Jacques' new manual of the garden, farm and barnyard, embracing practical horticulture, agriculture, and cattle, horse and sheep husbandry

Front matter

Book o & l^O

JACQUES' NEW MANUAL

OF THE

Preface

Thbbe are many excellent works on Gardening in the English language ; but there seemed to be room and a demand foi another. No other work fills just the place that this is intended to fill — no other quite meets the popular want which we have aimed to satisfy in this.

We saw the need of a small, cheap work, embracing not only brief, simple, and easily understood directions for the cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, but also a succinct exposition of the theory of horticulture, as deduced from the nature of soils and manures, and the laws of vegetable life and growth ; to give the reader something to fall back upon, whenever the practical instructions, which can not be adapted to every change of circumstances, shall fail to furnish a sufficient guide. How well we have succeeded in meeting this need we leave the reader to judge. We will only say, that our little book has been carefully prepared, and combines the results of experience, observation, and study. In preparing it, we have aimed -simply at usefulness, and have made no effort for the attainment of any further originality than the end in view required. We are necessarily placed under heavy obligations to our predecessors in the walks of horticultural literature ; but what we have derived from them has, in most cases, been re-written, and so modified, to adapt it to our purpose, that formal credit has, except in a few vi Preface.

instances, been impracticable. Among the numerous works consulted, we take pleasure in acknowledging our indebtedness foi valuable aid to each and all of the following :

e Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening. c Mrs. Loudon's Gardening for Ladies

Delamer's Kitchen Garden.

" Flower Garden.

Neill's Gardener's Companion. c JBuist's Family Kitchen Gardener.

Fessenden's American Kitchen Gardener.

Every Lady Her Own Flower Gardener.

Barry's Fruit Garden. e Downing'8 Fruits and Fruit-Trees, ojaques' Fruits and Fruit-Trees.

Tucker's Annual Register.

Farm and Garden Essays.

Thorburn's Descriptive Catalogue* <* White's Gardening for the South.

Horticulturist.

Country Gentleman. ©Southern Cultivator.

Allen's American Farm Book.

Boussingault's Economie Rurale.

Downing' s Landscape Gardening. e Lindley's Theory of Horticulture.

Gray's Botanical Text-Book. 6 Darby's Botany of the Southern States.

To the works marked thus (©) we are under special obligations, either for matter derived from them, or for valuable facts or suggestions made more indirectly available.

Trusting that this little manual will be found worthy of a measure of the favor with which his previous humble attempts at usefulness has been received, the author now submits it to the judgment of the great Public.

Introduction

The Garden of Eden— History of Gardening— Attractions— No Frnits like Ooi Own— Gardening favorable to Health— The Science of Horticulture— Object of this Work— How to Use it Page 9-11

I.— STRUCTURE AND GROWTH OF PLANTS.

Germination— Conditions Essential to Germination— Time Required— The Process— The Boot— How Boots Grow— Functions of the Boot— Kinds of Boots— The Stem-Structure— Uses— Leaves— Structure and Functions- Flowers and their Structure— Fruit— Growth and Bipening— The Food of Plants— State in which it must be Taken up— Conditions Essential to Growth - Warmth, Moisture, Food, Air, Light 13-29

H.— SOILS AND MANURES.

Classification of Soils— Heavy Soils— Light Soils— Loamy Soils- Calcareous Soils— Marley Soils— Vegetable Mold— Alluvial Soils— Subsoils— Improvement of Soils— Manures— Theory of Manures— Composts 80-40

IE.— FORMATION OF A GARDEN.

flitaation— Exposure — Size and Shape — Laying Out— Fencing— Hedges— Preparation of the Soil— Draining— Trenching— Subsoil Plowing 41-46

IV.— IMPLEMENTS AND FIXTURES.

The Various Implements Eequired— Care of Implements— Fixtures— The Walled Pit— Hot Beds-Trellises— Eustic Structures 46-50

V.— HORTICULTURAL PROCESSES.

Stirring the Soil— Applying Manures— Forcing— Sowing Seeds— Transplanting — Watering — Hoeing— Protection from Frost -Mulching — Destroying Insects—Saving Seeds— Eotation of Crops— Propagation— Suckers— Layers- Cuttings— Slips— Budding— Grafting - Pruning— Training 51-79 vlii Contents.

