The cultivation of the squash is substantially the same as that of the cucumber, and it has nearly the same enemies to contend with. Let the hills of the bush sorts be four feet apart each way, and eight feet for the running varieties. The seed is cheap, so use plenty, and plant over from the first to the twenty-fifth of May, until you have three good strong plants to the hill. Three are plenty, so thin out the plants, when six or seven inches high, to this number, and keep the ground clean and mellow. I usually raise my running squashes among the corn, giving up one hill to them completely every seven or eight feet each way. Early bush sorts: White Bush Scalloped, Yellow Bush Scalloped. The Perfect Gem is good for both summer and winter, and should be planted on rich soil, six feet apart each way. The Boston Marrow is one of the best fall sorts; the Hubbard and Marblehead are the best winter varieties.
When we come to plant musk-melons we must keep them well away from the two above-named vegetables, or else their pollen will mix, producing very disagreeable hybrids. A squash is very good in its way, and a melon is much better; but if you grow them so near each other that they become "'alf and 'alf," you may perhaps find pigs that will eat them. The more completely the melon-patch is by itself, the better, and the nearer the house the better; for while it is liable to all the insects and diseases which attack the cucumber, it encounters, when the fruit is mature, a more fatal enemy in the predatory small boy. Choose rich, warm, but not dry ground for musk-melons, make the hills six feet apart each way, and treat them like cucumbers, employing an abundance of seed. As soon as the plants are ready to run, thin out so as to leave only four to fruit. Henderson recommends Montreal Market, Hackensack, and Netted Gem. Gregory: Netted Gem, Boston Pet, Bay View, Sill's Hybrid, Casaba, and Ward's Nectar. He also advocates a remarkable novelty known as the "Banana." Harris: Early Christiana and Montreal Market.
Water-melons should be planted eight feet apart; but if one has not a warm, sandy soil, I do not advise their culture. The time of planting and management do not vary materially from those of the musk variety. The following kinds will scarcely fail to give satisfaction where they can be grown: Phinney's Early, Black Spanish, Mammoth Ironclad, Mountain Sprout, Scaly Bark, and Cuban Queen.
The tomato has a curious history. Native of South America like the potato, it is said to have been introduced into England as early as 1596. Many years elapsed before it was used as food, and the botanical name given to it was significant of the estimation in which it was held by our forefathers. It was called Lycopersicum—a compound term meaning wolf and peach; indicating that, notwithstanding its beauty, it was regarded as a sort of "Dead Sea fruit." The Italians first dared to use it freely; the French followed; and after eying it askance as a novelty for unknown years, John Bull ventured to taste, and having survived, began to eat with increasing gusto. To our grandmothers in this land the ruby fruit was given as "love-apples," which, adorning quaint old bureaus, were devoured by dreamy eyes long before canning factories were within the ken of even a Yankee's vision. Now, tomatoes vie with the potato as a general article of food, and one can scarcely visit a quarter of the globe so remote but he will find that the tomato-can has been there before him. Culture of the tomato is so easy that one year I had bushels of the finest fruit from plants that grew here and there by chance. Skill is required only in producing an early crop; and to secure this end the earlier the plants are started in spring, the better. Those who have glass will experience no difficulty whatever. The seed may be sown in a greenhouse as early as January, and the plants potted when three inches high, transferred to larger pots from time to time as they grow, and by the middle of May put into the open ground full of blossoms and immature fruit. Indeed, plants started early in the fall will give in a greenhouse a good supply all winter. Tomatoes also grow readily in hot-beds, cold-frames, or sunny windows. We can usually buy well-forwarded plants from those who raise them for sale. If these are set out early in May on a sunny slope, they mature rapidly, and give an early yield. The tomato is very sensitive to frost, and should not be in the open ground before danger from it is over. Throughout May we may find plants for sale everywhere. If we desire to try distinct kinds with the least trouble, we can sow the seed about May 1, and in our climate enjoy an abundant yield in September, or before. In the cool, humid climate of England the tomato is usually grown en espalier, like the peach, along sunny walls and fences, receiving as careful a summer pruning as the grape-vine. With us it is usually left to sprawl over the ground at will. By training the vines over various kinds of supports, however, they may be made as ornamental as they are useful. The ground on which they grow should be only moderately fertile, or else there is too great a growth of vine at the expense of fruit. This is especially true if we desire an early yield, and in this case the warmest, driest soil is necessary.
