St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1917-04-14
DOING ITS PART IN PRE-
PAIRING TO FEED.
(Ccntinued from page u

| Continued from page u
men to enlist and fight for the Star
Spangled Banner" and l believe that
the man, woman or child who would
insist on growing flowers, something
to look at instead Of something to
eat, should be urged into the ranks
of the food producers and not de-
pend upon others when many dollars
worth OF food can be made in yards
and lots. l know that many do not
know how to properly prepare gar
den or seed bed and for that reason
l am giving below general instruc-
lions on crops to plant. how to fer
tilize, how to cultivate, when to
transplant, and general instructions
on home gardening.
| The Soil-The plot should be
plowed or spaded as deep as possible,
care being taken not to turn the
spade and ground over completely,
just run the spade down full deep
and turn over to other dirt already
spaded but not bringing UP subsoil
to surface.
Fertilizer-For general purposes,
in the home garden, the following
will give extra good results: If any
poultry fertilizer is on hand take 1t
| and mix with any barn lot manure
/ or rotten trash or leaves and spread
| broad cast on ground just as the
| spade left it. Any kind of manure
| will do but the above mixture will
give better results. Then scatter
over this a good coat Of superphos-
phate, say about one peck to each
twenty square feet, and take the hoe
| and chop all into soil thoroughly
| and polish Off with rake. OF course
any one knows that the water must
| not stand in a place where cultivated
crops are to grow, and that part
| will not be mentioned; drainage is
absolutely necessary. The above
+ method of fertilizing will give good
results for all crops for the kitchen
garden. In case no barn or poultry
fertilizer is at hand, use cotton seed
meal and superphosphate in equal
parts and put two pecks of the mix
ture to each twenty square feet
broad cast and work in soil as men
toned before. The cotton seed meal
Plant now. Now is the time to
get your garden started, and the fol-
lowing crops should he put i'll as soon
as possible: Tomatoes, egg plants,
peppers, lettuce, summer cabbage,
(coliards can either be planted or the
plants bought and transplanted.)
In the above mentioned crops | would
advise buying some plants and also
getting some seed and sowing them
in order that the fruiting season may
be extended. The plants come INTO
bearing earlier than seed soWn now.
The plant beds should be made :
1eet vice and as long as one wants
for the above crops. 4 walk space
and rain way can be made on each
side OF bed, and plants can be set
in rows across bed. In this way
one can stand in the walk way and
cultivate the entire bed without do
ing damage to plants. This also
makes it better to gather the fruit.
Tomatoes should be set deep down
into ground, at least two-thirds of
the length of the plant, and dirt
packed we'll around the roots. This
gives a heavier root system and a
stronger plant. Set plants two feet
square, it pruned, staked and tied
up, if not, set three feet square.
Peppers and egg plants should be
| set two feet apart in rows and two
feet apart in drill. Set plants deep
down. Lettuce plants can be set IA
cucumbers, squash, beans, musk
melon, all kinds can be planted now.
The beds SHOULD be prepared as stat
ed for above crops and corn planted
in checks two feet apart each way in
bed or in rows three apart by fifteen
inches in drill. Pole and lima beans
should be planted in rows three feet
wide and two feet in drill. Do not
plant too deep, as seed are apt to
rot. About one inch is deep enough
in moist soil. Okra can be planted
where it is to grow or it can be
ltransplanted. Give it the same treat
ment as stated for pole beans.
Squash, melons, cucumbers need to
be planted in checks four feet square
with the exception of water melons,
which should be six feet. l would
| advise two vines left in hill at thin
| nest" mounds to plant the last men-
toned crops in, but plant on level or
nearly on level. This enables the
crop to stand dry weather better and
also to use more plant food from the
fertilizer you have used.
Sweet potatoes can be set out at
any time from now until the first Of
August. l would advise making this
second crop after some Of your
first crops have come off, then To-
lowing potatoes in fall with winter
cabbage. Plants or draws can be had
early in summer from farmers or
seedmen. The time has passed for
Irish potatoes, to my sorrow, fer they
will be worth almost as much as gold
dollars next season. Red beans can
also be planted now, and the more
you plant the better the world likes
it, providing you make any. The
same treatment will do for red beans
as given other bunch beans. If ash
es are used in connection with the
fertilizer formula mentioned above
red beans will make good crop
and bear longer than ordinarily.
Black eye peas, field peas, white
beans and such crops can be plant
ed now. and should be planted in
rows on beds two feet apart and seed
dropped about one inch apart in the
drill
Onions, garlic and crops of this
kind cannot be planted now and