Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1879-05-22
;Farm ann honssboIn.
Tie Farmers Vegetable Garden.


There is no patch Of land on the farm
that Yields so much comfort 10 the iami-
". and shows so much profit on the
ledger, AS the garden. provided IL is
properly managed. Few farmers APP
pareutly believe this; certainly the
great msjority do not give such siten-
ton to their gardens q. will secure the
best results They seem to regard gar
deniug a. fancy work, suitable for
women and children, but too small bust
ness for men land it must he confessed
that the old fashioned farmers garden
was pent up Utica that contracted his
powers With hundred OF acres
around him. the farmers fashion was
and Is slill in many places-te fence of
a little patch five or six rods square.
with = high picket fence so as to keep
out the hens, plant some currant bushes
BY this fence, and Ia, out the remainder
in small pl4ts for vegetables, with walks
running between them, that occupied r
HoOu slAit % tHS -AouliN' ai4N iIt''iAeH
no small share OF attention. \ fraction
OF the garden was devoted to flowers,
aud here displayed much fancy work,
the flower beds being made in the form
Of triangles, circles, crescents, elsip-es,
&c, as though they were intended TO
teach The children geometry.
In all this there is much work and
little profit. Such 4 garden may ans-
wer for village amateur, but the far
acre or more-with no fence around it
so that he can cultivate by horse power.
aud change the location occasionally.
1t should be strictly vegetable garden,
and the vegetables should be cultivated
in long. straight rows. with no walks
between them, except foot paths for the
hor.e. Flowers are all right In their
place, but this place is on the lawn.
There the wife can show her taste and
knowledge of geometry without intrud-
ing upon the province of the husband
man. II was the extra labor upon the
walks and flower beds, which necessari-
IL done by hand, a. horses cannot work
well in a contracted triangle, that dis
gusled our fathers with gardening.
Let the flower and vegetable gardens be
divorced. and the latter 50 located that
the vegetables can be cultivated as field
crops commonly are, and the housewife
will not have to complain that she has
nothing but potatoes, cabbages. ard
turnips to grace her table. In the old
siyle garden there was little opportun-
i,y for q rotation of crops, and that lit
tie chance was poorly improved. Cab
bages and potatoes were raised on the
same ground year after year, till the
former became clubfooted, and the lat
ter few IN hill, and small at that. The
farmers wondered that with garden sui
livation the crops were so light. The
trouble was, there was no exchange Of
locality among the few vegetables cul-
tivated, and the land became exhausted
of the peculiar food which each crop
demanded. Locate the garden in the
field " here there is plenty of room for
variety of vegetables, aud let corn.
beans. potatoes, &c, follow each other
in rotation, and exhaustion will ensus
more slowly, even with the same guam
tity of fertilizers. Such a location ma,
necessitaie a little more travel for the
housewife, but she will be compensated
for her trouble by better vegetables and
plenty of them. The hens, also, will
seldom trouble garden located in the
around with q luxurisnt crop of grass
After an experience Of years with a lit
tie, contracted, fenced-in garden near
the house, and with longer experience
with large one in the field, am salts
fed that an acre of vegetables can he
cultivated more economically by horse
power. than can twenty square rods by
manual labor.
Farmers should cultivate q greater
variety of vegetables than has been their
custom. They will find that a large
garden will go far towards the support
of large family. Not only so, but they
will find the health of the family i'm
proved by diet of vegetables and less
of beef and pork. 1t is not to the cred
il of tiilers of the soil that the denizens
cities should enjoy the comforts of
fruits and vegetables to a much larger
extent than the producers of these
things. The farmer is content with q
half dozen messes of green peas, one
sowing of lettuce, and one planting of
corn. while the citizen has supply Of
these vegetables raised by market
gardeners, for six months, and while the
well-to-do farmer has one or two var
ieties of vegetables on HE table, the
well-to-dO citizen has q half dozen.
1t is mistake to suppose that the
farmer can afford nothing to his family
but potatoes, cabbages and the more
common vegetable. Vegetables are far
cheaper than meat. Tine latter is made
from the former, and it requires q pile
of the one TO make little of the other.
1t is estimated that one hundred poands
of pork are the result OF feeding fifteen
bushels of corn, or the equivalent OF
this corn in some other form Of veget.
able food, but were this vegetable food
fed directly to man it would sustain
life four times as long and in a much
healthier condition than the pork.