The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-02-03
Amsbandrp.
From the New York Evangelist.
THE COUNTRY PARSONS GARDEN.

First let me say to the country parish that your
parson, if disposed to accept the following sugges-
ton, will need the half acre mentioned over and
above the area occupied by the buildings and close
surroundings of the parsonage. 1t you think the
advice about to be offered from the experience of
an old rural pastor good you will of course attend
to your part in the matter
Then to the country parson be it said that if
you will enlarge your little kitchen garden to half
an acre and if you are in the vicinity of a market
town, and have market going neighbOrs who will
take pleasure in carrying once in awhile basket
for you, or if there is any village at hand where a
green grocer looks to the country for his supplies,
you can, without expense and without any mate
rial draft upon your time, keep your own table
sumptuously provided with every kind of garden
products and make full provision for Winter sup
plies You can do all this with hired labor, de-
voting now and then an hour of your own to see
that all is in neat and profitable order which will
be only a healthy recreation, and for the hired
work paying the best day wages for the best hands
Nowhere so much as in the garden is this last
mentioned rule the best What you will have to
spare, will pay for both fertilization and cultiva-
ton, and very probably leave little balance in
your hand Your good garden will pay for ITSELF
besides being thing of beauty, while you are cu-
tivating the spiritual garden where your own toll
is needed.
In my halfacre garden, in which [ successfully
carry out this system, do but little more in the
way of small fruits than to raise full supply for
our own use. If profit alone were consulted, |
would give them the preference. But they make
demands for personal care, especially in the mar
keting season, which interfere with the redemp-
ton of my own time for other uses. Three hun
dred stools of strawberries and sixty each of rasp
berries and blackberries, are sufficient for family
of ordinary size. Look into some good work on
gardening, for a guide to the best varieties and
modes of cultivation. [ will however say that,
under the plan of making the most account of la
Dor rather than land, the strawberries should be
set with room to run narrow cultivator one way
between them. Let the rows be, say two and a
half feet apart, and the plants set twenty inches
apart in the row. Then keep the runners back,
and let them stool up, and it is not difficult to keep
them clean. Fork up the ground around them
deep and fine, late in the Fall, giving them at the
same time good feeding of phosphate of lime,
and they may rest until after the next Spring
fruiting. It's then indispensable that they should
not be allowed to mat during the Summer. Put
ting out runners will CYL heir vigor and tell
.sastrously upon ~ Il!hg crop. Mulch
ing in the Fall is good, out its importance has
been rather overrated.
OF grapes [ have sixteen vines, occupying a
space of 100 by 20 feet. Half of them are Con-
cords, and supply us well; the others are Of seve
raj varieties and for the last two years their crop
has been failure. have two rows of currants,
each one hundred feet long. These last Summer
supplied us with green and ripe fruit for all pur
poses, including jees and those canned for Winter
use, and left surplus of about one bushel for
marketing
The country parson will find his chief account
in the more common kind of vegetables, such as
the tomato, cabbage, beet, onion, bean, pepper,
&C., &c. The first named is my principal reliance
for compensation. For cultivating it advantage
ousy, you need your own hot .bed-a convenience
almost indispensable to good garden. Tomato
plants taken from the public Conservatives have
grown up thicky set, and consequently the stalk
is long, slender and frail the process of separating
the roots denudes them and breaks off the small
fbres, and after planting two or three weeks are
past before they recover the ground lost. La your
own hotbed you can allow no plant 10 stand nearer
than three inches to another 1t then grows lus.
tily The stalk is strong and heavy. When ready
for transpauting, you can THE hole being pre-
viousy prepared, run your trowel or the ends of
your fingers beneath its roots so as to take up and
carry with it all the earth in which they are i'm
bedded, and thus make the translation almost I'M
felt At least two weeks time is thus gained |
also find my account in bringing the large drum
head cabbage forward in the hot-bed The long
Summer growth brings it to an enormous size, and
it heads very solid. As soon as any one exhibits
signs of bursting, Itake tup. The markets. always
ready, and the size governs the price. | get more
return from given amount of labor and land set
with these, than with the earlier kinds
The bed system for beets, parsnips, onions, let
tuce, &C., ought to be discarded. Plant every
thing in rows, two and half feet apart for the
smaller plants and wider for those which require
it, Let each row run the whole length of the
etable, fill it out with another, but keep the row
entire. Thus you can use the cutivator, following
it with dressing with the hoe or fork, and save
about three -fourths of what would otherwise be
the expense of labor. | speak of fork: | mean
the prong spade recently brought into use, which
for stirring up purposes is much superior to the
solid blade
INF 7,o,fiI;
Ny experience and observation are in favor of an
occasional use of rotted manure from the horse sta
BILE, for a kind of basis, but the concentrated ma
nure for constant use The latter contains no seeds
for trash, and if their stimulating and nutritious quail
tiles are in right proportion, they give the heaviest
yield with the least exhaustive effort upon the SOIL
Pure guano overstimulates. The same is true of
the gatherings of the hennery. The phosphates are
more nutritious. That which have found the best
and which my observation as we'll as experience
most approves, is the raw bone superphosphate of
lime, such as [ have seen advertised in The EUan-
gelist as the manufacture of the Messrs. Baugh &
Sons. | get from it the best crops | ever raised,
and find no enfeebling of the SOIL but rather the
reverse. While there is enough OF stimuant for
immediate effect, the bone, which is one of the best
permanent garden manures in existence, and which,
as prepared by these manufacturers, has preserved
its original qualities becomes an abiding feeder of
vegetation. And may here say by the way, that
have seen the finest effect from it, in promoting the
vigor of the bush and the profusion and freshness
of the bloom of the flower garden.
mentioned the time of Fall dressing a good
one for applying it to strawberries The same is
true of all plants or bushes which are of permanent