Seo. 29.] PLEASURE AND PROFITS OF GARDENING. 463 



vanccs, until the open ground is in condition to receive them. These are 

 called cold-frame plants, and furnish heads about two weeks earlier than the 

 hot-Led plants started in March. The best varieties for thi* early crop are 

 the Early York and the "Winnigstadt, which makes a very eolid bead of ex- 

 cellent quality. 



Lettuce is also sown in the fall, and with a little protoction keeps weh 

 through tlie winter. About the first of March operations commence with 

 the hot-beds. Those are jirepared with various quantities of manure, ac- 

 cording to the heat required. The beds are generally from four to six feet 

 wide, for convenience in attending to the plants. They are covere<l with a 

 sash about three feet wide, the glass being not more than seven by nine. 

 In these beds a great variety of plants arc forwarded — cabbage, tomatoes, 

 peppers, egg-plants, and other early plants. 



The whole ground is covered as soon as it is sufiiciently warm, and ar- 

 ranged so as to allow a succession crop. In the first course come radishes, 

 6i)inaeh, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, peas, turnips, corn, kohl-rabi. 



Early potatoes arc off in time for late cabbage ; early radishes in lime for 

 celery, sweet corn, or cabbage. Eiirly peas arc always followed by a crop 

 of something that will ripen l)eforo frost. Early corn may be followed by tur- 

 nips, or by spinach for spring, which will be oti' in time for tomatoes, liects 

 are followed by celer}', and peppers are transplanted among the heads of let- 

 tuce a M-eek or two before they go to market ; or squashes or cucumbers are 

 planted. Quassia chips, steeped in hot water, and that sprinkled upon the 

 vines, are found to be efficient protection against bugs. Carrots form a good 

 succession crop to the onions. They arc sowed between the rows about the 

 middle of June. Two crops, and sometimes three, are always grown from 

 the same plot of ground in a season. Nothing but ignorance of tliese facts 

 prevents a great many small owners of land in the vicinity of small towns 

 I'rom establishing market gardens for the supply of those who can not, or at 

 least do not, grow a supply for themselves of the most common sorts of gar- 

 den vegetables. It is a fact but little appreciated, that a very large iK>rtion 

 of those who have lived all their lives upon a (arm, ami made its cultiva- 

 tion their only business, arc utterly incomiictcnt to mamige a garden— thai 

 is, a garden intended for supplying any market with vegetables. 



Illustrative of the pleasures' and jirofits of gardening, Ve insert a re|)ort 

 of a visit of the author to the (jitrdax of an artUt, to show what an un- 

 professional gardener may do upon a little spot of ground. (Jeo. II. llitc, 

 of iMorrisania, lives upon a village lot, and is by profession an artist. Not 

 an artist in gardening— not one who professes* or jtretends to pnictico horti- 

 culture upon a scientific or artistic plan. Nor do I menlion hi* garden a* t 

 model of taste and skill which may be imitated by the wealthy at grout ex- 

 pense. I mention it rather as tlie garden of a mwhanic. and just sncli a one 

 as a great mauv mechanics or prolVwional men might have if they would— 

 if they only knew how. I mention it full of liope that it may be tho moving 

 cause toward inducing other men who have daily employment, as this one 