VI.— THE KITCnEN GARDEN.

Esculent Eoc/ts — The Legumes— The Cabbage Family— Spinaceous Plants— Asparaginous Plants— Esculent Bulbs— Salad Plants— The Cucumber Family — The Pumpkin Family— Miscellaneous— Sweet Herbs 78-110

VII.— THE FRUIT GARDEN.

The Apple— Origin— Varieties— Difficulty of Selecting— List of Summer Apples—Autumn Apples— Winter Apples— Crab Apples— Culture— Gathering and Preserving— The Pear -Lists of Pears— The Quince— Varieties— The Peach, with Lists of Varieties— The Nectarine— The Apricot— The Cherry— The Olive— The Orange— The Lemon— The Grape— T;he Currant— The Gooseberry-The Easpberry— The BlackUrry— The Strawberry— The Fig— The Pomegranate— The Mulberry 111-142

Vin.— THE FLOWER GARDEN.

Uses of Flowers— A Word to the Ladies— How to become Healthy and Strong -Implements for Ladies' Use— Laying Out a Flower Garden— Arrangement of Plants— Climbing Plants — Shrubs and Trees— General Directions— Lists of Flowering Plants and Shrubs — Hardy Annuals— Hardy Biennials— Hardy Perennials— Tuberous Eooted Plants — Bulbous Eooted Plants -Flowering Shrubs— Climbers and Creepers 148-156

IX.— ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS.

General Hints— Picturesqueness— Pruning— American Trees— Transplanting —Lists of Trees— Large Trees— Deciduous and Evergreen— Small Trees and Shrubs— Hedge Plants 157-161

Appendix

The Bearing Year— Cause of Diminished Fertility— Eemoving Large Trees- New Varieties of the Potato— Luxuries of a Fmit Garden— Hyacinths Id Glasses— Ewes for Pot-Culture 162-144

INTRODUCTION

It is -written that God placed the first man in a garden to drew and to keep it ; and that woman was there created as a help meet for him. That garden was the primitive paradise ; and to this day, a tastefully planned, judiciously planted, and well-kept garden has, still lingering about it, many of the charms we are wont to attribute to the original Eden. To the true lover of rural life it seems, in the fullness of its summer beauty, to be indeed almost a Paradise Eegained.

Gardens are frequently mentioned in ancient writings, both sacred and profane, but little is told us either of their productions or their cultivation.

At the close of the Koman commonwealth the catalogue of cultivated fruits had become considerable, and the principles of pruning and grafting were understood and practiced. "With the decline of the empire, horticulture, in common with other useful arts, seems to have declined, and to have revived only when learning arose from the slumber of the dark ages. Since that time, it has kept pace with the general improvement of society. England, France, and Belgium have taken the lead in modern horticultural progress. The United States will not long remain behind.

It would be interesting tc trace, at considerable length, the 1* x Introduction.

history of gardening, and show how, both as an art and as a science, it has been perfected, step by step, by means of study, observation, and experiment ; but our limits will not permit this course, and we must refer the inquiring reader to " Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening," the most thorough and complete work on the subject in the English language. It is, however, too large and expensive to be generally accessible, except in public libraries.

Gardening, the earliest employment of man, is also the most attractive. It is Emerson, we think, who says, that after working in one's garden, nothing else seems worth doing. Here we seem to come into close communion with Nature, and to cooperate with her in adorning and enriching the earth. To plant one's seeds, to await hopefully their germination, to watch the daily development of the tender plant, to protect it from the encroachments of weeds and the attacks of insects, to loosen the soil around it, to care for it, watch over it, and rejoice in it« growth and fruitage, and finally to enjoy the fruits of one's labors in the ripened harvest — what mere sensuous pleasure can be greater? The market affords no such pears, apples, peaches, or plums as grow on the trees we have with our own hands grafted and pruned. Our own squashes and melons are sweeter than any that our money could buy ; and no potatoes, or cabbages, or turnips are like ours !

And health flows to us from the garden in two broad streams. One has its source in the invigorating out-door exercise it calls for and renders so delightful, and the other in the wholesome food which it furnishes to take the place of much less desirable aliments which would otherwise be supplied by the butcher and the grocer.

