Excerpt from The Vegetable Garden: A Paper Read by W. Saxby Blair, Professor of Horticulture, Macdonald College, Before the Standing Committee of the Senate on Agriculture and Forestry

Vegetable growing involves more detail than does the growing of any of the general farm crops. Many of these details may be of minor importance in general agriculture, whereas in vegetable growing, success or failure may be determined largely by attention to them. For this reason to deal with vegetable gardening briefly in a comprehensive manner is exceedingly difficult. Consider, for instance, details incident to the growing of tomatoes, or any representative vegetable crop, such as starting the seed, usually under glass, and the management of the hotbed for best development of seedlings; transplanting of seedlings to secure desirable plants; hardening off of the plants for setting to the open field; preparation of the ground; setting out the plants; cultivation; training; harvesting as the crop matures, and the packing of such perishable fruit in attractive and suitable packages, in comparison with a grain or fodder crop, to start which the preparation of the soil is usually not nearly so important; the seed is sown where the crop is to develop; the product is harvested easily, usually all at one time, and in bulk; does not require so careful handling and permits of easy storage.

I shall attempt first to point out certain important details more or less common in their application to all vegetable crops, and follow this with more specific informa tion relative to the growing of some of the principal vegetable crops.

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