Kitabı oku: «Soil Culture», sayfa 10

CUCUMBERS

There are quite a number of varieties. But a few only deserve attention. The best, for all uses, is the Early Cluster, a great bearer of firm, tender, brittle fruit. Early Frame, Long White, Turkey, and Long Green Turkey, are rather beautiful, but not prolific varieties. Long Prickly, is very good for pickles, and fills a cask rapidly, but is by no means so pleasant as the Early Cluster. The Short Prickly and White Spined are considerably used. The West India or small Gherkin is used only for pickling, and is considered fine. But we regard all these inferior to the Early Cluster.

Soil should be made very rich with compost and vegetable mould, with a liberal application of sand. All vines do better in a sandy soil. Plant in the open air only after the weather has become quite warm. An effort to get early cucumbers by early out-door planting is usually a failure; seeds decay, or having come up, after a long while, they grow slowly, and vines and fruit are apt to be imperfect. Six feet apart, each way, is the best distance; and after the plants get out of the way of insects, and become well established, two vines in each hill is better than more: the fruit will be better and more abundant, and they will bear much longer than when vines are left to grow very thick. They need water in dry weather (see Watering). The first week in July is the best time to plant for pickling. In a warm, dry climate, cucumbers do better a little shaded, but not too much. Planted among young fruit-trees, or in alternate rows with corn, they do well. If allowed to run up bushes like peas, they produce more and better fruit. Forcing for an early crop is often done, by digging a hole in the ground, two feet deep and two feet square, and filling with hot manure, stamped down well, and covered with six inches of fine mould. Put around a frame and cover with glass, at an angle of thirty-five degrees to the sun. Plant one hundred seeds on the two feet square; when they come up, put two plants in a pot, set in a regular hotbed, and keep well watered and aired until the weather be warm enough to transplant in the open air; then remove from the pots without breaking the ball of earth, and plant six feet apart. Four plants left in the original hill will bear earlier than those that have been removed. To get a large quantity of very early ones, plant a corresponding number of hills, with the two feet of manure, as above; whenever the weather becomes hot, they will need to be well watered, or they will dry up. All cucumber-plants forced should have the main runner cut off, after the second rough leaf appears; this brings fruit earlier and twice as abundant. On transplanting cucumbers, or any other vines, cover them wholly from the sun for three days, or, if the weather be dry, for a whole week. We once thought melons and cucumbers very difficult to transplant successfully; but we ascertained the only difficulty to be, the want of sufficient water and shade. When roots and soil were so dry that the dirt all fell off, we have transplanted with perfect success; but for a week the plants appeared to be ruined. We kept them covered and well watered, and they revived and made a great crop, much earlier than seeds planted at the same time. Protection of plants from insects has been a subject of much study and many experiments. Ashes and lime, and various decoctions and offensive mixtures, have been recommended. We discard them all, as both troublesome and ineffectual. Our experience is, most decidedly, in favor of fencing each hill, of all vines, to keep off insects. A box a foot square and fifteen inches high, the lower edge set in the soil, will usually prove effectual. Put over a pane of glass, and it will be more sure, and increase the warmth and consequently the growth of the plants. Put millinet over the boxes, instead of glass, and not a hill will be lost. If a cutworm chances to be fenced in, he will show himself by cutting off a plant. Search him out and kill him, and all will be safe. Such boxes, well taken care of, will last for ten years. This, then, is a cheap as well as effectual method.

Cucumbers are a cooling, healthy article of diet, used in reasonable quantities. They should be sliced into cold water, taken out, and put in sharp vinegar with pepper and salt. Ripe cucumbers make one of the best of pickles: for directions in making, we refer to the cook-books. If you have room near your back door for one large hill of cucumbers, you may obtain a remarkable growth. Dig down deep enough to set in an old barrel, with head and bottom out, leaving the top even with the surface. Fill with manure from the stable, well trod down. In fine rich mould, around on the outside of the barrel, plant twenty or thirty cucumber-seeds. Put a pail of water in the barrel every day. The water comes up through the soil to the roots of the plants, bringing with it the stimulus of the manure, and the effect is wonderful. A large barrel has been filled with pickles from one such hill. If bushes be put up to support the vines, it is still better. Neglect to pour in water, and they will dry up; but continue to water them, and they will bear till frost in autumn.

