PREFACE. 
experimental work in the forcing of vegetables during 
the past few years, and he has endeavored to see 
much of the forcing industry of the country. In this 
time there has been a great accumulation of informa- 
tion and of notes which, since there is no adequate 
literature upon the subject, he has now set down in 
these pages. The book has been written for the com- 
mercial grower of winter vegetables, but the writer will 
be glad if it shall lead anyone to make the effort to 
grow the vegetables for his own table. The very ob- 
stacles which one must overcome make the effort all 
the more worth the while; and the satisfaction of 
growing a garden when the snow lies deep against the 
house is of the keenest and most unselfish kind. 
The American writing upon vegetable-forcing is very 
recent. I have referred to most of it at various places 
in the text. It only remains to say that the basis of 
much of this book is the series of publications from 
the Cornell Experiment Station; and it is justice that 
I add a list of these papers. This list will also aid 
the student in tracing the bibliography of the literature 
of the forcing of plants. The Cornell bulletins upon 
the forcing of vegetables in glass houses (some of 
which are permanently out of print) are these: No. 28, 
Experiments in the Forcing of Tomatoes, June, 1891; 
No. 30, Some Preliminary Studies of the Influence of 
the Electric Arc Light upon Greenhouse Plants, August, 
1891; No. 31, Forcing of English Cucumbers, Septem- 
ber, 1891; No. 41, On the Comparative Merits of Steam 
and Hot Water for Greenhouse Heating, August, 1892; 
No. 42, Second Report upon Electro-Horticulture, Sep- 
(vi) 
