cucumbers
for main crop or pickle cucumbers should be planted in the open ground from june until the middle of july; at this season there is less danger of damage from the striped cucumber beetle and the stink bug, both serious enemies of the vine family; but even so late in the season it will be well to take the easy precaution of strewing tobacco stems or dust on the hill about the plants.
for pickles plant in hills four to six feet apart each way and keep the entire surface of the ground clean with frequent cultivation. hoeing about the hills and running the hand cultivator with the scuffle-hoe attachment between the hills will be sufficient, but no weeds should be allowed to make a start, as once the vines have begun to172 cover the ground it will be difficult to eradicate the weeds and the vines must not be tramped on or handled unnecessarily. when the plants are a foot long pinch out the ends of the branches to induce branching and check too rampant a growth. pull up all but three or four plants when all danger of bugs is past. keep a close watch for root maggot, borer, and wilt. spray with bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture at the first appearance of wilt, and continue once a week until the fruit appears; after that it will not be safe to use the poison.
gather the pickles frequently—every other day if bearing well; do not allow fruit to grow large or ripen on the vines if grown for pickles as this will check production.
one of the best table varieties is early fortune—also a desirable pickling variety. arlington, white spine and davis's perfect are excellent table sorts and chicago pickle—a standard pickle sort—and long green, or jersey pickle and the westerfield's chicago pickle are all excellent types for growing for pickles.
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citron
used for preserving and for sweet pickles, require the same treatment as melons and squash. seed may be planted directly in the open ground or started on pieces of sod in the hotbed; this is preferable as the fruit sometimes fails to ripen in a short season and unless fully ripened on the vine the preserves have a watery taste, no matter how carefully prepared. citron make about the same length of vine as the watermelon so should be planted from five to six feet apart, and when the vines are a foot in length the tips should be pinched off to induce branching and check too straying a habit. keep cultivated, remembering that the dust-mulch is the best garden insurance and spray with bordeaux mixture against blight and use tobacco dust liberally as a preventive measure against the yellow striped beetle and the squash bug.
musk melons
in securing seed for growing musk melons one should take into consideration the climate and174 the length of the growing season. certain varieties of melon require certain climatic conditions and will not give satisfaction if these are lacking. melons that are adapted to the climate of colorado—like the rocky ford, the honey dew and the like seldom do well in the east and middle west where early frosts are apt to find the fruit still immature, but there are many other excellent varieties well adapted to these sections. the extra early hackensack, the osage, the irondequoit and others can be grown with satisfaction and all are especially fine and large.
as a general thing i think a large melon, sweetness and flavor being equal, preferable. one of the sweetest melons with which i am acquainted is the old cassaba; this is the largest musk melon grown—a perfect specimen being from twelve to fifteen inches in length and as much as one wishes to carry up from the garden, but the delicate green flesh is melted sugar, nothing less, with a flavor all its own.
for an early crop of melons one should start the seed in the hotbed on squares of sod, using175 plenty of seed so that one will have an assured stand, and transplant when all danger of frost is past. if one only grows a few hills it will well repay one for the extra trouble to cover the hills with shallow boxes, covered with wire netting or mosquito netting. the boxes should not be more than four inches high and about twelve inches square, or thereabouts; if removed as soon as danger of bugs is past and stored in a dry place they will last for a number of years. empty biscuit boxes sawed in two make good frames or strips of three inch lumber can quickly be converted into frames by any one handy with hammer and saw.
dry weather is one of the serious drawbacks to melon culture as the drought usually comes just as the fruit is setting. sinking tin cans, with holes punched in the sides near the bottom, to the top in the soil in the middle of the hill and keeping them filled with water will be of much assistance in bringing the fruit on to maturity. occasionally too much rain interferes with the ripening of the fruit; in such cases the empty can176 will act as a drain pipe by accumulating water from the surface soil. the glass plant protectors used in early spring are helpful in concentrating the little sunshine cloudy weather affords and where these are not available old window glass may be used to afford protection from rain and wind for a few days. this should be supported on the north side by a frame or stout stakes, their lower edge resting on the ground.
