The Garden Yard a Handbook of Intensive Farming

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Cornell University LibrarySB 321.H174The garden yard; a tiandbook of intensiveIWi!lii!iW!SHHIi

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THE GARDEN YARD


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The Finest Suburban Farm Produce.


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THEGARDEN YARDA HANDBOOK OFINTENSIVE FARMING

BYBOLTON HALLAuthor of "Three Acres and Liberty," "A Little Land and A

Living," "The Gaue or Life," "Things as Thett Are"

With an Introduction hyN. O. NELSON

Revised byHERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD

President and Editor " Rural New Yorker " andSAMUEL FRASER

Manager Fall Brooks Farm, Geneseo, N. T.

PhiladelphiaDAVID McKAY, Publisher604608 South Washington Square


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(X0.W'

CoPYEiGHT, 1909, BY David McKay


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WHAT IS IN THIS BOOKAND WHERE TO FIND IT.

CONTENTS-INDEX.PAOB

Preface 9-12Becoming a gardener , 9, 10, 11Intensive Farm, the 9, 16Some sorts of critics 10Inthodttction 13-20A practical offer 14 ^Co-operation 17-20Farm for nothing, a 15How much land is needed IS

Obstacles^how to overcome them 14The only life 13What intensive cultivation means 16Chapter I. The Garden Yard 21-29

Brain value. . .< 24Buildings you-hfeed 29Choosing your farm 27Fortunes, hidden 22-25How to grow rich 28, 29Land and crops 26Location for field crops 21Location for garden crops 21Market importance 26Mistakes and their cost 22Money, in \fhat 24The value of ownership 28Unknown capacity 21Work not enough 25

Chapter H.Soil 30-41An unusual use 31Best soil, the 36Failure your own fault 41"Good-'^soil 33Humus. 40, 72, 73, 74, 86Moisture, how to get and hold it 34, 36SoilHow it was made 30, 31" Its contents 31" Texture 34" What it is 30Soils to avoid i37

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CONTENTS-INDEXPAGB

Surface and sub-soil 32TiUage 37-40Tilth 36, 37

Chapter III. Soil Fektilitt 42-48Soil fertilitywhat it is 42Agricultural Department's crop work 46, 48Help it offers 48Limited crops 46Nature and the abandoned farm 42, 43Seeds, Bob's solution 43, 45Types of soil in the U. S 46Whitney's (Prof.) idea 45

Chapter IV. Location 49-50How to buy, clear, build 49Land you can't afford to use 49Manure and watering 49, 50Market 60To find out where and how 49Chapter V. Seeds 51-53

Houses, good seed 52Ideal, the 51Planting dates 53Seed test 52Use only the best 51

Chapter VI. Plant Breeding 54-56Plant breedingwhat it is 54Good farmers and breeding 54How to improve 54Professional breeders 54Selection and variations 55"Sports" 56

Chapter VII. Plant Needs 57-61Plant needswhat they are 57Foods, three sure 58Light, degrees of 57, 58Lime values 59Medicines 59Protectors 60, 61Temperature 59Under- and over-feeding , 58Water, effect of 57

Chapter VIII. Crop Rotation 62-65Farming a business 62Special crops 62Value of rotation 63, 64, 65, 81


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAQB

Chapter IX.Weeds 66-68Weedshow to know them 66Common weeds 66" " How to destroy them 67" Their use 68

.JChapter X. Insects and Diseases 69-71Causes, some. . .> 69How transmitted 70Preventives 70Preventing attacks 69The little we know 69Weeds as breeders 71

Chapter XI.Rs^soiUNa 72-77Best way to do' it 73Geaning up. .'. 74How to preserve'it.^ 76Lawn, the .' 75Misleading term 72Prepared humus 74Success, real. ." 77What we really do 72

Chapter XII.How to Work 78-89Grouping 80How to plant 79" " run rows 80Keep soil busy 82Manuring. . . '. 79Preparing the plot , 78Rotation. . ., 81Test for aci^. 78Transplanting 81Companion cropping 82Cellar growing 89Drainage. 82, 83Drought, protection against 87How we learh 88Irrigation 82Sewage. ..\. 86, 87Small area crdps 88Things that pay 88Tools, keeping them clean 84, 85Use brains 88Waste water value 86


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CONTENTS-INDEX vi

Pakt II.PAQB

Chapter XIII.Root Crops 90-105Radishes 91Culture 92Enemies 93Needs 93Varieties 93When to sow 92Beets 94As greens 95Enemies 96Fertilizers, special 96, 97Marketing 97Planting 95Tillage 96Where to grow 94Yield 96

Carrots 97How to sow 97Soil preparation 97Thinning 98Types 98Yield 99Turnips 99Easy to grow 99Cowhorn turnip 44How to plant 100Root maggot 100Soil 99Thinning 100Parsnips 100Cultivation 101Freedom from disease 102Sowing 101'niorough"preparation 101Yield 102Salsify 102Kitchen use only 102Returns 103Soil requirements 102Types, modified 102, 103Horse-radish 103Grown from "sets" 103How planted '_ 104Tillage ....!.! 104Yield 104


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vii CONTENTS-INDEX

Chaptbb XIV. Tuber Chops - . 106-110Potatoes 106

Early potatoes 108Enemies and diseases 108How to plant 107Seed, potato 107Soils, best 106Spraying 108Yield, average 106" good 106" phenomenal 218-225" possible 106

Sweet Potatoes 109Home of 109Climate 109Cultivation 109, 110Enemies . 110Soil 109

Chapter XV. Bulb Crops 111-118How to propagate i IllNeeds, their IllSeed-bed crops IllLeeks IllHow grown IllProduct Ill

Storage IllCiboule 112Gives 112Garlic IllOnion, Welsh 112ShaUot 112Onions 112Early crop 114Enemies 118

Fertilizing 113Growing 112Handling and storing 116"Multiplier" onions 115New onion culture 115Season, main 114Selling onions 117"Sets" 114Sorting 117"Top'^^nions 114Weeding 114Yields 118


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CONTENTS-INDEX viuPAGB

Chapter XVI.Cole Crops 119-133Meaning of name 119Why grown 119Brussels Sprouts 127

Soil, food and tillage needs 127Successful growing 128Cabbage : 119Acre yield, an 121Crops, two 120Essentials for growing 119Fertilizing 120Field-grown 121Hot-bed plants 121Insects and diseases 122Locality, effect of 122Marketing 121Planting 123, 124Profits in cabbage 123Protection from insects 125Quick first crop 123Second crop 125

Cauliflower 129Good seed necessary 129Growing seed 130Tillage, right 130Where it grows best 129Kale 126Better for frost 126CoUards 127Cultivation 126Enemies 127How sown 126Southern kale 127Kohlrabi 131Best varieties 131How to thin 131Insects, diseases and cures 131, 132, 133Its family 131" uses 131

Chapter XVII. Pot-herb Crops 134r-140Characteristics 134Needs 134What they are 134Chard 137Dandelion 13gCharacteristics 138Harvesting 139, 140


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAGE

Tillage 139Mustard 137Where grown 137Soil requirements , 138Purslane 140Spinach 134Forced spinach 136How sown 137How to sow 135New Zealand spinach 136Where and when grown. 134

Chapter XVIII.Salad Crops 141-160What they are 141What they need 141Celeriac 159How eaten 159How to grow 159

Soil and tillage 159Transplanting 159

Celery 150Blanching 164, 155, 156Care in tilling 153, 154Diseases 158Early and late crop 153Fertilizing 153How to sow 151Loss in sprouting 152Marketing 157Seed-bed crop 150Soil requirements 150Storing 157Thinning 152Transplanting 152Varieties 158Where it grows best 150, 151

Chicory 145How to grow 145Salad plant. 145Use of chicory roots 146Corn Salad 148Cool-season crop 148How and where to plant. 148Yield 149

Cress 146How and where to grow 146, 147How to plant 148Varieties 146


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAGE

Endive 144Blanching 144How to sow 144Season, its. 144Soil and tillage 144Use, its. 145

Lettuce 142Companion-ra-op 143Culture 142Growing in the open 143" under glass 143Nature 142Sowing and thinning 143Succession-crop 143Yield 143

Parsley 149Easy to grow 149Nature 149Uses 149Salad Chervil 149

Culture 150Ready for use 150Varieties 150

Chapter XIX. Pulse Chops 161-172What they are 161What they need 161Beans 166-172Bush and pole beans 169Enemies 171, 172Lima beans 167, 170Ornamental uses 170Planting 170Preparing the soil 167String beans 166Where they grow 171Where and when to sow 166Peas 161-166Early crops 162Enemies 163, 165Pea values 162, 163Planting 161Soil requirements 161Varieties 163

ChAPTEH XX.SOLANACEOUS Ceops 173-182Crops included ][ 173Nature and requirements .173


