72 GARDENING FOE PROFIT. 



his Cabbage, Lettuce, and Cauliflower "coming through" 

 nicely, but as yet no Egg Plants, Peppers, or Tomatoes. He 

 impatiently waits another week, makes an examination, and 

 discovers that instead of his Tomatoes and Egg Plants be- 

 ginning to vegetate, they are commencing to rot. It is now 

 plain to him that he has been cheated ; he has been sold old 

 seed, and if he does nothing worse, he for ever after looks 

 upon the seedsman he has patronized as a venial wretch, 

 destitute of principle and honesty. But he must have 

 Tomatoes, Peppers, and Egg Plants, and he buys again, 

 from another seedsman, warranted honest. He renews his 

 hot-bed, it is now a month later, and a bright March sun, 

 with milder nights, gives him the proper temperature in 

 his hot-bed — 70 or 80°, and his eyes are at last gladdened 

 by the sprouting of the troublesome seed. April comes 

 with warm sunshine, inviting him to begin to " make gar- 

 den " outside. He has yet the balance of the original lot of 

 seeds that he bought in February. But as he is still entire- 

 ly befogged about the cause of his failure in the first hot- 

 bed, he begins his open ground operations with little confi- 

 dence in his seeds, but as he has got them, they may as well 

 be tried. And again he sows in the same day his Peas and 

 Lima Beans, Radishes and Pumpkins, Onions and Sweet 

 Corn. Hardy and tender get the same treatment. The re- 

 sult must of necessity be the same as it was in the hot-bed, 

 the hardy seeds duly vegetate, while the tender are of 

 course rotted. This time he is not surprised, for he is already 

 convinced that seedsman No. 1 is a rascal, and only won- 

 ders how any of his seeds grew at all, so he again orders 

 from seedsman No. 2 for the articles that have failed. 

 Here circumstances continue to favor the latter, for by 