the best soil for melons is a warm, sandy soil well enriched with barnyard manure and a supplementary shovelful should be placed in each hill. make the hills about six feet apart each way, and thin out to three plants to a hill. if desired such small sorts as rocky ford, paul rose, hoodoo and the like may be grown on netting; they will not, perhaps, bear as freely, but the fruit will be more perfect than when grown on the ground, and there is this advantage that the fruit drops when perfectly ripe so that there is no uncertainty about gathering it. where there is only a small garden spot available the growing of melons, cucumbers and the177 like on netting is a distinct advantage; the cultivation then becomes as simple as that of a row of peas and can be continued throughout the season; gathering the fruit is much simplified as there are no vines to be trampled on and if water is needed it can be quickly applied along the row. melons grown on netting are easily protected from early frost, but it is difficult to cover any considerable area on the ground.
watermelons
require the same treatment as musk-melons except that it is all right that they should be started in the open ground, spacing the hills from eight to ten feet apart each way; giving a spadeful of manure in each hill. spray with bordeaux arsenate of lead mixture once or twice, using a much weaker dilution than for other vines. pinch out the ends of the vines. keep cultivated and free from weeds. avoid stepping on the vines or handling them unnecessarily.
cole's early, kleckley sweet and the new melon—tom watson—are all good sorts of much178 sweetness and crispness of flesh. the first is well adapted to the northern states, the kleckley a few days later than cole's early. a few winter watermelons will extend the season long into the winter as this variety may be gathered at the approach of cold weather and stored in a cool, frost-proof cellar and will retain its delicious flavor and sweetness for weeks. unlike the other melons mentioned, which are oblong and green, and very tender of rind, the winter is round, nearly white-skinned and of a hardness approaching the citron. the flesh, however, is red and very firm. it must not be concluded that the winter is a late season melon, for it is one of the earliest, continuing to bear until frost cuts the vines, so that it may be grown for a single melon crop if desired.
squash
winter squash are an important garden product, not much appreciated during the flush times of summer but coming into its own at the approach of cold weather; the culture is practically179 that of all vine products. starting seed on sod in the hotbed and transplanting has much to recommend it as the squash seems to attract more than a fair sort of attention from striped cucumber beetle, squash bugs, stink worm and blight. the vine borer also takes its tithe of the plant and a sudden wilting of the leaves is indication that he is at work; he should be hunted for and killed. usually there is little hopes of saving the injured branch; if anything will do it it will be burying the wound in earth and keeping it moist for a time until it either heals or sends out roots at the nearest joint and so becomes an independent plant.
as a rule squash, melons, cucumbers and the like will not transplant. it often happens that about all of the seed planted in some hills will germinate and make strong plants while other hills will have but one or two plants and it is desired to transplant some of the extra plants into hills where they are needed; attempts to do this with a trowel invariably fail; it is possible, however, to transplant an entire hill—or a part of one180 if spaced far enough apart, by passing a spade down into the ground at a sufficient distance from the plant to avoid disturbing the roots and lifting a large spadeful of earth with the plants. the hill that is to receive them should have been prepared in advance so that the earth may slide off the spade into the hole without disturbing or breaking it in the least; the soil should not be pressed down as this would have a tendency to crumble, but any space about it should be filled in carefully and water poured around it. squash or other vines moved in this way invariably live and go on growing without any appreciable setback. a considerable patch of winter squash—the delicious—was entirely secured by taking up plants that had come up self sown in various places; somewhere some immature squash were left in the garden the fall before; some came from the frame around a standpipe in the barnyard which was filled with coal ashes. how the squash came to come up in that unusual place is unknown, but there were a number of nice plants and these were lifted on the spade and carried—a181 spadeful at a time—and planted where they were wanted and the entire patch was very thrifty and bore abundantly.
