The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-19
THE GARDEN.
Its Good and Its Usefulness.

By c. A. s.
There are two distinct kinds of garden
ers-those who grow vegetables for the
purpose of supplying them TO n-produc-
ers-those who have no land and those who
grow the same purely for home use, Civ
ing away whatever of surplus there may
be from time to time OF either there may
be some who regard the business as re-
plete with drudgery, who engage in it en-
tirely for the money there is in it, and get
no more pleasure from the occupation than
they would from breaking stone or tramp
ing it on a treadmillg Then again, there
are others. in both classes, who find gar
dening, the growing of vegeta bles and
fruits. one Of the most pleasure-giving
empoyments that life affords. Some of
these are genuine Observation-Disclosures
in the very best sense of the word Not
cranks. w hat a pleasure it is to be brought
into association with ,all such, They are
usually entertaining and instructive That
is the way l find it. l am a veritable
Crank-Nol I mean enthusiast myself on
the subject of gardening. | love to garden
] love good gardener. | like new varie-
ties. ! like TO experiment The return of
spring, the beginning of another garden
year is anticipated with far more pleas
There are others l know, like myself in
this. who will not deny at least one word
of praise to the man who wrote "A Gar
den is the purest of human pleasures; it is
the greatest refreshment to the spirit of
man" What lordly gardener was it that
thus encourages us to love a garden?
The man who has never gardened may
need 10 be encouraged to resort to the
garden for something other than the net
money returns to be derived from it, but
not so the man Cor woman who has had
the pleasure of a garden even for but a
short while. He knows what a refreshment
TO the mind it really is. SO we have among
7our garden-lovers, many eminent lawyers
doctors, preachers, men of mind who re
quick to learn where the essential re
freshment" is TO be found. Every man
should have side-study from which true
mental refreshment may be secured. The
intelligent and the discriminating find il
where the learned Lord said it Was-and
he knew
BY all means have a garden, if you are
so situated as to render it possible.
l had in mind purely the home gar
den when 1 reached for my pen to lot
down a word or two of praise for the oc-
cupation that, to me, is so inspiring this
glorious sun-bathed morning in early
sprngtime. Clouds and rain have been
our portion for more than a week, but
to-day the bright, warming influence of
the sun is renewed upon the earth and the
landscape is literally swathed in sunshine
1t calls me afleld Where is my hoe, my
trowel, my rake, my dibber? Come We
dumb companions of many happy hours of
the truest pleasure l have ever known!
Come! Let US take up the unfinished work
so rudely broken in upon by storm of rain
more than a week ago.
The soil is barely dry enough for the
nicer work of the garden, but these RAYS
q ra drxTi hl 4rrfo1 MD ov,1
hour or two will be dry enough to allow
setting out of onion and cabbage plants,
finishing the job begun before the inter-
fering rains came. In the meantime there
is an SO-yard row of shapeless strawber-
ries that need to have quite a show of
hardy weeks to be extracted with thumb
and finger in one hand aided by a trowel
10 the other. ~
L have long ago discarded the plan of
planting sets" to make a crop of onions
SOW the Bermuda and Spanish onion
seeds in frames and transplant when large
enough. Again and again l have set out
onion plants not larger than the largest
needle and not per cent. of the number
fail to root and grow. 1 wish every single
gardner in the south knew how easily and
cheaply this crop can be made from the
seeds. Thousands still appear to believe
that 1t can be grown only from sets"
What delusion binds them they know not.
I love to have a variety of tomatoes,
Just to see what pretty walters Of them
can surprise some friend with. So in my
tomato frame there are now twenty-seven
rows of young plants Just well into the
third leaf. There are three rows each of
nine different kinds, and most of them /
know from several years experience, are
just good enough. The dwarf champion,
Nicks early leader. Fordhook first,
Matchless trophy beauty. perfection,
golden queen, yellow pear; the
last for preserves entirely, of which
1t makes a quality equal to figs.
never knew until last
year what splendid vegetables for boiled
green" Swiss chard was. IL is excellent;
shall always have at least eighty yards
of 1t. That is the length of my "home
garden" What a quantity of veg
etables can be grown upon half acre IN
twelve months time here In Middle Geor-
gal That is, If 1t is a well kept garden.
Two to four crops on every square yard
Of il II you choose.