Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-04-26
The Kitchen Garden.

The Canada Farmer gives these hints
and directions on the subject of prepare
ton for planting the kitchen garden.
The beds having been laid out and the
walks made, the next step will be to pre-
pare the ground for planting. We fear
that just at this point the most serious
mistakes are made-mistakes that injuri-
ously affect the results for the whole sea-
son. 1t is spring. The season is short.
There is a great deal to be done. Work is
pressing on every hand, and, in conse-
quence, the preparation of the kitchen
garden is not thoroughly done. In the
first place, the ground will need to be
msnured with a liberal hand, for if it be
not rich, very rich, the vegetables will
grow slowly, and hence be tough and
fibrous; and they will grow small, and
therefore not possess their natural flavor.
But all manures are not suitable for TINS
purpose. The products of the barn-yard
need to undergo course Of preparation
before they are fit to be applied to the gar
| den. If used in the coarse and cruce con,
dition in which they come from the yard
they will induce usually coarse growth,
| and impart rank flavor to the crops.
| The first st.p. then, will be TO secure
well-prepared and thoroughly decomposed
manure. In order to secure supply, at
tention should be given to thi matter DUR
1 ING the previous summer. The material
of the barn-yard should be drawn out to
some convenient place, in sufficient
quantity to give the whole garden liberal
dressing, and thrown into a heap. Ad-
Joining this there should be another heap,
made up of sods from some old pasture
field. or the parings of fence corners, and,
il convenient, the scrapings from some
pond hole in the bush lot. When the
manure heap begins to heat it should be
foTked over, thoroughly shaking it out
and building it up in regular form
When the heap that will now be forming
is about foot high, throw over its sur
face a few inches of the soil, sods anc
muck from the adjoining pile. In this
way stack up the entire pile in alternate
LAYERS of about foot in thickness OF barn
ward manure with few inches Of sOds anC
! soil, coveringit when finished, with SIX Oh
: eight inches of the soil. This heap ma,
now remain until spring, when it sheult
he cut down and thoroughly comminglet
before it is spread over the garden beds
Prepared in this way, the manure vii
have absorbed the gaseous and liquid por
! items, and the whole will have become
changed into that condition in which
: is best adapted to support vegetable life
t and impart to it quick growth combined
I with fine texture.
e Having provided the material for en-
? riching the garden, we are now ready Il
, work up the soil. In small gardens thi
{ will be done with a spade, or better yet
with digging fork. 1t enters the groun
: more easily than spade, and the soil
q pulverized better by striking 1t with tn
: back of the fork, when turned over, tina
e is possible with the spade.
y Those who cultivate on large scale 70
n the supply of public institutions or 70
e market will use the pillow. But the wor
S must be thoroughly done. The subso
e should be well broken up by the subso
|, pillow being made to follow the commo
, plow in the bottom of the furrow, rur
> ming it as deep as it is possible to make
L work. The ground should then be eros
h plowed, still using also the subsoil pillow
5, that the soil may be deeply and tho
ouphly broken up.