A taste for horticulture is almost universal in this country, and, as land is abundant and cheap, and the facilities for obtaining it great, very few outside of our cities and large towns are debarred from gratifying it, to a greater or less extent.

Introduction. xi

But a knowledge of the science of horticulture is far from being co-extensive with the practice of the art, and a truly satisfactory degree of success is only occasionally attained. A rich soil and a genial climate conspire to render the rudest and most empirical cultivation, under favorable circumstances, moderately productive. Plodding industry, however blindly applied, is looked upon with favor by all-loving Nature ; but her richest gifts are reserved for united science and skill. In the cultivation of the earth, ah in every other department of human effort, " knowledge is power."

To increase and extend a knowledge of the theory and practice of gardening is the object of the following pages, in which we have given due attention to both branches of the subject. The former is almost entirely ignored in most popular works on horticulture ; they being nearly restricted to details of practice. These, though highly useful and even essential to the novice, are liable to lead him frequently astray, unless he is guided in their application by a knowledge of the principles on which they are founded.

The theoretical part of our work is necessarily brief, but will be found a useful auxiliary to the practical directions which follow. Carefully studied, thoroughly mastered, and constantly applied, it will be of more value to the reader than a heavy volume imperfectly understood and confusedly remembered. We would by no means, however, discourage those who have the leisure and disposition from pursuing the subject farther.

NOTICE TO THE READER.

In making use of the practical directions given in this work, the reader should bear in mind that it was written in southern New York, and that where no other place or latitude is mentioned, in designating the time for planting seeds, etc., about 40° N., with a very slight elevation above the sea, is to be understood. Allowance must be made for situation north or south of this, and also for elevation of site, soil, aspect, exposure, and the general character of the season.

Our directions must also, of necessity, be subject to many modifications, in other respects, by soil, situation, and climate ; but if the reader will study the general principles of horticulture, even in our brief and imperfect exposition of them, in the first part of this work, and exercise a little sound judgment, he will leadily overcome the obstacles presented by local and temporary circumstances.

THE GARDEN.

TKOCTOKE JND GROWTH OF PLANTS.

With what increased satisfaction are the common processes of manuring or transplanting »«rried on, to say nothing of the more delicate operations of budding, grafting, and propagating Dy layers, etc., when we are acquainted with the structure of the plants we are endeavoring to control, nd comprehend the why and the wherefore of every step we pursue.— A. J. Downing.

I.-GEEMINATION.

VERY perfect and matured seed contains the germ of a new plant of the species to which it owes its own existence. If you separate the two lobes of a bean, or other seed of a similar character, you will discover, pressed between them at the undivided or stem end, or side, a minute kernel or bud. This, though a mere point, as it were, contains the rudiments of two or more undeveloped leaves, united by a solid or undivided portion, called, in the language of botany, the radicle, and constitutes an embryo plant, holding within itself all the elements of vegetable life. The commencement of the vital action which produces the development of this embryo is called germination.

The conditions essential to germination are the presence of moisture, warmth, and oxygen gas.

In the absence of moisture, no effect toward germination is produced by the presence of warmth and oxygen, or any other gas. Moisture and oxygen gas without warmth, are equally

The Garden.

inefficacious ; .mdso are moisture and warmth in the absence of the oxygen ; for seeds will not germinate in a vacuum, nor in distilled or recently- boiled water.

Moisture is necessary to soften and expand the various parts, to dissolve soluble matter, and to establish a sort of circulation. The embryo seems also to have the power of decomposing water; and it is probable that a portion of the oxygen required is obtained in this way. The rest must come from the air; for it is found that a communication with the atmosphere is absolutely essential to perfect germination. The effect of heat appears to be to set the vital principle in action, to expand the air in the numerous microscopic cavities of the seed, and to produce distension of all the organic parts. The degree of heat required varies with different species. The common chickweed will germinate at a temperature but little above the freezing-point, while the seeds of many tropical plants require a heat of from 90° to 110° (Fahrenheit) to call them into action. Wheat, rye, and barley will germinate at 44°. A

degree of heat varying from 113° to 167° is capable of destroying the vitality of the various grains, beans, peas, etc. Direct light, so essential to subsequent vegetation, is unfavorable to germination.

