Chapter 19

Hence the first study of a soil culturist should be to ascertain how he shall so mix and manage the materials at his command, as to cause them to retain moisture for the longest time, without leaving water to stand about the roots of his plants. On this depends the whole importance of deep plowing and ditching. On this theory we may also account for the fact that certain plants prefer a certain kind of manure to all others. It is that those plants act in a certain manner on the soil requiring a specific action of manure to enable it to appropriate moisture and tax the atmosphere for their growth. This theory explains why too much manure is bad. Not because we give too much food to plants, but because excess of manure dries up the land. But whatever theory we adopt, we all agree in the utility of fertilizers. And the experience of practical farmers is of more value in aiding us to reach right conclusions, than all chemical essays on the subject that have ever been written.

MARL.

This is one of the best distributed and most universal fertilizers. Marl proper contains nearly equal proportions of clay and lime. Sand-marl is spoken of, in which sand and lime are the main ingredients. Clay-marls are to be applied to sandy and gravelly soils, and sand-marls to clayey soils. Shell-marls are very valuable, and seldom contain clay. Marls may easily be known, even by those not at all acquainted with chemistry. Apply any mineral acid, or even very strong vinegar, and if it be a marl, an effervescence will at once be observed: this effect is produced by acid upon lime.

MARJORUM.

There are two varieties in cultivation--the _sweet_, an annual herb; and the _winter_, a hardy perennial. They are grown and used as summer savory--used green, or dried for winter. They give a sweet, aromatic flavor to soups, stews, and dressings. The cultivation is, in all respects, like other garden-herbs of the kind, whether for medicinal or culinary purposes.

MELONS.

There are two species--musk and water melons--which are subdivided into many varieties of each. These are among the most delicious of all the products of the garden. A little use makes all persons very fond of them. The climate of the Middle and Southern states is well adapted to raising melons; much better than the same latitudes in Europe. The following brief directions will insure success in their cultivation. A light, rich soil is always desirable. There should always be a little sand in the composition of soil for melons. If not there naturally, supply it; it will always pay. The warm sands of Long Island and New Jersey are the best possible for melons, especially for water-melons. It may be well to trench deep for the hills, and mix in a little well-rotted manure, and cover it with fine mould. A quantity of manure, left in bulk under the hills, will dry them up at the worst possible time. When you plant only a few in a garden, mulch your musk-melons with chips or sawdust from the wood-yard, or leaves and decayed wood from the forest, and you will get a great growth. They will grow luxuriantly in a pile of chips, with a little soil, in a door-yard, where hardly any other plant would flourish. The water-melon does best in almost pure sand, if it be enriched with liquid or some other of the finer manures. Plant musk-melons six feet apart, and water-melons nine feet each way. When the plants become established, never leave more than two or three in a hill. The product will be greatly increased in number and size, by picking off the end bud of the first runners when they show their blossom-buds; this causes them to throw out many strong lateral vines, which will produce abundantly. The attacks of striped bugs, so well known as the enemies of vines, and also of the black fleas, or hoppers (very minute, but quite destructive to tender vines when first up), may be prevented (says Downing) by sprinkling near the plants a little guano. As but a small portion of cultivators will have it, or can obtain it, we recommend to put many seeds in a hill, to provide for the depredations of the bugs, and sprinkle offensive articles around them. These will not always be effectual. We have recommended elsewhere to fence each hill, as the most effectual method. A box, with gauze or a pane of glass over the top, is a certain remedy in every case; it also greatly promotes the growth of the young vines. This is equally effectual against the cutworm and all other insects; and, as the boxes will last a dozen years or so, we should use them if we had ten acres of melons. But by early and late planting, and watchfulness, and replanting, you will succeed without protection. An excessive quantity of stable-manure does not increase the growth, especially of water-melons. Plaster, bonedust, and ashes, are good applications; hog-manure is the best of all. The seeds should be soaked two days, and planted an inch deep on broad hills, raised in the centre four inches above the level of the bed, that water may not stand around them; planted low, they sometimes perish in a few hours in a hot sun, after a rain. Hoe them often, but never when they are wet, and never hoe near them after they have commenced running; the roots spread, about as much as the vines, and hoeing deep near them cuts off the roots, and materially injures them. Many a promising plat of melons has been ruined by stirring the soil when they were wet, and hoeing around them after they had begun to run. In walking among melons, great harm is done by stepping on the ends of vines. No one should be allowed among melons but the one who hoes or picks them. Many are lost by drought, after great care. We have often used an effectual remedy; it consists in turning up the vines, if they have begun to run before the drought, and putting around each hill from a peck to half a bushel of wet, well rotted manure; that from a spent hotbed is excellent for this purpose; and hoe from a distance between the hills, and cover the manure an inch or two deep with fine mould, lay down the vines, and saturate the hill with water, and they will hardly get dry again during the season. A little judicious watering will give you a great crop in the most severe drought.

