Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1898-03-04
AarifuItnrat.
The Farmers Garden.

1t is not too early to make plans for a
garden, and as hundreds of farmers buy
their vegetables it lie an important item
of expense to them. being an outlay Of
something that could be produced at
home and of better quality than can be
purchased. There are SO many different
kinds Of vegetables that can be grown
from early spring until the frost appears
in the fall that every farm can have an
abundance and from small area, 1t is
not necessary that some kinds come to
maturity, produce Seed but may be
used almost as soon as they appear A
small bed Of early onions would not take
up the space of q sitting room, yet they
provide supply until late, while lettuce,
kale, rsdish and early peas would ap-
pear on the table almost by the time the
farmer was over with the work Of plant
ing bis staple farm crops. The seeds
mems catalogues describe all varieties,
and so plainly as to enable novice to
make selection, but the difficulty here
tofore has been that farmers do not avail
themselves Of such opportunities and
are content to supply themselves only
with those articles which are cultivated
with the aid of horses.
ECONOMY OF GARDENING
If farmers will estimate to cost of the
things they purchase which they can pro-
duce the sum will be comparatively
large one for an entire year 1t may be
urged that the cost of garden is too
great when one is busy with corn and
other staple crops, but there are hun
dreds of acres of corn and wheat pro-
duced which do not give profit Of s.
an acre, while an acre devoted to gar
den will give ten times as much. The
market for the products of garden being
at home there are no transportation ex-
penses aud at the present day, with
horse hoes, wheel hoes and other labor
saving implements, the cultivation of
garden has been reduced to the mini.
mum cost, but little hand hoeing being
necessary. The farmer who is careful
to give his animals pasturage and green
food, because by such methods he pro-
notes their comfort and thrift should do
the same for himself and family. He
should make beginning at some time
and first make it point to have, in ad-
dition to apples, pears, plums, peaches,
and cherries, the small fruits, such as
raspberries, strawberries. currants and
gooseberries Establish an asparagus
bed and plant for an early supply on
ions peas, lettuce, radish, kale, cabbage,
caulihower. beets. parsuips, satisfy and
even early potatoes, later putting in
more peas and lima beans, tomatoes,
string beans, late cabbage, squash, mel
ons, etc.
HORSE GARDENING.
Some farmers have adopted the plan of
planting long rows of the different veg
etables and small fruits, so as to permit
of cultivation by horse power, which is
better than no garden at all but as veg
etable seeds are very small, and some
germinate slowly, it will be necessary
to give some hand werk and it will pay
to do so, for with the aid Of such q gar
den the farmer will not be compelled to
buy many articles for his use outside Of
the farm. The cost of the labor de-
ponds on circumstances. It may be safe
ly claimed that if two farmers side by
side will labor, and the one has gar
den, while the other buys his vegeta-
bles, the one with the garden will have
more cash at the end Of the year than
the other, and he will have lived on a
greater variety and better while the
other will have denied himself much en-
joyment All labor that is employed
on the farm aud saves expense of pur-
chase of some article will be gain, as
the products of the farm are the result
of labor, hence garden may compel
the farmer to give extra labor, but IL
so doing he stores up that much wealth
on the farm. Now is the time to haul
out the manure on the garden plot if the
weather will permit of working it into
the soil during warm SPELL or it should
be done early in the spring. The soil
cannot be made too rich, and the garden
Of vegetables and fruits will be the best
paying plot on the farm.