Supply Of Salads

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

Supply Of Salads

A REGULAR supply of salad is considered essential in most Households, few things being more keenly relished during the summer time. At some tables the salad is thought as important as the dessert, and, like the latter, it requires to be not only good to eat, but pleasant to look upon. The best qualities of the produce can only be fully developed by t lie timely observance of a few rule* ~f cultivation. Whatever is declined for the salad howl should he grown as quickly as i.s consistent with the nature of the plant and tlio wi(ion of the year. Cultivation should lm of a clean and wholesome nature throughout, and the plants

allowed room for full development. By this means crisp, juicy and fresh materials can be provided. The use of sewage is to be deprecated under any circumstances and even ordinary liquid manure should not be used in the finishing stages of growth. If manure is needed let it be applied to the ground before the plants are put in. or iu other words make your soil as rich as possible before planting or no wing. I lie secret of "French gardening" and the wonderful lettuce and other vegetalde.s that are grown bv this method ,s (, »o t<> the fact that the soil is actually a compost of decaying vegetable matter. When one of these gardens is sold or leased this soil i« sold as a q„;t 6 separate item, to the land. Such coinp"st. of course, can be expensive if one tried to cover a large section, but a suHicient area, a foot deep. 011 which to grow the family supply of saladings is not beyond the resources of the average garden. ~ <g>