constitute practically the whole plant, are blanched
before being used, either by tying together with some soft material
(Fig. 308) or by standing boards on each side of the row, allowing the
top of the boards to meet over the center of the row. Tie the leaves
only when they are dry.

The rows should be 1-1/2 or 2 feet apart, the plants 1 foot apart in the
rows. One ounce of seed will sow 150 feet of drill.

GARLIC.--An onion-like plant, the bulbs of which are used for
flavoring.

Garlic is little known in this country except amongst those of foreign
birth. It is multiplied the same as multiplier onions--the bulb is
broken apart and each bulbule or "clove" makes a new compound bulb in a
few weeks. Hardy; plant in early spring, or in the South in the fall.
Plant 2 to 3 inches apart in the row.

[Illustration: Fig. 309. A good horseradish root.]

HORSERADISH.--Widely used as an appetizer, and now grown
commercially. As a kitchen-garden vegetable, this is usually planted in
some out-of-the-way spot and a piece of the root dug as often as needed,
the fragments of roots being left in the soil to grow for further use.
This method results in having nothing but tough, stringy roots, very
unlike the product of a properly planted and well-cared-for bed. A good
horseradish root should be straight and shapely (Fig. 309).

The best horseradish is secured from sets planted in the spring at the
time of setting early cabbage, and dug as late the same fall as the
weather will permit. It becomes, therefore, an annual crop. The roots
for planting are small pieces, from 4 to 6 inches long, obtained when
trimming the roots dug in the fall. These pieces may be packed in sand
and stored until wanted the following spring.

In planting, the roots should be set with the upper end 3 inches below
the surface of the ground, using a dibber or sharp-pointed stick in
making the holes. The crop may be planted between rows of early-sown
beets, lettuce, or other crop, and given full possession of the ground
when these crops are harvested. When the ground is inclined to be stiff
or the subsoil is near the surface, the roots may be set in a slanting
position. In fact, many gardeners practice this method of planting,
thinking that the roots make a better growth and are more uniform
in size.

KALE.--Under this name, a great variety of cabbage-tribe plants is
grown, some of them reaching a height of several feet. Usually, however,
the name is applied to a low-growing, spreading plant, extensively used
for winter and spring greens.

The culture given to late cabbage is suitable. At the approach of severe
freezing weather a slight protection is given in the North. The leaves
remain green through the winter and may be gathered from under the snow
at a time when material for greens is scarce. Some of the kales are very
ornamental because of their blue and purple curled foliage. The Scotch
Curled is the most popular variety. Let the plants stand 18 to 30 inches
apart. Young cabbage plants are sometimes used as kale. Collards and
borecole are kinds of kale. Sea-kale is a wholly different vegetable
(which see).

Kales are extensively grown at Norfolk, Va., and southward, and shipped
North in winter, the plants being started in late summer or in fall.

KOHLRABI is little known in the United States. It looks like a
leafy turnip growing above ground.

If used when small (2 to 3 inches in diameter), and not allowed to
become hard and tough, it is of superior quality. It should be more
generally grown. The culture is very simple. A succession of sowings
should be made from early spring until the middle of summer, in drills
18 inches to 2 feet apart, thinning the young plants to 6 or 8 inches in
the rows. It matures as quickly as turnips. One ounce of seed to 100
feet of drill.

LEEK.--The leek is little grown in this country except by persons
of foreign extraction. The plant is one of the onion family, and is used
mostly as flavoring for soups. Well-grown leeks have a very agreeable
and not very strong onion flavor.

Leek is of the easiest culture, and is usually grown as a second crop,
to follow beets, early peas, and other early stuff. The seed should be
sown in a seed-bed in April or early May and the seedlings planted out
in the garden in July, in rows 2 feet apart, the plants being 6 inches
apart in the rows. The plants should be set deep if the neck or lower
part of the leaves is to be used in a blanched condition. The soil may
be drawn towards the plants in hoeing, to further the blanching. Being
very hardy, the plants may be dug in late fall, and stored the same as
celery, in trenches or in a cool root-cellar. One ounce of seed to 100
feet of drill.

LETTUCE is the most extensively grown salad vegetable. It is now in
demand, and is procurable, every month in the year. The winter and early
spring crops are grown in forcing-houses and coldframes, but a supply
from the garden may be had from April to November, by the use of a cheap
frame in which to grow the first and last crops, relying on a succession
of sowings for the intermediate supply.

Seed for the first crop may be sown in a coldframe in March, growing the
crop thick and having many plants which are small and tender; or, by
thinning out to the distance of 3 inches and allowing the plants to make
a larger growth, the plants pulled up may be set in the open ground for
the next crop.

Sowings should be made in the garden from April to October, at short
intervals. A moist location should be chosen for the July and August
sowings. The early and late sowings should be of some loose-growing
variety, as they are in edible condition sooner than the cabbage or
heading varieties.

