Home Vegetable Gardening Part 11

varieties of celery are much to be preferred. White Plume and Golden Self-blanching are the best. The former is the earliest celery and of excellent quality, but not a good keeper. Recent introductions in celery have proved very real improvements. Perhaps the best of the newer sorts, for home use, is Winter Queen, as it is more readily handled than some of the standard market sorts. In quality it has no superior. When put away for winter properly, it will keep through April.

_Corn:_--You will have to suit yourself about corn. I have not the temerity to name any best varieties--every seedsman has about half a dozen that are absolutely unequaled. For home use, I have cut my list down to three: Golden Bantam, a dwarf-growing early of extraordinary hardiness--can be planted earlier than any other sort and, while the ears are small and with yellow kernels, it is exceptionally sweet and fine in flavor. This novelty of a few years since, has attained wide popular favor as quickly as any vegetable I know. Seymour's Sweet Orange is a new variety, somewhat similar to Golden Bantam, but later and larger, of equally fine quality. White Evergreen, a perfected strain of Stowell's Evergreen, a standard favorite for years, is the third. It stays tender longer than any other sweet corn I have ever grown.

_Cuc.u.mbers:_--Of cuc.u.mbers also there is a long and varied list of names. The old Extra Early White Spine is still the best early; for the main crop, some "perfected" form of White Spine. I myself like the Fordhood Famous, as it is the healthiest strain I ever grew, and has very large fruit that stays green, while being of fine quality. In the last few years the Davis Perfect has won great popularity, and deservedly so. Many seedsmen predict that this is destined to become the leading standard--and where seedsmen agree let us p.r.i.c.k up our ears! It has done very well with me, the fruit being the handsomest of any I have grown. If it proves as strong a grower it will replace Fordhood Famous with me.

_Egg-plant:_--New York Improved Purple is still the standard, but it has been to a large extent replaced by Black Beauty, which has the merit of being ten days earlier and a more handsome fruit. When once tried it will very likely be the only sort grown.

_Endive:_--This is a subst.i.tute for lettuce for which I personally have never cared. It is largely used commercially. Broad-leaved Batavian is a good variety. Giant Fringed is the largest.

_Kale:_--Kale is a foreigner which has never been very popular in this country. Dwarf Scott Curled is the tenderest and most delicate (or least coa.r.s.e) in flavor.

_Kohlrabi:_--This peculiar mongrel should be better known. It looks as though a turnip had started to climb into the cabbage cla.s.s and stopped half-way. When gathered young, not more than an inch and a half in diameter at the most, they are quite nice and tender. They are of the easiest cultivation. White Vienna is the best.

_Leek:_--For those who like this sort of thing it is--just the sort of thing they like. American Flag is the best variety, but why it was given the first part of that name, I do not know.

_Lettuce:_--To cover the lettuces thoroughly would take a chapter by itself. For lack of s.p.a.ce, I shall have to mention only a few varieties, although there are many others as good and suited to different purposes. For quality, I put Mignonette at the top of the list, but it makes very small heads. Grand Rapids is the best loose- head sort--fine for under gla.s.s, in frames and early outdoors. Last fall from a bench 40 x 4 ft., I sold $36 worth in one crop, besides some used at home. I could not sell winter head lettuce to customers who had once had this sort, so good was its quality. May King and Big Boston are the best outdoor spring and early summer sorts. New York and Deacon are the best solid cabbage-head types for resisting summer heat, and long standing. Of the cos type Paris White is good.

_Muskmelon:_--The varieties of muskmelon are also without limit. I mention but two--which have given good satisfaction out of a large number tried, in my own experience. Netted Gem (known as Rocky Ford) for a green-fleshed type, and Emerald Gem for salmon-fleshed. There are a number of newer varieties, such as Hoodoo, Miller's Cream, Montreal, Nutmeg, etc., all of excellent quality.

_Watermelon:_--With me (in Connecticut) the seasons are a little short for this fruit. Cole's Early and Sweetheart have made the best showing. Halbert Honey is the best for quality.

_Okra:_--In cool sections the Perfected Perkins does best, but it is not quite so good in quality as the southern favorite, White Velvet.

The flowers and plants of this vegetable are very ornamental.

_Onion:_--For some unknown reason, different seedsmen call the same onion by the same name. I have never found any explanation of this, except that a good many onions given different names in the catalogues are really the same thing. At least they grade into each other more than other vegetables. With me Prizetaker is the only sort now grown in quant.i.ty, as I have found it to outyield all other yellows, and to be a good keeper. It is a little milder in quality than the American yellows--Danvers and Southport Globe. When started under gla.s.s and transplanted out in April, it attains the size and the quality of the large Spanish onions of which it is a descendant.

