336 Transactions of the 



unless the frost is pretty severe this injury does not reach below the 

 surface of the earth and is but temporary. The roots continue to grow 

 and the tops start up again with renewed vigor. 



As a general thing it is safe to plant early varieties in February, and 

 by covering the surface with straw or coarse stable manure the}' may be 

 brought forward very early — so early in fact that no inconvenience will 

 be experienced from the wdting ol* the old potatoes before the new ones 

 will be large enough to take their place on the table. 



It is too generally the received opinion among farmers on the uplands, 

 that potatoes cannot be raised on such soil. If the land be prepared as 

 we have suggested, and the potatoes are planted early, so that they will 

 have the benefit of the late Winter and Spring rains, they will make a 

 good crop, and form a most acceptable dish on the table when fresh dug 

 from the garden. 



HOT BEDS. 



Professional gardeners understand and appreciate the advantages of 

 hot beds in bringing forward for the market their early vegetables. 

 Professional florists also avail themselves of the hot house or green 

 house to bring forward their early flowers. With a little care and extra 

 expense they each, in this way, obtain extra prices for their products, 

 and are well repaid for the extra expense and labor. In this country, 

 above all others, liberal prices are cheerfully paid for vegetables, fruit, 

 and flowers offered for sale out of the ordinary season, either very early 

 or very late. 



Bat farmers being generally away from the towns which afford 

 mai-kets for the professional gardeners, cannot, even if they would, 

 avail themselves of the luxuries of these extra early vegetables from 

 the market gardens. They must therefore either deny themselves and 

 families many luxuries enjoyed by the denizens of the towns, or con- 

 trive some mode of producing those luxuries for themselves. We are 

 among those who believe that, above all classes of people, the farmers 

 may and should become the best livers, in all respects, in any countiy, 

 and especially in California. 



We believe that the farmers of California, if they choose to avail 

 themselves of the advantages they naturally possess, may enjoy more 

 real and substantial luxuries — luxuries, we mean, produced from the 

 soil — than almost any other people in the world. It shall be our aim to 

 point out the ways and means by which these luxuries may be produced 

 and enjoyed. 



Early vegetables cost the denizen a considerable money — they would 

 only cost the farmer a little time, with the additional advantage in favor 

 of the farmer that he and his family '.night enjoy them direet from his 

 garden, fresh and crisp}', while before they appear on the table of the 

 denizen they have been handled and mussed over till they have lost half 

 their attractiveness and real value. 



If there is one farmer in this State Avho has a hot bed, made and used 

 exclusively* for the purpose of producing early vegetables for the use of 

 his family, we have not seen that man. We do know of many who 

 make it a practice to make hot beds every Spring in which to sprout 

 their sweet potatoes, but they seldom use them for any other purpose. 

 Those who raise sweet potatoes for sale are compelled to have hot beds 

 to obtain the sets, otherwise they would not probably make them. 