But comparatively a few years ago the tomato consisted of little more than a rind, with seeds in the hollow centre. Now, the only varieties worth raising cut as solid as a mellow pear. The following is Gregory's list of varieties: Livingston's Beauty, Alpha, Acme, Canada Victor, Arlington, General Grant. I will add Trophy and Mikado. If a yellow variety is desired, try Golden Trophy.
If the tomato needs warm weather in which to thrive, the egg-plant requires that both days and nights should be hot. It is an East Indiaman, and demands curry in the way of temperature before it loses its feeble yellow aspect and takes on the dark green of vigorous health. My method is simply this: I purchase strong potted plants between the twentieth of May and the first of June, and set them out in a rich, warm soil. A dozen well-grown plants will supply a large family with egg-fruit. Of course one can start the young plants themselves, as in the case of tomatoes; but it should be remembered that they are much more tender and difficult to raise than is the tomato. Plants from seed sown in the open ground would not mature in our latitude, as a rule. The best plan is to have the number you need grown for you by those who make it their business. Eggplants are choice morsels for the potato-beetle, and they must be watched vigilantly if we would save them. There is no better variety than the New York Improved.
The pepper is another hot-blooded vegetable that shivers at the suggestion of frost. It is fitting that it should be a native of India. Its treatment is usually the same as that of the egg-plant. It matures more rapidly, however, and the seed can be sown about the middle of May, half an inch deep, in rows fifteen inches apart. The soil should be rich and warm. When the plants are well up, they should be thinned so that they will stand a foot apart in the row. The usual course, however, is to set out plants which have been started under glass, after all danger from frost is over. Henderson recommends New Sweet Spanish and Golden Dawn, The Large Bell is a popular sort, and Cherry Red very ornamental.
From the okra is made the famous gumbo soup, which ever calls to vision a colored aunty presiding over the mysteries of a Southern dinner. If Aunt Dinah, so well known to us from the pages of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," could have left her receipt for this compound, her fame might have lasted as long as that of Mrs. Stowe. The vegetable furnishing this glutinous, nutritious, and wholesome ingredient is as easily raised as any product of the garden. We have only to sow the seed, from the first to the tenth of May, two inches deep, and let the plants stand from two to three feet apart each way, in order to have an abundant supply. The new Dwarf Prolific is about the best variety.
Fall turnips are so easily grown that they require but few words. They are valuable vegetables for utilizing space in the garden after early crops, as peas, beans, potatoes, etc., are removed. The seed of ruta-baga, or Swedish turnips, should be planted earliest—from the twentieth of June to the tenth of July in our latitude. This turnip should be sown in drills two feet apart, and the plants thinned to eight inches from one another. It is very hardy, and the roots are close-grained, solid, and equally good for the table and the family cow. The Yellow Aberdeen is another excellent variety, which may be sown EARLY in July, and treated much the same as the foregoing. The Yellow Stone can be sown on good ground until the fifteenth of July in any good garden soil, and the plants thinned to six inches apart. It is perhaps the most satisfactory of all the turnip tribe both for table use and stock. The Bed-top Strap-leaf may be sown anywhere until the tenth of August. It is a general custom, in the middle of July, to scatter some seed of this hardy variety among the corn: hoe it in lightly, and there is usually a good crop. Every vacant spot may be utilized by incurring only the slight cost of the seed and the sowing. It may be well, perhaps, to remember the advice of the old farmer to his son. He said, "Stub your toe and spill half the seed before sowing it; for scattered broadcast it is usually much too thick." If this proves true, thin out the plants rigorously. This turnip is good for table and stock as long as it is solid and crisp; but it grows pithy toward spring. There are other kinds well worth a trial.
