The Dickinson press., 1891-08-08
AMATEUR GARDENING.
ATTEMPT OF A CITY MAN TO GROW
HIS OWN VEGETABLES.

HIO oVtlN Vc0c
Success After Il Season of Apparently
Hopeless Failurc-The roubl with
Books That Treat of Farming and
Gardcning-How lie Learned.
Unreservedly l want to give my expert
once with a kitchen garden. l had never
tried anything of the kind before and a
more absolutely ignorant person as to
horticulture and gardening generally
never placed Il spade in the earth or
turned up u grub Worm. had no one
to lean upon for instruction and there
fore l attempted to make a vegetable
garden of about half an acre, with no
other assistance than that furnished in
the books OH the subject.
These books utterly fail to take into
account the fact that city bred people
know nothing whatever about tilling the
earth, sowing seed and stimulating tho
growth of plants. was that kind Of a
person and rashly attempted to mako
my w garden.
l am very glad, however, that l made
this attempt, for l learned, after the
many grievous failures i'll the first sea-
son, that these books really did have a
meaning and that most of them were full
of sound advice, but they wcro not writ
ten for absolute beginners, but for those
who understood their technical jargon
and who had also had moro or less OK
perience.
For instance, when l read i'll my book
that / should plant this seed i'll drills
and that in hills l was as ignorant us be-
fore, and did not know what to do. But
1 did what seemed to me to be intelli-
gent, and in most cases l was wrong.
The greatest mistake | made WAS in
planting everything too deeply and also
in using too many seeds. And right
here l had as we'll give a rule about
planting which learnd from Mr.. Bur
net L%andrcth, of Philadelphia. There
may be exceptions to this rule, but for
the moment l do not recall any, except
that of green peas, and that exception
is only Il qualified one.
In planting seeds cover them with
earth to u depth equivalent to four times
the diameter of the particular seed plant
ed. In regard to peas, old fashioned
gardeners will insist that they must be
buried very deeply, else the yield will he
poor. This is quite true in regard to
peas planted for very late crops, for the
rootsof suchmust bedeep cnoughto with
stand the whitening sun of midsummer,
but for tho early varieties it is q decided
disadvantage to put tho seed down sofa1
that the heat Of the spring sun cannot
readily reach them.
TIE GENTLE ART OF HUSBANDRY.
But l am way ahead of my story. My
purpose in writing this is to encourage
gentlemen living in the suburbs to cult
vate this gentle art of %husbandry and
mako their own gardens. The first sea
son nearly everything failed, though
did get some lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes
and cucumbers. Indeed, I got all that
we needed of these. During the succeed
ing fall and winter | literally went to
school to every gardener and farmer
came in contact with. From the gar
deners I got as Il rule very intelligent adj
vice, and this l put into my book in the
shape of marginal notes.
From the farmers I got little informa,
ton worth the having. They seemed to
think that for the likes of me to expect
that garden truck would grow was little
less than presumptuous. Well, with this
information, added to my experience
and that set down in the books, I made
a regular plan for my second garden,
and a very attractive map it seemed
when it was finished.
did not attempt to economic space,
because I had more than l needed, and !
therefore laid off beds with paths be.
tween each and broad paths at either
end. These beds were thirty feet long
and four feet wide, the paths between
being a foot and a half wide, and those
at the ends three feet wide.
BETTER RESULTS.
Iso ap%portioned my beds that 1 should
have all the vegetables 1 wished in sea.
SOD. I tried peas, tomatoes, lettuce
spinach, radishes, squashes, sweet corn,
peppers, bush beans, lima beans, cucum
bers, parsley, okra, eggplant, caulihower.
cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, garlic
satisfy, potatoes, musk and water mel
ons. I succeeded admirably with all o.
these ventures except with the melons
Either the ground is not favorable fol
%the:growth of these or the season wa
bad, or what is quite likely, 1 have moi
learned the knack Of cultivating them.
The cost was nothing at all. Idon',
count the labor l put on the garden a.
an outlay at all. 1t was an income
rather. 1t took the place of q saddle
horse, a bicycle or a gymnasium, fol
during all the time that l was working
in the garden I put in as many hours a
my desk as it was wholesome for one tt
do, and this outdoor work was exercis,
which vas really needed.
I paid money for manure and othe.
fertilizers, it is true, and also for seed
but in balancing my books l found tina
the ten bushels Of onions and the twent,
bushels Of potatoes I sold more thai
paid for my outlay in money. The fac
is that I was some six or seven dollar
ahead, besides the summer supplies an
winter stores.
Now, what 1 have done any man cal
do who can put in an hour and a hal
every day with spade and hoe and rake
The difficulty with beginners at garden
ing is that they are too easily discour
aged, and give up because they do no
achieve at the first attempt results lik
those accomplished by the skillful pro
fessional gardener.-New York Tele
gram.
The Voice of Amiction.
One of S. G. Goodriche's stories is a
follows:
"Madam," said the Connecticut minis
tel to the widow. nit Isl painful sul1inc