Dreer's Open-air vegetables

Front matter

s

LIBRARY OF ^CONGRESS.

Slielf-jDA5

Preface

The purpose of this little book is to explain cultural requirements : then to quote the views of practical gardeners.

The various vegetables, herbs, etc., will be grouped botanically, for the purpose of showing their natural affinities. This classification will render cultural hints and instructions more intelligible.

This book supplements a small work recently published (now in its second edition) called Vegetables Under Glass, and should be used in connection therewith, as there is to-day no clear dividing line between vegetable culture in winter and in summer.

Henry A. Dreer,

Incorporated.

Philadelphia, March i, i8gy.

The best earthly peace and happiness will ever be closely associated with the cultivation of the soil, since in all plant-growing operations we are brought face to face with Nature's simple yet perfect processes.

Chapter I. Botanical Grouping

The botanical place of a plant tells something of its natural requirements. Long periods of cultivation have worked great changes in the size, quality and succulence of vegetables, but in every case the ancestral type is still plainly visible. It is possible, therefore, to get some useful and practical hints from an arrangement or grouping of the common garden vegetables, based on their botanic afl&nities. The following has been prepared with that end in view.

THE MAIN GROUPS.

Thk Pulses (manure makers) : Peas, beans ; plants having "butterfly" shaped blossoms.

Mustards or Crucifers (mostly hardy) : Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, cress, horseradish, kohl-rabi, kale or borecole, mustard, peppergrass, radish, ruta baga, sea kale, turnip, water cress.

The Nightshades (mostly tender) : Potato, egg plant, tomato, pepper.

The Gourds (mostly tender) : Cantaloupe, cucumber, gherkin, gourd, melon, musk melon, pumpkin, squash, watermelon.

The Lilies (mostly hardy) : Asparagus, chives, garlic, leek, onion, shallot.

The Goosefoot Group (mostly hardy) : Beet, chard, mangel wurzel, orach, spinach.

The Composites (mostly hardy) : Black salsify, cardoon, chicory, dandelion, endive, globe artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke, lettuce, salsify, sunflower, tansy, tarragon, wormwood.

lO DREER S OPEN-AIR VEGETABLES.

The Parsley Tribe (mostly hardy) : Anise, caraway, carrot, celery, celeriac, chervil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, parsley, parsnip, sweet cicely.

The Mints (mostly hardy) : Balm, horehound, lavender, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, sweet basil, sweet marjoram, thyme.

Sweet corn, of the Grass family.

Sweet potato, of the Convolvulus family.

Rhubarb and sorrel, of the Buckwheat family.

Okra or gombo, of the Mallow family.

Corn salad, of the Valerian family.

Strawberry, of the Rose family.

Borage, of the Borage family.

Caper, of the Caper family.

Rue, of the Rue family.

Bene and martynia, of the Bignonia family.

Nasturtium, of the Indian Cress family.

Mushroom, a fungus.

Chufa, a sedge.

In Part III. of this book the above groups are commented upon and explained in some detail, and certain significant facts concerning them pointed out.

J. H. Hale says it is essential to be a member of a good, working horticultural society.

Chapter II. At The Beginning

Without regard to the size of the garden (except iu towns or villages where space is too limited), provision should be made for the use of the horse. The day of the spade is past, except in borders, seed beds or frames— though the Philadelphia cold frame gardeners use a horse even there. Horse labor is so economical, comparatively, that hand labor cannot compete with it.

The garden should be laid out the longest way, to avoid unnecessary turning, with rows two or two and a-half feet apart. A well-trained horse will work rows only twenty inches apart, but a two-foot width is better.

The land should be naturally rich and deep. The drainage must be made perfect. The exposure is less material now than formerly. Gardeners once worked for earliness, but now they find profits mainly in quality. A northern slope is well adapted to many special purposes, such as the wintering of hardy crops, like spinach, or the production of late strawberries. The winter sun has hostile qualities, as well as beneficial effects, and every exposure of ground has something to commend it. A deep and rich soil anywhere can be turned to advantage in gardening.

