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Page 59
The pepper is another hot-blooded vegetable that shivers at the
suggestion of frost. It is fitting that it should be a native of
India. Its treatment is usually the same as that of the egg-plant.
It matures more rapidly, however, and the seed can be sown about
the middle of May, half an inch deep, in rows fifteen inches
apart. The soil should be rich and warm. When the plants are well
up, they should be thinned so that they will stand a foot apart in
the row. The usual course, however, is to set out plants which
have been started under glass, after all danger from frost is
over. Henderson recommends New Sweet Spanish and Golden Dawn, The
Large Bell is a popular sort, and Cherry Red very ornamental.
From the okra is made the famous gumbo soup, which ever calls to
vision a colored aunty presiding over the mysteries of a Southern
dinner. If Aunt Dinah, so well known to us from the pages of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," could have left her receipt for this
compound, her fame might have lasted as long as that of Mrs.
Stowe. The vegetable furnishing this glutinous, nutritious, and
wholesome ingredient is as easily raised as any product of the
garden. We have only to sow the seed, from the first to the tenth
of May, two inches deep, and let the plants stand from two to
three feet apart each way, in order to have an abundant supply.
The new Dwarf Prolific is about the best variety.
Fall turnips are so easily grown that they require but few words.
They are valuable vegetables for utilizing space in the garden
after early crops, as peas, beans, potatoes, etc., are removed.
The seed of ruta-baga, or Swedish turnips, should be planted
earliest--from the twentieth of June to the tenth of July in our
latitude. This turnip should be sown in drills two feet apart, and
the plants thinned to eight inches from one another. It is very
hardy, and the roots are close-grained, solid, and equally good
for the table and the family cow. The Yellow Aberdeen is another
excellent variety, which may be sown EARLY in July, and treated
much the same as the foregoing. The Yellow Stone can be sown on
good ground until the fifteenth of July in any good garden soil,
and the plants thinned to six inches apart. It is perhaps the most
satisfactory of all the turnip tribe both for table use and stock.
The Bed-top Strap-leaf may be sown anywhere until the tenth of
August. It is a general custom, in the middle of July, to scatter
some seed of this hardy variety among the corn: hoe it in lightly,
and there is usually a good crop. Every vacant spot may be
utilized by incurring only the slight cost of the seed and the
sowing. It may be well, perhaps, to remember the advice of the old
farmer to his son. He said, "Stub your toe and spill half the seed
before sowing it; for scattered broadcast it is usually much too
thick." If this proves true, thin out the plants rigorously. This
turnip is good for table and stock as long as it is solid and
crisp; but it grows pithy toward spring. There are other kinds
well worth a trial.
Perhaps no vegetable is more generally appreciated than celery.
Like asparagus, it was once, and is still by some, regarded as a
luxury requiring too much skill and labor for the ordinary
gardener. This is a mistake. Few vegetables in my garden repay so
amply the cost of production. One can raise turnips as a fall crop
much easier, it is true; but turnips are not celery, any more than
brass is gold. Think of enjoying this delicious vegetable daily
from October till April! When cooked, and served on toast with
drawn butter sauce, it is quite ambrosial. In every garden evolved
beyond the cabbage and potato phase a goodly space of the best
soil should be reserved for celery, since it can be set out from
the first to the twentieth of July in our latitude; it can be
grown as the most valuable of the second crops, reoccupying space
made vacant by early crops. I find it much easier to buy my
plants, when ready for them, than to raise them. In every town
there are those who grow them in very large quantities, and, if
properly packed, quickly transported, and promptly set out in the
evening following their reception, and watered abundantly, they
rarely fail.
There are decided advantages, however, in raising our own plants,
especially if midsummer should prove dry and hot, or the plants
must be long in transit. When they are growing in our own garden,
they can be moved with very slight check to their growth. In
starting the seed there is no necessity for hot-bed or cold-frame.
It may be put in the ground the first week of April, and the best
plants are thus secured. Much is gained by preparing a warm but
not dry plot of ground in autumn, making it very rich with short,
half-decayed stable-manure. This preparation should be begun as
soon as possible after the soaking September rains. Having
thoroughly incorporated and mixed evenly in the soil an abundance
of the manure described, leave the ground untouched for three
weeks. The warm fertilizer will cause great numbers of weed-seeds
to germinate. When these thrifty pests are a few inches high, dig
them under and bring up the bottom soil. The warmth and light will
immediately start a new and vigorous growth of weeds, which in
turn should be dug under. If the celery seed bed be made early
enough, this process can be repeated several times before winter--
the oftener the better; for by it the great majority of weed-seeds
will be made to germinate, and thus are destroyed. The ground also
becomes exceedingly rich, mellow, and fine--an essential condition
for celery seed, which is very small, and germinates slowly. This
thorough preparation does not involve much labor, for the seed-bed
is small, and nothing more is required in spring but to rake the
ground smooth and fine as soon as the frost is out. The soil has
already been made mellow, and certainly nothing is gained by
turning up the cold earth in the bottom of the bed. Sow the seed
at once on the sunwarmed surface. The rows should be nine inches
apart, and about twelve seeds sown to every inch of row. The
drills should be scarcely an eighth of an inch deep. Indeed, a
firm patting with the back of a spade would give covering enough.
Since celery germinates so slowly, it is well to drop a lettuce-
seed every few inches, to indicate clearly just where the rows
are. Then the ground between the rows can be hoed lightly as soon
as the weeds start, also after heavy rains, so as to admit the
vivifying sun-rays and air. Of course when the celery plants are
clearly outlined, the lettuce should be pulled out.
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