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M CONTENTS-INDEXFAGBEggplants 179, 180Enemies 181

Harvesting 180Marketing ISOPlanting 179Tillage 180Transplanting 179, 180Treatment required 179Husk Tomato 182Peppers 181Cultivation 181Growth of demand 181Starting 181Transplanting 181Uses 182Varieties 182Tomatoes 173Cultivation 174Fertilizing 174Harvesting 178Racks, cheap 166, 167Sowing seed 173Tillage 174Training and its value 175Varieties 179Where grown 173Yield 179

Chaptee XXI. Vine or Cucubbitous Crops 183-191What they are 183" " need 183Why you fail 183How to succeed 183When and where to plant 184Enemies 184Cucumbers and Gherkin 185Planting in hills 185Uses 186Varieties 186Yield 186Muskmelon 186Enemies 187Planting 187Varieties 187Where grown 187Yield 187Pumpkin and Squash 189Differences 190


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAGE

Enemies 191Uses 190Varieties 190-191Watermelon 187Cultivation 188Enemies 189Testing 189Uncertain crop 187Where and how grown 188

Chapter XXII.Unclassified Annuals 192-197What they include 192" " need 192Martynia 197Okra or Gumbo 196

Cultivation 197Enemies 197JJature 196Uses 196Where and why^grown 196Sweet Com .' 192Cultivation 193, 194, 195Enemies 196Important crop 192Marketing 195Preparation for planting 193Where it thrives 192Yield 196

Chapter XXIII. Herbs, Sweet and Condimental 198-200Varieties 198Classes 198Growing 198, 199Annuals 199Perennials 200

Chapter XXIV. Perennial Crops 201-215What they are 201" " need 201Asparagus 201Cultivation 201Enemies 206, 207Growing from seed 203Harvesting 204Marketing !!!!!!!! ^205PlaJit>g- 202boil requirements 201Tillage .'.'.'.'.'.'.202Winter protection 205


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xiii CONTENTS-INDEXPAQB

Yield 206Rhubarb 208Cellar plots 210Forced growth 210, 211Nature, hardy 208New culture 209Planting 208Profitable growing 209Soil needs , 208Yield 211Docks and Sorrels 211Varieties 211

Artichoke 212Jerusalem and French Globe 212Sowing 212Stock feed 213Uses 214Ways of the artichoke 213, 214Winter mulch 213Yield 214

Sea-kale 214Blanching 215Care 215How it grows 214

Chapter XXV.Specialties 216-226Asparagus 218Celery 218Chestnuts 217Mushrooms 218Onions and potatoes 218300 bushels to the acre 218, 225Other specialties 226Specializing and profits 216, 217Strawberries 225

Chapter XXVI.Watching and Spraying 227-236Arsenical sprays 233Bordeaux mixture, what it will do and how tomake it 229, 230Emulsions 235Kerosene emulsions 234Manufacture and use 234, 235Need of watching 227Paris green 232Spraying as a remedy 228Spraying mixture 228, 235Cses 232Value of spraying, the 235


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAGE

Chapter XXVII.Fertilizers 237-249Best are cheapest 241, 242, 243Care of manure, the 240Natural and chemical 237, 238What each contains 238, 239What fertilizer is 237Wire basket, soil needs test 244, 249

Chapter XXVIII. More Abottt Fertilizers 250-257Experiments show, what 250, 251Growing crops and fertilizers 255Manure contains, what 257Potassium, kainit, wood-ashes and lime 252, 253Value of "check plats," the 253, 254Valuable elements 250

Chapter XXIX.Root Houses and Vegetable Pits 258-259How to build one 258, 259Uses, their 258Varieties of pits 259

Chapter XXX.Small Fruits 260-266Cultivation 262Currants and gooseberries 264How to grow them 264Enemies and their remedy 264, 265Grapes 265How to grow them 265, 266Growing new plants 263Labor and yield 260Marketing 262Planting 261Preparing the soil 261Raspberries and blackberries. 263How to grow them 264Strawberry patch, the: . 260

Chapter XXXI.The Poultry Run 267-279Branches of the business 272Care and feed 269Central hatching 273Cleanliness 269Colony plan versus yarded 274, 275Effort and profit 278How to succeed 279Importance of incubation 273Incubator hatching 271Indian Runner ducks 277Intensive hen, the 267


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CONTENTS-INDEXPAQB

Location of house 270Modern hen-house, a 270-271Outdoor brooding 271Profitable poultry 268Small companies 269

Chapter XXXII.Organization 280-291Agricultural colleges and books 281New methods 280Work of the months 282-291

Chapter XXXIIIA Few Practical "Don'ts" 292-298Deep plowing 292Department of Agriculture 294Farmer's life, the 292Feed the soil 295Making seeds comfortable 292, 293Successful farmers 296, 297Tools and their care 295

Appendix 1 299-300Island of Guernsey products 299

Appendix II 301-306French Gardening, etc 301

Appendix III 307-317Maylands Gardening Customs 307Appendix IV 318-321

Agricultural Courses 318


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PREFACE.AN intensive farm is only an enlarged/A garden patch.

This book is not intended as a scientificbook on agriculture ; there are many such bookswhich are out of the depths of everyone ex-cept professors and professionals. In a niceexperiment station, nice experiments and scien-tific calculations are excellent; but I want togive the plain man or woman who has a backyard or back lot, out of which he might makepart of a living or more than a living, a bookthat will show how to do it.

I want to help the man or woman who has todo the cultivation at odd times and who findsit hard to get the time for the work, even thoughthis work enables him to do far more work ofother kinds. I have had all sorts of experiencewith gardening, in spite of telegrams and peoplewho want " just five minutes for some importantbusiness." So if you have the same troublegetting the time, do not let that discourage you.We can get health, happiness and some profitin spite of the interruptions.

It won't be enough simply to read this book;that won't make you a gardener; but if youstudy it while you are working on the land and


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PREFACE 10

use your judgment and common sense, in oneseason you will be able to teach most of thosewhom you now have to hire as expert Gardenersat Three Dollars a Day.

If anybody sneers at your gardening as being"book farming," let him sneer; a fool neverunderstands what a wise man is doing: if hedid, he would do it himself. You have here theplain, simple, practical facts without scientifictermsjust the ordinary garden talk. Thereare plenty of things you wUl not find in thisbook. You won't find analyses of fertihzers,nor how to grow " pomatoes," or anything elsethat won't seU when you have grown it. Norwill you find fairy stories of poultry profits thatmake the goose's golden eggs look like thirtycents. There is a use for all that sort of thingit arouses interest and stimulates the imagina-tion. But you will probably be content to bea good, practical, every-day gardener who canmake things grow and knows what to do withthem after they have grown.Some critics, who will not read this book,

will sagely remark that such books as Mr. Hall'sare dangerous, because they induce inexperi-enced persons to sell out and lose their moneytrying to get Liberty on Three Acres or a Livingfrom a Little Land. To repeat for such people


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11 PREFACEmy cautions and advice to learn navigationbefore buying your ship, is to blow against theNorth wind.

If you have skipped the foregoing, just skipagain, back to it. You will see that I havepromised to use no scientific terms. Thisbook will be read by more plain people than byscientists, and so I have aimed to talk just as Iwould if I were trying to teach you how toraise lettuceor rather trying to teach you tolearn for yourself how to raise lettuce. Forwe cannot teach anyone anything, we can onlygive him the opportunity of learning. So ifthe experimental agriculturist thinks that agood deal has been left out that might have beenput in, I hope he wUl remember that I have hadto pick from a measureless field, and by tryingto crowd in too much I might easUy confuse theless experienced and make it hard for him tolearn.And yet no one need think that by reading

a book or any number of books he can be madea gardener. That is done by work of head andhands on the soil; and the best preparationfor a really scientific use of your own land, is,to hire yourself out for a while to a marketgardener and get the practical, every-dayexperience.


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PREFACE 12You might as well expect to learn writing

without using a pen as gardening withoutusing a bit of land. You will make somemistakes and lose some crops, but I can showyou how to profit by mistakes and to lose verylittle by losses.

If you don't understand the directions, thatis my fault : I should be able to make it clear toeveryone. So just write me (a pencil and apostal card will do) and I will tell you what youwant to know, if I know it myself or can findout.

Bolton Hall.56 Pine St., New York City.


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INTRODUCTION.AFARM is the only proper home. Work-ing for yourself is the only true inde-pendence. Labor on the land in theopen gives health and long Ufe. Raise a livingand sell the surplus. Work all the time, butdon't overwork. Make faces at the cynic whosays the farmer and his wife and children workfifteen hours a day and then starve. It isn'tso. Work alone is not farming; you mustmanage. Farming needs intelligence and care,nothing more so. Everywhere you see goodfarm-homes and poor ones; the difference is inthe farmer. What the good farmers do, aU cando.

