498 



THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. 



[Chap. V. 



" Wlien plants are to be sent a distance, they should be set in shallow 

 boxes, with their roots in wet earth or moss, but they must not be packed in 

 wet weather, nor have their leaves wet, or they will rot immediately. 

 Plants may be taken ofl" the beds and preserved in a cave or cellar for a 

 week or more, with their roots packed in damp moss or earth, if not packed 

 too close. 



" If by bedding too early, or crowding, the plants should grow long and 

 slender, they niay be cut down to two or three inches in length ; but this 

 should be avoided by giving plenty of room and air, and by working the 

 earth in among the roots with the fingers as it is lifted up by the plants, and 

 settling it by watering." 



Tlie best ground to grow a crop of sweet potatoes upon is sand, enriched 

 with very well-rotted manure, leaf-mold, fine compost, guano, or superphos- 

 phate. Tlie hills are rounded up like mounds, a foot or more high. All 

 who live upon sandy land, south of latitude 41 degrees, can grow a few 

 sweet potatoes in the garden, if not as a field crop. They are best preserved 

 by packing in cut straw, in barrels, set in a stove-heated room, where the 

 thermometer never will sink below 40 degrees, and rarely rise above 60 de- 

 grees. See 438. 



5G6. Hot Water for Seeds> — ^There are many seeds which may be greatly 

 quickened in their vegetating powers by the use of hot water. Onion-seed, 

 for instance, may be made to sprout upon the instant by pouring boiling 

 water upon it. You need not fear killing it. Put some in a saucer, and 

 pour on water from a tea-kettle, and after a half minute pour it off again, 

 and you may see the sprouts shooting out the next minute ; and if then 

 planted, while hot and moist, in pulverulent earth, closely packed upon 

 them, you will get theiu forward two or three weeks earlier. The same ef- 

 fect will be produced upon all black, hard-shelled seed, such as onion, 

 asparagus, sunflower, water-melon, apple, and many others. Locust-seed 

 should be thoroughly scalded in boiling-hot lye, or several repetitions of hot 

 water. 



567. Cranberries in the Garden> — Cranberries have been so long looked 

 upon as wild plants of swamps, that it is difficult for people to realize that 

 they can be grown in gardens as well as strawberries, which are naturally a 

 wild field growth. 



Cranberries do naturally grow in swamps, but they may be made to grow 

 artificially in good loamy garden soil, or that which is naturally a little 

 mucky, such as is the most suitable for potatoes, if deeply' worked. The 

 best soil, however, for cranberries, is almost pure sand, with water naturally 

 standing, or percolating through it, within less than two feet of the surface. 

 A bed occupying one rod and two fifths, in the garden of Charles B. Phelps, 

 Colebrook, Conn., planted in June, 1857, yielded three bushels in 1860. 

 The vines were taken from a natural bed, and set in small tufts, one foot 

 apart in the rows, which were two feet apart, and these were kept clear of 

 weeds until the whole ground became matted with vines. The bed then 



