St. Tammany farmer., 1921-12-03
INTENSIVEIST THE
WORD USED FOR
UP-TO-DA'TE
GARDEN
What Can Be Done at Home
and What Has Been
Done Elsewhere
l ACRE PRODUCES
GROSS SUM $1611.25
The Net Profit in One Year
Reaches Much as Some
Whole Farms
By A. e. Briggs

There are several good gardeners
in and around Vaudeville. l choose:
to describe the following because it
is pineywoods garden and illus
trates what can be done with piney-
woods soil. 1t is comparatively Il
new garden and is in process Of max
ing rather than a final product The
owner, Mr.. Meners, has been engag-
ed in other work and until latel.
has given comparatively little atten
ton to his garden spot. Bur what
he is doing is being lone 50 we'll and
there are SO many points OF excel
lence about his garden ;h1, it Ce-
. serves consideration.
This garden spot is located about
half m.e from the jlnc.icl CT the
north Of Mandevlile. 1t is not d
big garden, on4y little over an acre
in extent 1t is a garden as dis
tinguished from truck patch. The
crops are cultivated almost wholly
by hand work, and practically the
only horse labor employed is in plow-
ing. 1t is therefore what would be
scaled an intensive garden. Almost
everything is planted in rows close
together, too close for horse cultlVa-
ton. To superficial observer, it
would appear to be open 10 criticism
as an expensive garden on account
of it's operation by hand labor; but
that would probably be very super
fcial observation, for Mr.. Meiners
knows how to economic on hand
labor with maximum results. 1t is
the intelligent handling of this gar
den which challenges attention.
The first thing which strikes the
visitor is the beautiful layout of the
garden The fruit trees, chiefly Pc
cans and plums, are still small and
each row of them occupies strip OF
ground wholly set apart from or
bounding the garden plats, which
latter are about IS feet in width,
and over 200 feet in length. Eacn
garden plat is wide bed gently slop-
ing from the middle ridge Whicn
runs lengthWise This provides good
drainage in the direction Of the little
branch back of the garden. Each
row of pants extends across the
ridge the width of the plat, and is
marvellously straight. This perfec-
tion of line is accomplished by
stretching string, each end OF
which is tied to a stake, and plant
ing along same. The regular widths
and straight rows with the gentle
slope from the ridge give the beau
tiful line and the plants add color
+, hn ri. nf fha nipfnrn
But it is not only beautiful, 1t is
also practical garden. By ploW-
ing to a center ridge there is say
ing Of labor in preparation of beds.
After blowing, "a triangle tooth har-
row (home-made) is dragged by
horse over the ground, and followed
by a clod-breaker or crusher which
pulverizes the surface soil (an i'm
plement made by mailing eight or
ten six-inch planks together). This
is the extent of horse labor, and it
is apparent how economical is the
arrangement for the purpose.
Pineywoods soil is not naturally
rich. 1t requires lots OF fertilizer,
and Mr. Meiners takes care before
hand to have lot Of rotted stable
manure and compost ready. All
straw, grass and litter available are
piled up so as to be saturated by the
rains, and in the spring he has
quantity Of well decayed compost
from this source. This is material
which most people are in the habit
of burning up, not realizing what a
lot Of rich humus can be made out
of it. At one place in the garden
Mr.. Meiners put in what he had or
this compost oa--one side OF the
ridge. All the way down that strip
on the side fertiliZed with the COM
post there is much better growth
of vegetables. The barn manure
and compost are steadily improving
the garden soil, and as we have here
tofore pointed out to the reader COM
mercial fertilizers are Of little Valne
to soil to which humus has not been
added in the form of either green
manures or stable manure and COM
post. In fact, without continuous
incorporation of humus in the SOIL,
the application of commercial Ter
tilizers will in time burn SO badly
that nothing can be produced on tae
soil with them. Mr.. Meiners has
learned how to use both commercial
and natural fertilizers.
The economy in cultivation at
which we limited is accomplished
chiefly by the use Of a six-inch rake
With this he can very hastily culti-
eyate the entire garden. AS soon after
a rain as the soil is dry enough and
before top crust is formed he cultl-
Yates the garden with the hand rake,
and in dry spells dust mulch IS
kept up with this tool, which is the
best for the purpose. Besides If
used when the tiny weeds are just
CONTINUED on page y
Mrs E. ]. Domergue and Mrs. j.
3 Mnrtham- of New Orleans, spenL