_Varieties of the Musk-melon._--These are numerous, and the nomenclature uncertain. The London Horticultural Society's catalogue enumerates seventy. Most of them are of no use to any one. Two or three of the best are sufficient. There are three general classes of musk-melons--the _green-fleshed_, as the citron and nutmeg; _yellow-fleshed_, as the cantelope, or long yellow; and _Persian melon_. The last is the finest of all, but is too tender for general cultivation with us, requiring much care and very warm seasons. The yellow-fleshed are very large, but much inferior in quality to either of the others. The green-fleshed are _the_ musk-melons for this whole country. The nutmeg has long been celebrated; but, it being much smaller than the citron, and in no way superior in quality, we think the latter the best for all American gardens.

The following are enumerated in "White's Gardening for the South," as adapted to the latitude of the Southern states: _Christiana_, _Beechwood_, _Hoosainee_, _Sweet Ispahan_, _Pineapple_, _Cassabar_, _Netted Citron_, and _Rock_. These are doubtless all fine, and would do well at the North, with suitable care and protection. Downing's catalogue is nearly the same, with a very few additions.

_Varieties of Water-melons_--are also numerous, and names uncertain. The best varieties, however, are well known. The most choice are the following: _Imperial_, _Carolina_, _Black Spanish_, _Mountain-Sprout_, _Mountain-Sweet_, _Apple-seeded_, and _Ice-cream_. The following excellent water-melons all originated in South Carolina: _Souter_; _Clarendon_, or _dark-speckled_; _Bradford_, very dark-green, with stripes mottled and streaked with green; _Ravenscroft_, and _Odell's large white_. There is a fine little melon, called the orange-melon, because the flesh and skin separate like an orange. These varieties will all do well with care. To preserve any one of them, it must be grown at some distance from other varieties. All water-melons should be far removed from citrons, which resemble them, raised only for preserving. They always ruin the next generation of water-melons. Different varieties of musk-melons planted together produce hybrids, partaking of the qualities of both, and are often very fine. We raised a cross between the yellow-fleshed cantelope and the nutmeg, which was excellent.

Seeds of most vines are better for being two or three years old, as they produce less vines, but more fruit. Melons are a luxury that should grow in every garden, and the state should enact severe laws against stealing them, making the punishment no less than fine and imprisonment.

MILLET.

This is a species of grain, partaking much of the nature of a large grass. Sowed thin, it produces a good yield. The seed is excellent for fowls. Ground, it is good for keeping or fattening all domestic animals. It is about equal to Indian corn for bread. Cut while green, but when nearly ripe, it is a good substitute for hay, producing a much larger quantity per acre. All animals prefer millet, cut in the milk, to hay. It is a less profitable crop for grain, on account of the irregularity of its ripening, and its extreme liability to shell, when dry. It must be cut as soon as the seed begins to harden. It also attracts swarms of birds, which are exceedingly fond of the seed. About three tons per acre is an average crop on tolerably good land. From one to three pecks of seed to the acre are sown broadcast. When sown in drills and cultivated, it grows very large, and requires only four quarts of seed per acre. It will make good fodder sown at any time from April to July. Its more extensive cultivation for fodder is recommended.

MINT.

This genus of plants comprises twenty-four species. Those usually cultivated in gardens are three, _Peppermint_, _Spearmint_, and _Pennyroyal mint_. All mints are propagated by the same methods. Parting the roots, offset young plants, and cuttings from the stalks. Spearmint and peppermint like a moist and even wet soil. Pennyroyal does better in a rich loam. Plants come into use the same season they are set. Set the plants eight inches apart, and on beds four feet wide, leaving a path two feet between them. In field culture, for the oils and essences, place them two feet apart, for the convenience of going between the rows with a horse. Thus cultivation becomes easy. They should be cut in full blossom, and dried in small bunches in the shade, but better by artificial heat, like hops. They should be cut when dry. For domestic uses, dry quickly, and pulverize, and put away in tight glass bottles. They will retain all their strength, keep free from dust, and always be ready for use. The same is true of all the herbs for domestic use. As a field crop, mints are profitable.

MULBERRY.

There are three varieties cultivated in this country. We place them in the order of their qualities:--

1. _The Johnson._--A new variety, thus described by Kirtland: "Fruit very large; oblong cylindric; blackish, subacid, and of mild and agreeable flavor. Growth of wood strong."

2. _The Black Mulberry._--An Asiatic variety, rather tender for the North, though it succeeds tolerably well in some parts of New England. Fruit large and delicious; tree low and spreading. Easily cultivated on almost any soil. Propagated by seeds, layers, cuttings, or roots.

3. _The Red Mulberry._--A native of this country. Fruit small and pleasant, but inferior to the two preceding.

