•^ WHAT VEGETABLES 23 



mention of the best varieties to grow in the home 

 garden. Of most vegetables the large seed cata- 

 logues offer a bewildering variety. I like Burpee's 

 way of marking with a O the sorts he considers 

 best; also, Vaughan's way of charging an extra 

 price for his choicest seeds, marked "special." 

 As I am not writing a horticultural dictionary 

 or a book of reference, I cannot dwell on all the 

 vegetables which epicures may desire in their 

 home gardens and their culture. To all who 

 want a helpful guide I cannot too highly recom- 

 mend a volume published by the Macmillan 

 Co., The Book of Vegetables and Garden 

 Herbs, by Allen French. Get it, by all means; 

 you will consult it daily during the sowing 

 season; I do so myself, after half a century's 

 gardening experience, to refresh my memory. 

 The plan of the book is remarkably practical. 

 All the vegetables, including many that are 

 little known but desirable, are considered in 

 alphabetical order, from agrimony and artichoke 

 to yam and zitkwa, and at the end there is a 

 table of seed longevity and ounce values. Each 

 vegetable is considered from every important 

 point of view. Under ''Onion," for example, 

 there are these subheads: "General Informa- 

 tion," "Soil," "Distances," "Depth to Plant," 

 "Thinning," "Transplanting," "Culture," "Fer- 

 tilizer," "Harvesting," "Storage," "The 'New' 

 Onion Culture," "Diseases," "Pests." To have 

 this book on your shelf is like having at hand an 



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