It is of the easiest culture, requiring ten or twelve pounds of seed per acre, either broadcasted or sown in rows. In small gardens it is usually grown in rows, but in open field culture it is more commonly broadcasted. Patches of many acres in extent are seen near the large cities. It is also grown quite extensively in some parts of the South for shipment to Northern markets during January and February.

To prepare it for market the leaves are cut before the seed stalk appears, and after washing are barrelled or crated for shipment.

Growers receive from $1.50 to $2.50 per barrel in Philadelphia and New York in the winter and spring. Where accessible to market, spinach is a profitable crop.

Blight is the main enemy. The remedy is removal to another soil.

Of spinach there are many types; some smooth and some with savoy or wrinkled leaves. The property of standing a long time before going to seed is desirable, especially when sown in the spring, as it increases the length of the cutting season.

At the North a slight protection of litter or straw is necessary in winter. South of lat.i.tude of Washington no protection is needed.

Spinach is cut even when frozen; in fact, at any time when there is no snow on the ground. By throwing it into cold water it quickly thaws, and affords a palatable and healthful food in midwinter. The dead or yellow leaves should be removed before sending it to market, and if carefully prepared it has an attractive green appearance during cold weather when other vegetables are scarce. The winter crop is larger than any other, but much is also grown for spring sales. It is admirably adapted to farm culture.

SPINACH.--For spring planting, we recommend Parisian Long Standing; for autumn, American Savoy or Bloomsdale. See "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."

THE SWEET POTATO.

The cultivation of the sweet potato affords profitable employment to thousands of American farmers. It is pre-eminently a farmer's crop, on account of the ground s.p.a.ce occupied. It demands a light or sandy soil, well drained and well manured. It has wonderful drouth-resisting qualities; though, on the other hand, it is quite unable to withstand continued cold, wet weather. Its territorial range may be said to include nearly the whole of the United States, where the soil is suited to its growth, and it is even cultivated in Canada. It will in all probability increase in favor as it is better known and the manner of preserving or storing it is better understood.

SWEET POTATO.--We recommend and endorse the Hardy Bush or Vineless Sweet Potato. For description, see "Johnson & Stokes'

Garden and Farm Manual."

=Fertilizers.=--There is wide diversity of practice in the matter of enriching the land for sweet potatoes, and most of the standard manures are used, either in one place or another. There seems to be an almost universal endors.e.m.e.nt of well-rotted stable manure, and next in favor is wood ashes. High-grade fertilizer of any kind, thoroughly incorporated with the soil, may be used.

=Young Plants.=--Sweet potatoes are propagated by sprouts obtained by laying tubers on their sides, not touching each other, covered with soil, in specially prepared heated beds. These sprouts produce abundant rootlets while still attached to the parent tuber, and by pulling them with care, great numbers of young plants can be obtained.

A second and even a third crop of young plants may be pulled from the same tubers. In the South no artificial heat is needed.

=Growing the Slips or Sprouts as Practised in New Jersey.=--The fire-bed, so-called, is quite generally used in Southern New Jersey for obtaining slips or sprouts for spring planting. It is necessary to have bottom heat and a uniform temperature of about 70.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plant of New Hardy Bush or Vineless Sweet Potato.]

The fire-bed consists essentially of a pit about 15 by 50 feet in size. It is floored with boards laid upon cross pieces. Beneath the boards there is an air chamber. On top of the boards the bed is made.

At one end is a furnace, with flues running out into the air s.p.a.ce beneath the bed, but not reaching the chimney or smoke-pipe at the opposite end of the bed. At the hottest end of the bed the soil is over 6 inches deep. At the cool end a depth of 6 inches is quite sufficient. The whole bed is covered either with canvas muslin or with gla.s.s sashes, there being a ridge pole above the bed, running lengthwise with it, thus giving a double pitch to muslin or to gla.s.s.

After the soil has been heated somewhat, the tubers are laid on the bed, about an inch apart, and covered with about 3 inches of good soil, and the soil, in turn, covered with leaves or hay, to increase the warmth of the bed. In a week, more or less, the sprouts will show above the surface of the soil, when the leaves or hay must be removed.

The object in not connecting the flues from the furnace with the chimney is to economize heat. The air chamber under the entire bed becomes evenly heated, and the smoke escapes finally by the chimney. This chimney may be made of wood, and a height of 8 or 10 feet will afford ample draft. Either wood or coal may be burned, but preferably wood.

The planting distance in the field is about 3 feet by 2, the young plants being set upon ridges. It requires about 9,000 plants to the acre. The work must not be done until the ground is warm. The crop is ready in from sixty to ninety days.

=Cultivation.=--Shallow cultivation is all that is required. The vines at the North are not permitted to take root along their length, but in the South they are sometimes allowed to do so, and additional tubers thus secured. At the North the vines are lifted and turned, to clear the way for the cultivator and to prevent rooting.

=Enemies.=--Black rot is one of the worst of sweet potato diseases.

Stem rot is another serious enemy. The best treatment for these and other fungous troubles is prevention, and the best prevention is a healthy soil. It is, therefore, best to go to new land occasionally.

