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Show TIPS ONJARDENING j "iVhen to Plant Vegetables in the Home fiaiden Soil Requirements. The garden specialists of the Unit-! ed States Department of Agriculture ! livide vegetables into two classes 'warm temperature" and "cold tem-eiature" tem-eiature" vegetables. When peach I ind plum trees are in blossom, they 'say. it is time to sow in the open 1, 'round such seeds as lettuce, radish, narsley, beets, turnips, cabbage, carols, car-ols, peas, and onions. The wrinkled peas should not be planted until later, las they are more liable to rot in cold 1 rround than are the smooth varieties. (When the apple trees bloom it is time to plant the heat loving vegelables, :ut.h as cucumbers, beans, sweet corn, pumpkin aud squash. This is .ai old but excellent rule. The quickest crop to mature is the 'adish. Lettuce, turnips, peas, beets, ('and beans usually require from 6 to 9 jueeks, corn from 11 to 13 weeks, and ipotatoes from 15 to 16 weeks to ma-jture. ma-jture. . Lettuce is to the garden what the hay crop is to the field always needled, need-led, and gives some of the best re-! re-! turns. A rich sandy loam with sufficient suffi-cient nitrate to stimulate leaf growth and intensify the chlorophyll or deep leaf color of the plant, and a sufficiency sufficien-cy of soft water keep the crop crisp and fresh. Much the same plan is practiced with cabbage, except 'that it does not require so much water. Bean3 do not require very rich soil .and it is safe to plant them on -the very poorest patch. Snap beans may lie grown in rows between the orchard or-chard trees. The lima bean requires a rich, moist soil, but does not seem to deprive de-prive the land of its productiveness. Lima beans have been grown on the ,samo fields in California for many (years. Cucumbers, squashes and melons require rich soil, and the cucumber profits by the application of fresh horse manure. Sheep manure will hurry plants along more rapidly than most chenflcal fertilizers. The specialists believe that if the general principles they have outlined aro followed, it will he profitable for almost anyone to plant his idle acres this season. They point out that (even where the moneytary value of the crops raised in me back-yard Igarden is not important, the gardener garden-er and his family nnust credit to the ipatch the health and enjoyment thev gain from this outdoor occupation. They point out that from the com-Imunity com-Imunity point of view it is the duty of every home owner to. keep his .place orderly and attractive. The 1'iiiost profitable way of getting rid of a patch of weeds in the back yard Is 'o cultivate it and plant it to some valuable crop, the orderly character of which, will add much to the comeliness come-liness of the home grounds. Gardening is an old! old story. It fs related that nearly twenty centur-'es centur-'es ago Pliny the Elder summed it up 'n a sentence of juut six words: "Dig deep; manure well; work often." |