Weathersfield Red is the standard flat red, but not quite so good in quality or for keeping as Southport Red Globe. Of the whites I like best Mammoth Silver-skin. It is ready early and the finest in quality, to my taste, of all the onions, but not a good keeper. Ailsa Craig, a new English sort now listed in several American catalogues, is the best to grow for extra fancy onions, especially for exhibiting; it should be started in February or March under gla.s.s.

_Parsley:_--Emerald is a large-growing, beautifully colored and mild-flavored sort, well worthy of adoption.

_Parsnip:_--This vegetable is especially valuable because it may be had at perfection when other vegetables are scarce. Hollow Crown ("Improved," of course!) is the best.

_Peas:_--Peas are worse than corn. You will find enough exclamation points in the pea sections of catalogues to train the vines on. If you want to escape brain-f.a.g and still have as good as the best, if not better, plant Gradus (or Prosperity) for early and second early; Boston Unrivaled (an improved form of Telephone) for main crop, and Gradus for autumn. These two peas are good yielders, free growers and of really wonderfully fine quality. They need bushing, but I have never found a variety of decent quality that does not.

_Pepper:_--Ruby King is the standard, large, red, mild pepper, and as good as any. Chinese Giant is a newer sort, larger but later. The flesh is extremely thick and mild. On account of this quality, it will have a wider range of use than the older sorts.

_Pumpkins:_--The old Large Cheese, and the newer Quaker Pie, are as prolific, hardy and fine in quality and sweetness as any.

_Potato:_--Bovee is a good early garden sort, but without the best of culture is very small. Irish Cobbler is a good early white. Green Mountain is a universal favorite for main crop in the East--a sure yielder and heavy-crop potato of excellent quality. Uncle Sam is the best quality potato I ever grew. Baked, they taste almost as rich as chestnuts.

_Radish:_--I do not care to say much about radishes; I do not like them. They are, however, universal favorites. They come round, half- long, long and tapering; white, red, white-tipped, crimson, rose, yellow-brown and black; and from the size of a b.u.t.ton to over a foot long by fifteen inches in circ.u.mference--the latter being the new Chinese or Celestial. So you can imagine what a revel of varieties the seedsmen may indulge in. I have tried many--and cut my own list down to two, Rapid-red (probably an improvement of the old standard, Scarlet b.u.t.ton), and Crimson Globe (or Giant), a big, rapid, healthy grower of good quality, and one that does not get "corky." A little land-plaster, or gypsum, worked into the soil at time of planting, will add to both appearance and quality in radishes.

_Spinach:_--The best variety of spinach is Swiss Chard Beet (see below). If you want the real sort, use Long Season, which will give you cuttings long after other sorts have run to seed. New Zealand will stand more heat than any other sort. Victoria is a newer variety, for which the claim of best quality is made. In my own trial I could not notice very much difference. It has, however, thicker and "savoyed"

leaves.

_Salsify:_--This is, to my taste, the most delicious of all root vegetables. It will not do well in soil not deep and finely pulverized, but a row or two for home use can be had by digging and fining before sowing the seed. It is worth extra work. Mammoth Sandwich is the best variety.

_Squash:_--Of this fine vegetable there are no better sorts for the home garden than the little Delicata, and Fordhook. Vegetable Marrow is a fine English sort that does well in almost all localities.

The best of the newer large-vined sorts is The Delicious. It is of finer quality than the well known Hubbard. For earliest use, try a few plants of White or Yellow Bush Scalloped. They are not so good in quality as either Delicata or Fordhook, which are ready within a week or so later. The latter are also excellent keepers and can be had, by starting plants early and by careful storing, almost from June to June.

_Tomato:_--If you have a really hated enemy, give him a dozen seed catalogues and ask him to select for you the best four tomatoes. But unless you want to become criminally involved, send his doctor around the next morning. A few years ago I tried over forty kinds. A good many have been introduced since, some of which I have tried. I am prepared to make the following statements: Earliana is the earliest quality tomato, for light warm soils, that I have ever grown; Chalk's Jewel, the earliest for heavier soils (Bonny Best Early resembles it); Matchless is a splendid main-crop sort; Ponderosa is the biggest and best quality--but it likes to split. There is one more sort, which I have tried one year only, so do not accept my opinion as conclusive. It is the result of a cross between Ponderosa and Dwarf Champion--one of the strongest-growing sorts. It is called Dwarf Giant. The fruits are tremendous in size and in quality unsurpa.s.sed by any. The vine is very healthy, strong and stocky. I believe this new tomato will become the standard main crop for the home garden. By all means try it. And that is a good deal to say for a novelty in its second year!