In this book, the author tells how to lay outthe land, how to prepare and plant and harvest,and how to make life joyous. He has boileddown the experience of himself and his friendsand the information contained in bulletins andbooks and catalogs. A cobbler or clerk ortypo, can take this book and with his tennis-made muscle and his trade accuracy can make abare hving the first year, a good living thesecond, and start a bank account the third. Iknow it because I helped do it in my youth andI have seen it done all my life.

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INTRODUCTION 14

One of the obstacles in the way of townfamilies going to the country is separation fromfriends and going among strangers. Anotheris the conscious ignorance of the work and asense of helplessness. These are real and validdifl&culties. They are equivalent to the diffi-culties besetting a German or Norwegian farmercoming alone into an American community ina new state. The hundreds of thousands ofEuropean farmers who came to the states everyyear from the forties to the end of the eightiesovercame this difficulty by organizing coloniesof friends and neighbors and settling in onespot. They thus had society and they had thebenefit of their best leaders. Then their oldfriends kept coming in smaller squads. Thisis the way for town people to do. Find sixor ten or a dozen and go together. Even if allare not relatives or friends they may be of thesame class or trade.To any such colony I will furnish the moneyto pay for all the land they need and let thembegin paying the cost price of it at the end offive years and finish in ten, with 4 per cent,interest. They may pick the tract and bargainfor the price. Upon their showing that theagreed number are ready to go and are ableto make the improvements and provide the


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15 INTRODUCTIONworking equipment, I will advance the moneyto pay for the land. They can divide it upto suit themselves.

I have furnished farms already plowed, fencedand housed, and horse and cow free of charge.But these empty-handed folk, who have savednothing out of their former occupation, lackthe qualities to manage for themselves and tosucceed at fanning. They are too helpless anddependent. Their best plan is to hire out inthe country until they learn farm work and life,then rent a piece of land, and then 'buy.How much land shall each one have, howmuch can he properly cultivate? That de-pends on what he raises, and this governs hislocation and the price of the land. With presentmethods, he will need 20 acres if he keeps adairy of ten cows; or, 10 acres if he raisesvegetables, small fruit, poultry and milk; or,four acres is enough for truck and a horse andcow, while one acre is enough if he raises onlycelery, asparagus or tomatoes. The price ofland is influenced by social conditions, specu-lation, proximity to and quality of market andagricultural adaptabiUty, all the way from $5.00an acre to $250.00. There is plenty of it notabove the value of the public and private im-provements. It is useless to buy a farm of


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INTRODUCTION 18

160 acres for one family. They cannot work it,it is a dead expense, they would be lonesome,would starve and quit. But a colony, settlingas neighbors on well-chosen land for which theypay only when they have had time to earn it,will have every opportunity to succeed.Only in rare cases would I advise town dwell-

ers to go singly to the country; they are dis-qualified by their social and industrial habits.A colony of friends or Co-operative Associa-tions overcome the difficulties and do in factassure success to any one possessed of industryand frugality.By intensive cultivation is meant, not anyparticular kind of product, but farming the landthoroughly, getting the best yield and the bestquality out of every acre, the best seeds and thebest breeds and the best way of disposing ofthe crop when you get it. The farm or gardenmay be in the vegetable or smaE fruit or cornand hay or dairying section. In either case,you can cultivate it intensively, which is thor-oughly.The book will tell you in A, B, C style how

to farm. I am asked to tell what to do with thecrop after you have raised it, how to buy whatyou don't raise, and how to make social sub-stitutes for the city crowds and sights.


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17 INTRODUCTIONAssociate! Co-operate!You may not know it, but the world is turn-ing from private trade to co-operation at a fast

rate. In some countries most of the farmersdo all their business by co-operation.

Co-operation is simple and sure and safe,when enough people want it and are shown how.

I have practiced co-operation in my businessfor twenty-three years. I have been intimatewith it the world over for twenty-five years.I have seen it grow and grow until it numbersits millions of workers in some countries, and isdoubling every five years in many countriesand states. Though I am a manufacturer, mychief occupation is to preach and teach co-operation to farmersat my own expense.

Co-operative creameries have changed Min-nesota from a declining wheat state to a richdairy state. Co-operation has saved the Cali-fornia orange grower from bankruptcy andmade him prosperous; it has raised Denmark'sexports of butter, eggs and bacon from eighteento eighty millions a year, and it has almost cutoff our supply of policemen and politicians fromIreland, because over a thousand co-operativeassociations have grown up there in twentyyears.

After you have undertaken what this book


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INTRODUCTION 18

tells you all about, you want to count on form-ing co-operative associations with your neigh-bors to do all the business that you have. Youraise your own crop; but pack it, ship it andsell it through your association. You usebought goods, but buy them all through theassociation. That gives you a saving in ex-penses, a saving in price, and a better quality.What is still more, it makes better neighborsof you, and rids you entirely of the demoralizingtricks of the trade, and prevents you figuringhow to get the best trade out of the otherfellow. You are yourself "the other fellow."In the co-operative way, your interest lies inproducing the best stuff, which will graduallyimprove your motives. Co-operation fits anysort of business, if there is enough of it.One hundred and fifty cows are needed tostart a cheese factory, 250 for a milk shippingassociation, 500 for a butter creamery; fewerthan these do not pay.For co-operation in raising vegetables and

small fruits, no fixed quantity of product isrequired; two or more persons working togetheris better than each for himself.Talk it up as neighbors and then hold a meet-

ing. Let all who want to join, sign an agree-ment to deliver all their truck to the association


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19 INTRODUCTIONand pay a membership fee of $5.00 or over.Each member should have an equal voice re-gardless of his acreage. Organize, either as acorporation or a limited partnership. Electthe best qualified men to be officers, and thengive them unqualified support. Select a man-ager and see to the marketing arrangements.If the quantity raised is large enough, it is bestto have yoxu- own receiving and selhng agentin the principal market. Every member mustmake a legal contract with the association tosubmit to its rules about condition, packingand deUvering, to apply to his entire crop.Good quality, rehable packing and regular sup-ply are essential to good prices.The manager or inspector must have full

authority. Each member's delivery is graded,weighed, measured or counted and accuratelyrecorded. Once a month the account fromeach grade is made up, and the proceeds, afterpaying expenses, are paid over.The manager should be an experienced truck-

er, competent to instruct and advise about thework of planting, growing and gathering. Thegrowers meet each other at the station, and com-pare notes. They all learn what is known bythe most expert among them. They can ar-range to have one man gather up the crops


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INTRODUCTION 20

from several places and make one load to thepacking-house, taking turn about in this service.Small or poor growers may be admitted with anominal payment, even as low as 25 cents,the remainder to be paid by a 5 per cent, de-duction from his proceeds.The association and management can also

fill the assembled orders of members for fertil-izer, seed, implements and packing material,at wholesale prices. In time you will makeyour own boxes, erect a cannery for the surplusand even buy your own groceries co-operatively.You can form a credit society with unlimitedliability, to receive on deposit the members'surplus and borrow from the city. That moneyis lent, for productive uses only, to members ofknown ability and honesty, who give twosimilar members as security.When you get safely started in one kind ofco-operative association, you will easily go tothe next, as the Danes and the Irish have done.St. Louis, Mo. N. O. NeLSON.


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CHAPTER I.THE GARDEN YARDNO man knows, nor can know, the capacityof a yard of earth, for it is unlimited,

just as the speed of the engine is un-limited. Just as with the engine, the only ques-tion is whether it would pay to make it do anymoreit may cost too much. Where land ischeap, labor is high; there inteUigent cultiva-tion will pay, but intensive cultivation wiU not.That is the place where the field crops shouldbe raised.But the garden crops should be raised right

round the towns and cities and it is foolish toget to a distance from them. Stay right whereyou are and get the piece of land that is best foryour purpose; buy it, if you can without pay-ing too much for it; if not, rent it for as longa term as you can; or get permission to use thebit of land, the vacant lotsthere are plentyeven in the most crowded citiesand raise yourtruck and your income on those lots. Withoutseparating yourself from your acquaintances orexiling your wife and children, learn to get yourliving out of the earth.

Suppose that a man owns his house, even ifit be but a bit of a bungalow, and suppose he

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THEi ooGARDEN YARDhas a little bit of land on which he can raise themost of what the family eats; he may have towork hard, especially if his family cannot helpin the work, but at least he is independent;at least panics, lock-outs, change of circimi-stances or even loss of health will not reducehim to starvation.

