Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-03-18
Farmers Gardens.

Farmers generally have poorer gar
dens than people in villages have, and
the gardens of western farmers are
poorer in every respect than those OF
farmers living in the East. The gar
dens on most western farms are not
laid out with any reference to beauty
or economy in management. They con-
tain small number of vegetables, and
they are indifferently cultivated. Those
vegetables that are regarded as luxu-
ries are very rarely found in them. No
effort is generally made to secure a
succession of peas, beans, lettuce, and
radishes. AS a rule, there is no hot
bed or cold-frame for starting early
vegetables. Nearly if not all the plants
raised in the garden are sown at the
same time, without regard to the period
OF their maturity, and in a majority of
instances they receive substantially the
same kind of cultivation.
For farm or garden to be source
of pleasure and profit it must be laid
out in regard to good taste and economy
of working, contain plants valuable as
relishes as we'll as those that are priced
as articles of food, and receive atten-
tion from the time the soil is in con
dition to be worked in the spring till
the frost closes it in the fall. Many
farmers object to gardens because they
require so much work continually dur
ing the larger portion of the year.
They prefer TO raise field crops that can
be planted, cultivated, and harvested
by machinery. They are content to
have their table supplied with smaller
variety Of articles since to procure them
involves comparatively little labor.
They willingly allow city and village
people to enjoy all the luxuries that
the garden is capable Of producing.
BY selecting a suitable piece Of land,
by laying it out in a proper manner,
and by procuring hand drill and small
cultivator, garden vegetables may be
raised as easily as ordinary field crops.
A farm garden should contain an acre
of land. This space widl produce all
the vegetables the family will want for
consumption and generally a consider
able amount for sale or for feeding
to stock and poultry. For convenience
in working the ground for garden
should be nearly square in shape. There
is no advantage in having itfenced, and
q fence greatly interferes with working
it. If fowls are kept near the house the
garden should be at some distance from
It, SO that the birds will not iniure the
vegetables in any stage Of their growth:
There is less trouble in going several
rods to a garden than in keeping fowls
from one near the house.
Most garden vegetables, as beets, car
rots, parsnips and turnips, may be
sown in drills far enough apart to allow
q small horse cultivator to run between
them. When this is done they are
raised with almost as little hard labor
as corn and potatoes. If there is no
fence around the garden the plow and
cultivator may be run from one side to
the other and the team turned on ground
that was not plowed, In planting
seeds that are slow in coming up it is
well to drop radish, cabbage or cauli-
flower seed every five or six inches in
therow. They germinate very quickly,
show where the row is, and allow the
ground to be marked before the weeds
get start. If the rows are quite
Straight the cultivator may be run close
to the plants, rendering but little hand
work necessary. The radishes will be
large enough to eat, and the cabbage
plants of a size to remove by the time
the other plants are ready to thin out.
Late cabbGges and turnips may be
raised on the same spot Of ground from
which early peas, beans and lettuce
were harvested. 1t is best to keep all
the ground in garden well occupied
by growing plants during as large a
portion of the season as possible, so
that weeds Will have a poor chance to