For Early Planting.
Early purple-top strap-leaf turnip, early cabbage, lettuce, rutabaga turnips.
In a hot-bed or in a protected place, where they can be covered at night when it is cold, the cabbage plants and tomato plants should be started at once, to be ready for transplanting when the ground is warm.
For Planting When the Time for Frost is Past.
Early Rose potatoes, onions (sets and seed), early turnip, blood beet, early corn, English peas, snap or wax beans, bush Lima or Sevier beans, early squash, okra, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, collards, late cabbage, taniers, and large sugar beet for stock. (Some of these may be planted in the field.)
In the field (with corn or cotton) pumpkins and large squashes, cantaloupes and watermelons may be planted.
The garden should be well fertilized and no weeds or grass allowed to grow. The weeds take the nourishment from the plants, use up and waste the fertilizers.
There should be a good fence to keep the chickens out; then the garden, with the chickens and their eggs, will furnish most of a good living for a family until the regular crops can be harvested and save from debt.
A good garden and a variety of crops are as necessary for the prosperity of a farmer as they are for his health.
Every Sea Islander should plant now a few fig cuttings and a few grape cuttings, and such fruit trees as he may be able to get; peaches, pears, pecans. In a few years these plantings (if protected from the goats, pigs and cattle) will give plentiful fruit through the “dry season” (particularly the fig), and the grapes and other fruit will be a luxury and profit in their season, besides keeping the people in health.