_Turnip:_--The earliest turnip of good quality is the White Milan.

There are several others of the white-fleshed sorts, but I have never found them equal in quality for table to the yellow sorts. Of these, Golden Ball (or Orange Jelly) is the best quality. Petrowski is a different and distinct sort, of very early maturity and of especially fine quality. If you have room for but one sort in your home garden, plant this for early, and a month later for main crop.

Do not fail to try some of this year's novelties. Half the fun of gardening is in the experimenting. But when you are testing out the new things in comparison with the old, just take a few plants of the latter and give them the same extra care and attention. Very often the reputation of a novelty is built upon the fact that in growing it on trial the gardener has given it unusual care and the best soil and location at his command. Be fair to the standards--and very often they will surprise you fully as much as the novelties.

CHAPTER XIII

INSECTS AND DISEASES AND METHODS OF FIGHTING THEM

I use the term "methods of fighting" rather than the more usual one, "remedies," because by both experience and study I am more and more convinced that so long as the commercial fields of agriculture remain in the present absolutely unorganized condition, and so long as the gardener--home or otherwise--who cares to be neglectful and thus become a breeder of all sorts of plant pests, is allowed so to do--just so long we can achieve no remedy worth the name. When speaking of a remedy in this connection we very frequently are putting the cart before the horse, and refer to some means of prevention. Prevention is not only the best, but often the only cure. This the gardener should always remember.

This subject of plant enemies has not yet received the attention from scientific investigators which other branches of horticulture have, and it is altogether somewhat complicated.

Before taking up the various insects and diseases the following a.n.a.lysis and list will enable the reader to get a general comprehension of the whole matter.

Plant enemies are of two kinds--(1) insects, and (2) diseases. The former are of two kinds, (a) insects which chew or eat the leaves or fruit; (b) insects which suck the juices therefrom. The diseases also are of two kinds--(a) those which result from the attack of some fungus, or germ; (b) those which attack the whole organism of the plant and are termed "const.i.tutional." Concerning these latter practically nothing is known.

It will be seen at once, of course, that the remedy to be used must depend upon the nature of the enemy to be fought. We can therefore reduce the matter to a simple cla.s.sification, as follows:

PLANT ENEMIES

Insects Cla.s.s

Eating a Sucking b

Diseases

Parasitical c Const.i.tutional d

REMEDIES

Mechanical Number Covered boxes........... 1 Collars................. 2 Cards................... 3

Destructive Hand-picking............ 4 Kerosene emulsion....... 5 Whale-oil soap.......... 6 Miscible oils........... 7 Tobacco dust............ 8 Carbolic acid emulsion.. 9 Corrosive sublimate.... 10 Bordeaux mixture....... 11

Poisonous Paris green............ 12 a.r.s.enate of lead....... 13 h.e.l.lebore.............. 14

It will be of some a.s.sistance, particularly as regards quick reference, to give the following table, which shows at a glance the method of fighting any enemy, the presence of which is known or antic.i.p.ated.

While this may seem quite a formidable list, in practice many of these pests will not appear, and under ordinary circ.u.mstances the following six remedies out of those mentioned will suffice to keep them all in check, _if used in time:_ Covered boxes, hand-picking, kerosene emulsion, tobacco dust, Bordeaux mixture, a.r.s.enate of lead.

ENEMY ATTACKING CLa.s.s REMEDY -------------------- ---------------------------- -------- ------- Aphis (Plant-lice) Cabbage and other plants, b 5,8,6 especially under gla.s.s Asparagus-beetle Asparagus a 13, 12 Asparagus rust Asparagus c 11 Black-rot Cabbage and the cabbage d 10 group Borers Squash b 4 Caterpillars Cabbage group a 12, 14, 4 Caterpillars Tomato a 4 Club-root Cabbage group c see text Cuc.u.mber-beetle Cuc.u.mber and vines a 1, 11, 8 (Striped beetle) Cuc.u.mber-wilt Cuc.u.mber and vines c 11 Cuc.u.mber-blight Cuc.u.mber, muskmelon, c 11 cabbage Cut-worm Cabbage, tomato, onion a 2,4,12,13 Flea-beetle Potato, turnip, radish a 11, 5 Potato-beetle Potato and egg-plant a 12, 13, 4 Potato-blight Potato c 11 Potato-scab Potato (tubers) c 10 Root-maggot Radish, onion, cabbage, a 4, 3, 9 melons Squash-bug Squash, pumpkin b 4,8,12,5 White-fly Plants; cuc.u.mber, tomato b 6, 5, 8 White-grub Plants a 4