CURRANTS

These are among the very best of all the small fruits; immensely productive in all locations, and adapted to a great variety of uses, and hang long on the bushes after ripening.

There is quite a number of varieties, some of which are probably the mere result of cultivation of others well known. The common red is too well known to need description—very acid, and always remarkably productive, in all soils and situations. The size and quality of the fruit are affected by location and culture. The native currants, as found in the north of Europe, are small and inferior; but all excellent modern varieties have sprung from them by cultivation. In working these important changes, the Dutch and French gardeners have been the chief agents: hence our names, Red and White Dutch currants.

The common red and the common white are still cultivated in the great majority of American gardens; and yet, they are not worthy to be named with the White Dutch and the Red Dutch, which may easily be obtained by every cultivator. These two varieties are all that ever need be cultivated. Long lists of currants are described in many of the fruit-books; the result, as in all such cases, is confusion and loss to the mass of growers. We will not even give the list. The common red and the white currants are greatly improved by cultivation. But the Dutch have longer bunches, of larger fruit, the lower ones in the stem holding their size much better than common currants; the stems are usually full and perfect, and the fruit less acid and more pleasant.

A new, strong-growing variety, called the "cherry currant" on account of its large size, is now considerably grown. A few bushes for variety, and for their beautiful appearance, may be well enough; but it is not a very good bearer, and therefore is not so profitable as the Dutch.

The Attractor is a new French variety, said to be valuable. Knight's Early Red has the single virtue of ripening a few days earlier than the others. The Victoria is perhaps the latest of all currants, hanging on the bushes fully two weeks longer than others. The White Grape, the Red Grape, and the Transparent, are all good and beautiful. The utilitarian will cultivate the Red Dutch and the White Dutch as his main crop, with two or three of the others for a variety. The amateur will get all the varieties, and amuse himself by comparing their qualities, and trying his skill at modifying them. As these efforts have resulted, in past time, in the production of our best varieties, so they may, in future, in something far better than we yet have. There is no probability that any of our fruits have reached the acme of perfection.

The common black, or English black currant has long been cultivated. A jam made of it is valuable for sore throat. The highest medical authority pronounces black currant wine the best, in many cases of sickness, of any wine known. The Black Naples possesses the same virtues, and being a much larger fruit, and more productive, should take the place of the English black, and exclude it from all gardens.

Cultivation.—Currant-bushes should be set four feet apart each way, and the whole ground thoroughly mulched; it keeps down all weeds and grass, saving all further labor in cultivation, and greatly increases the size and quantity of the fruit. On nothing does mulching pay better. (See article Mulching.)

Any good garden-soil is suitable for currants. On the north side of a wall or building, or in the shade of trees, they will be considerably later. The same effect may be produced by covering bushes a part of the time with blankets or mats. Some are retarded by this means, so as to be in perfection after others are gone: thus, the currant that naturally comes to perfection about midsummer is preserved on the bushes until October.

Many cultivate currants in the tree form; allowing no sprouts from the roots, and no branches within a foot or two of the ground. This object is secured by cutting from the slip you are to plant, from which to raise a bush, all the lower buds to within two or three of the top, and then pinching off at once all shoots that may start out of the stem below; this makes beautiful little shrubs, but the top is apt to be broken off by the wind, and they must be replaced by new ones every four or five years. Downing strongly recommends it, but we can not do so. Let bushes grow in the natural way, removing all old, decaying branches, and all suckers that rise too far from the parent-bush, and keep the clusters of bushes and leaves thin enough to allow the sun free access, and prevent continued moisture in wet weather, which will rot the fruit, and you will find it the cheapest and best. We have seen quite as large and as fine fruit grow on such bushes, that we knew to be more than twenty years old, as we ever saw of the same variety when cultivated in the tree form.