spraying, hand picking and attention to cultivation are essential in growing squash as with other garden crops. the dust-mulch is the one certain assurance against failure.
the hubbard squash, both golden and warted, have long been standard sorts, but both have lost, through much careless breeding, the qualities which distinguished them—dryness and sweetness. it is practically impossible of late years to find an individual of either variety that is really dry or sweet or that has keeping qualities equal to the early sorts. in the delicious we have a much superior squash whose dryness is notable and sweetness all that one could desire, even small, immature specimens possess the quality in high degree. unless one has home grown seed from a hubbard that was perfect in these qualities i should advise planting the seed of delicious and saving one's own seed from the best specimen of that.
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summer squash
then there are all the varieties of summer squashes—summer crookneck, giant summer crookneck, the vegetable marrows, and the several bush forms, which are a boon to the small kitchen garden as they take little room and are always within bounds; they include the bush fordhook, used as a summer squash when green, or ripe, a good keeper, often lasting until the next season's crop is ready. the mammoth white bush or patty pan, early yellow bush, early golden bush and bush english marrow are all good sorts—either cooked and mashed or egged and fried like eggplant. all require the same general treatment and all bear heavily and early. the summer squash are planted in the open ground any time that is suitable for planting corn. to guard against loss by seed decaying in the ground if the season is wet, set the seeds on edge, instead of laying them flat; this is advisable with all flat seeds of pronounced size; cover half an inch and mark the hills so that cultivation can183 commence at once. covering the hills with frames will save much work in combating insects or a cap of window screening will be effectual; this is made from a round piece of netting with a slit on one side from center to edge to allow its being bent in a tent shape. a stick should be fastened to it to hold it together and anchor it to the ground; this can be easily arranged by taking a piece of wood four or five inches longer than the cap and splitting it half its length, inserting the wire where it laps into the split and thrusting the free end into the ground. these little caps are very practical as they can be flattened out and laid away when no longer required, occupying very little space to store and for that reason are preferable to the boxes.
squash vines may be kept from growing too rampant by shortening the branches. they should always be pinched back as soon as they have made a foot, or less, of growth and when fruit is well set on the vines the ends may be severely cut back to insure the early maturity of the fruit already set. i have removed branches184 several feet long and bearing half-grown squash from vines of the english marrow without the least ill effect and have no doubt that similar treatment would be well borne by the hubbard or other winter squash, and so save much useless growth and conserve the strength of the vine for the main crop of squash and, perhaps, induce a dryer, sweeter product.
sweet potatoes
the easiest way to raise one's own sweet potatoes is to buy already started plants of the market gardeners who make a business of starting them for sale; but if one prefers to plant the tubers and raise one's own plants, and the potatoes are available—which seldom is the case unless one has kept them over in a warm cellar buried in sand—then the potatoes are cut the same as irish potatoes, one eye to a piece, and started in a warm hotbed in april. before planting the pieces of potato it is a wise precaution to dip each piece in sulphur to protect against black rot. the plants should not be set out in the185 open ground until the nights are warm and all danger of frost is passed. the hills should be three feet apart each way at least as the vines make quite a rank growth. warm, sandy soil, well fertilized, is necessary and a trowelful of poultry droppings may be added to each hill for good results. cultivate thoroughly and often and when the vines become too long to make cultivating convenient they may be lifted and coiled around the top of the hill, the hill, by the way, not being a hill at all in the common acceptance of the term but merely a level space devoted to the growing of the potato. it is quite important that the ground immediately about the plant be kept clean, so that when the vines are coiled up they need not be again disturbed to remove weeds.
the space between the plants should be kept mellow and free from weeds throughout the growing season. sweet potatoes are quite as easy to grow as irish potatoes, easier, in fact, as they have fewer enemies and are not attacked by the potato beetle. they are more difficult to keep, however, and should be stored in boxes of dry sand in a warm, dry cellar over winter.