The time required for germination is very different in different species of plants. Much also depends upon soil,

Stbuctuee and Growth. 15

moisture, etc. Under favorable circumstances, wheat, rye, oats, and millet will germinate in one day ; bean, turnip, radish, and mustard in three days ; lettuce in four days ; melon, cucumber, squash, and pumpkin in five days ; barley in seven ; cabbage in ten ; parsley in fifteen ; almond, peach, and peony in one year, and hawthorn in two years.

The time that seeds will retain their vitality also differs in different species, but in all cases depends partly upon the degree in which they are excluded from the action of moisture and light. Kidney-beans, peas, and carrot, parsnep, and rhubarb seeds are generally considered as losing their vitality at the end of one year, but will sometimes germinate after being kept much longer.

These facts have important bearings upon the subject of horticulture, and should be constantly borne in mind; and especially is it requisite that the essential conditions of germination be held in remembrance. A failure to germinate is doubtless often attributed to bad seeds, when the fault is entirely in the planting. It must be perfectly evident that if your seeds are insufficiently covered in a light, dry soil, they will lack the first essential of germination, and will be liable to wither and perish for want of moisture. This is why light soils should be pressed together and upon the seed in planting, either by means of a roller or otherwise. Seeds buried too deeply, or covered with a heavy, dense soil, pressed too closely upon them, fail to germinate for want of communication with the atmosphere. If there be not sufficient warmth in the soil at the time of planting, and it remain cold for a considerable time thereafter, the seeds just as surely perish. Eemember the conditions of germination — moisture, warmth, and oxygen gas (or ah* containing oxygen).

Germination being established by the action of moisture and warmth, and maintained by the oxygen of the atmosphere, all parts of the embryo enlarge, and new parts are formed at the expense of a saccharine or sugary secretion, which the germinating seed possesses the power of forming. With the assistance of this substance, the root or radicle, at first a mere rounded cone, extends and pierces the earth in search of food, while the other extremity elongates in the opposite direction, bringing the cotyledons, or seed-leaves (except when these remain permanently in the ground, as in the pea, wheat, rye. etc.), and the rudimentary leaves and stem, to the surface of the soil. The process of germination is now completed — the plant is born.

II.— THE BOOT.

The root, the stem, and the leaves are called the fundamental organs of plants. Of them vegetables essentially consist ; and the various organs known by other names are really but repetitions, under more or less modified forms, of these essential parts.

Germination, as we have seen, pushes the root downward into the earth, where, extending by the addition of new matter to its point, it soon enters upon the exercise of its function — the absorption of the crude food of the plant from the soil. This is carried up through the stem into the leaves, to be digested or assimilated, and returned to the stem and root, and used in the formation of new branches, leaves, and rootlets, as well as for increasing the length and size of those already formed. The more a plant grows, therefore, the more are the means of growth multiplied.

As the roots are extended by the addition of new matter to the extreme points, these points are exceedingly delicate and sasily injured. It is mainly through them, too, that absorption takes place. It is readily seen, therefore, why the careless or unskillful removal of plants from the earth, for the purpose of transplanting, by destroying the delicate points of the roots, or spongelets, as they are called, always checks so greatly their growth, and often destroys their life.

Their peculiar mode of growth admirably adapt roots to pierce the earth and insinuate themselves into the minutest crevices. Thus they pass on from place to place in search of fresh pasturage, shifting their mouths, although their bodies remain stationary.

Structure and Growth. IT

Eoots seem to possess a principle akin to instinct, which guides them in their search for food ; for they invariably extend themselves most rapidly and widely in the direction of the richest soil. If a strawberry plant be set in a sandy soil, deficient in nutritive matters, and rich earth placed on one side of it, the roots will immediately seek the fertile spot, although at first nowhere in contact with it. A decaying bone or a piece of rotten wood will in the same way be sought out by the roots of a plant requiring the nutritive elements it may contain ; and such objects are often found completely covered by a network of minute rootlets.

The roots of plants have, to a certain extent, the power of selecting their food. In general, they absorb only those substances which are needed to develop and perfect their various parts. Thus, if a pea and a grain of wheat be planted side by side, and made to grow under the same circumstances, the wheat plant will absorb silex (in solution) from the earth, while the pea will absorb none. This power of selection, however, does not enable the roots of plants to reject, under all circumstances, any deleterious agents which may be brought in contact with them; and it is a curious circumstance that substances which are fatal to man are equally so to plants, and in nearly the same way.