The cabbage varieties are far superior to the loose-growing kinds for
salads. To be grown to perfection, they should have very rich soil,
frequent cultivation, and an occasional stimulant, such as liquid manure
or nitrate of soda.

The cos lettuce is an upright-growing type much esteemed in Europe, but
less grown here. The leaves of the full-grown plants are tied together,
thus blanching the center, making it a desirable salad or garnishing
variety. It thrives best in summer.

One ounce of seed will grow 3000 plants or sow 100 feet of drill. In the
garden, plants may stand 6 inches apart in the rows, and the rows may be
as close together as the system of tillage will allow.

MUSHROOM.--Sooner or later, the novice wants to grow mushrooms.
While it is easy to describe the conditions under which they may be
grown, it does not follow that a crop may be predicted with any
certainty.

Latterly, careful studies have been made of the growing of mushrooms
from spores and of the principles involved in the making of spawn, with
the hope of reducing the whole subject of mushroom growing to a rational
basis. A good idea of this work may be had by reading Duggar's
contribution on the subject in Bulletin 85 of the Bureau of Plant
Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. In this place,
however, we may confine ourselves to the customary
horticultural practice.

The following paragraphs are from "Farmers' Bulletin," No. 53 (by
William Falconer), of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (March, 1897):--

Mushrooms are a winter crop, coming in from September till April or
May--that is, the work of preparing the manure begins in September and
ends in February, and the packing of the crop begins in October or
November and ends in May. Under extraordinary conditions the season may
begin earlier and last longer, and, in fact, it may continue all summer.

Mushrooms can be grown almost anywhere out of doors, and also indoors
where there is a dry bottom in which to set the beds, where a uniform
and moderate temperature can be maintained, and where the beds can be
protected from wet overhead, and from winds, drought, and direct
sunshine. Among the most desirable places in which to grow mushrooms are
barns, cellars, closed tunnels, sheds, pits, greenhouses, and regular
mushroom houses. Total darkness is not imperative, for mushrooms grow
well in open light if shaded from sunshine. The temperature and moisture
are more apt to be equable in dark places than in open, light ones, and
it is largely for this reason that mushroom houses are kept dark.

The best fertilizer for mushrooms, so far as the writer's experience
goes, is fresh horse manure. Get together a lot of this material (short
and strawy) that has been well trampled and wetted in the stable. Throw
it into a heap, wet it well if it is at all dry, and let it heat. When
it begins to steam, turn it over, shake it well so as to mix thoroughly
and evenly, and then tramp it down solid. After this let it stand till
it again gets quite warm; then turn, shake, trample as before, and add
water freely if it is getting dry. Repeat this turning, moistening, and
trampling as often as it is needful to keep the manure from "burning."
If it gets intensely hot, spread it out to cool, after which again throw
it together. After being turned in this way several times, and the heat
in it is not apt to rise above 130 deg. F., it should be ready to make
up in the beds. By adding to the manure at the second or third turning
one-fourth or one-fifth of its bulk of loam, the tendency to intense
heating is lessened and its usefulness not at all impaired. Some growers
prefer short manure exclusively, that is, the horse droppings, while
others like a good deal of straw mixed in with this. The writer's
experience, however, is that, if properly prepared, it matters little
which is used.

Ordinarily the beds are only 8 to 10 inches deep; that is, they are
faced with 10-inch-wide hemlock boards, and are only the depth of this
board. In such beds put a layer of fresh, moist, hot manure, and trample
it down firm until it constitutes half the depth of the bed; then fill
up with the prepared manure, which should be rather cool (100 deg. to
115 deg.F.) when used, and pack all firmly. If desired, the beds can be
made up entirely of the prepared manure. Shelf beds are usually 9 inches
deep; that is, the shelf is bottomed with 1-inch boards and faced with
10-inch wide boards. This allows about 8 inches for manure, and 1 inch
rising to 2 inches of loam on top. In filling the shelf beds the bottom
half may be of fresh, moist or wettish, hot manure, packed down solid,
and the top half of rather cool prepared manure, or it may be made up of
all prepared manure. As the shelf beds cannot be trodden and cannot be
beaten very firm with the back of the fork, a brick is used in addition
to the fork.

The beds should be spawned after the heat in them has fallen below 100 deg.
F. The writer considers 90 deg. F. about the best temperature for spawning.
If the beds have been covered with hay, straw, litter, or mats, these
should be removed. Break each brick into twelve or fifteen pieces. The
rows should be, say, 1 foot apart, the first one being 6 inches from the
edge, and the pieces should be 9 inches apart in the row. Commencing
with the first row, lift up each piece, raise 2 to 3 inches of the
manure with the hand, and into this hole place the piece, covering over
tightly with the manure. When the entire bed is spawned, pack the
surface all over. It is well to cover the beds again with straw, hay, or
mats, to keep the surface equally moist. The flake spawn is planted in
the same way as the brick spawn, only not quite so deep.

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