Cold Frames 53 



named in the following table, as most profitable for this special 

 purpose, viz. : 



Sow spinach in rows 8-9 inches apart, thin to 2 inches. 



" beets " 7 " " " 3 " 



" carrots " 6 " " " 2 " 



" radishes " 4 " " " 2 " 

 " soup celery" 6 

 ' parsley 6 



Under no circumstances would it be safe to make the rows 

 still narrower, or leave the plants closer in the rows. If you 

 vary from these distances, by all means make them larger. 

 Instead of planting the radishes by themselves, however, it is 

 generally preferable to sow one row between each two rows of 

 any of the other vegetables. This makes the rows as close as 

 three inches apart in some cases; but the radishes will be off in 

 time for the other stuff to occupy the space when it is needed. 



The usual time for sowing these crops is about March 1st 

 for New Jersey, and correspondingly earlier or later further south 

 or north; in other words, from two to four weeks sooner than 

 the same vegetables could be sown in the open ground. This is 

 late enough to insure safety from injury by the tail end of winter; 

 it is also early enough to hit the time of brisk demand, and realize 

 the best prices. The aim is to get these crops from one to four 

 weeks ahead of the earliest out-door supply. The competition 

 from the South is generally not very formidable, as their modes of 

 cultivation, perhaps their soil and climate, and certainly the long 

 shipment always lower the value of vegetables from there in the 

 eyes of consumers and dealers. The near-by products often 

 bring high prices when the southern supply goes a-begging. 



This also is the case with head lettuce, so-called. This, like 

 the other crops, is grown in cold frames during the latter part of 

 winter for marketing in early spring. Many gardeners make it 

 a practice to have a number of spare frames without sash, but 

 covered during winter with litter to keep the ground from freezing. 

 When the time arrives that the cabbage and lettuce plants in the 

 regular frames can get along without glass protection, perhaps 

 by March 1st, the spare frames are made ready, planted with 

 lettuce plants from the wintered supply, and these set six or 

 seven inches apart each way. They are then covered with the 

 sashes taken from the cold frames containing wintered plants, and 

 tended in a similar way as the plant frames by giving ventilation 

 when needed. Aim to stimulate early and full development of 

 the crop in every way possible. Applications of nitrate of soda, 

 either dry or in solution, or of liquid manure hardly ever fail to 

 pay well. If it is thought risky to leave the wintered plants, 

 from which the sashes were removed, entirely without protection, 