=Harvesting.=--The common practice is to plow the sweet potatoes out of the ground just after the first frost has touched the vines. The tubers must be exposed to the air for a time, and partially dried.

They are prepared for market, if wanted immediately, by rubbing off the soil and sorting into two sizes.

=Storage.=--At the South one of the several methods of winter storage is to build a light wooden flue of lattice work, and pack about it a conical-shaped heap containing about forty or fifty bushels of sweet potatoes. Straw is used as a covering, with earth upon the straw, the earth to be increased as the weather becomes colder. Over the entire heap a rough shed is erected to turn the rain. The top of the flue or ventilator is closed with straw in really cold weather. The spot must be a dry one.

The New Jersey sweet potato house is a stone building, say 16 18 feet on the inside, with walls 10 feet high, and a good roof. The building is half under ground, and the earth is banked up around it.

There is a pa.s.sage way through the centre, and the bins for the sweet potatoes are 6 to 8 feet square and 8 to 10 feet deep. There is a door on the south side, with window above, and a stove is placed inside the building, for use when required. The walls are plastered, and the under side of the roof is also covered with lath and plaster, and the place is thoroughly weather-proof. A house of this kind will afford storage room for 3,000 or more bushels of sweet potatoes, and will keep them in excellent condition, if all details receive proper attention. The requirements for successful storage are that the tubers shall not be too hot, nor too cold, nor too wet, and that sudden changes of temperature shall be avoided. The sweet potato crop may be said to vary from 100 to 150 bushels per acre, under ordinary management, with higher results under good conditions.

CHAPTER V.

SASHES AND BEDDING PLANTS.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The cost of a hot-bed sash, glazed and painted, is somewhere about $2; and such a sash can be made to earn its cost every year. The farmer who has, say, a pair of sashes for hot-bed work and another pair for cold-frame work, can turn them to very good account in the early spring, not only in starting such bedding plants as may be required in his own operations, but in producing plants for his neighbors. It costs but little more to grow 1,000 than 100 cabbage, tomato or egg plants, and the surplus above the home requirement can be converted into dollars.

=The Hot Bed.=--The hot-bed is merely a board-lined pit, containing fermenting manure, with a few inches of soil on the manure, and covered by a sash. The ordinary sash is about 3 6 feet. A board shutter, the exact size of the sash, or a mat of straw, completes the outfit. The depth of manure, depending on the purpose in view, should be from 1 to 2 feet, the depth of soil from 3 to 6 inches, and the distance from soil to gla.s.s about 4 inches at the start. As the manure ferments the soil will sink.

=The Cold Frame.=--The cold frame is merely a piece of rich, mellow soil, enclosed by boards and covered with gla.s.s. There is no bottom heat of any kind, but it is a great deal warmer than the open soil, and serves a variety of purposes.

In the hot-bed, made in February or March (in the lat.i.tude of Philadelphia), all tender things may be started. The usual seeds sown here at that date on heat are cabbage, cauliflower, radish, lettuce, onions, etc., followed by tomato, pepper, celery, egg plant, etc., including flower seeds, if desired.

The cold frame is used through the winter for lettuce, onions, carrots, corn salad, spinach, etc., and in spring for the reception of the things started on heat, when the time arrives for transplanting and hardening them.

Properly-managed sashes will do a great deal toward the production of early market crops, and profits not infrequently depend upon the item of earliness.

The one thing for inexperienced persons to learn about sashes and their uses is the imperative necessity of free ventilation whenever the sun shines on the gla.s.s.

CHAPTER VI.

THE STRAWBERRY.

In addition to the several vegetables enumerated in the preceding pages, there is one of the small fruits that has taken such a prominent place in what may be termed farm horticulture as to deserve mention here. It is the strawberry.

This berry is, perhaps, the most popular small fruit in America, and because of its perishable character, is one that requires strictly local production. It cannot be shipped long distances without loss of character and flavor, and hence the local grower will never be crowded out of his own market.

The culture of the strawberry is simple and easy. There are many ways of setting out plants, and the after-treatment also differs widely.

There will always be controversy concerning the respective merits of the hill system and the matted row system. Each cultivator must decide for himself which is the better.

For the farmer, whose acres are many and whose duties are pressing, there is, perhaps, no better way than to set strawberries in rows 4 feet apart, with plants 2 feet apart in the row, and to allow the plants to run together in the rows, giving sufficient attention to keep the alleys well stirred and the whole bed clear of weeds. To set an acre will require about 5,000 plants.

The winter covering of litter should be raked into the walks or alleys as soon as winter is over and allowed to remain there as a mulch for keeping the soil cool and damp and for the purpose of keeping the berries clean.

[Ill.u.s.tration: New Twice-Bearing French Strawberry "Mammoth Perpetual."

For Description, see "Johnson & Stokes' Garden and Farm Manual."]

As soon as the crop is off, the bed should be plowed, turning strawberries and litter under, and sweet corn or other quick crop at once planted. This will insure the gathering of two crops in two years; otherwise a strawberry crop means a two-years' use of the soil.