In addition to their principal office, as feeding organs, the roots of plants are believed to be, to some extent, organs of excretion, throwing off any superfluous or deleterious matter which may have been imbibed either by themselves or by the leaves. They also possess the power of accumulating a store of sap, upon which the plant may draw in time of need. Striking examples of the last-named property are furnished by tha turnip, the beet, the carrot, and other plants of the sanw* class.

In general, roots do not produce buds, and are therefore incapable of multiplying the plant to which they belong ; but to this rule there are many exceptions, some species having the power, under certain circumstances, of forming what are

The Garden.

called adventitious buds. In such cases they may be employed for the purposes of propagation.

Roots are not inactive during the winter, as many suppose, except while actually frozen, but are perpetually extracting food from the earth, and storing it up for the next season's use. A long, mild winter is therefore favorable to the vegetation of the succeeding spring.

Roots are of various kinds. In reference to their duration, they are classed as annual, biennial, and perennial. An FiBBous boot. annual root lives but a spindle boot

single year. It is always fibrous, or composed of numerous branches or rootlets. Biennial roots are those of plants which do not blossom till the second year, at the end of which they perish. They are thickened or fleshy, and of various shapes — conical, as in the carrot; spindle-shaped, as in the radish ; tur>

TUBEROUS BOOT.

OEEEPINO BOOT.

nip-shaped, clustered, tuberous, ate. Perennial roots are those which, like the roots of trees cad woody plants, and some others, survive from year to year indefinitely.

A tuber, of which the potato is the best example, is not strictly a root, but a modification of the stem, running beneath the surface of the soil, and having buds (eyes) embedded in a cellular substance, consisting principally of stareh.

Bulbs, whether formed in the earth, as is generally the case, or on the summit of the stem, as in the top or tree onion, are simply leaf-buds inclosed in scales or concentric layers.

III.— THE STEM.

As soon as the root enters upon the performance of its proper function, the stem begins to extend itself upward, and the primary leaf-bud, attracting to itself the food procured for it, and ft part of the nutritive matter stored up in the seed-leaves, ex- 'pands, and the two or more parts or leaves of which it is composed separate, and begin to manifest their distinctive features.

The stem is at first composed entirely of cellular tissue, possessing neither strength nor tenacity ; but at the moment that the first rudiment of a leaf appears upon its growing point, the formation of woody matter commences. It consists of tough fibers of extreme fineness, which take their rise in the leaves, and thence pass downward through the cellular tissue and are incorporated with the latter, giving it tbe necessary strength and flexibility. In trees and shrubs these fibers combine intimately with each other, and form what is properly called wood ; but in herbaceous and annual plants they constitute a lax fibrous matter. The woody matter thus plunged, as it were, into the cellular tissue, forms within the circumference of the stem a tubular partition, separating it into two parts — the bark and the pith. Tbis gives us, in perennial stems, the three general divisions of pith, wood, and bark.

The pith consists entirely of cellular tissue, gorged at first with the nourishing juices of the plant, but afterward becom ing empty and dry.

The wood consists of the proper woody fiber, interwoven with and bound together by thin plates or layers of cellular tissue, passing horizontally across it, and forming what are called the silver grain in maple, oak, etc. They represent the

The Gaeden.

horizontal system of the wood — in botanical language, the medullary rays.

The lark consists originally of cellular tissue alone, but afterward the inner portion next the wood has the woody tissue formed in it, and becomes the liber, or fibrous inner bark.

"Whenever a stem is wounded, it is the cellular or horizontal system which forms granulations that eventually coalesce into masses, within which the woody tissue is subsequently developed, and the communication between the two sides of an incision effected. In cuttings, the callus which forms at the end placed in the ground is the cellular or horizontal system preparing for the woody fibers, which are to pass downward in the form of roots.

The description we have given of the structure of a stem applies to all plants whose woody matter is augmented annually Dy external additions below the liber, and which are called exogens, or outside growers. All the trees and shrubs of the United States, except the few palms of our Southern confines, belong to this class. In the palms, which belong to the clasa of endogens, or inside growers, the woody matter is augmented annually by internal additions to their center, thus constantly bxogen. pushing the woody endogbn.

growth of former years to their circumference. The stem of the asparagus exhibits a similar structure in an herb. In endogens, the cellular and fibrous systems are all mixed together, their mode of growth not requiring the same arrangement of parts as exists in the exogens.

