KITCHEN GARDEN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 61

KITCHEN GARDEN

Sow vegetable, seeds of all sorts in localities fairly free from frost. In districts where late spring frosts are still to be feared hold back the sowing of French beans, and scarlet runners for a week or two. In the class of runner beans all are sensitive to very low temperatures, and it is only time and money wasted to. be in too great a burry, with them. Pea® are not so delicate, and may be planted fairly freely. For an all round satisfactory kind there is perhaps no better dwarf pea than William Hurst, unless it be English Wonder, American Wonder, a well known older variety, is also excellent. For an all round A 1 tall variety, Stratagem, though not among the newer kinds, is strongly recommended. The grower who will take the trouble to pick his seed) may in a year or two obtain wonderful results with this pea. The plan to follow is to pick the biggest and fullest pods from the best branching plant®, and again select from each of these only the finest specimens of seed. By this process the private grower gets his own strain of seed and' soon knows what to expect from it. It may be noted, however, that where two varieties of peaa blooming at the same time are g*own in proximity there can never be anything. certain expected from the seeds of either, for cross-fertilisation goes on to such an extent that anything in the shape of a pea may be the outcome. The same caution is to be borne in mind in reference to any home-saved seeds of vegetables of which different varieties Bloom in the same near neighbourhood. Potato planting on a large scale will not be So extensively followed out this year a® heretofore. The presence of tlie potato! plague in New Zealand makes it too. risky for farmers to go in for what might prove nothing but loss and vexation. There is all the more reason therefore for the small grower to have his own little potato patch. This month is none too early to plant except in very cold localities. As to variety, local experience is mostly the best guide. There are so many kinds on the market which are cracked up as world beaters that it- is hard for the amateur grower to know which to try. Up-to-date is an unmistakably heavy cropper of a.- fair table quality, and White Beauty of Hebrlon though not as heavy a yielder is superior in flavour. As an early, Myatt’s Ashl'eaf is an excellent dwarf kidney, and as a second early the Bath Kidney is quite as good. Both are heavy, croppers on free soil. For flavour our own preference is for the variety known as Covent Garden Perfection, hut we do not know that it is locally procurable. In our own personal experience the very best soil for potatoes is one which has a high proportion of sand in its composition. The sandy alluvial deposit along river flats which has not been exhausted by other cropping is test of all. The essence of successful potatoe culture is a deep and fine tilth. The soil cannot be too fine. An accidental' experience will illustrate this. A heap of coal ashes 3ft in depth was deposited where a manure heap had recently stood. A! chance potato (Beauty of Hebron) grew, up through this, and was allowed to run its course. The tubers were formed within the ash-heap, the roots having run down to the well-manured soil beneath. The quality and quantity of those potatoes were abnormal, and the symmetry of their form was remarkable for its uniformity. If it were possible therefore to lay the "sets” on a bed of manure and cover to a foot in depth with any loose free material the maximum of perfection might be looked for. This cannot be done, of course, but a fine tilth approximating these conditions may be obtained in a suitable soil. Moral: Work frtely, and plant fairly

deep. To prevent disease, plant sound seed and spray early.