A Year's Work in the Vegetable Garden 



should be necessary. A dry atmosphere and free ventilation are 

 essential to bring the fruit to perfection. Stopping must be com- 

 menced early by pinching out the leader, and only one eye should be 

 allowed beyond the fruit which are to remain. Six will be enough 

 for one plant to carry, and they should be nearly of a size, for if 

 one obtains a strong lead, it will be impossible to ripen the others. 

 The remainder should be gradually removed while young. The 

 worst foe of the Melon is red spider, and it is difficult to apply a 

 remedy without doing mischief. Water will destroy it, but this may 

 have disastrous results on the fruit. The most certain preventive is 

 stout well-grown plants. Weakly specimens appear to invite attack, 

 and are incapable of struggling against it. Still, under the most 

 careful management it is sometimes difficult to finish off Melons 

 without having red spider to assist in the operation. Where plants 

 are occasionally lost through decay at the collar, small pieces of 

 charcoal laid in a circle round the stem have proved a simple and 

 effectual antidote. 



Onion to be sown for winter use, if not already done, or if any 

 mishap has befallen former sowings. This task must be disposed of 

 early, for Onions should have good hold of the ground before hot 

 weather comes. Onions for pickling should be grown thickly on 

 poor ground made firm. The plants are not to be thinned, but may 

 be allowed to stand as thick as pebbles on the seashore. The 

 starving system produces abundance of small handsome bulbs that 

 ripen early, which are the very things wanted for pickling. The 

 Queen and Paris Silver-skin are adapted for the purpose. 



Parsley to be sown in plenty for summer and autumn supply j 

 thin as soon as up, to give each plant plenty of room. 



Peas to be sown again for succession, the finest second earlies 

 being the best to sow now. 



Salsify. This delicious root, which is sometimes designated the 

 ' Vegetable Oyster,' requires a piece of ground deeply trenched, with 

 a thick layer of manure at the bottom of the trench, and not a 

 particle of manure in the body of soil above it. The roots strike 

 down into the manure, and acquire a good size with great regularity, 

 and the quality is fine. If carelessly grown, they become forked and 

 fibrous, and are much wasted in the cooking, besides being of inferior 

 flavour. Sow in rows fifteen inches apart, any time from the end 

 of March to the beginning of May. Two sowings will generally 

 suffice. 



Sorrel. As the flower stems rise from the previous year's plants 



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