Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1908 — Farm and Garden [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Farm and Garden

PLANT PROTECTION. Ways of Shielding Them From the Hot, Direct Rays of the Midday Sun. If plants are not protected from high winds and too much sun they will not flourish, especially in the early stages of their growth. This is particularly true of the plants in the vegetable garden, and fortunately there are many easy and simple methods of providing them with shade. Empty soap boxes raised on blocks, empty fruit baskets, rolls of carpet and matting spread out on supports to look like awnings may all be used. Old mattings or carpets that have seen their best days may enjoy a new lease of life as plant coverings. The great thing is to cover the plants so that they will be shady,

but not without air. Even castoff bats may be used to prop over a delicate new plant, and as straw allows the air to circulate it will not be entirely deprived of oxygen. Stones laid on the hatbrims will keep them from blowing away on a windy day. Castoff fruit baskets are excellent to cover transplated plants. They provide sufficient shade and do not smother the plants because the openings let in air. They are very light to handle and easy to store because they set into each other, besides being sufficiently durable to last an entire season or longer. They cost nothing, can be collected and saved for the purpose, and weather does not destroy them quickly or winds blow them easily about. Use peach baskets for the larger plants, plum and grape baskets for smaller plants, or for two or three of the very smallest, and strawberry baskets for the smallest of all. Even these will span two seedlings set near together. Choose a cool, shaded corner for lettuce. If you have none such, make a retreat for the succulent delicacy. Have a movable screen of reeds or woven twigs with which to protect the lettuce bed from the noonday sun. Take it down at night and do not put It up on cloudy days. By a little care in this respect you will secure sweet salad. As the first supply of plants shows a tendency to run to seed, have a second and a third Installment ready to take its place. Lettuce that grows in the sun gets bitter, and when the head elongates Into a stem it is past use. Radishes also thrive into juicy mildness in the shade, although they will bear more sunshine than lettuce. If set so near a brick wall as to feel the radiated heat as well as the direct rays of the sun, they will develop too fast and become pithy and pungent. Here, too, it is wise to have a succession of crops. Manage this by judicious renewal of young plants or by sowing seeds at different times. Green peas should be planted In the season. Give them rich earth, plenty of light and heat, and water

often should the season be dry. Train upon sticks against the wall. If you have room for two crops, plant a second three weeks after you put the first into the ground. This will Insure a succession of “messes” of the incomparable vegetable, which is • never eaten in perfection unless it has been gathered on the same day it is cooked hnd served. Cucumbers flourish under direct and radiating sunshine, being of tropical origin. They, too, should be eaten soon after they are gathered. Horticulturists hold that if plucked while the dew is on them in the early morning they are more wholesome and have a hotter flavor.

COVERING THE LETTUCE WITH MATTING.

USING EMPTY FRUIT BOXES.