If you have a farm. Intensive Cultivationshould interest you all the more. Every farmis full of opportunities to make good money;but you must not make the usual mistake ofhalf working a big piece of land; that meansthat you will always be overworked,^ alwayshave a lot of things that you know ought to bedone, but cannot find time to do; always havecommon grade crops that bring common prices.Everyone that is overworked is underpaid, forhe cannot do his best work.Use the big fields for pasture, or for raising

fine horses, or for pigs or Angora goats or evenfor sheep; you had better let the fields run wildrather than half cultivate them.Keep accounts and watch your chance to

sell all the land that does not pay well.It may be that you are missing a fortunein the old neglected orchard, or in the chest-nut or hickory grove. The black walnuts orbutternuts, that are usually left for the neigh-


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oo THEGARDEN YARDbors' boys, may be the most profitable part ofthe farm.The wood-lot may have possibilities for barrel

hoops, which may be sold to the improvement ofthe timber. It may need only thinning tobring you a steady income while it increasesin value.

Fine apples grafted on the old trees that nowbear only cider apples, if properly sprayed andthinned so as to give first-class fruit, may sellfor more than all the corn you can raise.*The "pesky briers" that the farmer stniggles

with year by year, may be the raspberries andblackberries that will sell readily for good prices,when they are cultivated, to the summer resi-dents or boarding-houses. Your exposure andsoil may be just the place for the fine straw-berries with which, when nicely separated fromthe second and third grades, no market is everoverstocked.But if you are always behind with the work

and always short of cash or worried to pullthrough, you have no time to think of thesethings and no means to hire labor nor to de-velop them.That pond may be needed, if it were clearedout, for a profitable ice supply, furnishing pay-ing work in the winter. The stream may be a

* There is only one good way to do this: cut back all the oldwood and work out a new top on which to graft the fine apple scions.


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THE 24GARDEN YARD ^valuable water-power or at least may bring ahigh-priced crop of watercress; or it may bethe very water needed, when properly dis-tributed, to make yours the most fertile landin the county. The bit of swamp land, thatraises nothing but mosquitoes, may need only afew dollars' worth of cranberry sets to be thebest paying acre in the country side.There may be a veritable gold mine in a

neglected quarry, or brick-clay pit, or kaolinclay deposit, or in a sand bank, or a vein ofmarl.

Possibly you could rent the farm house orlet camping sites for the smnmer to peoplewho would pay city prices for much of yourstuff; so that you could afford to keep helpenough to leave only the easy work of super-intendence for you. Brains save more workthan machines.

If you are raising the same crops that yourneighbors do, harvesting at the same time, andgetting the same prices that everyone else does,you may be sure that you are neglecting yourchances.The money is in finding things to raise that

will sell, and that do not have to compete withall the others.

Says the Farm Journal: " Farmers need more


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oc THE^ GARDEN YARDtime to plan their work and look after the busi-ness and economic end of their calling. Theemployer who makes a full hand in barn andfield from 5 a. m. till 8 p. m., has no other timeto devote to the real business of the farm thanthe hours in which Nature imperatively callsupon him to rest, and a man with aching mus-cles and tired limbs is not in condition to thinkclearly or plan intelligently. It is poor econo-my for a farmer to take the place of a doUar-a-day man in the field, when in so doing he has leftno leisure in which to work out the details ofhis operations."Think^thinkit is true that we ourselvesmust work with the men if we are to get the

best work out of them; there is a big differencebetween saying " Go, do that," and "Come andlet us do this." But it is not enough to work;any jackass can do that.You know the old fable: "A farmer got hiswheels stuck fast in a miry road. The manknelt down in the mud crying to Hercules tocome and help him. Said Hercules, "Get upand put your shoulder to the wheel, I helponly those who help themselves!"(There is a new part to that fable)Now themire was very deep and even Hercules' helpwas not enough; so he called on Pallas, the


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THE 26GARDEN YARDGoddess of Wisdom. Said she, " Put this leverunder the wheel." Then the wagon was easilylifted out.Since then, some one else suggested usingwide tires, so that the wheels woidd not sink atall, and another invented a spHt-log road-dragto keep the roads hard. But we are still wait-ing for the farmers to learn to use them.Maybe the roses in the bit of garden would

bring you bigger money, if they were made tobloom at the right time, than the potatoes thattake twice as much outlay and ten times asmuch work.

Pick out as much land as you can attend towithout walking your legs off, and raise on itthe best crops that bring the best prices and letthe rest take care of itself.The market is more important than the crop.

Consult the editors of your agricultural papersabout where to sell. Require bank referencefrom any commission merchant that you donot know, and write to the bank for its reporton him before you ship to him. Make hisacquaintance, if possible, and talk to him aboutwhat he can sell the best; naturally, he willtake more interest in the affairs of a man thathe knows than in a stranger. Don't go to townor to the boat or railroad with half a load or


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27 THEGARDEN YARDwith a load of poor stuff. Arrange with yourneighbors to take enough for them to makeyour trip pay.

If a trolley or a carrier can be brought intouse to make regular shipments, see some mer-chant or hotel man and arrange to supply himconstantly. Then lay out your plantings soas to have a constant supply of what he needs.

If you are choosing a farm or have a chanceto sell yours, inquire and look to see if you canfind one near a good market where you willearn your own commissions. The way to findout what you want is to talk about it to everyoneyou meet. A good local map will help you, butof course the real estate agents knowmore aboutwhat is for sale and the prices and values thanyou could learn in a year's travel. No men,except editors and hotel clerks, are so ready togive information as the real estate agents.Remember, however, than even when they arehonest (most of them are, like the rest of us, ashonest as circimastances allow), the successfulreal estate agent must see the rosy side of thepeach and may not point out the worm-hole onthe other side. You will have to look for thatyourself.When you have found what you want, pointout that you are buying to improve, so that the


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GARDEN YARDsecurity will be better every day, and fight foreasy terms and for a long mortgage. You canget the privilege to pay off any time that youcannot use the capital to better advantage.

Let some good lawyer examine the recordsand see that the papers are all straight, andguarantee the title. If there is a local titleinsurance company its policy is worth allit costs, and will help you greatly should youwant to sell or to raise another mortgage.Buy your landdon't rent it; it does notpay to put your work into another man's land.Every improvement in the condition of the

earthagricultural, mechanical, ethical, edu-cational, political or even religious must goeventually and mainly to the benefit of theowners of the earth; therefore get hold of a bitof the earth, so that everyone who does goodwiU do that good for you.Get a small bit of land near the market ratherthan a big bit away from it, because the more

people there are near you the better you canUve and the more money you can make. Be-sides it is much pleasanter and better for thewife and children, as well as for yourself, to benear schools, libraries, proper company, stores,than to be away out among stumps. A grow-ing town will make you rich when it grows out


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20 THE^^ GARDEN YARDyour way, because you are in the way and whenthe land is wanted you must be paid to get out.Meanwhile, you can get manure and help mucheasier and cheaper than if you were at a distance.

Don't put your labor or your money into ex-pensive buildings: they only invite the taxassessor; but get proper buildingsthey maybe only shacks, but they should be well plannedshacks, for you must have room enough toshelter your tools, wagons and farm machines,to house your stock, to store your crops, tosprout your seeds, to save your manure and todo indoor work during bad weather.


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CHAPTER II.THE SOIL.

IF this book is to be of real service, we mustbe clear about the terms and expressions, sothat, though you may know nothing about

gardening when you begin to read it, you mayknow enough to earn a living from the soUwhen you finish itand practice a httle.Many talk glibly enough about the soil,though few could tell exactly what it means.But market-gardeners must understand it, ifthey are to live by it. So it will be well to beginwith the soil itself. Soil is that thin layer ofearth that covers our globe like a blanket,and in which all that plants, beasts and menlive upon, grows. If it were washed off, starva-tion would follow. The scientific explanationof the origin of this blanket, is, that it wasformed by the action of heat, cold, water,frost, ice, low forms of vegetable life and tinyanimals; sometimes working singly and some-times all together. It is now establishedthat the most of the face of the earth was oncerock which was rubbed, crushed and ground bythese forces until this surface layer was made.Then higher forms of life became .possible.Not centuries only, but aeons of time, were

30


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oi THE^^ SOILnecessary to accomplish this. Layer upon layerof finely crushed particles were exposed to theaction of the air which completed the work thegrinding of Nature's forces had begun.To foUow out the story of the development

of the soil is a most fascinating study, and ifyou have time from your other interests, youwill be glad that you took it up; for though youmay be a good farmer without this knowledge,you will be a better one with it, because youwUl be more intelligent and sympathetic.The soil-blanket holds within its warm folds allthat is necessary for life, and the wonder of itall increases the more we learn about the mill-ions of years and mmiberless forces employedto bring it to this state of perfection. IfNature has not wearied in her great work,there is poor excuse for the gardener to shirkor neglect the labor necessary to get the bestpossible results from any given piece of soil.Nobody yet knows what are the best possible

results from any given piece of soil; for sincenew discoveries are being made every year, wecan show only what has so far been done withthe best knowledge and skiU at our disposal.One man in Pennsylvania is selling his soil ; nothis crop, at $1.50 per bushel to inoculate otherground.


