Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/232

 land, digging it deeply and breaking up finely. It cannot be too rich, as the better the land the finer the cabbages. The great thing in selling vegetables is to be the first in the market.

This is a very favourite vegetable with both those who cook and those who are cooked for—with the cooks because it can be used in so many ways and form so many dishes.

The large or Mammoth Tomato is the best to grow for market, it should be raised on a frame, trained, in fact. The golden pear-shaped tomato is the best for jam: it requires a fairly rich soil, though it will grow on anything, but to bring to any perfection it must have a rich, loamy sand—if I can use such a term. As a matter of fact, the tomato will grow on the very poorest of soil, but as a rule, any land that will grow potatoes or corn will grow tomatoes to perfection, and they are a crop that will stand any amount of dry weather, but frost cuts them down at once.

Pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and marrows should be planted early in their season, which, in most colonies, is from early in September. For table purposes the "Ironbark" pumpkin is one of the best, being a dry, firm kind. The "Crown" and the "Button" are also good. If you have a rubbish heap about the yard the pumpkin vine will do well on it, On freshly-cleared ground, too, they do well, particularly if it be scrub land. One of the strangest sights I ever saw in Queensland was a scrub where the pumpkin vines had climbed up about the branches of the trees and over the undergrowth, and the fruit hung in all directions. Great big pumpkins were hanging high up from the vines on the trees like so many apples or oranges might; the wonder was, that the stalks could bear the weight.

The ground requires to be prepared for melons, raised in hillocks, and manured well to ensure a good crop. Vegetable and custard marrows require the same, but they must not be planted near each other, or they will spoil each other, the bees impregnating melon flowers with pollen from pumpkin flowers and vice-versa. The best plan is to have a special patch whereon to grow melons, and another for marrows.

Peas require a warm, sandy soil. The dwarf varieties are the best to plant in a small garden as they take least room. If the creeping varieties are sown they should be sticked early. Twigs of brushwood are very good for this purpose, and the peas are easily gathered from them.