Cauliflower.—It is possible to preserve cauliflower, for a short time only, by digging them with roots attached and suspending them head downward in a cool, moist cellar.
Celery can be dug in the fall and packed closely in boxes in an upright position in a cool cellar. The more roots and soil adhering to the plants the better the chance of success. When the soil dries out it must be watered, but be very careful not to get any water on the leaves or leaf-stalks. Another way of caring for celery is to dig a trench deep enough to accommodate the plants when they are placed upright. Pack them as tightly as possible in this and cover with boards to keep out rain. In severe weather it will be necessary to put on an additional covering of straw and earth.
Parsley.—In sections where the winter is not too severe parsley may be kept green through the greater part of the winter by covering the patch with a bottomless box, with a pane of glass for covering the top. The box should be banked with manure or leaves, and the glass covered with straw in very cold weather. Parsley can also be dug up, placed in plant-pots, making the soil firm about the roots, and kept in a cool, sunny room.
Seed or Fruit Crops
Beans.—Dry-shell beans should be allowed to stay on the plants until the pods dry up and become yellow. They may then be gathered, and shelled when convenient. If they are infested with weevils they should be dry baked in a temperature of about 145° Fahr. Care must be taken not to allow the temperature to rise above this figure, or the beans will be roasted and spoiled. Fumigating with carbon disulphide is also an efficacious expedient, but somewhat dangerous because of the explosive properties of the fumigant.
Pumpkin and Winter Squash can be stored in a warm, dry room. It is advisable to turn over the fruits selected for storing two weeks or so before they are harvested, so that the side that has been lying on the ground may have its rind hardened by exposure to sun and air.
Although concerned primarily with “war gardens,” the methods advocated can be used by all vegetable growers who practise intensive cultivation. The fundamental principles of soil management also apply equally to flower-gardens.
The writer has found in his experience that good crops can be raised, on what would be usually considered poor soil, by men and women who know little of horticultural practices. Larger crops could have been produced had they known more of the art of growing vegetables. It is to help such people that this book has been written, from information gained during twenty years of professional experience.
It is the earnest hope of the author that the crops raised by “war gardeners” will be of such a size as to cause this last chapter to be the one that is most consulted.