Perhaps no vegetable is more generally appreciated than celery. Like asparagus, it was once, and is still by some, regarded as a luxury requiring too much skill and labor for the ordinary gardener. This is a mistake. Few vegetables in my garden repay so amply the cost of production. One can raise turnips as a fall crop much easier, it is true; but turnips are not celery, any more than brass is gold. Think of enjoying this delicious vegetable daily from October till April! When cooked, and served on toast with drawn butter sauce, it is quite ambrosial. In every garden evolved beyond the cabbage and potato phase a goodly space of the best soil should be reserved for celery, since it can be set out from the first to the twentieth of July in our latitude; it can be grown as the most valuable of the second crops, reoccupying space made vacant by early crops. I find it much easier to buy my plants, when ready for them, than to raise them. In every town there are those who grow them in very large quantities, and, if properly packed, quickly transported, and promptly set out in the evening following their reception, and watered abundantly, they rarely fail.
There are decided advantages, however, in raising our own plants, especially if midsummer should prove dry and hot, or the plants must be long in transit. When they are growing in our own garden, they can be moved with very slight check to their growth. In starting the seed there is no necessity for hot-bed or cold-frame. It may be put in the ground the first week of April, and the best plants are thus secured. Much is gained by preparing a warm but not dry plot of ground in autumn, making it very rich with short, half-decayed stable-manure. This preparation should be begun as soon as possible after the soaking September rains. Having thoroughly incorporated and mixed evenly in the soil an abundance of the manure described, leave the ground untouched for three weeks. The warm fertilizer will cause great numbers of weed-seeds to germinate. When these thrifty pests are a few inches high, dig them under and bring up the bottom soil. The warmth and light will immediately start a new and vigorous growth of weeds, which in turn should be dug under. If the celery seed bed be made early enough, this process can be repeated several times before winter—the oftener the better; for by it the great majority of weed-seeds will be made to germinate, and thus are destroyed. The ground also becomes exceedingly rich, mellow, and fine—an essential condition for celery seed, which is very small, and germinates slowly. This thorough preparation does not involve much labor, for the seed-bed is small, and nothing more is required in spring but to rake the ground smooth and fine as soon as the frost is out. The soil has already been made mellow, and certainly nothing is gained by turning up the cold earth in the bottom of the bed. Sow the seed at once on the sunwarmed surface. The rows should be nine inches apart, and about twelve seeds sown to every inch of row. The drills should be scarcely an eighth of an inch deep. Indeed, a firm patting with the back of a spade would give covering enough. Since celery germinates so slowly, it is well to drop a lettuce-seed every few inches, to indicate clearly just where the rows are. Then the ground between the rows can be hoed lightly as soon as the weeds start, also after heavy rains, so as to admit the vivifying sun-rays and air. Of course when the celery plants are clearly outlined, the lettuce should be pulled out.
If the bed is made in spring, perform the work as early as possible, making the bed very rich, mellow, and fine. Coarse manures, cold, poor, lumpy soil, leave scarcely a ghost of a chance for success. The plants should be thinned to two inches from one another, and when five inches high, shear them back to three inches. When they have made another good growth, shear them back again. The plants are thus made stocky. In our latitude I try to set out celery, whether raised or bought, between the twenty-fifth of June and the fifteenth of July. This latitude enables us to avoid a spell of hot, dry weather.
There are two distinct classes of celery—the tall-growing sorts, and the dwarf varieties. A few years ago the former class was grown generally; trenches were dug, and their bottoms well enriched to receive the plants. Now the dwarf kinds are proving their superiority, by yielding a larger amount of crisp, tender heart than is found between long coarse stalks of the tall sorts. Dwarf celery requires less labor also, for it can be set on the surface and much closer together, the rows three feet apart, and the plants six inches in the row. Dig all the ground thoroughly, then, beginning on one side of the plot, stretch a line along it, and fork under a foot-wide strip of three or four inches of compost, not raw manure. By this course the soil where the row is to be is made very rich and mellow. Set out the plants at once while the ground is fresh and moist. If the row is ten feet long, you will want twenty plants; if fifteen, thirty plants; or two plants to every foot of row. Having set out one row, move the line forward three feet, and prepare and set out another row in precisely the same manner. Continue this process until the plot selected is occupied. If the plants have been grown in your own garden, much is gained by SOAKING the ground round them in the evening, and removing them to the rows in the cool of the morning. This abundant moisture will cause the soil to cling to the roots if handled gently, and the plants will scarcely know that they have been moved. When setting I usually trim off the greater part of the foliage. When all the leaves are left, the roots, not established, cannot keep pace with the evaporation. Always keep the roots moist and unshrivelled, and the heart intact, and the plants are safe. If no rain follows setting immediately, water the plants thoroughly—don't be satisfied with a mere sprinkling of the surface—and shade from the hot sun until the plants start to grow. One of the chief requisites in putting out a celery plant, and indeed almost any plant, is to press the soil FIRMLY ROUND, AGAINST, AND OVER THE ROOTS. This excludes the air, and the new rootlets form rapidly. Neither bury the heart nor leave any part of the root exposed.
