The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming.Shaw, Ellen Eddy
General
The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming.
Shaw, Ellen Eddy
Gardening -- Juvenile literature
Picture this as the ditch George dug right above his garden. The water
passed through the side slopes away from the garden.]
As the stones were picked off he piled them into the gutter, where this
stony bottom also helped the drainage problem.
George was a master hand at ploughing, for he had always done his share
of it, so ploughing meant nothing to him. First, you will remember
George had one foot of dressing to put on the land. This he ploughed in;
and then reploughed. After this the slope was harrowed. You all know
that the harrow simply makes fine the soil after the plough has done its
work of throwing up the earth. The rake is a kind of harrow. Of course,
when the garden plot is large, the rake is impossible, and then the
harrow, really a big rake dragged by a horse, must do this work.
It took the boy longer than some of the others to do his work, for
George did more work at home than the others. He was probably better
informed on farm matters, however. His father was a real farmer; the
other boys' fathers farmed, too, but not as a business.
Anticipating the amount of time this preparatory work would take he had
not started his cabbage inside. To get an early crop of cabbage, seed
must be planted in January or February; then one may start in March.
But for the late crop plant in the open in May or June. This is just
what George did.
He made furrows straight down his sunny southern slope. These furrows
were two feet apart. The seed, of Savoy cabbage, was sprinkled in the
furrows. This was done after rain. Cabbage needs much moisture for quick
germination. George might have poured water into the furrows and puddled
or stirred the earth a bit, if the garden had been small, but his was
too large for this, so he took advantage of Nature's watering. When the
plants were about two inches above ground they were thinned out to stand
two feet apart in the furrow.
Cabbage, you know, is quite likely to become infested by pests. Perhaps
the most common of which are lice or aphis and the cabbage worm, a green
caterpillar. Therefore it is well to try a little prevention. So all
over the ground about the plants sprinkle unslaked lime. Tobacco dust or
soot may be used for this purpose, too. Good cultivation also helps
prevent these pests.
One row of cabbage began to develop worms. These George picked off, but
he found that he could not keep up with them; so The Chief advised him
to buy a little pyrethrum powder at the store. This he mixed with five
times its bulk of dust. Putting the mixture into an old potato sack he
shook it over the infested heads of cabbage.
Except for this drawback the cabbage did well. He lost the infested row
of cabbage. For he pulled them all up, spaded the ground over, and
sprinkled it with the poison mixture. All the other cabbage heads were
sprinkled with it, too. One may easily lose all his cabbage from these
worms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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