MULCHING.

This is placing around plants or trees, coarse manure or litter of any kind, to keep down weeds, and prevent too rapid evaporation of moisture. All straw, corn stalks, old weeds or stubble, forest leaves, seaweeds, old wood, sawdust, old tanbark, chips, &c., are good for mulching. Any tree taken up and planted with reasonable care, and well mulched and watered, will live. One of fifty need not die. Cover the loose earth deep enough to prevent the springing of weeds. Put a little earth on the outer edge of the manure, leaving it dishing about the tree. Fill that occasionally with water, and you will get a good growth, even in a dry season.

Plant gooseberries or currants, and mulch the whole ground between the bushes, and give them no other cultivation, and the berries will grow nearly twice as large as the same varieties standing neglected, to grow up to weeds, in the usual way. Mulching with clean, dry straw, or with charcoal, is a preventive of mildew. It is the easiest method of taking care of strawberries after they are in blossom; the vines will bear much more and finer fruit, and it will be clean and neat. Mulching vines is a great means of insuring a crop. Every crop that can be mulched will be greatly benefited by it; hence, all the straw and litter that can be saved is money in the pocket; for mulching alone, it is worth five times as much as it can be sold for. Burning or in any way destroying cobs, cornstalks, stubble, old straw, or decaying wood, is extravagant wastefulness.

MUSHROOMS

Are vegetables growing up in old pastures, or on land mulched and the straw partly covered with soil. They are also cultivated in beds for the purpose. Picked at the right stage, they are a fine article of diet, almost equalling oysters. The use of the wild ones, however, is attended with some danger, for the want of knowledge of the varieties, or of the difference between the genuine mushroom, and the toadstools that so much resemble them.

Persons have been poisoned unto death by eating toadstools instead of mushrooms. When of middle size, mushrooms are distinguished by the fine pink or flesh color of their gills, and by their pleasant smell. In a more advanced stage, the gills become of a chocolate color; they are then apt to be confounded with injurious kinds. The toadstool that most resembles the true mushroom is slimy to the touch, and rather disagreeable to the smell. The noxious kind grows in the borders of woods, while the mushroom only grows in the open field. It is better, however, not to eat them unless gathered by a practised hand, so as to be sure of no mistake. With the help of one accustomed to gathering them, you will learn in a few moments, so as to be accurate and safe.

_Mushroom Beds._--Prepare a bed in the corner of the hothouse, or, in the absence of that, in a warm, dry cellar. The first of October is the best time. Make the bed four feet wide, and as long as you require. It should be one foot high perpendicularly at the edges, and sloping toward the middle; it should be of horse-manure, well forked, and put in compact and even, so as to settle all alike. Cover it with long straw, to preserve heat and the exhalations that would rise. At the end of ten days, the heat will be such as to allow you to remove the straw, and put an inch of good mould over the top of the bed. On this put the spawn or seed of the mushroom, in rows of six inches apart. The spawn are white fibres, found in old pastures, where mushrooms grow, or in old spent hotbeds, and sometimes under old stable floors. The warmth of the bed will produce mushrooms plentifully for a considerable time. If the production diminishes and nearly ceases, it may be renewed by removing the mould, and putting on good horse-manure to the depth of twelve inches, and covering and planting as before, and the production will be plentiful for a number of weeks.

MUSTARD.

There are two kinds cultivated, the black and the white, annuals, and natives of Great Britain. The white mustard is cultivated in this country principally for greens, and sometimes for a small salad like the cress. It may be sown at any time from opening of spring to the beginning of autumn. But sown in hot weather, the bed must be shaded. The Spaniards prefer the white mustard for grinding for table use, because of its mildness and its whiter flour. White mustard-seed, being much larger than the black, is preferred for mangoes, and all pickling purposes.

Black mustard is cultivated principally in the field, for the mills. It is there ground, and makes the well known condiment found on most tables.

Sow in March or April, broadcast on land tolerably free from weeds, and if you get it too thick, hoe up a part. In July or August, you may get a good crop. Cradle it as wheat, before ripe enough to shell.

Mustard used in various ways is medicinal. It is one of the safest and most speedy emetics. Stir up a table-spoonful of the flour and drink it. Follow it with repeated draughts of warm water, and in half an hour, you will have gone through all the stages of a thorough emetic, without having been weakened by it.

NASTURTIUM.

This annual plant, found in most gardens, is too well known to need description. Were it not so common, its flowers, that appear in great profusion, from early summer till destroyed by frost, would be regarded very beautiful. Its main use is for pickles. Its green berries are nearly equal to capers for that purpose. It grows well on any good garden soil; bears more berries on less vines, planted on land not too rich. Single vines four feet apart, on rich land, do best.

NECTARINE.

