Woodford County Journal from Eureka, Illinois • 9

Careful Soil Preparation Pays Dividends To Gardener DOING a good job of soil preparation is an important step toward success for the Victory gardener who has chosen a suitable site for his work in the 1943 food for freedom campaign Of prime importance is the selection of a suitable site Garden areas should have sunshine and they should have good soil selected if the gardener has no better way of judging soil by applying the rule: weeds grow rank the Youthful Victory Gardeners Start Tomato Crop soil is usually This rule however does not apply if the soil is wet Third item in the 1 2 3 of first steps in garden growing ia a careful preparation of the soil before planting As soon as the land is sufficiently dry in spring and the area is cleared of large stones and debris the gardener can start spading unless he is fortunate enough to be able to have his garden plowed Heavy soils especially should not be worked while wet Where there is a deep layer of the fertile top soil the garden should be spaded or plowed to a depth of 8 to 10 inches but gardeners who have thin layers of top soil should be careful not to dig up qpch subsoil Well rotted leafmold horse manure or cow manure or other decayed organic matter if obtainable should be worked into the soil As much as a bushel can well be used fort each 25 square feet this being equal to about 20 tons per acre The spaded up masses should be crushed and roughly leveled out as the spading progresses After the soil of the small garden is spaded stones or trash at the surface should be removed and the clods broken Clods should be broken up finely with the rake instead of being removed from the garden Immediately before planting any part of the garden that part should be finely worked up and smoothed with the rake before laying off the rows There are few soils on which vegetables do not benefit from the proper use of fertilizer arm and small town gar deners usually have access to animal manures but city and suburban gardeners rely largely on commercial fertilizers All gardeners are urged to use compost piles and animal manures to the fullest possible extent Common in the past have been such garden fertilizers as those containing 5 per cent nitrogen 10 percent phosphoric acid 5 percent potash Such 10 mixtures and similar high nitrogen fertilizers are the ones recommended by the Department of Agriculture as the best for general garden use but difficulties in obtaining fertilizers with as much as 5 percent nitrogen have this year led to the substitution of a special Victory Garden ertilizer for the small garden Labeled Garden ertilizer for ood Production this mixture will be found in stores in 5 pound 10 pound 25 pound 50 pound and 100 pound packages for home use in place of the usually recommended 8 10 5 mixture Made up of 3 percent nitrogen 8 percent phosphoric acid and 7 percent potash the new fer 'Victory1 ertilizer tilizer not only contains less nitro Recommended for gen but gets most of the nitrogen Tawn Gardeners does contain from such organic sources as cotton seed meal The chemical nitrogen formerly abundant for fertilizers is essen tial in the manufacture of explosives Commercial fertilizer is best used when applied along the garden rows in a band about 3 or 4 inches wide about 2 inches from the line where the seeds will be sown or the plants set A wide furrow about 2 inches deep is scooped out with a hoe The fertilizer is spread uniformly along this furrow mixed with the soil and covered about 2 indies deep It should not touch the seed Broadcasting is easier than applying fertilizer in bands but except' on very close rows broadcasting results in less effi cient use of the fertilizer which must be conserved The 5 10 5 fertilizer is applied at the rate of 1 pound per 30 feet of row when the rows are 2 feet apart but the 3 8 7 mixture at the rate of 1 pound per 24 or 25 feet of row The Victory Garden ertilizer if broadcast is used at the rate of 3 or 4 pounds per 100 square feet and then mixed thoroughly with the soil Bisects weeds and diseases are the chief Axis agents known to be operating in Victory Gardens The "follow and vigilance against enemies are essential to success 1q ths home food production effort this rw Weeds can be kept under control by thorough shallow cultivation but protection against the insect and disease agents of the Axis requires special forethought and preparations rom the time the seeds of garden plants are put into the ground until the crops are gathered diseases and insects must be fought Prevention as always is better than cures and thus it is important not only to plant locally adapted disease resistant varieties but also to use disease free seed To Secure Most and plants Numerous important diseases such as bean anthracnose pea pod spot and potato leaf roll and mosaic are carried in or on the seed and yet cannot be Gardeners Advised controlled by seed treatment It is To Secure Most therefore essential to secure the Disease ree Seed most using the most reliable sources Some garden troubles may be brought in on the roots of seedling plants and remain in the soil to attack future crops In buying plants the gardener should therefore make sure that his purchases are healthy and free from insects The roots should be clean profusely branched and free from knots or swellings Controlling diseases caused by fungi bacteria and other enemies requires special treatment Injurious insects of the garden may be divided into two classes with reference to their manner of taking in food Caterpillars beetles grasshoppers and grubs have biting mouth parts and feed by biting off chewing up and swal lowing the substance of the plant On the other hand the mouth parts of plant lice thrips leafhoppers and plant bugs form a tubular beak through which the juices from within the plant are sucked up and swallowed Stomach poisons put on the plant surface do not affect these sucking insects which must be controlled by contact insecticides or remedies that kill by touching the insects Small compressed air sprayers carried by a strap