66 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES. 



more than to keep the weeds out. For the growth of 

 other vegetables, such as peas, cauliflower, cabbage, car- 

 rots, parsnips, beets, radish, lettuce, asparagus, egg plant, 

 spinach, peppers, onions, garlic, rhubarb, and tomato 

 plants, prepare the ground by forming into beds fourteen 

 inches wide and two inches higher in the center than on 

 either ridge, with a small trench between them six inches 

 wide and three inches deep. They can be made wider 

 and deeper if a large amount of water is available. After 

 the beds are prepared run the water through them and 

 recrossing the beds that are defective, so the water will 

 rise to a uniform height on each, within about one inch 

 of the top. Make a depression on each side of the bed 

 two and one-half inches from the edge with a hoe and 

 one and one-half inches deep. Sow the seed not less than 

 one-half inch apart and be very careful not to cover the 

 seed more than one-half inch deep. Every good seed will 

 grow, and those which are to remain in the rows must 

 be properly thinned out. When tomato plants are from 

 three to five inches tall, transplant them on either side 

 of the high ridges, five feet apart in the row. Transplant 

 cabbage and egg plants when they are from two to three 

 inches tall, in vacant beds, the former eighteen inches 

 apart in the row for early and close heading varieties, 

 and twenty-eight inches apart for late and spreading 

 varieties, and egg plants twenty-four inches apart in the 

 row. A pint of fine manure from the cow-yard placed 

 six inches below the surface under each plant will insure 

 a cabbage from nearly every plant. Pepper plants should 

 be transplanted eighteen inches apart in the row." 



Picturesque Irrigation. A modification of the perma- 

 nent ditch plan is quite widely practiced on the sand 

 hills south of San Francisco. The water is lifted from 

 wells by windmills, the discharge from the pump being 

 taken at such elevation that it will flow in a small flume 

 supported by a trestle to the highest point of the land 

 to be irrigated. Hence the water is carried in small con- 



