Excerpt from Annual Catalogue of Seeds, 1898
To secure a'good crop of vegetables, three things at least are necessary; viz., a suitable soil, pure seed and clean culture; to which may be added as equally necessary, an abundant supply of good barnyard manure, supplemented, when this runs short, by artificial fertilizers. The exposure for a vegetable garden should be preferably south or southeast, or nearly so. The soil should be naturally rich and friable, a sandy loam being among the best. If the soil be stiff, it should be gradually mellowed by the free use of barnyard manure, or, if convenient, by the addition of sand. If wet, or inclined to hold an excess of moisture, it should be underdrained, preferably by tile; but if pos sible, a location should be selected naturally dry and free from surface water.
A dark-colored soil, or one supplied with a goodly portion of decayed vegetable matter, will produce the earliest crops. If the soil be shallow, it should be deepened gradually by plowing or spading an inch or two deeper each year, and not all at once by trenching or subsoiling, unless manure and money be both abundant. A sandy soil may be greatly improved by adding more or less vegetable mold from the woods. To produce the best and most uniform results, the vegetable garden should have at least one foot of good, rich soil. The roots of large trees should not be allowed to encroach on any part of the garden, though large trees, especially evergreens, sufficiently far off, afford a valuable protection on the north and west.
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