i8g3. 



GARDENING. 



91 



Cabbages.— I grow Jersey Wakefield tor 

 early, Succession for intermediate, and 

 Autiuun King for late. For early we sow 

 ill lints ill the greenhouse about March 1, 

 tliiii ])rick out into a spent hotbed, or 

 cold frame, and plant out in April as soon 

 as the ground is mellow and warm 

 enough, in rows 2 feet apart each way. 

 Waketield and Succession sown at the 

 same time and given the same treatment 

 give a succession. For a further succes- 

 sion sow in the cold frame in April, and 

 plant out in May. For winter I sow in 

 June, usually about the 7th or 14th. 

 Autumn King is not only an excellent 

 cabbage but a fine keeper. We winter our 

 cabbages out of doors, burying them 

 heads down, roots up, in double close- 

 packed rows, in a furrow. The earth is 

 ]ilowed or drawn up over them. Some 

 tree leaves and sedge placed over the 

 ridges excludes the frost enough to allow 

 us to pull out the cabbages in winter as we 

 want them without the aid of a pick and 

 shovel. But be careful not to over cover 

 the cabbage, else they will rot, and be 

 sure that no waterstagnatesaboutthem. 



Carrots.— Just as soon in early spring 

 as possible I sow a rovk- or two of Early 

 Short Horn, and twice as much of Stump 

 rooted to succeed the former, in rows 15 

 inches apart. .\ row or two more of the 

 Stump-rooted in May keeps up a supply 

 of tender carrots till fall. In June we put 

 in our main sowing for winter. The 

 Short Horn is a small carrot and used 

 only because of its earliness. They are 

 now stored in bins in the root house and 

 covered with moist sand. 



Cauliklower.— For all purposes, early 

 and late, I stick to the Snowball. For early 

 I sow and treat it the same as we do our 

 early cabbage except plant a little closer in 

 the row, but in order to get some in ear- 

 lier than we do from outdoor plantings I 

 set some plants 9 or 10 inches apart in a 

 frame, letting them stay there to heart. I 

 sow about the end of June for fall cauli- 

 flower, and two or three weeks'later for a 

 winter crop. This latter sowing won't 

 be lull hearted before hard weather sets 

 in, but if lifted, stripped of its rougher 

 leaves, and heeled in in a well wrapped cold 

 frame it will perfect very pretty heads be- 

 tween November and January. 



Celery. — W'hite Plume for early and 

 Giant Pascal and Perfection Heartwell 

 for main crop are what I grow. 1 usually 

 sow out of doors in April and when the 

 seedlings come up prick them off into beds 

 in rows about 3 or 1- inches apart each 

 way; this gives me stockier and better 

 rooted plants for setting out than I could 

 get be leaving them in the seed rows till 

 big enough for planting. But this year 

 my first and a second sowing failed, and 

 1 didn't get a crop to germinate till June; 

 thus I was unable to plant out any till 

 the first of August, and curious enough I 

 never had finer celery than I have now. I 

 planted rather thickly in single rows 5 

 feet apart; the rows were not on the 

 ground level but in shallow trenches 

 formed by throwing out one spit of earth 

 all along the line, and to this trench I 

 largely attribute the successful growth of 

 the celery. The fall was dry and under 

 ordinary circumstances exceedingly poor 

 weather for celery, and watering the crop 

 if grown on the ground level would be 

 tedious and insufficient, but in the 

 trenches easy enough, and I flooded them 

 cver\' week, and the plants grew like 

 weeds, and this rapid growth has ren- 

 dered them very tender. Inearthing them 

 up I "handle" all the heads before bank- 

 ing up, that is gather the leaves close 

 together and pack thecarth tight around 

 the head with the hand, before banking 



with the spade. In storing for winter, I 

 cut down the side of a ridge perpendicular 

 with and some 7 or 8 inches from the row 

 of celery growing in it, and without dis- 

 turbing this row; now lift the celery in one 

 or more other rows and pack it up close 

 together in a single row in the perpendic- 

 ular cut already mentioned and earth up 

 firmly and to the top This is simply put- 

 ting two rows in a ridge where only one 

 grew before. Now cover over the top 

 with boards nailed together like an in- 

 verted V to shed the water, and mulch 

 with leaves and sedge to exclude frost. In 

 this way celery always keeps well with 

 me till April. I may say before planting 

 I put some finely rotted manure in the 

 trenches, also a dusting of guano, and fork 

 it under, mixing it well with the earth. 



Corn —I grow Cory for early, Crosby 

 to succeed it, and Stowell's Evergreen for 

 main crop. By sowing all three at the 

 same time they succeed each other nicely. 

 .After the first, or a second sowing, I drop 

 both Cory and Crosby, for the time, and 

 restrict myself to Stowell's, sowing once 

 in ten days till July 4, when I put in a 

 tolerably large sowing and another of the 

 same on the 15th. On the 20th or 25th 

 I put in also a good sowing of both Cory 

 and Crosby. In this way I am sure of 

 young sweet corn till frost comes, in fact 

 frost often comes in fall and nips the com 

 leaves, checking the growth of the plant, 

 and without hurting the ear inside of the 

 shuck, and as growth has been checked 

 the ears stand still as it were and in this 

 way stay young and usable raaj' be till 

 the last of October or the first of Novem- 

 ber. I plant the hills 4 feet by 3 feet 

 apart, and retain only four plants in each 

 hill. 



