THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 379 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 



GOOD SEEDS. 



The Marblcbead growers start with an ideal cabbage and select those which 

 come nearest to it. They are carefully grown, and by pursuing this course, in 

 a few years they arrive at their ideal. With well-selected seed, in a favorable 

 season, every seed will produce a good head of cabbage. Seeds are too often 

 obtained from the refuse growth, of tlic farms. Last year one of the best 

 onion growers in Marblehead, not having seed enough of his own raising, 

 bought some of the best seed he could find in Boston. Afterward, the dealer 

 of whom he bought it inquired how it proved, and the grower answered that it 

 would have been better for him to pay twenty dollars a pound for seed like his 

 own than to have such seed as he bought given to him. The dealer, who had 

 honestly intended to sell good seed, went to Marblehead to examine the crop, 

 and acknowledged that tlie grower was right. The same is true of almost any 

 crop. With good seed you must also cultivate well, but with the best cultiva- 

 tion and manuring, and poor seed, you will get poor crops. 



VALUE OF GLASS. 



Glass structures are becoming a large factor in vegetable and flower growing 

 even in our State. A writer in the Country Gentleman speaking of this matter 

 says : 



When glass becomes as cheap here as in Europe,we may look for a great advance 

 in our gardening. No where is glass so little used, yet so much wanted, as with 

 us. There is continual need of shelter from dry or cold winds, and drenching, 

 chilly rain storms, besides the need in our uncertain springs of anticipating 

 the brief summer by starting plants early under shelter, and giving them pro- 

 tection when newly planted. Besides this, a winter cold frame is one of the 

 most serviceable means of securing greens and salids fresh for early use, as well 

 as for protecting many of the most charming tenants of the flower border, 

 which fail if exposed to every inclemency of a severe winter. The use of hand- 

 glasses and sashes adds to the picturesqueuess of a garden. The gardens one 

 sees about French cities are never dull or empty-looking, for they are bright 

 with rows or spots of glass, even when there is little foliage, or nothing of 

 flower or fruit, to be seen. Some half-hardy plants, like forget-me-nots, double 

 daisies, or fragrant violets, may be kept safely in a mere depression covered by 

 a pane of glass. 



POTATO NOTES. 



The analogies often drawn between the propagation of potatoes and the 

 growing of corn and wheat from seed, are misleading. A potato is not a seed ; 

 it is a thickened stem with buds arranged along its side like the buds on the 