over the shoulder are suggested for use in the small garden One of these will serve for several gardeners in a neighborhood and the original cost is reasonable Poisons may be applied in powder form to a number of garden crops by means of a small hand duster or even a burlap or cheesecloth bag the poison being dusted upon the plants when they have dew upon them Garden products such as snap beans should not be sprayed or dusted with poisons after the edible parts have formed Weed Two Successful Methods soil can be propierly worked after each rain it should be thoroughly hoed or cultivated to kill weeds that have sprouted and also to leave the surface in a loose friable condition to absorb later rainfall Weeds that take root again readily after hoeing or after they are pulled out should be carried out of the garden If water is applied to the garden the soil should be thor oughly and deeply soaked as it is by a fairly heavy rain It then actually needs watering again only when the soil shows signs of becoming dry Artificial watering if thus applied properly will prove a decided advantage during dry periods but it may actually prove to be an injury if not done properly requent light sprinkling or irrigation is a bad practice because it waters the roots of shallow growing weeds leaves the garden plants without enough water and yet leads the gardener to believe that his work is done Some gardeners recommend soaking the soil thoroughly about once a week and then loosening tne surface by cultivation as soon as the soil is dry enough to work On a small scale the water can be ap plied by means of a sprinkling can Wher ever available a garden hose should be used Perhaps the best method for apply ing the water is to open slight furrows alongside the rows of plants and allow the water to flow gently along these furrows After irrigation the soil should hot be trampled or worked until it has partially dried so that it is no longer sticky Where seeds are to be sown during a dry period a slight furrow may be opened and water run through it Then after the water has soaked into the soil the seeds may be sown and covered with dry earth This method will insure a good stand of plants as the moisture feeds upward in the soil like the oil in a lamp wick Mulching between the rows with straw dried lawn clip pings leaves or similar material will help conserve moisture and keep down weeds OR ''VICTORY Spring is not the only planting season for Victory garden ers who make the best use of their home food plots Effective gardening requires thought and work before and all through the entire season and in the south the year round Much of this thought and work is in connection with a schedule for planting succession crops that is crops planted after others have been harvested from the same area Single plantings of lima beans some pole snap beans chard and tomatoes (planted in spring) bear for a long sea son In the south fall collards kale spinach and turnips (planted in late summer) are usable some time after frost Gardeners are thus advised to consult with their experi enced neighbors and such authorities as county agricultural agents and also to obtain publications from their state agri cultural agencies No one plan suits all gardeners in all parts of the United States but the garden chart (See Plan I) includes a num ber of examples of succession crops for Victory Gardens Described as example not a specific the plan for a garden in the middle Succession Crops part of the country includes for in Induded OS Part stance three succession crops sug Of Model Garden 8ested as best in some parts of the country Having suggested two rows of Kentucky Wonder pole snap beans for spring planting it is suggested that harvesting beans follow with 3 rows of Purple Top Globe Two rows of collards may follow where one row each of Crosby Egyptian or Early Wonder beets Chantenay or Nantes carrots and Shogoin turnips have been harvested Where a row of Scarlet Globe radishes and a row of Long Meeting the attacks of insects and diseases requires in formation that gardeners should obtain from state or federal agricultural agencies and experienced gardeners Available free from the Department of Agriculture is a armers Bulletin of general value called and Insects of Garden Victory gardeners cannot afford to neglect their hoeing and then catch up with drastic spurts Steady and cautious are the words suggested for cultivation Weeds rob garden plants of water nutrients and even the space and sunshine that they require As soon as the Standing Bloomsdale spinach have been harvested the gar dener may plant 2 rows of No 5 Refugee beans Crops in the sample scheme that grow throughout the season are: Two rows of Carolina or Sieva pole lima beans a row of Earliana tomatoes a row of Marglobe tomatoes and a half row of ordhook Giant chard Several of the rows suggested for the food garden are thus involved in the schedule of second crops Those with larger or smaller areas it is pointed out will have similar opportunities In more northern and in far southern states seasons are of course different and thus the succession scheme would need to be different than for the middle part of the country TABLE 4: Vitamin Mineral and Energy Values of Vegetables Kind of Vegetable Vitamin A Thiamine Acid Riboflavin Calcium Iron ValuV Calories pound Beans lima (green) Excellent Good Excellent 595 Beans snap Excellent Good Good Good Good Beet greens Excellent Excellent Excellent 150 Cabbage Good Excellent Good Good 130 Carrots Excellent Good Good Good 2J5 chard Excellent Excellent Excellent H5 Collards Excellent Good Excellent Good Excellent Good 225 Corn sweet Good 510 Kale Excellent Good Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent 225 Lettuce green Excellent Good Good Good Good 85 Parsnips Good Good Good 380 Potatoes Good Good 385 Spinach Excellent Good Excellent Good Excellent 110 Squash Hubbard Excellent 200 Sweetpotatoes Excellent Good Good 56a Tomatoes red Excellent Good Excellent 105 Turnip greens Excellent Good Excellent Excellent Excellent Excellent 165 Turnips white Excellent Good 155.