Cucumbers.— For the summer crop I 

 restrict myself to the Improved White 

 Spine; it is easy to grow and sets freely 

 and the cucumbers are of good quality. I 

 sow in hills in a hotbed in March for 

 spring fruit, and out of doors early in 

 May. As none of the outdoor cucumbers 

 is long-lived we sow a few hills once 

 every three weeks all summer, and in this 

 way have a crop till frost destroys them. 

 For a greenhouse or winter crop while 

 the White Spine would fruit well enough 

 the Telegraph is much inore prolific and 

 otherwise superior. But the Telegraph is 

 useless for out of door cultivation with us. 



Egg Plants —Have a few plants of 

 Early Dwarf Purple for early, and grow 

 Improved New York for main crop. I 

 sow the seed in flats in the greenhouse 

 about March 1, and prick into a gentle 

 hotbed or warm frame in.'Vpril, and plant 

 out of doors about the end of May or 

 early in June, 3 feet by 2 feet apart. Egg 

 plants transplant very well. All summer 

 long we have to watch for potato bugs 

 and hand pick or poison them. If you 

 cut off all the fruits vou don't want just 

 as soon as they are getting a little old the 

 plants will continue in good bearing till 

 into October. 



Horseradish. — Choose good, deeply 

 worked, and if practicable moist soil. In 

 early spring plant the sets in rows 3 feet 

 apart and 18 inches from each other in 

 the row, and 2 inches under ground The 

 sets are 10 or 12-inch long pieces of the 

 stoutest and cleanest thorg roots. In 

 November or early December dig up the 

 most of the horseradish and store it in 

 moist earth in a box or bin, or in a pit 

 outside as I will describe for parsnips, 

 keeping it as cool as possible, even to let- 

 ting it get frozen; before storing, the 

 thongs or roots should be broken off the 

 main root, and these thongs buried out- 

 side till spring, when the\' should be un- 

 earthed and used for sets. 



Kale.— 1 like the Dwarf Curled best. 

 Sown when we sow our winter cabbage 

 in June, and planted out in July it makes 

 fine, large broad plants by November; 

 even sown in July and planted out as soon 

 as convenient it makes good heads. It 

 doesn't require to have a certain age or 

 large development before it is fit for use, 

 for any sized plant, large or small, after 

 it gets the frost, is good to eat. But 

 really, for nice tender kale I think the 

 sprouts are better than crown tops. 

 These sprouts are best obtained from 

 May or June sown plants, set out early 

 and grown to a large size, when in Sep- 

 tember the tops should be cut off; this 

 induces them to send out sprouts from 

 every eye on the stem. Kale is so hardy 

 that we may leave it out in the garden 

 till Christmas if we wish to, cutting it as. 

 we need it; or strip the outer leaves from 

 it, and lift and heel it in close together in 

 a pit, frame or in the corner of a cellar 

 where its roots can be moist and top dry, 

 or heel it in close together in a warm 

 corner out of doors and cover it with 

 leaves and branches, so that we may get 

 at it readily whenever we wish to. 



Lettuces. I grow three varieties, 

 namely Boston Market in frames 

 in winter. Big Boston in frames in 

 fall and spring and out of doors 

 in spring, and Salamander in sum- 

 mer. I occasionally also grow New- 

 York in spring and fall and find it an ad- 

 mirable variety, making a heart almost 

 as solid as a cabbage. I may as well sa^' 

 here that notwithstanding all that we 

 hear and read about the "leafy" or open 

 headed lettuces, they are not popular 

 with private families, solid hearted cab- 

 bage lettuces get the preference every 

 time. Seed sown in the greenhouse Feb- 

 ruary 1 gives nice plants to set out in 

 hotbeds in March. For late fall and early 

 winter lettuces I set out theyoung plants 

 in cold frames about the end of August, 

 a point to note is, be sure to get the 

 plants well headed before winter sets in, 

 in; if you do they will keep in good con- 

 dition for a long time. 



Okra.— Of the dwarf variety I make a 

 sowing in May, and by keeping the pods 

 picked off clean, the plants keep on bear- 

 ing till frost comes. 



Onions.— Southport White Globe, Yel- 

 low Danvers, and Red Wethersfield are 

 the varieties I raise from seed every year, 

 and the Silver Skin from sets in spring. 

 The ground for onion seed should be rich 

 and moist, that for sets, if need be, may 

 be much lighter. I sow the seed in rows 

 15 inches apart, as soon as the ground 

 permits after middle of April, and as a 

 rule harvest the crop early in September. 

 Keep the bulbs cool, dry and well ven- 

 tilated, and protect them, if you can from 

 hard frost. 



Parsley.- There is nothing better than 

 Moss Curled. I sow it out of doors in 

 early spi ing. For winter and spring use 

 I sow it in a cold frame at midsummer, 

 and it is now fine large parsley, fresh and 

 green. While it will stand a little frost hard 

 frost hurts it, so we band around the 

 frames and cover them over in winter to 

 shut out the frost. But look out for field 

 mice, they dearly love to get into a parsley 

 frame, and their work of destruction there 

 is fearful. They get in when the frames 

 are being ventilated, and they often bur- 

 row in through the banking and under 

 the frame. 



Parsnips.— The Hollow Crown is the 

 only one I grow. It likes deeply unfas- 

 tened, good ground. Sow in rows 2' 2 to 

 3 feet apart. As I want to get all theground 

 emptied, manured and dug in the fall I 

 don't leave out any parsnips in the row 



