The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-16
GARDEN STUFF,
CROWN AT HOME,
SOON TO APPEAR
Tomatoes Have Been Of Hot
house Variety-Sweet Corn
on Market.
By WILLIAM r. SANBoRN

oy "tGIISN" oNiNoSnN
Within a week or ten days we may
all enjoy home grown tomatoes which
have been cooled with showers and
with dew So far we have been re-
called principally with the dollhouse
varieties instead of those having the
rudy and inviting color which indi-
Gates the really edible tomato Of the
old school.
Before the days of hothouses and
intensive gardening, we were content
to await the natural course of events
In tomato culture, as in all other gar
den-grown edibles, but now 1t Is always
summer somewhere, il not in the open,
then under glass. The dollhouse to-
mato crops are on the wane and by
the time the field and garden grown
fruit Is on the market in liberal sup
ply, will have entirely disappeared.
These were warmly welcomed, but at
20 cents per pound their passing will
not be greatly mourned. Many a Rich
mond homemaker will recall the put
ting up OF numberless cans of to-
matoes and quarts of catsup for which
the tomatoes cost 25 and so cents per
bushel.
II you are a gardener because you
love to plant and to water and to see
things grow, ramble around on the
south side of town for a day among
the little truck patches and home gar
dens, not forgetting a certain fifteen
acre garden and dollhouse area at the
foot Of the big hill at the Richmond
end of the Liberty pike. Here one
may study scientific gardening and in.
tensive cultivation, and mayhap learn
something worth while. And it Is n
lesson which many of us would be
better off for learning, because it
might lead us to plant and enjoy two,
and often three crops, instead Of one
during the long season from early
spring to late fall.
Gardening for Profit.
Those of us who have a choice, we'll
kept little garden plot, in the care of
which we find healthful outdoor ex-
ercise and enjoyment, will be inclined
to look upon a large garden acreage
as purely commercial venture, as
indeed it is. Truck growers and city
market gardeners are not carried to
the skies, or elsewhere, on fiowery
beds of ease. although their homes are
usually beautified with foliage and
flowers, often in profusion. Such gar
dens are not cultivated like the fam
lily garden because of the need for eX-
ercise In the open, nor to supply fresh
berries and crisp vegeta bles to the
home table. They are cultivated for
profit and, incidentally, to the common
good. Should home owners on city
lots ever become enthusiastic even
over the ordinary cold frame, to say
nothing of family hothouses, we
shall enjoy fresh vegetables in greater
variety and profusion, much earlier
In the year 1t is true. however, that
many families use the cold frame, but
in the main these are very greatly in
the minority.
The people of Richmond may be
considered fortunate in the number of
truck gardeners and specialists in
vegetable and berry culture supplying
this market. There is a difference
between the regular market gardening
and specializing, the former producing
the plants which the rest of us buy
as we'll as furnishing practically every
thing edible that grows in an Indiana
garden. One specialist grows only
breakfast melons as a sale crop; we
could cite another instance where the
specially is turnips, and again where
dry onions are the money crop.
Old residents tell us that the little
NalleJ dl t0e southern 6uRe OF JO"T
and which is divided by the Liberty
pike, has been a market garden area
for fifty years or more. The senior
Backmeyer. three of whose sons have
followed in his footsteps, supplied veg
etables to the grandfathers of The
present generation, and William II
Backmeyer. and the brothers in thu
same industry. were born in that littlt
valley Gtin 6nnSP1V covered Will
good things to eat, and daily comin
into market. Then there is the oil
Conrad Zwissler garden. just outsid
of town on the Boston pike, now mar
aged by Mr. Zwisslers widow an
her sons. William B. Sleeth. ais
Liberty pike farmer, is noted 70
his garden truck There are ais
numerous growers who market thei
output principally at the city ma
ket, and who do little wholesalin
to the grocery and market trade.
Overhead Irrigation.
The writer visited two market ga
dens this morning where the overhea
system of irrigation has been success
fully installed. At the Zwissler plac
on the Boston pike. a large steel tanl
such as is seen on tank cars, flu
nishes the pressure from an elevate
platform, while at the William T
Backmeyer gardens on the Libert
pike. the water flows from a hillto
reservoir into which it is pumpe
from the adjoining stream. An ele
trically operated pump, with rs ga
lon per minute capacity, keeps II
reservoir supplied. There are fiftee
acres or more under cultivation her
all completely outfitted with tn
spraying system of steel pipes, eac
inc of which can be operated ind