FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 109 



Florida, and is offered at a price but little higher than the freight charges 

 on the latter from Jacksonville to New York. 



There is no doubt but the following can be profitably grown in this 

 way: Lettuce, radishes, spinach, beets, dandelions, cauliflowers, aspara- 

 gus, celery, with the possibility of cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, straw- 

 berries and others. 



METHODS. 



I am not going to give any lengthy details as to the various methods 

 of growing vegetables in glass houses, for those who take up this gener- 

 ally have methods of their own; yet it is somewhat encouraging for 

 others to know that the men most successful in the business knew very 

 little about it when they began. Neither am I going to offer any sugges- 

 tions by way of improvement on the method, or variety in growing a vege- 

 table that has already made Grand Rapids famous. It may not be out of 

 place for me, however, to mention a few things in connection with the 

 work that has been so successfully carried on here. Next to lettuce as 

 a greenhouse crop come radishes, and the variety largely used is the 

 French Breakfast, as it has a short top, is a quick grower, and of good 

 quality. There are others of the turnip rooting kinds that are equally 

 good. The seed is sown for the first crop from October till April. The 

 crop is usually ready for pulling about eight weeks from the sowing of 

 the seed. Grown in this way it will be seen that three crops may be 

 grown under the same glass each season. In our variable climate spinach 

 never reaches the degree of perfection that it does in the milder and 

 moister climate of Europe. Severe frosts during winter either kill it 

 outright, or early summer drouths arrest its development so that it sel- 

 dom produces the large, thick, savory leaves it would do if grown in 

 greenhouses. 



Dandelions are not used to any extent in Michigan as a vegetable, 

 though in the east they are considered the best substitute for spinach, 

 and as they are among the few things that grow to perfection with us 

 in dry weather, it will be some excuse for their determination to be just 

 where they are not wanted, if they can be forced as an early spring vege- 

 ta,ble. The variety used, however, is the Improved French thick-leaved, 

 and the seed must be sown the year previous to its being forced, on good 

 rich land, and kept well cultivated. Rhubarb is easily forced in any 

 place where there is a moderate heat; but the quality is better, and the 

 color quite sufficient if it is grown in the dark; hence, when put under the 

 stage in a greenhouse, or any other place where it can get a fair share of 

 light, it does not possess that apple-like flavor it would do if grown in a 

 dark place. 



Asparagus grows to perfection anywhere in Michigan, and yet ten days 

 of warm weather last May reduced the price below the cost of gathering 

 it. By extending the season, say, from one to two months by growing in 

 a greenhouse perhaps a fair price could have been obtained. 



There is another delicacy worthy of consideration at this time, and 

 that is mushrooms. It seems to me there is a possibility of developing a 

 large business in them alone. Only a few years ago the growing of mush- 

 rooms was enveloped in mystery. They did not come from seed; they 



