74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



like our cabbage, but has a more loose lettuce-like head. The 

 Chinese bean, or Towkok, makes an excellent string bean for late 

 season. The pods are 20 inches long, or more, and when cooked 

 have a delicious flavor, entirely different from other string beans. 



I have now given you a summary of what will make, at least, a 

 very good vegetable garden, so far as variety is concerned, but there 

 are many things to be considered in the growing of these vegetables, 

 and the grower has to be continually on the outlook for insect pests, 

 which, of some species or other, attack almost every garden crop; 

 and then there are the many fungoid and other diseases, for which 

 special means of protection must in many cases be taken ; and after 

 all when you have raised the choicest of these vegetables they have, 

 before they reach the table, to go through a process, which, if not 

 up to the standard, may seriously impair the excellent qualities 

 they may possess. 



Discussion. 



In reply to questions as to escarol and sea kale Mr. Duncan said 

 that escarol was a broad-leaved endive and was one of the best 

 winter salads, and was rapidly coming into popular favor. Sea 

 kale was not much grown hereabouts but he had grown it success- 

 fully in southern New England ; blanch the young shoots in spring 

 by covering them with leaves and cook like asparagus. 



Potatoes do best in old pasture land newly plowed up. March 

 20 was time enough to start tomatoes in the house. Regarding the 

 use of nitrate of soda as a vegetable fertilizer he said that it was best 

 to use a slight sprinkling of it periodically; not when planting, but 

 during the growing season. 



Duncan Finlayson suggested for beans the Wonder of France 

 and the Mohawk which he had found very desirable varieties. 



A lady remarked that the lecturer recommended the Country 

 Gentleman corn; she had tried it two years and it had proved a 

 failure, although it had been highly spoken of. 



Mr. Duncan stated that in his experience he had never seen a 

 tomato equal to the Ponderosa in size, texture, and flavor. While 

 he advised it for the home garden it was not adapted for commercial 

 cultivation. 



