The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-06-27
FARM,
Fall Gardening.

1t requires both unceasing and intel
ligent effort to make a complete sue
cess of fall gardening nowadays. I'm
certainty of the weather. various in
furious insects and diseases all are to
be met and commended with and to an
extent that was not experienced even
Il few years back.
As never before the gardener that
would meet with any degree of sue
cess now must be prepared with due
insecticide and fungicide with which
to fight insect and disease the very
moment there are signs of either. He
must anticipate the dry spells that are
almost sure to occur sometime between
the first of July and the first of No
vember and so far as she can guard
against i'll consequences by, first, a
thorough preparation of the soil be-
fore planting and. second, providing
just the proper implement of cultiva-
ton for such period of dry weather.
There must be a clean, well-fined seed
bed to receive the seeds or plant but
afterwards everything in the way of
cultivation must be of the shallowest
kind. The soil needs to be in a firmer,
more compact condition a this season
of scorching sun than it needs to be
in the early part of the year, when the
soil is naturally cooler and the rains,
10 settle it, more regular A certain
firmness of sandy, light soil is as much
essential to good growth as a certain
looseness is essential for stiff, clayey
soil. In midsummer too much loose
ness of soil is a thing to be guarded
against.
For this season and for such soil a
T.. to
successful results. The surface soil
needs to be fined and then tirmed-re-
firmed, as 1t were. In the spring heavy
rains tend to produce this effect of
returning or compacting the soil, but
this means cannot be relied on after
summer has set in. Either roller
must be used or the work of firming
must be left undone. In the case of
crops whereof the seeds are dropped
in hills-corn, peas beans, melons,
Irish potatoes-a certain degree of firm
ing is secured by tTeading in the
seeds with the foot Ga pair of old fash
toned, broad-sole brogans comes in
just right here). Limited as this firm
ing is II is very helpful indeed in Sc
curing the termination of the seeds,
whatever the plant. No one who makes
a business of fall gardening, where
most of the seeding and planting is
done from July to September can af
ford to be without suitable roller.
Several different ones in fact might
be used to great advantage in one way
or another, and from first to last. AS
has been remarked, more than once in
this column it is only the experienced, (
intelligent gardener, understanding the
principles of plant growth. who is able
to recognize fully the value of the
roller as a cutivating implement in dry
weather
al =
be a mere waste of their seeds and la
Dor thrown away to SOW them so long
as the mean daily temperature was
anywhere near IS or so. Such crops
as onions spinach. satisfy. lettuce,
English peas, beets and some others,
find it very congenial temperature for
termination and growth in February
and March, but consigned to the soil
under a July or August sun would do
little more than terminate the young
sprout and die. A hot soil and an air
temperature of so to 80 is fatal to the
tender plant just from the seed. Of
tener than not the young plant will
not even show itself above the sur
face.
Fall gardening may have its begin
ming in the planting of such crops as
turnips, cabbage, tomato, beans, Irish
potato in the course of the ensuing 80
days. but other than the planting of
these the main concern should be in
getting the soil in good shape by plow-
ing and manuring for those crops that
are more properly started later on
when the soil has cooled and the air
temperature declined to something like
or less than 60 degrees mean daily
For fall growth Of vegetables every
thing depends upon well prepared soil
that is rich from the presence of plant
food provided by thoroughly decom-
posed matter. as in the case of soil
naturally rich. Ray, undecomposed ma
nure is altogether unsuted for any
summer or fall started crops. Such
can be safely used only as a top dress
ing carefully applied.