Corn, the most delectable of all vegetables, should receive the attention of all home gardeners who have sufficient room and a fairly rich soil. This is a vegetable the flavor of which rapidly deteriorates after the ears have been removed from the plant; therefore the store article can never be as good as the home-grown kind.
The hill and drill methods of planting each have their vehement advocates. Good crops can be obtained either way, but the drill method is probably best for the small garden. The seeds are planted in drills two inches deep, dropping two or three seeds at every foot. When they germinate, all but the strongest plant should be pulled up from each group. The rows can be two and a half feet apart for the small-growing kinds like Golden Bantam, and three feet for the larger varieties such as Stowell’s Evergreen.
When the hill system of cultivation is adopted, five or six seeds are planted in spaces two and a half or three feet apart each way. The young plants are thinned out to stand three or four to a hill.
Corn needs to be frequently hoed to get best results.
Several methods may be adopted in order to insure a succession of corn for the table. A quick-maturing variety may be planted at intervals of three weeks up to the middle of July, or, early, midseason, and late varieties may be planted at the same time in May or June.
The removal of the side shoots which appear in the axils of the leaves at the base of the plant should be attended to. This is known as “suckering.” It causes the vigor of the plant to be concentrated in the production of ears instead of being frittered away on side shoots or “suckers” which will never amount to anything.
Corn should not be planted until the soil has warmed up and danger of frost is past. It is permissible, however, to take a chance with a few rows by sowing early, in the hope that they will come through all right—say about the end of April or beginning of May in those sections which possess a climate similar to that of New York.
Cucumbers are a crop that requires a fair amount of room for proper development. They should be planted in hills five feet apart each way, with four or five plants in each hill; or in rows five feet apart, with the plants standing about one foot apart in the rows. The seeds should not be planted outdoors until all danger of frost is past. An early crop can be obtained by raising the plants in a greenhouse by sowing the seeds early in berry-boxes and transplanting outdoors when the weather is warm enough. It is a good plan, when planting outdoors, to sow the seeds rather thickly, about ten seeds to a hill, so as to get a good stand and lessen the risk of losing the plants by insect attacks.
The soil most suitable for cucumbers is a sandy loam that has been well enriched with decayed stable manure. They will succeed admirably on newly broken sod land.
The best cucumbers for outdoor planting are those belonging to the “white spine” type, of which Davis Perfect is a good example. For supplying small cucumbers for pickling, Fordhook Pickling is one of the best varieties to grow.