This is only a fine variety of the peach, having a smooth skin. Downing gives instances of its return to the peach, and others of the production of nectarines and peaches on the same limb. The appearance of the tree is hardly distinguishable from the peach. It is one of the most beautiful of dessert fruits: it has no down on the skin, being entirely smooth and beautiful, like waxwork. Its smooth skin exposes it to the ravages of the curculio. It is longer-lived on plum-stocks, but is more generally budded on the peach. It is usually productive wherever peaches flourish, if not destroyed by the curculio. It is even more important than in the peach to head-in the trees often, to produce good large fruit.

_Varieties_--are divided into freestone and clingstone, with quite a number in each class. We give only a few of those most esteemed.

_Boston._--Freestone, American seedling; hardy and productive; color deep-yellow, with a bright-red cheek. Time, September 1st.

_Due du Telliers._--Freestone, pale-green, with a marbled reddish cheek; flesh whitish, inclining to green; very fine; a great bearer of rather large fruit. Time, last of August.

_Hunt's Tawny._--Very fine and early; a great bearer; tree hardy; color, pale-orange, with a dark-red cheek, with many russety specks. Time, forepart of August.

_Pitmaston Orange._--A fine yellow nectarine, maturing the last of August.

_The Early Violet_--is an old French variety, everywhere esteemed; it has sixteen synonyms; fruit high-flavored. Time, last of August.

_Newington._--A good clingstone; an English variety that has long been cultivated; it has many synonyms; the color dark-red when exposed. Time, 10th of September.

_Newington Early_--Is one of the best, earlier, larger, and better, than the preceding; ripens first of September. The same varieties are excellent for the South, where they ripen considerably earlier. The following selection of choice, hardy nectarines for a small garden, is from Downing:--

Early Violet, Elruge, Hardwicke Seedling, Hunt's Tawny, Boston, Roman, and New White.

NEW FRUITS.

That these are constantly appearing, is a matter of common observation; but the manner of their production has given rise to much diversity of opinion. The theory that they are the results of replanting, from the seeds of successive generations of the same tree, is called the Van Mons' theory, after Dr. Van Mons, of Belgium, who devoted many years of close study and application to the improvement of fruit, especially of pears, by this method. His directions may be briefly summed up as follows. Plant seeds from any good variety of fruit; let those seedlings stand without grafting, until they bear. Take the first fruit from the best of those seedlings, and plant it and produce other seedlings, and so on. The peach and plum are said to reach a high state of excellence in the third generation, while the pear requires the fifth. Seeds from old trees are said to have a great tendency to return to their wild origin, while those of young, improving trees will more generally produce a better fruit. The seeds from a graft from a young tree does not produce a better than itself. The succession must be of seedlings. This theory requires long practice, and is exposed to interruptions by the crosses that will necessarily occur between different trees in blossom. And we have in so many cases had a fruit of great perfection arise from a single planting of seed from some known variety, that we must conclude the improvement to be produced by some other principle than that of the Van Mons' theory. The evidence is in favor of the opinion that new varieties of fruit arise from cross-fertilization in the blossoms of different kinds, and that the improvement of the qualities of any given variety is the result of cultivation. Some of the best plums we have are known to have been the product of fertilizing the blossoms of one tree from the pollen of another; this is constantly taking place with our fruits, and is consequent upon our mixed orchards. Let this be attended to artificially, by covering branches with gauze, to prevent the fertilization by bees and winds, and make the cross between any two varieties you choose, and the results may prove highly beneficial. The amateur cultivator may render essential service to pomology by this practice. We know that all our choice fruits have come from those not fit for use. It is not improved cultivation of the old, barely, but the production of new varieties. The subject of further improvement, therefore, demands careful study and practice. The seeds of established varieties, planted at once without drying, will often reproduce the same. We are not certain but they generally would, if not affected by blossoms of contiguous trees.

NURSERY.

Of this subject we can only give the general outlines. This department of soil-culture is so distinct, that the few who engage in it as a business are expected to make it an especial study. In a work like this, it is only desirable to give those general principles that will enable the cultivator of the soil to raise such trees as he may desire on his own premises. These directions may be considered reliable, and, as far as they go, are applicable to all nurseries.

_Location._--This is the first point demanding attention. If a piece of land containing a variety of soils can be selected, it will prove beneficial, as different trees require different soils for their greatest perfection. A situation through which a rivulet may run, or in which a pond may be constructed, fed by a spring or hydrant, is of great value for watering. The situation of the nursery, as it respects shade or exposure, is also important. Trees should generally be as much exposed to the elements, in the nursery, as they will be when transplanted in the orchard. Trees removed from shaded situations to the open field will be stinted in growth for some time, and may be permanently injured. Never allow your nursery to be shaded by large trees. Bearing trees, designed to show the quality of your fruit, should occupy a place by themselves.