188G 



GLEANINGS IN JiEE CULTURE. 



895 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOING IT. 



Continued from Oct. IS. 



CHAPTER XXVI IL 



Wise men laj' up knowledg'e.— Pnov. 10: U. 



and as many have ; put out cucumbers which were started in the 

 greenliouse. It took some little time for the 

 roots to get down into the reservoirs be- 

 neath ; but when they did, they gave an 

 enormous crop of cucumbers, which grew so 

 rapidly sometimes that we picked them eve- 

 ry day. These cucumbers, coming much in 

 advance of any raised in the open air, sold 

 readily at a good price. 



After the cucumbers, we raised a tine lot 

 of turnip-plants ; and when these were put 

 out in the open tield the bed was cropped 

 with lettuce, which now covers the ground, 

 and the plants are so lai'ge and thrifty that 

 they are an astonishment to every passer-by. 

 The year is not up yet, and will not be until 

 next February ; yet this ground has given us 

 Jive paijing crop^, and many of the crops not 

 only paid, but they paid handsomely. Of 

 course, the ground was heavily manured. 

 The two feet of soil that covers the stone 

 reservoirs contained, perhaps, six inches of 

 manure ; but, my friends, will, it not pay, 

 and especially will it not pay for those who 

 have time on their hands, with nothing to 

 do V And this book, as you may rem'ember. 

 is written mainly for this class. 



xV squash -vine, started in the greenhouse, 

 and put out in June, made very slow growth 

 for a time, but it finally started an immense 

 squash, which in time got so heavy that it 

 broke the vine that bore it — said vine being 

 run over a trellis. I told father Cole about 

 it, and he said I should have made a plat- 

 form or shelf under the squash. Another 

 one grew to an enormous size, and we finally 

 sold about half a dozen in all from one vine. 

 The quality was excellent. 



Some time in the latter part of July or 

 fore part of August a pumpkin-vine came up 

 of itself. Nobody thought it could possibly 

 ripen any pumpkins ; but the single vine 

 produced six, and ripened them all. The 

 gi'owth was most astonishing. I presume 

 vines of all kinds send their roots down at 

 once into the reservoirs ; and when they get 

 there they make a growth that is really sur- 

 prising. Some strawberry-plants were start- 

 ed in March, ami they bore a crop of fine 

 large berries, but we expect greater results 

 from these next season. Pie-plant promises 

 wonderfully. We have not tested the matter 

 oil asparagus, but propose to another season. 



It is now November 

 inquired in regard to the Avorkings of the 

 New Agriculture during the past summer. 

 I will go over the ground a little. In the 

 first place, I have been much better pleased 

 with its working on the low ground, inclin- 

 ed to wetness, than on the uplands and hill- 

 sides. Perhaps this is largely owing to the 

 fact that the summer of 188(5 has been an ex- 

 ceedingly dry one, especially in many locali- 

 ties — so much so that our reservoirs became 

 perfectly dry, and but few of the rains were 

 sutticient in volume to fill them up. Under 

 these circumstances the ground was simply 

 excellently underdrained, and nothing more 

 —that is, so far as the reservoirs were con- 

 cerned. Mixing manure through the soil to 

 a depth of 18 inches or 2 feet produces won- 

 derful crops, as a matter of course ; but our 

 beds near the factory, where exhaust steam 

 was permitted to go under them, were cov- 

 ered with such a depth of earth over the 

 reservoirs that the roots of but few plants 

 could reach the water. The reason of put- 

 ting our reservoirs so low was, as I have be- 

 fore explained, to avoid injuring the plants 

 by too much heat. 



We commenced planting seeds and putting 

 out plants, as you may remember, some time 

 in February. Peas were planted in the open 

 ground over these reservoirs, Feb. 10, and 

 they yielded a crop of nice pods the fore part 

 of April. Cabbage-plants taken from the 

 greenhouse, and put beside the peas at the 

 same date, were, for a time, protected by a 

 sash to harden them off; but after two or 

 three weeks they, too, were allowed to stand 

 without any protection. They were repeat- 

 edly buried up in the snow, but the ground 

 did not freeze, owing to the heat underneath. 

 The plants made a vigorous growth, and 

 were just as good as cold-frame plants, so far 

 as I could discover. A few were left on this 

 ground, producing heads of cabbage in April 

 that weighed, some of them, 10 lbs. : and as 

 we received for them 3 cts. per lb., we got oO 

 cts. for a few single heads of cabbage. 



After the cabluige we put on beets and 

 lettuce, of which I have written you. The 

 lettuce sold readily in May at ."> cts. pei' head 

 each. You will remember we started an- 

 other crop between the rows when wo were 

 marketing one cro)i. After the lettuce, \vf 