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THE ortGARDEN YARDThe fine, fertile layer of earth that is called

soil does not go very deep. It covers anotherlayer which is harder, coarser, colder thanitself, and this second layer is known as the sub-soil, or that soil which is under the surfacelayer. In all temperate climes the differenceis strongly marked, but in rainless, sun-driedregions there is often no difference to be noted.The intelligent farmer or gardener has the op-portunity to decide just how much of thatsubsoil he will convert into surface soU, and themeans of doing this will be disclosed later underthe head of " Tillage." The more of it he bringsinto use the greater his own profit, so that itpays to know how. In the early days of farm-ing no effort was made to bring the subsoilinto use, and consequently the returns fromagriculture were small. Now we know betterthan that, and we also know how to get moreout of the soil, whether siu-face or subsoil.No soil, no garden; so the new gardener mustget acquainted with the ground he intends tocultivate. It is not to be denied that soilwhich is in good tilth will be a great help to thebeginner, but that is only to be had in well-cultivated gardens, which usually bring a goodprice when found in the market. Besides,with proper care and attention, any well sit-


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THE*^*^ SOILuated soil can be made to yield good returns,and the gardener who is not disposed to giveproper care and attention wUl find nothingin this book, or in any other, that will teachhim how to succeed. The German idea isthat a good soil is merely a place to put fertil-izers (and German ideas on gardening are notto be despised). This is simply another wayof repeating that, with brains and work anysoil can be made to yield good returns. It isnot safe, however, to trust to the " Light ofNature" as to what "proper care and attention"is, so here are the details.

If you are already settled and are planningto use your back yard for a garden, you willhave to take the soil as it is, and by your owneffort make it what it should be. There is nocause for despair no matter what it may be.A back yard that was trodden almost as com-pact as asphalt, and whose clods when dug hadto be broken up with an axe, was made to yielda large variety of flowers the first season itwas planted. So go ahead and do what youcan with what you have. But, if you are hunt-ing for a garden plot, bear in mind the import-ance of soil texture. You may thereby saveyourself both time and labor.The first thing is to examine the soil to de-


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THE 34GARDEN YARD "**termine whether it is sandy or clayey, dry ormoist, light or heavy, well drained or wet;whether it is warm and live, or cold and dead.You will then learn what sort of cultivation isbest for your particular plot of ground.Because in your neighbor's garden a certain

treatment has been successful, is not sayingthat it will give the same results in yours, un-less aU the conditions are the same. Forinstance, his light, sandy loam needs littlecultivation, and your soil may be hard andclayey. In that case you would have to makeup the difference by careful work.There are "gardeners" who think it is suffi-cient barely to break up the ground, add a little

manure or other fertilizer, and scatter seeds.That they get any sort of results only showshow willing Nature is to give a return on theslightest labor. But Nature is wise as weU aswilling, and therefore gives lavishly to himonly, who, by intelligent labor, deserves thebest returns.

Therefore, learn the needs of your soil andsupply them, and you will have no cause tocomplain of the niggardliness of Mother Natureto those of her children who feed at her bosom.

Plants often die for lack of moisture in thesoil, and this condition cannot be satisfactorily


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35 THESOILremedied by the watering-can. The troublelies back of such surface treatment and can onlybe cured by getting at the cause. The soilshould be so prepared by tillage that it willcatch and hold enough water to supply theplants with the moisture they need even throughhot, dry spells. Plants draw their nourish-ment through their roots to their stems andleaves, and you need only examine the fineroots and rootlets of any plant to realize foryourself that such nourishment could not betaken in in a solid form. Plants are constantlydrawing this moisture from the soil and asconstantly giving it off into the air through theirleaves. If you wiU watch any plant during adrought, you will see the leaves begin to shrivelbefore the stems or branches show signs ofsuffering. This is Nature's effort to sustain thelife of the plant as long as possible. The shrivel-ling of the leaves prevents the escape of thelittle moisture the plant can draw, and retainsit longer within the plant's system.Deep plowing, the breaking up of the sub-

soil, the addition of decaying vegetable matteror humus, fertilizing with stable manure, andthe raising of crops that can be frequentlytiQed, all help to add moisture to the soU.If you do these and the dry spell does strike


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THE 36GARDEN YARDyou hard, so that it seems necessary to bringwater, the soil will suck it and hold it, instead ofletting it pass off quickly through the actionof sun and air. Frequent stirring of the surfacesoil, to the depth of one inch, will make a littledry layer or top-coat through which the moist-ure does not readily escape. This is what iscalled a "mulch." A mulch may also be anadded coat of leaf-mould or stable-litter orany httle dry covering which wUl prevent themoisture from escaping.For early crops a light, sandy loam is best.A sandy loam is a loose, sandy soil made pro-

ductive by good tillage, by mixing in hmnusand plant food or fertilizer. But when youhaven't the best, it is for you to counterfeit itas nearly as possible. The advantages of sandyloam are that it is early, easy to work, respondsquickly to fertilizers and is readily kept in goodtilth.

"Tilth" is really the planting condition ofthe soU, and good tilth means the best possibleconditions for planting seeds; where the plowand the harrow have done their work; wherethe sun has warmed and the rain moistened;where the fertilizer has sweetened and quick-ened; where stones and weeds are unknown,so that the new life finds the best conditions for


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^^ SOILsprouting and developing. You willunderstandwhy such soil is not often in the market. It isNature's materials plus man's inteUigent labor;and he who has it, is usually found workingit to his own profit.Some soils are easily put into condition : others

require much time and labor, but all alwaysrepay. It is well, however, to avoid a hard,cold, clayey soil if possible; it takes so long towarm up, that the seeds make little progress.Of course, steady persistent effort will greatlyimprove even this soil, and if that is the sortyou have, you must do your best with it, butthe average gardener cannot afford to wait.Compared with agriculture, which has been

known in some form ever since there have beenany records, tillage is very new. Like manyanother important thing, it was discoveredquite accidentally by an English farmer, namedJethro Tull. He found that by stirring upthe soil about his plants, he got better returns;and gave his discovery to the world. But hecould not explain why it was so; he merelyknew the fact itself. Science has since dis-covered that it is due to the action of the airin helping to break up the many compoundsfound in the earth containing plant food. Itwas a simple thing, yet it has really revolution-


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THE _GARDEN YARD ***ized gardening. Before tillage was known thereturns from the sort of cultivation in use werevery scanty, and this bookhad never been writtenhad TulFs discovery never been made. Soyou may be able to do the world a great favorif you cultivate intelligently, not fearing toexperiment or to make known the results ofyour experiments. It may be reserved for you,in your little garden patch, to discover some newtruth that will prove a blessing to the wholeworld, for no science today offers so wide afield for discovery as the science of Agriculture,nor so sure a return for labor expended.There is a story that illustrates the value of

tillage. A man lay dying and as his four sonsgathered about his bed he whispered feebly,"My sons, there is a great treasure hidden inthe garden." Scarcely had they laid the bodyof their father away, when the sons went tothe garden and began digging it up. They dugevery inch carefully, and found nothing fortheir pains. Then the eldest son, being of apractical turn of mind, suggested to his brothersthat they plant the garden and thus securesome return for their labor. This they did,and when harvest-time came the returns wereso wonderfully increased that they said, " Nowwe know what our father meant. Let us seek


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39 THE**" SOILlike treasure in all our fields." And in every-garden and field lies hidden the same treasurethat can be revealed only by the expenditureof intelligent labor.

Tillage is an art in itself, and very importantto success. There are two kindsthetUlageofpreparation and the tillage of maintenance.They are widely different in their piirpose andeffect. The average farmer thinks that bothmay be carried on at the same time, and thisbelief may be in part the cause of his failures.The tillage of preparation includes not merely

the breaking up of the soil by the plow, butpulverizing it for as great a depth as the rootsof the plants will reach. How deep that maybe, depends upon the character of the soil andof the crops. For example, a hard soil with asubsoil near the surface, must be plowed deep;so that the root crops, which run deep, mayfind sustenance. On the other hand, sandysoil, or one which leaches away, can stand onlyshallow plowing, as we must hold the subsoilfirm to prevent leaching. So that, even in thetillage of preparation it comes back to the samepoint, to learn the needs of your particular soiland supply them.The tillage of maintenance should be given as

often as once a week or ten days, and is merely


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THE 40GARDEN YARDthat surface loosening which enables the soilto drink in the rain and withstand the heat ofthe sun. The loosened surface will not cakeabout the plants, and it makes a layer of mulchfor the protection of the under soil.By the addition of humus, or vegetablematter, a clayey soil may be put in conditionso that it will respond to further tillage assatisfactorily as the lighter, sandy loam. Thisis the way to " counterfeit the best soU."Humus is added by plowing into the landvegetable matter which is in condition to rotquickly and become thoroughly mixed with thesoil. Rye, clover, cornstalks, vines or othergarden waste, and manure, are commonlyused. Manure that contains a large proportionof stable litter and sweepings, and street sweep-ings, are especially rich in humus, and are muchsought after by experienced gardeners. Byadding them, the texture of the soil is lightenedand improved, made loose and meUow so as tohold moisture, and is at the same time pre-vented from caking. Moreover, hiunus containsplant food and heat that make seed sproutingeasy.The amateur gardener seldom recognizes theimportance of the physical texture of the soil,but the best results demand the best conditions.