The slope should be gentle, to avoid washing of the soil when not under a crop ; though there is less reason to have bare ground now than before the advent of Crimson clover. This crop and the vetches promise to overturn many old American practices.

With the aid of a hundred tons of manure per acre great results can be obtained from deep soil that is well underdrained. American manuring seldom goes beyond fifty tons, though the city market gardeners sometimes approach the IOC-ton mark. English gardeners have gone as high as two hundred tons of rotted manure on deeply plowed and subsoiled land. Whether the English results justify the outlay will be an open question in America — until we do the same here.

The question of manuring will be mentioned in another chapter. It is good policy to feed plants somewhat as we feed animals — often and at regular intervals ; for instance, to manure liberally for every crop.

The vegetable garden, as necessarily as the farm, must be worked on a systematic rotation, notwithstanding the frequent application of manure ; otherwise a great waste of manure will occur, owing to the lack, perhaps, of a single element.

Crop diseases are liable to occur in land which is similarly treated year after year.

It is not common to look to the vegetable garden for landscape effects, but no expert gardener is unmindful of the fact that appearances have a good deal to do with the pleasuie that follows successful work. It may, therefore, be suggested that the vegetable garden be laid out in a way that will permit the taller things, like corn, pole beans, etc., to always occupy what may be termed the background, while the perennials, like asparagus and rhubarb, come next, with the low annuals'in the foreground. In some places there are no such things as " background " and " foreground," but in most situations these terms are applicable, and can be recognized in practice.

Corn and beans " rotate " quite well, as one is a pulse and the other a grass ; and the whole group of low annuals can be pushed or shifted so as to bring them into fresh ground each year.

A horse with a modern steel-tooth cultivator will do a vast amount of work in a day, and do it well.

under-glass work.

The open-air gardener must, of course, have a number of cold-frame and hot-bed sashes, and for hints on such work the reader is referred to our little book called Vegetables Under Glass, published a few months before this one. It is unnecessary here to repeat the information therein contained, as these two volumes are intended to supplement each other.

Uncorrupt and happy days were those

Whose leisure hours in country cares were spent,

And whose diversions all were innocent.

Oft their own arbours furnished out their feast.

And thus their fruits and sallads relished best.

Chapter III. Fertilizers

English experiments, conducted with great care through many decades, show that wheat can be permanently grown without the return of any kind of manure to the soil. The amount of the crop is not large enough to be profitable, but the experiments prove that the annual decomposition of the rocky constituents of the soil is no small contribution to our agricultural wealth. In other words, the formation of soil is not a very slow operation. Water, air, frost and sun join forces in tearing apart the sand grains and fitting them for plant food.

In practical agriculture and horticulture, however, nature's restorative processes are too slow, and the farmer and gardener must resort to manuring.

It is found in all cases that the soil is able to take care of itself in supplying plant food except with respect to three chemical requisites. These are nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash.

Speaking in general terms, nitrogen is essential to the stem of the plant, potash to the fruit, and phosphoric acid to the seed.

Barnyard manure contains all of these desirable and essential aids to plant growth, and is said to be a "complete" fertilizer. An artificial manure which contains all three of these requisites is said to be a " complete ' ' fertilizer.

Barnyard manure is rich in nitrogen, and, when used in excess, produces such a growth of stem that our grain crops are apt to lodge. The result is too much straw and too little grain.

Wheat farmers, therefore, demand a good deal of phosphoric acid in their fertilizer, and fruit-growers ask for potash. These facts accord with the above general statement.

Vegetable growers need ' ' complete ' ' manures to meet their various requirements, though special manures for special crops may be used to advantage at times. But, exceptions excepted, it is best for the market gardener to use ' ' complete ' ' fertilizers, and by a rotation of crops avoid losses that might otherwise occur.

