The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-24
TIE GALL OF SPRING
It's First Warm Days Con- note The Garden And
 Home Fruit Culture
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 Have you ever felt the call to gar den. to Eo out and dig, to watch things ger1ninate2 No doubt you have If you live in the suburbs or the country and If you haven't responded io F f0 the extent of cultivatfng that patch behind your house or setting out a few fruit trees then you have been the cause of an economic loss; you nave helped to maintain the country's large unproductive area and the high east of living.
 IT all the patches of land suitable for home gardens and for raising fam fly fruit trees could be put together, in New England alone they swoHld amount to thousands of acres of ara bie land. representing just that much taken out of the. food producing area of this country Even the smallest backyard garden will save money ana pay dividends in health besides A half acre devoted to various kinds of garden crops will supply fsnnily with $1o0 worth of vegetables during a year ana they will be strictly fresh vegetA- bles att that
 Tt might be supposed that backdoor farming was too inconsequ ential for the United States governnen nt to no- tices but it isn't, because if all back yards were properly cultivated there would be a very consid derabie e increase in the ecuntryts food production and that. Of course is what Uncle sam is after all the time. Ind eeds as a stimulus fo this Kind of faTir fag the Department of Agriculture 4 recently issued some simple but fundamental rules for turning back lot into a. yeeetab1e garden or an orchard and for raising instead of buying the things which form such a larsu part of the summer dietary.
 In the nrst place, lest you become discouraged at the start the govern uaent experts say that it Is surprising the change that can be wrought in poor s0dl in single season. First in importance in garden ma king they some way by which the surplus water in heavy rzaz1s 7can run off your patch instead Of standing in puddIes The second rudirnentary pr1nci pie IS to chickens Then the selection Of fer ti1Izer is an important step in the backyaDd garden because the kind used has marked inf7uemce on tllel character and quality Of the vegeta bles predicted F'ertfiizers. say the -8 ferrnentntlon stage before being used and we'll routed barn manure has no equal i'm this respect
 For a good garden the government recipe calls for early soaaing or p{0uehinE so that the soil has time to
 
 gest4on fs to dig or plow deeper than kfle farmer does for the reason that. the roots of garden Vegetables grow deepsr than farm crops sl1bso11fng digging down two spade lengths IS really fhe best plan Of 60 arse near lyl everybody| knows that after after this the soil must be puIverized Uncle SantE advice is that tlafs shDziId su5f stop with tho surface but extend ass deep as the spadine The better the. soil ts prepsfed the less care tlas crops|
 Cz1r rota tion IS rscouan,end ed for t1ie backyzrd. amateur farmer 1st as for the professiona1 Study Succession s3 that all the garden may be going all the time and don't plant the sas.fas vIses Uncle Sam. Have celery fol- low peAH or late beans orHcorn follow potat@eE- Sow garden see 5s always in straight rows regardless sof where the planting is made. It win keep the. vegetables uniform ir. size ana shape, make the job of hoeing them easier and help in the counol of tr3- seets and diseases The Department of Asr5cu1ture recoznuends the fol- 2 lsH1nE for amateurs to trs as being zREtzs, bears, bee4s, Brussels sprouts. fa1[aionpes, carrots, ca717ff1 over. t,41- eumber. corn egg plant endive. Ief- 2 lsacey spinach, peppers, peass squash and onions
 lt 9ds much easier to raise fruit than z'sssfa plss and yet few Q Naaing SUI suTban homes think Of using their places for this purpose Hence too many such fruit is largely a luxury. This backyard land, now Drsetica1lV wasted and unreznunerakivs could preduce fruit enough for many cables and 7contrfbuts much to the health of the communftY It is hard t, sl,r{z derstand why home fruit culture has been thus neglected unless 1t be that 1t has mistakenly come to be regard : ed aE specially to be talk an rr, only on commercial scale. Among the benefits derived from having your own fruit trees not the least, says the gov ernrnents is the discriuainatio it will give you in selecting good fruit when you have to buy it and also the inter- est in nature which it Stimulates Then too every ff--s tree planted in the backyard adds to the heaItffuI- ness of the whole family
 It is possible to grow just as good fruit trees in the average yard as tc dzga "a pretty big hole and then looser the dirt spades length even below flaia 90 that ~4l1e roots can shoot out straight Sa ,, too, that the soil thai comes immediately in conta ct with the roots is rich top soil and trample this down so as to. make the contact as close as possible. When planted the tree should stand one or two inch es deeper than 1t did in the nursery, Before putting fruit tree in the hole cut away all broken or decayeds root. leaving only smooth cut srtrfaces and taeaIthv wood to come in contact witE the soil
 Grape vines are recon nended b, Uncle Sam incidenta1Iy as affordins not only delicious fruit4bz1f deligatfuII, cool ana shady hooks. Tn the opin. ion Of those who have tasted it there 1s nothing quite like the joy of pick ing your own peaches. pears, apples more people don't try it.