DAIRY

For cheese, the dairy should contain three rooms: one for setting the milk, with suitable boilers, &c.; next, a press-room, in which the cheese should be salted, as given under article Cheese; the third, a store-room. In all climates a cheese-house should be made as tight as possible;—thick stone walls are best; windows should be on two sides, north and west, but not on opposite sides, so as to create a draught: this is no better for cheese or butter, and is always dangerous to the operator. Let all persons who would enjoy good health avoid a draught of air as they would an arrow. If your cheese-house can be shaded on the east, south, and west, by trees, and have only a northern exposure, it will aid you much in guarding against extremes of heat and cold. Windows should be fitted closely, and covered with wire-cloth on the outside, so as to exclude all flies.

A dairy for butter needs but two rooms, and a cool, dry cellar, with windows in north and west. The first room should be for setting and skimming the milk, and the other for churning and working the butter, and scalding and cleaning the utensils. If your milk-room can be a spring-house with stone-floor, and a little water passing over it, you will find it a great benefit. The shade, situation of windows, avoiding a current, &c., should be the same as in the cheese-dairy.

To prevent the taste of turnips or other food of cows in milk and butter, put one quart of hot water into eight quarts of the milk just drawn from the cow, and strain it at once. It has been recently declared, by intelligent farmers, that if you feed the turnips to cows immediately after milking, the next milking, twelve hours after feeding the roots, will be free from their taste or odor. The easiest remedy is the boiling water.

DECLENSION OF FRUITS

That there are instances of decided decline in the quality of fruits is certain. But on the causes of those changes pomologists do not agree. One theory is, that fruits, like animals and vegetables of former ages, may decline and finally become extinct. Should this theory be established, the declension would be so gradual that a century would make no perceptible change. But we do not credit the theory, even as applied to former geological periods in the history of our globe. The changes of past ages, as revealed in geology, have been brought about, not gradually, but by great convulsions of nature, such as volcanoes, or the deluge, that resulted in the destruction of the old order of things, and in a new creation.

The true theory of this declension of varieties of fruits, is, that it is the result of repeated budding upon unhealthy stocks, and of neglect and improper cultivation. Apply the specific manures—that is, those particularly demanded by a given fruit—prune properly, mulch well, and bud or graft only on healthy seedling stocks of the same kind, and, instead of declension, we may expect our best fruits to improve constantly, in quality and quantity.

DILL

An herb, native in the south of Europe, and on the Cape of Good Hope. It is grown, particularly at the South, as a medicinal herb. The leaves are sometimes used for culinary purposes; but it is principally cultivated for its sharp aromatic seed, used for flatulence and colic in infants, and put into pickled cucumbers to heighten the flavor. The seeds may be sown early in the spring, or at the time of ripening. A light soil is best. Clear of weeds, and thin in the rows, are the conditions of success.