Barnyard manure, properly fermented, is the best thing that a gardener can employ. This manure, spread green upon the soil, is not a desirable application in gardening, for several reasons. Green manure usually contains the seeds of grasses, and often the seeds of weeds, and it is not at once available as plant food. Its thorough fermentation kills the seeds that it contains, renders it fit for immediate use by plant roots, and insures a quick return for labor invested. No serious loss of chemical value occurs during the preparation of stable manure by turning and heating, though a ' heavy loss may occur if it is allowed to lie in neglected heaps about the premises, to become the prey of hostile fungi or to be leached by the rains. ' ' Fire fang, ' ' aided by leaching and fermentation, may easily reduce by one-half the chemical value of a pile of manure in a single year.

Cheapest Commercial Sources. The cheapest known source of nitrogen, at the present time, is Crimson clover, or some other member of the pulse family. The clovers, peas, beans, vetches, tares, lupines, and all the plants of this great and useful botanical group, seem to have the power of taking nitrogen directly from the air, or from the air in the soil, by means of little lumps on their roots, which have been called " bacteroid tubercles." It is not necessary here to say much about the tubercles, except to remark that agricultural chemists now place a high moneyproducing value upon all plants having them. Such plants i6 dreek's open-air vegetables.

are manure-makers of the highest practical value. To get nitrogen (the most expensive element of all fertilizers, both natural and artificial) we therefore need only go to Crimson clover, peas, or beans, and after plowing under the crop add phosphoric acid and potash in their common forms.

The cheapest commercial form of phosphoric acid at this time is ground bone or dissolved rock. Either is good if bought under the guarantee of a reliable dealer.

The cheapest form of potash is the muriate or the sulphate ; and any honest dealer in fertilizers may be trusted to furnish such an article. Wood ashes is a perfect source of potash, and when that can be had no other source need be sought.

As to some other available sources of valuable fertilizers, often carelessly lost, the reader is referred to Chapter VI.

"Vacant lot farming," in the vicinity of New York, devised to yield profitable employment to the poorer classes, has had the effect of emphasizing the great commercial possibilities of small pieces of land under high culture.

Chapter IV. Drainage

Drainage aims to secure a quick disposition of surface water. On well- drained lands (even on clay soils) but little water will run off or over the surface during heavy falls of rain. Most of the rain will enter the ground.

Good drainage aerates the soil, without drying it. It facilitates the quick action of manures and fertilizers by putting the soil in proper mechanical condition for the rapid growth of plants. It makes the soil warmer, thus helping spring growth and deferring the effects of frost in autumn.

In a word, good drainage is essential to good horticulture.

As to construction of drains, their cost, etc., the problem is not necessarily a serious one. Much land is unlerlaid by gravel or rock, or porous subsoil of some sort, and needs no artificial draining of any kind.

On the other hand, drainage is emphatically needed wherever the land is wet or soggy for even a few hours after a rainfall ; and in such situations the labor of laying drains will be speedily rewarded in the better results secured. L,and of this character frequently tells of its need of drainage by producing a crop of rushes and sedges.

Told briefly, the problem of the drain maker is to find an underground channel, with good discharge, capable of receiv^- ing the surplus water of the soil ; the deeper the drain below the surface the wider its lateral influence.

As a rule the main drain should occupy the lowest natural course ; that is, the course which the surface water follows in passing off the land. Such a main line, say three or four feet under the natural surface, may solve the whole problem ; if not, a lateral drain may be brought in by means of a Y tile at any desired point. This is on the assumption i8 dreer's open-air vegetables,

that tile is employed for drain making. Stone and even wooden drains are sometimes used, but the round tile is believed to be the best device now on the market.

Tile could in 1896 be bought for $15 per thousand for the 3-inch size, without collars, on cars at Albany, New York ; and elsewhere at about the same rates. A thousand tiles will weigh about 4500 lbs., and as each tile is 13 inches long this number will be sufficient for about 1083 feet of ditch. Collars are wholly unnecessary in most cases, though sometimes of service in soft places, to prevent the ends of the tiles from getting out of place.

An elaborate system of drainage can be avoided, sometimes, by locating a hidden spring and leading its waters away from the land made wet by its flow ; but in really deep, valuable land the best and most thorough system of drainage that can be devised will be found in every way desirable.