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41 THESOILUnless you want to grow pears and pliimswhich thrive in clayey soil^break up the clayeyearth and improve its texture in every way.Your garden will repay you, and you won'tgo about denouncing those who have writtenbooks about the possibilities of smaU areas aswilful deceivers of the guileless and unwary.Get it firmly fixed in your mind to start with,that, if your garden does not yield adequatereturns upon your labor, the fault is yours.You are working unintelligently, and deserveno more than you are getting. To know yoursoil is to be able to give it the treatment itneeds to make it fruitful.


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CHAPTEE III.SOIL FERTILITY.SOIL fertility is the power in the soil itself toproduce a good crop under proper condi-

tions. Man can neither make nor destroythe land. All that man can do is to make it moreor less efficient, according to how he uses it. Twomen may take two pieces of soil of equal fertilityand get vastly different results; by carefulstudy and experiment we may learn how totake advantage of this fertility; but the realsecret of it, Nature has wisely locked up in thesoil itself, so that one generation of men cannotreally rob the next. It has been said that old-time farmers, of New England particularly,robbed the soil of its fertility, so that theirsons have been compelled to abandon the oldfarms and seek new land in the west, or newoccupations in the cities of the country. Thereal truth is, not that the soil has been robbedof its fertility by the fathers, but that the sonshave continued the unenlightened methods ofthe fathers even after their ineffectualness hasbeen proved.Since that land was abandoned it has notreally been idle. Nature has been improving itall these years by placing leaves and trees back

42


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43 SOILFERTILITYupon it, thus providing hximus; and also by theaction of heat and cold. Some of this land,overgrown with briers and brush, has beencleared and found to be better and strongerthan ever before. Much of the soil is sour, butthat is easily remedied, and wherever a patch isburned over, the grass works in weU. On someof these abandoned farms there is an excellentopportunity to combine intensive culture on thelowlands with orcharding on the hills, for thefertility is still there. If man could destroythis quahty, that chngs to all soil, he would havespoiled it centuries ago, and the race would havestarved. But we are a long time learning howbest to use it.

Robert S. Seeds, of Birmingham, Pa., thinkshe has solved the secret of unlocking that soilfertiUty, and he offers the astounding resultsof his operations on an abandoned farm, as proofof his claims. He not only raises enormouscrops, but he sells his soil by the bushel, to hisless enlightened neighbors to inoculate theirfarms. He tells the story of his experiments ina lecture called " How God made the Soil Fer-tile," which is published in pamphlet form andsells for 25 cents.He says "The Lord made all the acres ofthe land fertile, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,


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THE 44GARDEN YARDand gave it to man to live upon, to prosper andbe happy. In doing so He never hauled a wagon-load of manure or a load of lime, nor bought aton of fertilizerand how did He do it? Hedid it with vegetable matter; and I thought ifthe Lord could do it, I could do it. This soundsa little conceity, but I mean it."As a result of this belief, Mr. Seeds took to

experimenting, beginning with the crops thatstore nitrogen in their roots, such as crimsonclover, and with purple-top strap-leaf turnip.But the results were not sufficiently great toplease this man, who was after all there was in thesoil. He needed some plant with longer roots,and finally hit upon the cowhorn turnip, whichwUl grow roots from 9 inches to 2 feet long,thus making available the plant food locked upin the subsoil. Finally he combined cowhornturnip and rape, and now his soil is the mostfertile in his district, and is so profitable as aninoculator of other soils that he keeps fieldsfree from harvest crops so as to have the soilfor sale."Bob Seeds" further says that a field filled

with the decayed vegetable matter and himiusfrom one crop of crimson clover plowed down,will hold fifty tons more water to the acre thansoil that is not. If you figure how much water


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4R SOILFERTILITYyou must have to raise a crop of corn, oats,potatoes, hay, etc., you will see the value of landthat has the power to hold water. There was afarmer in Pennsylvania who got his farm insuch a water preserving condition that he saidthe spring rains were a nuisance. Watch thesoil and you will see, that soil that is filled withdecayed vegetable matter and humus is warmerin the winter-time, cooler in the summer-time,wetter in dry weather and dryer in wet weather.A mulch which preserves the moisture inhot or cold weather also unlocks this fertilityof the soil.

All of this is of immense importance, not onlyto the farmer on a large scale, but also to you,with the limited area of your garden yard;for in it lies the secret of heavier and earUercrops than your less instructed neighbors.Professor Whitney, Chief of the Bureau ofSoils, Department of Agriculture, Wash., saysthat deep plowing and shallow cultivation arethe best means of retaining moisture in the soil,and he adds, " Strange as it may seem, while wesuffer if we do not get rains, we should actuallybe better off, as they are in the arid regions ofthe west, if we did not have any rain during thegrowing season and had a means of providingwater when we wanted it. The trouble with


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THE xGARDEN YARD *US is that we cannot maintain the dry mulch,because we have rain on the average every threedays. If you knew what was coming, you couldsave your crop through any ordinary periodof drought, provided you had the skill, thejudgment and the chance which would lead youto begin your operations at just the right time."

According to Professor Whitney there areabout 400 distinct types of soil so far encount-ered in the United States, with varying degreesof known fertility, and only eight or ten staplecrops growing. This, of course, does not in-clude the special crops like celery; it is theregular, staple field or garden crops that areunnecessarily limited. These are grown on allkinds of soil in all parts of the country withoutregard to the suitability of the soil to the crop.The Government, through the Department

of Agriculture, has given a great impetus toplant introduction, and you cannot of courseexpect to rival or approach it, with its enormousfunds and staff of experts, but you can experi-ment with the new crops it introduces. Hither-to, in this country, where the soil was too dryfor corn or wheat, or too moist for potatoes, ithas been neglected altogether; but the presentmovement includes finding crops suitable forthese lands. The Government has introduced


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47 SOILFERTILITYthe durum wheat which yields crops in regionssuffering from drought, and in 1905 the UnitedStates exported 6,000,000 bushels of it; Japan-ese Kiushu rice is doing well in Louisiana andTexas rice fields; the Japanese salad plant, theudo, is being tested from Maine to CaUforniaand giving good results; Kafir corns from Abys-sinia, India and East Africa are being grown inKansas and other western sections; while theEnglish broad bean, Hungarian paprika, andfruits from all parts of the world, are beingtested in all sections of this country. Those400 different types of soil should mean limitlessdiversifications of crops, and it is fair to assumethat the real day of agriculture, in this countryat least, is only just dawning.The Government is now testing profitable

crops for the farms of New England which havebeen abandoned to the mortgagees. Areasthere are too small to grow com* and wheat insuccessful competition with the great farms ofthe west, but there are other crops which willyield even better results and command themarket. You, who are now coming into the

* Note.But com growing is on the increase in New Englandand at the great Omaha Corn Show a Connecticut farmer won threefirst prizes. The Flint varieties are especially adapted for the NewEngland climate and soil and open up new possibilities for theNew England farmer.


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THE ^GARDEN YARD **great calling of earning your living from thesoil, could not have chosen a better moment forentrance. Keep in touch with the Departmentof Agriculture. It is your department, a sortof college or training school which you maintain,and anything you want to know the Departmentwill gladly try to tell you. If you want to knowwhat is best for you to plant on your patch,send a sample of your soil, tell where your farmis located, what are your means and experience,and the suggestions made will fit your particularcase. If you send any of your requests, whetherfor advice or for bulletins, addressed simply tothe Department of Agriculture, Washington,D. C, you will get a reply, and will find out whois the head of the special department your re-quest was referred to. The Department isdoing needed work, and by corresponding withthem and getting advice, you can give proof ofyour interest.


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CHAPTER IV.LOCATION.HOW to buy land and why; how to helpthe poor to keep themselves on the land

and what plain people have actuallydonethe record yields and how they have been raisedhow much capital can be used by one man, areconsidered in " A Little Land and a Living."How much of a crop you may be able to get;how much or rather how little capital it takes;how much labor is needed; where cheap landsare to be found and how to clear wild land andhow to build, are all treated fully in "ThreeAcres and Liberty," now pubhshed in fine shapeat fifty cents. So this "hand book" need onlyshow what other things are included in theterm "location."

