Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-03-23

Gardening viii Enable You Raise Two Three Crops
Instead One-Encourages Children to Do Their

Washington, D. c.. March 23.-"Plan
your backyard garden on paper in
advance" is the advice of the vege-
table garden specialists OF the United
States department. of agriculture. A
little indoor gardening Of this sort
will enable. YOU to have fresh yege-
tables throughout the season and
will make the same ground, with lit
tie extra labor and expense, yield two
or three crops instead OF the single
crops commonly raised in small gar
grown instead of one, compare
lively small garden will supply the
average family with fresh vegetables
all season Moreover. such plan
ming in advance will enable you to get
the ground ready in time for planting
and to secure your seeds and plant
them at the dates which give each
variety its best growing conditions.
For example, if you will thus plan
the plot to be devoted to peas, by the
time your first crop is harvested, the
second crop will be in bearing, and
the plants of the third we'll advanced.
All the tools that are necessary for
indoor gardening, which can be made
an interesting recreation for the whole
I household, are large sheet of wrap
ping paper, ruler and pencil. Al
ter looking over the garden and Sc
| lecting the plot of soil best suited
| for your purpose, measure this and
outline it on paper on scale OF a
| or "a inch to the foot.
| Next, study your garden bulletins
/ or books on horticulture and the seed
! catalogues to determine what can be
/ grown in your climate under the con-
| ditions of exposure, soil and drainage
! in your back yard. This study may
| lead YOU to plan bitches to improve
drainage, show you that your soil
needs finely sifted ashes to break up
its sticky character, or that you must
add rOtted manure, dried blood, bone
meal, wood ashes, lime or other fer
tilizers to make it suitable for vege-
tables.
Then comes the consultation with
the family to determine the sorts of
vegetables the different members like.
and which, therefore, they personally
will be interested in raising. Confine
your selections to the standard we'll
tried sorts. Finally, and this is most
important, is the conference between
the garden force and the housewife as
to what vegetables really are worth
raising in the back yard 1t will hard
ly pay to raise in a small space pota,
toes, corn, cucumbers, squashes or
melons, which occupy a large area in
proportion to yield, and which can
be bought cheaply in nearby mar
kets
In general, the aim of the back yard
gardener should be to raise those veg
etables which are either expensive or
in which the flavor or quality depends
importantly on absolute freshness
Peas and string or lima beans, to be
at their best. should be cooked almost
Immediately after they are gathered.
Peas kept even for day lose THEN
delicate bloom and sweetness Conse-
quently as much space as possible
should be devoted to such vegetables,
and other vegetables in which fresh
ness does not count SO Importantly
should largely be used as filters TO
keep the ground at work. Effort also
should be made in a garden to have
special vegetables, such as okra, of
which the family is fond and which
are difficult to obtain in local mar
kets or are commonly high priced
The housewife probably will want i,
little bed of parsley, chives, or other
herbs, not because they are expen-
pensive to buy, but because of the
convenience of being able pick &
sprig when it is needed.
The profit from gardening, however
comes not alone from the vegetables
that are produced. The healthy out
door recreation and exercise and ths
educational value of garden il
training children manually, and ii
| intoxicating in them habits of order
! and industry must not be overlooked
Fathers and mothers will ind that tn,