16 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



are very tender and sweet, but Country Gentleman, an 

 irregular road variety, has a very delicate flavor. 



^Melons are not really a vegetable at all, but are 

 served only as dessert fruit. They are, however, al- 

 ways catalogued with other vegetables, and may 

 therefore be fairly spoken of here. During the past 

 few years these, thanks to warm summers, have done 

 extraordinarily well. Early batches can be started in 

 pots or under small hand lights ; a sheet of glass 16 by 

 24 inches over each hill will advance the crop quite a 

 little : these glasses should be removed when rain falls, 

 closed on cold nights, and filtered during the dav. It 

 is not a good plan to merely dig out a hole and place 

 a shovelful or two of manure in each hole, giving noth- 

 ing to the rest of the ground. The better plan is to 

 broadcast, and plow or spade it in ; this gives more 

 vigorous plants. The finest flavored melon we have 

 grown is Mrs. H. H. Rogers ; other good sorts are 

 Early Christiana, Honey Drop, and Emerald Gem. 

 Rockyford is a great cropper, but we have found the 

 skins rot rather badly just before ripening. The same 

 applies to the big handsome Montreal Market. 



Watermelons do well in warm summers ; thev 

 should not be sown before Jvuie 1, and one or two 

 plants only should be left to a hill. Cole's Early, Early 

 Fordhook, Halbert Honey, and Kleckley Sweet, all do 

 well in Massachusetts. Many persons cannot tell 

 when watermelons are ripe. One sign is that at the little 

 tendril where the stem of the fruit is attached to the 

 vine, green fruits sound solid, ripe ones more hollow ; 

 the fruit will also "give" a little when firmly pressed, 

 if it is approaching ripeness. 



Celery is a very important vegetable for fall and 

 winter use. It will row well on level ground, and is 

 thus planted by market growers ; but in trenches, it 

 makes its finest possible growth. Advantages of 

 trench culture are that water is more easilv applied, 

 the plants are more readily hilled up, and the trenches 

 give shade to the plants in hot weather. An abundance 

 of well rotted manure should be placed in the trenches, 

 as celery is a gross feeder. Golden Self Blanching is 

 the finest early variety; Golden Rose is also good; 

 White Plum is handsome, but of coarse texture. Good 

 winter sorts are White Queen, Giant Pascal, and Bos- 

 ton Market. The richest and most mellow soils should 

 be used for celery culture. Early varieties may be 

 bleached by means of boards, but the latter sorts must 

 be hilled up by degrees, and housed in a cool, frost- 

 proof cellar before weather becomes too severe. It 

 must also be aired on all favorable occasions. In lift- 

 ing celery the earth should be moist ; if not, apply 

 some, water after planting in the frame or cellar, and 

 always take a nice ball of earth with each plant. 



Onions are one of the most popular vegetables, and 

 it is not difficult for the small grower to produce an 

 all-the-year-round svipply on a small piece of ground. 

 The ground can hardly be made too rich ; cow manure, 

 with some soot added, is extra good as a fertilizer. 

 The ground must be prepared, and the seed planted 

 just as soon as possible after the frost has left the 

 ground, and it has sufficiently dried out. For the 

 earliest crop, plant small sets ; we prefer the yellow 

 ones, four inches apart in the rows. Very small sets 

 are the best ; those from one-third of an inch in diame- 

 ter upwards will largely run to seed. We like to roll 

 or tramp the onion grotmd before drawing the drills, 

 which can be twelve inches apart, giving another 

 tramp after covering the drills. Just as soon as the 

 seed is sown, start cultivating, and keep at it con- 

 stantly, until the tops are so much grown as to pre- 

 vent it ; also weed the rows carefully, especially a rain, 



when they will pull up most easily. It is no use plant- 

 ing this crop unless this matter of weeding is relig- 

 iousl}' attended to. 



The so-called new onion culture is really a very old 

 practice, and was in vogue in Great Britain half a cen- 

 ture or more ago. It consists of sowing seeds in flats 

 or in a cold frame late in February, or early in March, 

 and transplanting the seedlings in well-prepared 

 ground about April 15. Very large bulbs are secured 

 in this way, fine for exhibition, but they will not keep 

 well ; in fact, ver}- few are sound after Christmas, and 

 this mode of culture is not to be recommended where 

 onions are wanted through the w'hole winter. For 

 this method of culture, Ailsa Craig and Prize Taker 

 are excellent. For sowing outdoors, Danvers Yellow- 

 is the onion par excellence ; Prize Taker, Australian 

 Brown, and Red Wethersfield are all good. 



Asparagus is one of the most highly prized of vege- 

 tables, and comes in season very early. It does not 

 take a very large bed to supply a small family, and if 

 the ground is deeply trenched, well manured, and 

 cared for, it is good for twenty years. Reading Giant, 

 Columbian White, and Giant Argenteuil are splendid 

 varieties. The plants should be in rows, three and a 

 half feet apart, and eighteen inches between the 

 plants. In planting, care must be taken to set the 

 roots deeply, and cover only lightly at first, covering 

 in gradually as the plants grow. 



Spinach of the round-leaved type is of course indis- 

 pensable, and for summer use nothing beats the New 

 Zealand variety. This must not be planted before 

 May 10, however. With this latter vegetable, and a 

 small row of Swiss chard, it is possible for a large 

 family to secure a constant cut of greens for at least 

 four months in the year. 



I have not mentioned salad plants ; of these, lettuce 

 is the most valuable, and by starting seed in the house 

 or cold-frame, and making successional sowings out- 

 doors from the end of March until the middle of 

 August, heads may be cut from the early part of May 

 until the end of November. For the earliest sowing, 

 White Seeded Tennis Ball and Big Boston are leaders ; 

 for later sowings, May King, Deacon, Black Seeded 

 Tennis Ball, and Sutton's Standwell are reliable. The 

 Romaine or Cos Lettuce is popular with many; Tri- 

 anon is a good self-bleaching sort. Endive is an ex- 

 cellent and handsome salad plant when well bleached ; 

 the plants want more severe thinning than lettuce, 

 and to bleach them, the outer leaves should be gath- 

 ered to a point and tied with raffia. Endive can lie 

 kept in the cellar, packed in dry sand, through a good 

 part of the winter. Green Curled and Batavian are 

 splendid sorts. 



In miscellaneous vegetables, there are leeks, which 

 should be sown only, and given rich culture, to secure 

 big, handsome stalks ; these keep in fine condition un- 

 til May in a cold cellar. Musselburgh is a standard 

 variety. A clump or two of chives takes up little 

 space. For borderings, nothing is more beautiful than 

 parsley ; the plants should be thinned out six or eight 

 inches apart. On well drained land, with a covering 

 of leaves, this will survive our New England winters. 

 Dobbie's selected and Champion Moss are beautiful 

 curled types. White Velvet okra or gumbo is valuable 

 for soups. It succeeds best in a hot summer, and the 

 seed should not be sown before May 10 in this lati- 

 tude. A few roots of indispensable rhubarb and one 

 or two roots of horse radish should always be included. 

 In the way of sweet or pot herbs, fennel, dill, sweet 

 marjoram, sweet basil, sage, thyme, and summer 

 savory are very useful. 



