6 INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS. 
It is possible to grow any vegetable under glass, but it 
is only those products of a perishable nature which can be 
expected to yield any degree of profit. Those, also, which 
require a very long season in which to mature, and which 
yield a small amount of product—such as beets, car- 
rots, spinach, peas —are of little importance for forcing. 
The Lima beans require a too long season, and they 
are chiefly consumed in the dry state; but the com- 
mon ‘“‘string’’ beans are a good forcing crop. There 
are special reasons why some other vegetables are not 
forced with profit. Cauliflower, for example, is a most 
satisfactory crop to grow under glass, but the best heads 
of the late fall crop are so easily kept through the winter in 
cold storage as to almost despoil the market for the forced 
product. Spinach was once forced in cheap houses and in 
hotbeds and coldframes, but the southern-grown spinach 
now reaches the market in perfect condition from the holi- 
days until spring. Radishes are more popular in spring 
than in midwinter but the demand for them in early 
spring is met more by hotbed-grown roots than by a house- 
grown product. The forcing of celery is practically un- 
known, having been made a success, apparently, only in 
an experimental way. Eggplants require a long season 
and much heat and care, and the demand for them is slight 
in winter. The regular season of the vegetable is long, 
beginning with those from the Gulf states and ending with 
the October and even November fruits of the north. The 
pepino is little known, either to growers or to the market. 
Winter peppers —used for the making of “stuffed pep- 
pers’’ — are in limited demand, and they are readily shipped 
in from the south. Winter muskmelons are an exceed- 
ingly fancy product, and very difficult to grow with good 
flavor, so the price must be very high to enable them to 
yield a profit. Squashes and marrows can be grown in 
glass houses, but the plants require much room, and the 
product has small commercial value. 
The near future will no doubt see many new departures 