Under low culture the sum of $10 per acre would be a serious charge to make against a large area for drainage, while under high culture on a small area the sum of $200 per acre for drainage might not be unwarranted. Comparatively speaking, there are but few locations that would either need or justify the latter charge ; but where an acre of land is to produce a thousand dollars per year in garden stuff the operator must expect a heavy outlay in making ready for high culture.

It is held by practical operators that the drainage belt increases rapidly in width as the drain is put further below the surface ; that a drain four feet deep will take the water from a strip twice as wide as one laid but three feet below the surface ; and that a depth of five feet will in practice really double the width of the four-foot drainage belt.

On land with a double (convergent) slope the plan above mentioned is advisable, while land with a single slope must be drained on the gridiron pattern. A simple, feasible system is to lay small round tiles (say two-inch size) in lines thirty feet apart and three feet under the surface of the ground. Good drainage pays in dollars.

Chapter V. Irrigation

Though there are ways of mitigating the eflfects of drouth, such as the creation of a "dust blanket" by the constant cultivation of the surface soil, the market gardener of to-day is subjected to a dangerous financial risk unless he is provided with means for artificial irrigation. The "dust

OPEN-FIELD IRRIGATION OF CUCUMBERS.

Crosby Brothers, Arlingtuu, Massachusetts. July 4, It blanket" is good, as it effectually breaks up the capillary tubes by which the ground water finds its way to the air ; but it does nothing more. It adds no water to the soil, and a crop loss is always possible. A drouth may come just at the critical period of growth, when a full supply of moisture is absolutely necessary to the quick development so essential to high quality in vegetables and fruits.

Speaking of this vital point, so good an authority as W. W. Rawson, of Boston, says that the old plan of trusting to rain for a water supply is no longer safe. ' ' It becomes more and more evident every year," says Mr. Rawson, "that such a course will ruin the man who follows it ; * * * all crops (some more than others), in addition to every other aid that can be given them, will need, besides, at certain times, abundant watering. ' '

Observations made during the year 1S96, by the firm of Henry A. Dreer, extending through several States, brought out many interesting and valuable points on this matter of irrigation.

At the many-acred market gardens of Mr. Rawson, at Arlington, near Boston, great iron pipes were seen on the surface of the ground. These iron pipes contain water under pressure, and by the attachment of rubber hose, 100 feet long, the water is distributed wherever wanted. The Rawson idea is an inch of water per week on rapidly growing crops ; not more. The iron pipes can be moved from place to place in spring or fall, if desired, but are stationary during the summer season. "Seven or eight hosemen at work, throwing water on beds of parsley, celery, etc." (Notes of July 14, 1896). The Rawson water supply is from a private pumping station.

The dragging from place to place of heavy rubber hose is a serious matter, and another Massachusetts plan must be mentioned, where the entire operation is automatic. The Hittinger Brothers, at Belmont, have elevated iron pipes, containing water under twenty-five pounds' pressure, the distribution being effected by revolving sprinklers on lateral or branch pipes. This arrangement puts the pipes out of the way of the plow and cultivator, saves the time and labor of several men, effects a perfect distribution of water on the plan of falling rain, and is the most satisfactory and economical system within our present knowledge. It is quite fully described in Vegetables Under Glass.

Under a system of irrigation it is entirel)^ safe to use artificial fertilizers to an extent that would otherwise be dangerous, if not wasteful. With water a full ton of high-grade phosphate may be employed, in addition to stable manure. The fertilizer will return in crop forms.

John Repp, Glassboro, N. J., pumps water from a pond, uses a two-inch main, and runs parallel branch iron pipes on the gridiron plan to water a three-acre tract. The two-inch permanent main is underground ; the one-inch laterals (seventy feet apart) are laid on the surface. The laterals have T-joints, with cocks, at thirty-six-feet intervals, for the attachment of rubber hose pipes.

John G. Gardner, West Conshohocken, in summer moves a boiler from the barn to a position near a running stream, attaches a steam pump, and by means of rubber hose pipes irrigates a large garden. In 1895 ^^^^ hundred thousand celery plants were thus watered.