DRAINS

Drains are of two kinds—under-drains and surface-drains. The latter are simply open ditches to carry off surface-water, that might otherwise stand long enough to destroy the prospective crop. These are frequently useful along at the foot of hills, when they should be proportioned to the extent of the surface above them. They are also very useful on low, level meadow-lands. Properly constructed, they will reclaim low swamps, and make them excellent land. Millions of acres of land in the United States, as good as any we have, are lying useless, and spreading pestilence around, that by this simple method of ditching might be turned to most profitable account. The direction of these drains should be determined by the shape of the land to be drained by them—straight whenever they will answer the purpose, but crooked when they will do better. On low and very level land, they should be not more than five rods apart; they should be three times as wide at the top as they are at the bottom, and as deep as the width at the top; made so slanting, the sides will not fall in;—they should be so shaped as to allow only a very gentle flow of the water: if it flows too rapidly, it will wash down the sides, and obstruct the ditch, and waste the land. Excavations for under-draining are made in the same way, only the top need not be so much wider than the bottom; it would be a waste of labor in excavating a useless quantity of earth. There are four methods of filling up the ditch, viz., with brush; with small stones thrown in promiscuously; with a throat laid in the bottom and filled with small stones; and with a throat made of tile from the pottery. In all cases, that with which the ditch is filled must not come so near the surface as to be reached by the plow. Brush, put in green and covered with straw or leaves, will answer a good purpose for several years, and may be used where small stones can not easily be obtained. The tile is more expensive than either of the others, and not so good as the stones; it is so tight that the water does not enter it so readily; and if by any chance dirt gets into the throat, it obstructs it, and there is no other channel through which the water can pass off. Small stones thrown in promiscuously serve a good purpose for a long time, if they be covered with straw or cornstalks before the earth is put in. But the best method is to make a throat, six inches square, in the bottom of the drain, laying the large stones over the top of it, and filling in the small stones above, and covering with straw;—the water will find its way into the throat through the numerous openings; and if the throat should ever be filled, the water could still pass off between the small stones above. Such drains will last many years, and add one half to the products of all wet springy land. The earth over the new drain should be six inches higher than the surface of the field, that, when well settled, it may be level. Leave no places open for surface-water to run in; that would soon fill up and ruin a drain. Drains made to carry off spring-water are often useless by being in a wrong location. Springs come out near the foot of rising ground. Just where they come out should be the location of the drain, which would then carry off the water and prevent it from saturating and chilling the soil in the field below. Many persons locate their ditch down in the centre of the wet level below the rise of ground; this is of no use to the surface above, to the point where the water springs. Locate the drain just at the point where the land begins to be unduly wet. On very wet, level land, a small drain may also be needed below the first and main one. The cost of a covered drain as described above will be from fifty to seventy-five cents per rod, and an uncovered one will cost from twenty to thirty cents. When you have low swamps to drain, you can realize more than the cost of draining, by carting the excavations upon other land, or into the barnyard as material for compost. Perhaps no expenditure, on land needing it, pays so well as thorough draining. It is important, for all fruit-orchards on low land, to put a drain through under each row of trees: it is indispensable to cherries, and highly favorable to all other fruits.

DUCKS

There are a number of varieties, the wild Black Spanish, the Canvass-Back, and the ordinary little duck of the farmyard, are all good. The common duck is the only one we recommend for the American poultry-yard. A close pasture, including a rivulet, or a small stream of water, affords facilities for raising ducks at a cheap rate. From one hundred to one thousand ducks may be raised in such an enclosure of an acre or two, quite profitably. If there is plenty of grass, they will still need a little grain. In the winter the cheapest feed is beets or potatoes cut fine, with a very little grain. Each duck, well kept, will lay from fifty to one hundred eggs, larger than hen's eggs, and about as good for cooking purposes. They may be picked as geese, for live feathers, though not quite so frequently. The feathers will nearly pay for keeping, leaving the eggs and increase as profit.

DWARFING

This has some advantages in its application to fruit-trees. It will enable the cultivator to raise more fruit on a small plat of ground, to get fruit much earlier than from standard trees, and sometimes, with high cultivation, the fruit will be larger. Dwarfing is done by grafting into small slow-growing stocks. Almost all fruits have such kinds. Grafting into other stocks, as the pear into the foreign quince, is a very effectual method. The Paradise stock for the apple, the Canada and other slow-growing stocks for the plum, the dwarf wild cherry of Europe and the Mahaleb for cherries. Dwarfs produced by grafting upon other stocks are short-lived, compared with standards of the same varieties. They should only be used to economize room, to test varieties, and produce fruit while standards are coming into bearing.

Better and much longer-lived dwarfs may be produced by frequent transplanting, thorough trimming of the roots, and repeated heading-in. The fruit on such dwarfs must be well thinned out when young, or it will be smaller than is natural. The effect of heading in is to cause the sap to mature an abundance of fruit-buds. This will tax the tree too much, unless they be well thinned out. Root-pruning is an effectual method of dwarfing (see Pruning). Dwarfing by root-pruning, repeated transplanting, and thorough heading-in, will not render the trees very short-lived, and in many situations it is profitable. The same is true of the dwarf pear on the quince. All other dwarfing is more for the amateur than the utilitarian.