16 Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming. 



the plants are put into rows or trenches, which should be dug 

 out to a depth of from 1 foot to 15 inches. When the plants 

 are about 16 inches high they should be earthed up slightly. 

 After a short interval thej should be earthed up again, and this 

 must be repeated until the earthing-up is completed. Celery 

 may be planted after cabbage, or broccoli, or early lettuces, and 

 the plants are put in early in May. 



Marrows and Cucumbehs are grown upon market-garden 

 farms, but their culture is somewhat hazardous, though they do 

 not remain long on the ground. The least frost, or too much 

 wet, injures the plants. Some growers sprout the seeds in 

 flannel, but this renders them delicate. The seed is put in rows 

 4 to 5 feet apart, early in May. The plants are rarely trans- 

 planted where cucumbers are grown on market-garden farms. 

 There are special kinds of cucumber for growing in the open 

 air, and upon ridges, among which are the Early Short Prickly, 

 Sutton's Perfection, Rabley Prolific. Between the rows a drill 

 of rye is put in as a shelter. Occasionally scarlet runners are 

 grown between the rows to serve as a protection. These cucum- 

 bers make from 3^. to 4*'. per barrel ; from 175 to 200 barrels 

 are grown per acre. 



Tomatoes are not grown nearly so much as they should be ; 

 the taste for this vegetable is increasing rapidly, both for eating 

 raw, according to the American fashion, or for boiling or baking. 

 They thrive well under the protection of buildings, and there 

 are many neglected corners and borders near farmhouses and 

 farm-buildings where tomatoes would flourish, protected from 

 fowls and other creatures by galvanised wire-netting. Plants 

 may be obtained by sowing seeds in shallow pans or boxes in 

 March and April, and transplanting into pots, and finally, when 

 large enough, they should be topped and planted out. The great , 

 thing in the cultivation of tomatoes is to keep pinching off the 

 heads continually and to cut away all secondary shoots on which 

 no flowers are forming. Or five or six seeds may be sown towards 

 the end of April where the plants are required, so that no trans- 

 planting is necessary, and the strongest plants should be retained 

 and trained to a wall or to a stake, and the pinching and topping 

 process done as often as necessary. The plants require watering 

 if it is dry, in their early stage. 



Cabbages, Cauliflowers and Broccoli Plants may be 

 grown for sale with good results. Upon a farm in Essex, visited 

 in 1879, several acres of cabbage-plants were sold at 40Z. per 

 acre, having only been eight weeks on the ground. The seed 

 was sown in August, and the plants were cleared off by October, 

 in time for wheat to be sown. A splendid crop of carrots 

 (bunched) had been cleared off in July. 