William Embree, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, takes the water of a hillside spring and leads it to the rows of his truck patch, turning it into the rows where the land is highest, and permitting it to find its way by gravity to all parts of the garden.

James Jordan, of Auburn, Rhode Island, near Providence, irrigates his garden with a long rubber hose, obtaining water from a public street main.

Irrigation in some parts of New England is the rule, while in New Jersey and Pennsylvania it is still the exception. It must come, however, wherever the highest results are expected. Mr. Rawson's comment is warranted. It cannot be dispensed with, for such a course will "ruin the man who follows it." The market gardener pays out much money for rent, for drainage, for fertilizer, for deep culture, for good seeds, for labor, and must not incur the risk of crop failure from drouth. Good drainage and irrigation remove most of the uncertainties of the weather.

JOHN REPP S PLAN.

Of the several methods above outlined that of John Repp has certain features of wide application. The diagram will show the operation of the system.

Mr. Repp uses the ground thus irrigated for strawberries. The strawberry rows are set twenty-eight and twenty

JOHN repp's IEEIGATION SYSTEM.

inches apart, alternately, all across the patch. This permits of horse cultivation. At the last working, say in July, the twenty-inch rows are worked out deep in the centre. The twenty-eight-inch rows are afterwards worked shallow, and all runners are thrown over into the twenty-inch rows, where they take root.

DRKER S OPEN-AIR VEGETABLES. 23

The final result is that beds twenty inches wide are formed, with hollow or depressed centres, along which water from the rubber pipes finds its way during the spring irrigation. The twenty-eight-inch open spaces are the paths used by the berry pickers.

The operation of the pump at the pond is practically incessant during the fruit-setting season, for the rubber pipes are constantly shifted, and when the patch has been thoroughly soaked (three days' work) it is time to start again at the beginning.

Mr. Repp's 1896 patch contained three acres. He has sold $1500 worth of strawberries from a two-acre patch, and the business is still profitable. His system of irrigation permits a shifting of the surface pipes to the other side of the main, so that the strawberry bed can be put upon new ground at intervals of a few years.

Chapter VI. Twenty- Five Dohars In Gold

In this chapter plain talk is necessary, for there is a great and unpardonable money waste at the average rural home in America.

The practical gardener is always confronted with the need of fertilizers, and the housekeeper is always confronted with the problem of quickly and safely disposing of many waste products ; yet a full co-operation between gardener and housekeeper is not yet in successful general practice in America.

The waste of every house includes fecal matter, chamber slops, kitchen and wash water, bones, ashes, bits of food, the trimmings of meats and vegetables, and many minor things.

There seems to be no better way to show the volume and the value of this waste than to assert that it is annually worth on the average not less than twenty-five dollars in gold, expressed in terms of ordinary commercial fertilizer value. This estimate is based on the assumption that the average family contains four persons, and that the daily waste from each individual is worth at least two cents, from the standpoint of the agricultural chemist. The single item of nitrogen in the urine is placed by chemists at more than half a cent.

This " twenty -five dollars in gold" is not only thrown away and lost, but, worse than that, the material which it represents commonly goes where it will do the most harm. It too frequently pollutes the water supply, winning for rural communities higher typhoid statistics than the figures shown by crowded cities. This system is wrong, both economically and morally.

The great item of "doctors' bills" cannot be expressed in dollars so well as can the value of the lost fertilizer ; but when discomfort, ill health, even death, are taken into account, it will be seen that another twenty-five dollars is represented in the term " poisoned water."

The deep cesspool is neither necessary nor wise. Fecal matter (night soil) is properly disposed of by converting it into loam : not by merely burying it, but by actually changing it into soil.

The upper stratum of every garden or field is different from the subsoil. It is usually darker in color, and is better fitted to support plant life than the underlying clay. When the clay is turned up by deep plowing it speedily becomes top-soil, and under good culture it finally assumes the color and character of the upper layer. New soil has, in fact, been made of it.

We are just beginning to understand the real character of "good soil." Agricultural observers now recognize the presence in the upper soil of countless numbers of bacteria ; microscopic forms of life. These bacteria depend for their existence on the conditions which exist just under the surface of the ground — air, moisture and organic matter. They cannot live at great depths in the earth, and are most numerous where the soil is richest.