If you are thinking of the character of thesoil when hunting for a garden plot, you willmore than ever think also about the import-ance of location. Any soil, even the best sandyloam, needs some fertilizing and watering, andyou cannot afford to use land where manure cannot be had easily, or where there is not a goodwater supply. To pay high for fertilizer cuts theprofit from your small area, and this is moreespecially true if your soil is clayey and needs


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THE enGARDEN YARDmuch preparation-tillage. In most cities youwill find stable-keepers and others who willgive you manure or street sweepings in thewinter in return for hauling it away. That isa great advantage to you, but if you locate yourgarden where truckage amounts to two or threedollars a load, you have offset the advantageyou derived from the free manure. Also, ifyour water supply is poor, you will find itdifficult to carry your crops through the hotweather. MARKET.You can raise a good crop from good soil

properly fertilized, but if you cannot market itto advantage, you can't sell it at a profit. Along railway haul not only injures the gardentruck, but it also eats up the profits. There-fore, get your plot near a town or city where theexpense of selling is reduced to a minimum andwhere the demand for garden products will atleast equal the supply.

So the good-garden-plot tests are three : first,the character of the soil, second, the location asregards the market, and third, the demands ofthat market. He who must of necessity usethe land where he is, will, if he uses his brainsas well as his hands, find his reward satisfactory,even though it fall below the returns from aplot with all advantages.


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CHAPTER V.SEEDS.THE expense and labor of preparing and till-ing soil is too great to allow you to plant

poor seed. The stock-breeder does nottake his sickliest, poorest specimens for breedingpurposes, but rather selects the best and mostnearly perfect specimens; you should be carefulto do the same with your plants. The farmer'swork is just as important as the stock-breeder's.It should be the aim of each to improve thestrain and produce the best possible result.Therefore, if you are growing corn, plant seedonly from the stalk that produced the mostand the best ears of corn. It is good to sendfine ears to market and get the best price forthem, but if you save only your scrubby earsfor seed, next year you will not have fine,perfect ears of corn to send. So select of youivery best for seed purposes, and if your best isnot good enough, then buy from a better growerwho has the best. Aim to produce an ideal earof corn. It can be done, and you might as welldo it. Only in this way will you find your corncrop paying you for your time and labor. Ifyou carefully follow this every year, you willfind your acre annually producing more and

SI


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THE 52GARDEN YARD "more corn without any additional labor or ex-pense. That is one trick in making farmingpay. It is a trick that holds good with everygarden crop as well as with corn. It won't do towait until harvest time to find out if the seedyou have planted is any good, if you have tobuy your seed and want to make a profitfrom your garden the first season. This simplemethod of testing seeds may save you time andmoney. Get your seed early in the season,select about one hundred and put them betweentwo moist pieces of flannel, which in turn areplaced between two soup plates. Keep theflannel moist (not soaking wet with water stand-ing in the dishes), and as soon as the seeds havesprouted, count the proportion of live ones.If only a few of them have sprouted, you willknow that you cannot afford to give ground upto the use of such poor seed. The larger theproportion of your test seeds that sprout, or" germinate," as this process is called, the betterfor your profit, if you plant from this same stockor assortment.Be sure you deal with a seed house that has a

reputation at stake; and if possible go thereyourself and see the man who really knowsabout seed: generally there is only about oneman in a concern who does know his business.


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53 SEEDSIf you answer attractive advertisements and

buy at " big bargains" you may lose your money,or, what is worse, you may be kept waitingfrom day to day till your planting days areover, or worst of all, you may plant poor seed.The dates of planting given throughout thisbook are for the latitude of New York. InNorthern New England planting should beabout three weeks later. All the middle westernstates can be figured the same as New York : butall states south of Pennsylvania may be figuredtwelve days in advance for every one hundredmiles southward.

This holds good for sowing out of doors orfor transplanting out of doors. For startingseeds in your home, these times will do for theentire eastern states.


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CHAPTER VI.PLANT-BREEDING.PLANT-BREEDING is producing plants

adapted to particular conditions or re-quirements; but the mere production of

something new or different, is not true plant-breeding. The plant breeder has a definitepurpose or aim in mind, and this comes onlyfrom a clear idea of his business. The pro-fessional breeders produce the races or groups,but the intelligent individual farmer adapts themto his own conditions, and may make modifi-cations of inestimable value to other farmers.Good farmers have always been plant-breeders,even though they did not know it. They havealways kept the best ear of corn and the bestpotato for seed. They have followed the stock-breeder's planonly the best stock for siresand dams. So no common plants should beused for seed; only the finest is worth planting.Improvement is made by selection, as Darwintaught us many years ago, but we are slow tolearn new lessons. We know that we do notlook to the children of physically, mentally ormorally deformed persons for our specimens ofphysical, mental and moral manhood; nor tothe cur's fitter for the best type of pup. Now

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KK PLANT-BREEDINGwe are learning that the same holds good withplants, and that the farmer who keeps thesmall potatoes for seed will produce poorerpotatoes than he ought to have.The other day I found a farmer harvesting

a measly lot of com. " Where did you get thatseed?" I asked. " Oh," he said, " I picked itup 'most anywhere." I could have told himthat myself without asking.

Selection and breeding are not the work ofexperts alone, for any one who gains the simpleknowledge that enables him to recognize theplant or crop that resists prevailing diseases andflourishes best under his conditions, needs onlyto preserve the seed of such plants for propa-gating. Cross-breeding, on the contrary, is ex-pert work, but new strains may be secured bystraight selection of individual plants, and thisgives enormous results. If one persistentlysaves the seeds of those plants that best servehis purpose, he will soon have crops that aresuperior to any that he had before. The pro-cess is so simple that anybody can do it. Wehave talked for years of the "survival of thefittest," and this is but helping the best to beatthe poorer ones.What causes thevariations that make selection

possible nobody yet knows; but we do know


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THE ,GARDEN YARD ^^that changes in sail, climate, methods of grow-ing and in other things have an effect. Somevariations come from " crossing," and somefrom no cause that we can see : in those casesthey are called "sports" of nature; learn tolook out for them and when the new varietyis better than anything you have before pro-duced, save it for seed and see what comes ofit. You may thereby be doing all mankind aservice.


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CHAPTER VII.PLANT NEEDS.PLANTS need water, air, food, light andwarmth just as animals do, and it is wonder-

ful to study the shifts and contrivances towhich they resort to get these, and also to pro-tect themselves against too much of any ofthem. If the plant were not able to changeitself to suit the conditions, it would often diewhere now it fights successfully.Nothing affects the plant like the water

supply; the size of every part of the plant isincreased by plenty of water. It not only helpsthe growth of flowers and fruits, but it evenchanges the character of the plant. In a moistair, cactus will put out leaf-like organs, gorsewill grow leaves instead of thorns; while wherethe water supply is very scanty, the potato willput forth no leaves, but will become like acactus.Yet plants do not grow in soil that is too wet,

because they need air, and too much watersuffocates the roots. By proper irrigationwhich means giving just the right supply ofwater^both the quantity and quality of thecrop can be improved.While plants need light, all varieties do not

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THE sGARDEN YARD "**need the same amount of it. You will find thatthose which need much light can turn towardsit, and this of itself will show you where suchplants should be sown. Plants have variousways to resist the supply of light when theyare getting too much. They droop their headsor close their leaves, which prevents evapora-tion.

Different plants need different food and thesame soil conditions will not suit all. Some re-quire rich soil if they are to flourish, while somedo better in poor soil. On the whole, plants,like people, are better for under-feeding thanfor over-feeding. In general, starving a plantmakes it flower and fruit more quickly, but lessabundantly; while over-feeding helps to makemuch stem and leaf instead of fruit, and alsoproduces monstrosities. Too much nitrogen,especially, makes too much stem and leaf,though nitrogen is one of the most importantplant foods. (Bailey says too much nitrogencan be corrected to a certain extent, by potas-sium put in the soil.*)We are sure of only three plant foodspotash,phosphoric acid, and nitrogen. Then there are

* Note.In regard to muck soils, it is not a case of excess ofnitrogen but lack of potash which makes potash valuable for such.Samuel Fraser.