Stems, during their growth, form on their surfaces minute vital points, each of which becomes, or may become, a leaf-bud, capable of forming another stem or branch like that on which it is found. These buds appear immediately above the point of unioi* between the leaf and the stem, and are not, under ordinary circumstances, found anywhere else. They occasionally, however, appear on other parts, when they are called (as when found on the roots) adventitious huds. It is by means of the leaf-buds that a cutting is capable of producing a new individual like that from which it was taken. Leaf-buds are also capable, under fitting circumstances, of growing when separated from the parent branch. In some cases they are planted in the earth, when they put forth roots, and thereby sustain an independent existence. In others they are inserted below the bark of a kindred species, and, forming new wood, adhere to that on which they are placed.

The principal functions of the stem (aside from its continual multiplication of itself by bttdb.

means of buds) are the support of the leaves and the conveyance and distribution of the sap. In trees, the sap or orude food procured by the roots rises principally through the newer wood ; but the assimilated sap returns from the leaves in the newest bark, or liber, whence it is horizontally diffused, through the medullary rays, into the sap-wood and other living parts. It is in the bark, therefore, and not in the wood, that we must look for the proper juices of a plant.

IV.— LEAVES.

A leaf, as defined by Dr. Lindley, is an appendage of the stem of a plant having one or more leaf-buds in its axil, or point of union with the stem. In some cases no leaf-buds are visible, but they are present, nevertheless, although latent, and may be developed by favorable conditions.

A complete leaf consists of the lamina, or blade, and the petiole, or leaf-stalk. In some leaves the petiole is wanting, the lamina resting immediately upon the stem, and in others there is no proper blade, the whole organ being cylindrical or stalk-like.

Considered in reference to their structure, it may be said leaves are extensions of the green layer of the hark (which, where no proper leaves exist, fulfills their function) expanded into thin lamina and strengthened hy woody fibers connected with the liber, or inner bark, and with the wood. These woody fibers form their frame-work, and afford, at the same time, by their microscopic ramifications, a complete and beautiful system of veins. The leaf, therefore, like the stem, consists of two distinct parts, the cellular and the woody. The cellular portion is not the structureless, pulpy mas6 which it appears to be to the naked eye, but presents a regular and beautiful arrangement of cells. The woody part forming the veins, and having, as we have seen, a double origin, is arranged in two layers ; the upper, arising from the wood, and conveying the ascending sap to every part of the leaf, and the lower, connected with the liber, and establishing a communication with the bark, by means of which the assimilated juices pass downward. Encasing the whole of this wonderfully beautiful apparatus is the epidermis, or skin, pierced by numerous invisible pores or holes, called stomates, through which the plant breathes and perspires.

It would be interesting, in connection with the foregoing brief outline of the structure of the leaf, to give some account of the different forms of leaves, their various modifications, and their systematic and beautiful arrangement on the stem ; but as the practical ends we have in view do not require us to pursue the subject further in this direction, we must forego it.

Leaves have been called the lungs of plants. They are something more than this, being not only organs of respiration, but of perspiration and digestion also. They are, at the same time, stomach, lungs, and skin. They receive the crude sap from the roots through the stem, and, by means of exposure to air and light, the decomposition of water and carbonic acid, and the throwing off of superfluous moisture, condense it and change it into organizable matter — the true food of plants. This elaborated sap is sent immediately downward, to serve for the nourishment of every part.

The nutrition of a plant depending npon its leaves, the former may he destroyed hy simply destroying its foliage. In general, it does not immediately die, hecause it has the power of putting forth new leaves, which come into action and supply imperfectly the places of those removed ; hut if it be deprived of these essential organs during the entire season, its power of producing them ceases, and all functions are suspended.

V.— FLOWEKS AND FRUIT.

A flower is that part of a plant which is formed for the purpose of reproducing its species by means of seeds. Fruit is the seed, or the seed and its pericarp, or covering. The pericarp includes whatever goes to make up the seed-vessel, whether it be a mere thin husk, a hard, bone-like shell, or a soft, fleshy pulp.