1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



109 



mystery it took a life time to study it, and the 

 " old vigneron" was an awfully sublime sort of a 

 personage. He is now among the unfrocked and 

 unreverenced. But there is great art in good 

 grape treatment; and yet this art is founded on 

 a very few simple principles. For instance, 

 leaves are necessary to healthy growth ; but two 

 leaves three inches wide are not of equal value 

 to one leaf of six inches. To get these strong 

 leaves, see that the number of sprouts be limited. 

 If two buds push from one eye, pinch out the 

 weakest whenever it appears. The other will be 

 strengthened bj^ this protective policj', and the 

 laws of trade result in favor of larger and better 

 leaves on the leaf that follows. Allow no one 

 shoot to grow stronger than another. If there 

 are indications of this, pinch off its top. Wliile 

 it stops to wonder what you mean by this sum- 

 mary conduct, the weaker fellows will profit to 

 take what properly belongs to them. There is 

 little more science in summer pruning than this; 

 but it takes some experience, joined with com- 

 mon sense, to apply it. This, indeed, is where 

 true art comes in. 



South of Philadelphia, the more tender kinds 

 of garden vegetables may now be sown — beans 

 corn, cucumbers, squashes, etc. — that it is not 

 prudent to plant in this latitude before the first 

 of May ; and tomato, egg-plants, etc., may also 

 be set out in those favored places. Cucumbers, 

 squashes, and such vegetables, can be got for- 

 ward as well as tomatoes, egg-plants, etc., by 

 being sown in a frame or hotbed, and potted off 

 into three-inch pots. They will be nice plants 

 by the first week in May. Rotten wood suits 

 cucumbers and the squash tribe exceedingly well 

 as a manure. Tomatoes and egg-plants that are 

 desired very early are best potted, soon after they 

 come up, into small pots. They can then be 

 turned out into the open air without any check 

 to their roots. Of course, they should be gradu- 

 ally inured to the open air — not suddenly trans- 

 ferred from a warm and moist air to a very dry 

 one. 



Early York cabbage for early use should be 

 set out early in this month. An excellent plan 

 is to make the holes with a dibble first, where 

 the cabbage is to be set ; then fill the holes with 

 manure-water ; and after the water has soaked 

 away, set in the plants. It is rather more 

 laborious than the old way, but the cabbage 

 grows so fast afterwards that it pays pretty well. 



Celery is an important crop, and should be 



sown about this period. A rich moist spot 

 shaded from the mid-day sun, should be chosen; 

 or a box in a frame, if convenient. 



Bean-poles may be planted preparatorj-- to 

 soAvmg the Lima bean in MaJ^ Where bean- 

 poles are scarce, two or three hoop-poles, set 

 into the ground, and tied together at the top, 

 make as good a pole, and perhaps better. 



Dwarf beans should have very warm and 

 deep soil — sow them only two inches apart. 

 The Valentine is yet the best early, take it all in 

 all. 



Peas should be sown every two weeks for a 

 succession — do not make the soil very rich for 

 them. 



COMMUNIGA TIONS. 



A VISIT TO COVENT GARDEN MARKET. 



BY MANSFIELD MILTON. 



Being long anxious to visit this world-renowned 

 place for a display of vegetables, I accordingly 

 paid it a visit one Saturday morning, in January 

 last. With the produce which the market gar- 

 dens around London brought to this market I 

 was astonished at its excellence ; but with the 

 place they have for selling it in I was disappoint- 

 ed. It is far too small for the immense traffic, and, 

 together with the narrowness of the streets lead- 

 ing into it, make it altogether a very mean place 

 for the purpose. The business is mostlj'- done in 

 the morning between 6 and 9 o'clock, when but 

 little trafl&c of any other kind is being carried on, 

 especially during winter; but, at the same time, 

 the large wagons used for conveying the produce 

 are so closely packed together it is very difficult 

 for those on foot to push their way through ; and 

 very disagreeable for those having the work to do, 

 getting their vegetables off" the wagons, and pro- 

 perly disposed of. 



The flower market is much superior to the vege- 

 table department. It is a large building so ar- 

 ranged that one can move about and examine 

 the plants and flowers with a good deal more 

 comfort than in the vegetable market, and, un- 

 doubtedly, with a good deal less of rebuff to the 

 stranger than in the latter place. The buyers 

 and sellers appear to think they have an exclu- 

 sive right during the early hours of the morn- 

 ing, and that strangers should stand outside and 