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69 PLANTNEEDSlime, stable manure, green manure, clover andcowpeas to doctor the soil with, when it issuffering from chemical ills. This gives someidea of the vast unexplored regions of agriculturewhich afford you and every other worker inthe soil an opportunity to make some greatdiscovery for the benefit of the world. No othercalling offers such limitless opportunities.Lime is especially valuable for plant food

and also to make other kinds of plant foodavailable. Crops often fail in soil where thereis plenty of plant food, because it is not in theform that the plants can use. Lime hastens thedecay of vegetable matter, sweetens sour soil,and greatly improves the texture of clay soils.Besides this it counteracts magnesium in the soiland destroys its bad effects. But lime may notbe applied carelessly, because, although someplants cannot live without it, some require avery small quantity. (It is, therefore, wise tosend a sample of the soil, to write what we wantto grow, to the nearest Government experimentstation, who will probably suggest what couldbe done with it, to make it productive.)The right degree of warmth is another plant

necessity. The best temperature for plantsgenerally is 86 of the ordinary thermometer(30 Centigrade). This, however, depends upon


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THE f^GARDEN YARD "the plant. The "best temperature" varieswith the species and variety. Usually, if thesoil is hotter than that, growth stops, and if thegreater heat is kept up, the plant dies. Whenthe temperature is lowered, growth ceases beforefreezing point is reached. Some few plants maybe frozen without injury if they are allowed tothaw slowly, but most of them are easily killedby the frost. Too great heat or too much coldacts the same as lack of water; the heat causestoo great evaporation, the cold prevents theroots taking in the water.

Shingles stuck in the ground on the sunnyside will serve to protect young plants from sunand rain, while cool soil may be had by using theshady places, or by sheltering the ground withflat sheds the roof boards of which have openspaces between them as wide as the boards.This is done in some southern tobacco fields.

It is the law of nature that living cells musthave a constant supply of oxygen, that is whya tar wash sometimes kills plants by cuttingoff the air supply. In the same way, too wetsoil or too hard a crust smothers the roots andthe plants die. The surface soil should be keptloose and sufficiently dry, so that the air cancirculate. If this be prevented, the soil be-comes hard and sour and unfit to feed plants.


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Bl PLANTNEEDSIt is of the greatest importance to keep the

soil open and loose by proper tillage, so as tomake plants healthy and vigorous.Though plants need air they should be pro-

tected from draughts and sudden blasts of air,whether hot or cold. For this reason, the in-telligent gardener will consider the effect ofwind upon his crops and where necessarywill plant windbreaks. If you look about you,you cannot fail to see the ill effects of strongwinds in the odd shapes of forest trees; and inbadly arranged gardens you will find the sameeffects in the fruit trees and small fruit bushesand in the stunted crops. Plants shape them-selves to their surroundings, and the way theyshape themselves is determined by inheritedqualities; so it may be said that the success ofthe plant depends upon its surroundings andupon the seed it came from.


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CHAPTER VIII.CROP ROTATION.

IN agriculture on a large scale the difficultyis how to arrange the farm business so asto make it pay. It is only of late that we

are beginning to understand that agricultureis a business, and that to make it pay one mustapply business principles. The best farmer isnot necessarily the one who knows the most"Science," but the one who is able to fithis science, his facts and his business in to-gether.The market value of special crops is so high

that the grower can afford to provide the extramanure and other expensive materials to keepthe land in good condition. This is the chiefreason for the use of great quantities of stablemanure in market-gardening, far greater quan-tities than are needed for mere food of the crops.So if you find that you are advised to use moremanure on your small plot than some farmeryou know uses on his big field, do not feel thatyou are being imposed upon. He could notafford to use so much and you cannot affordto use less. The farmer on a large scale has tolet part of his low priced land rest in clover oncein a while. You cannot afford to let any of

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63 CROPROTATIONyour small area rest, so you must make up tothe land by giving it plant food enough.

In these days machinery has made so manywonderful changes in the management of cropsthat the farmer who sticks to the old farmingcustoms has no chance of making more than aliving. When the country was new, it was thepractice to farm one section until it was ex-hausted, and then to move to fresh soil. Thefarmer was saved the bother of cultivating, asvirgin soil needed practically only to be plantedto bring forth a good harvest. But conditionshave changed and the virgin soil left today isnot important in the farming possibilities.Therefore, we have had to look for other meansof getting crops and making every inch of landdo its share- We no longer allow land to liefallow that it may rest and renew itself. Werenew it by fertilizing and by rotation of crops.Crop rotation is very valuable because it is asaving of fertilizer and labor, and keeps the soilin good condition. This has been proved byexperiments made without manure, dependingentirely upon rotation for fertilizing, whichgave excellent results.

There are probably a dozen or more goodreasons for the value of crop rotation whichhave not yet been discovered and formulated,but the following are well known


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THE e^GARDEN YARD ^Some crops tead to correct the faults of others.

It has been proved that the continuous growingof one crop injures the soil in some respect, andthe crop falls off both in quantity and quality.Rotation tends to overcome this difficulty.Then, too, this rotation works out and evensup the inequalities of the soil, partly through thedifferent treatment required by the differentcrops.

Different plants draw different portions offood from the soil and at different times. Byrotation these heavy drafts on the plant fooddo not come at the same times, and the seasonsget a chance to even up the inequalities.

Different plant food gets mixed into the soil,so that the roots can feed on it, by the decay ofthe parts left in the ground or which are plowedunder. But the greatest benefit comes from thenitrogen compounds through growing plants,such as cowpeas, crimson clover, etc.; these"leguminous" plants have little knots or tuberson their roots with the mysterious power ofgathering the free nitrogen out of the soil orair, and turning it back again to the soil incondition to be used by other plants. Nownitrogen is the hardest to keep and the mostexpensive of all the plant foods that the farmerhas to buy, and to get this nitrogen is sometimes


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65 CROPROTATIONthe only reason he has for buying chemicalfertilizers.

This shows the importance of leguminouscrops to the farm. They supply this nitrogenat almost no cost, or at a profit.Some plants have more power than others to

use the contents of the subsoil, and may drawless on the upper soil, and further, by theirdecay may add richness to the earth. Mostlegumes have this power to take nourishmentfrom the subsoil.

Well-planned rotation helps to maintain thesupply of decayed stuff in the soil, on whichthe plants feed. It also improves the soil'stexture. Moreover, it not only lessens thenecessity for much chemical fertilizer, but itputs those fertilizers to better use. Wherelive stock is kept, crops should be raised tofeed the stock to make manure.

Rotation is, also, a plan for cleaning the soil.Different weeds and insects grow after differentcrops and the succession or "rotation" as wecall it, prevents any kind getting a secure hold.

It enables the farmer to meet the demandsof the market, by continuous crops.


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CHAPTER IX.WEEDS.

IT is not enough to know what to grow, youmust also know what not to grow for profit,in a garden patch; and first in this class

come weeds. Study them until you know eventheir seeds. You cannot expect to get rid ofweeds until you know the nature of them andthe best way to attack them, so that they maybe readily destroyed. If you run across anycommon ones that you cannot place, send sampleto the Department of Agriculture. They willtell you all about them. Get from the De-partment Farmer's ' Bulletin 28 on " Weeds andHow to Kill Them." All this will pay.One of the most common of the weeds of

the north is the pigweed. This is the growthof one year and can be destroyed by simplypreventing it from running to seed. A year ortwo will clear out even the most obstinategrowth of pigweed.

Mustard, plantain, chess, dodder, cockle,crab-grass and Jimsonweed are the most dis-agreeable of the common weeds. The besttime to kill them is when they are small; there-fore, you should keep the ground constantlystirred up that the young weeds may not have

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67 WEEDSa chance to get a firm hold of the soil. If theydo get a start on you, don't let them ripen.Cut them down before they run to seed at all.Never let up in your war upon them. Thatadvice holds good for all weeds, whether theybe annuals, which die every year, biennials thatlast for two years, or perennials that can standthe winters. The biennials commonly foundare wUd carrot, thistle, moth mullein, wildparsnip and burdock. These are best destroyedby cutting the roots below the leaves with agrubbing hoe or spud. Be sure they are cutlow enough, else they will branch out and makenew seeds.Some weeds live more than two years and are

called perennials, such as many grasses, dock,Canada thistle, poison ivy, passion-flower, horse-nettle, etc. The best thing to do with them isto dig them out and take them away. Crudesulphuric acid applied to the soil kills them, orthey may be starved by covering them withboards or with layers of straw. If they comeup through the straw, lift it up a bit and let itfall again. There is yet another method, andif you have the time and land to spare, you willfind it a good one. Smother them out by adense growth of useful plants. Some use buck-wheat and others cowpeas. The cowpeas are


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GARDEN YARD ^to be preferred as they enrich the soil by thenitrogen their roots gather. And that is anotherstory that has its own time and place. Justnow we are considering weeds, and you will findthat they will keep you considering most of thetime, for the only good thing so far known aboutthem is, that they make even lazy farmers tilltheir crops, if they have any. Left to them-selves, weeds shade the crops, steal their nourish-ment, waste moisture, and probably poison thesoil. Not even a mortgage can eat up a farmer'sprofits like weeds.


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CHAPTER X.INSECTS AND DISEASES.THE wise gardener uses the spray to pre-vent disease and the attacks of insects,

instead of waiting to fight them afterthey have arrived. But if they attack yourgarden you must fight them intelligently andwithout ceasing.The destruction by insects, is, generally speak-

ing, easily seen, but diseases of plants are

The Garden Yard a Handbook of Intensive Farming

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