Nature assigns to the bacteria the quick disposal and transformation of all dead or waste matter which enters the soil. This is her laboratory, and these are her workers in a noble service.

The upper soil, therefore, is the proper destiny of all waste organic substance. The sunshine, the air, the rain, the myriads of little workers in the soil — these all combine to produce a quick destruction of old forms and fit them for a new cycle of organic existence.

A hint may be had from the stable. Cow manure if dried remains unchanged. If thrown into a heap it lies for a

DREER S OPEN-AIR VEGETABLES.

long time in a cold, wet condition. If put into the soil, on the contrary, it quickly ceases to be manure. In three weeks time (more or less) it has changed its mechanical condition, has become dark in color, and falls to pieces like soil when turned up with spade or plow. It has become soil in fact.

Nothing could be more remarkable than the speed and the thoroughness with which the little soil workers (aided by heat, warmth and moisture) do their work ; and when nature's economy is fully understood no more deep pits or

LOST WEALTH AND LOST HEALTH. [From a sketch made by Dr. Theobold Smith, of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Farmers' Bulletin No. 43, "Sewage Disposal on the Farm," written by Dr. Smith.]

cesspools will be constructed, for the friendly bacteria cannot work far under ground, and fecal waste poured into deep vaults or cesspools falls a prey to highly offensive ferments, and becomes a menace to subterranean streams of water.

Experiments prove that rich soil can be used over and over again for the conversion of excreta into loam, though at rural homes there is no need to use soil for the purpose more than once.

Still, the fact is interesting as showing the profound change which occurs in thus quickly converting oflfensive matter into harmless, fertile, non-odorous loam.

Instead of using the product a second time for the same purpose the market gardener should employ fresh soil, and thus secure the greatest possible bulk of highly enriched loam.

No pit or cesspool in the rural districts should be more than two feet deep, and the sides and bottom should be laid with stone or brick, and well cemented, so as to permit no liquid to enter the soil.

The method of saving excreta and all other waste matter is purely a local question in every case. No high-priced appliances or devices are essential. No especial tools, implements or methods are demanded. Cleanliness and decency are desired by every household, and are within everybody's reach, and all considerations demand the proper disposition of the household waste. Good morality sanctions no wanton sacrifice of either wealth or health.

As to other household products that should go to the soil, little need be said. Sifted ashes makes a good absorbent. Chamber slops belong on the compost heap, along with all refuse from the kitchen, the heap to be frequently coated with fresh earth. Wash water, including the flow from the kitchen sink, should reach land that can be cultivated, for it carries with it every day appreciable amounts of valuable fertilizers.

The cost of labor in America is responsible for much of the carelessness about home-produced fertilizers. It has been thought cheaper to buy than to save. The time for a change has now arrived, and if stern necessity demands wiser methods the results may be beneficial in more than one way.

The barn waste is a serious loss in many places — greater in dollars, perhaps, than the loss at the house. It may be less hostile to human health, but it is wholly inexcusable, as it is a constant threat to the health of the farm animals themselves.

The Japanese carry the house waste (night soil) to the fields in jars, and thus dispose of it wisely and economically. Several European cities use the earth closet system, which has much to commend it as compared with the water carriage plan of American cities and towns. In rural America the most economic, effectual and satisfactory disposition of night soil will be found in the use of loam, as already indicated, either on the earth closet principle or by a method which will preserve the product (in prepared condition) under a shed until needed for crop-stimulating purposes.

A Little Technical Talk. It is now known that there are many kinds of minute destructive agents which prey upon organic matter.

Take the case of milk, for instance. There are ferments (caused by bacteria) which are friendly to the dairyman, and others which are distinctly hostile, the latter producing rank, low-grade butter.

The same is true concerning manures. There are destructive ferments whose products are wholly foul and offensive, and there are other processes whose working is entirely unobjectionable.

Putrefaction is the word descriptive of the foul-smelling, abominable process which goes on in the dark depths of the cesspool.