Do not be discouraged at the rather slow growth during the hot days of July and early August. You have only to keep the ground clean and mellow by frequent hoeings until the nights grow cooler and longer, and rains thoroughly moisten the soil. About the middle of August the plants should be thrifty and spreading, and now require the first operation, which will make them crisp and white or golden for the table. Gather up the stalks and foliage of each plant closely in the left hand, and with the right draw up the earth round it. Let no soil tumble in on the heart to soil or cause decay. Press the soil firmly, so as to keep all the leaves in an upright position. Then with a hoe draw up more soil, until the banking process is begun. During September and October the plants will grow rapidly, and in order to blanch them they must be earthed up from time to time, always keeping the stalks close and compact, with no soil falling in on the developing part. By the end of October the growth is practically made, and only the deep green leaves rest on the high embankments. The celery now should be fit for use, and time for winter storing is near. In our region it is not safe to leave celery unprotected after the tenth of November, for although it is a very hardy plant, it will not endure a frost which produces a strong crust of frozen soil. I once lost a fine crop early in November. The frost in one night penetrated the soil deeply, and when it thawed out, the celery never revived. NEVER HANDLE CELERY WHEN IT IS FROZEN. My method of preserving this vegetable for winter use is simply this. During some mild, clear day in early November I have a trench ten inches wide dug nearly as deep as the celery is tall. This trench is dug on a warm dry slope, so that by no possibility can water gather in it. Then the plants are taken up carefully and stored in the trench, the roots on the bottom, the plants upright as they grew, and pressed closely together so as to occupy all the space in the excavation. The foliage rises a little above the surface, which is earthed up about four inches, so that water will be shed on either side. Still enough of the leaves are left in the light to permit all the breathing necessary; for plants breathe as truly as we do. As long as the weather keeps mild, this is all that is needed; but there is no certainty now. A hard black frost may come any night. I advise that an abundance of leaves or straw be gathered near. When a bleak November day promises a black frost at night, scatter the leaves, etc., thickly over the trenched celery, and do not take them off until the mercury rises above freezing-point. If a warm spell sets in, expose the foliage to the air again. But watch your treasure vigilantly. Winter is near, and soon you must have enough covering over your trench to keep out the frost—a foot or more of leaves, straw, or some clean litter. There is nothing better than leaves, which cost only the gathering. From now till April, when you want a head or more of celery, open the trench at the lower end, and take out the crisp white or golden heads, and thank the kindly Providence that planted a garden as the best place in which to put man, and woman also.
"There's fennel for you; there's rue for you." Strange and involuntary is the law of association! I can never see the garnishing and seasoning herbs of the garden without thinking of the mad words of distraught Ophelia. I fancy, however, that we are all practical enough to remember the savory soups and dishes rendered far more appetizing than they could otherwise have been by these aromatic and pungent flavors. I will mention only a few of the popular sorts.
The seeds of fennel may be sown in April about three-quarters of an inch deep, and the plants thinned to fifteen inches apart. Cut off the seed-stalks to increase the growth of foliage.
Parsley, like celery seed, germinates slowly, and is sometimes about a month in making its appearance. The soil should therefore be made very rich and fine, and the seed sown half an inch deep, as early in spring as possible. When the plants are three inches high, thin them to eight inches apart.
Sweet-basil may be sown in early May, and the plants thinned to one foot apart. The seeds of sweet-marjoram are very minute, and must be covered very thinly with soil finely pulverized; sow in April or May, when the ground is in the best condition. Sage is easily raised from seeds gown an inch deep the latter part of April; let the soil be warm and rich; let the plants stand about one foot apart in the row. Thyme and summer-savory require about the same treatment as sage. I find that some of the mountain mints growing wild are quite as aromatic and appetizing as many of these garden herbs.