1892 



(}LEANlNliS IN HKK CULTURE. 



893 



1 do not know whctlicr he bolonged to llic old 

 church or not; btit it was evident tlnit ills re- 

 ligion did not taiic in (>v<mi a {lUinpsc of any sort 

 oisudi religion as I tried to explain to him. 



High-pressure Gardening. 



BY A. I. ROOT. 



VKGETAIU-K-GAROKNINO FOK PKCKMRKK. 



Tlie principal vegt^talile to raise under glass 

 is lettuce: and 1 think tlie (Jrand Rapids lettuce 

 lakes the precedent now |)relty iniich all over 

 tiie United Slates. Tlie higgesi demand usual- 

 ly comes in the month of February. In some 

 localities, perhaps it is a little later — say 

 ihrongh March : but during l-'ebruary and 

 March the demand has always, so far as 1 know, 

 been beyond the supply, and a great many 

 times vei'y high prices are realized. During 

 last Febriuiry ami March it lirouglit from 1.") to 

 '20 cts. a lb. at wholesale, and retailed at from 30 

 to 4U. We sold it for a nickel per ^ lb. It was 

 put up in little paper bags. There seems to be 

 a general craving for greiMi stufT just before the 

 approach of spring, and no doubt this craving 

 is natural, and th(»refore we may suppose it ex- 

 ercises a beneficial effect on the health. 



Well, as it takes about '.todays to grow (Jrand 

 Rapids lettuce to perfection, if you have not 

 already sown your seed you want to get right 

 at it now. The seed may be started in a box 

 placed in a window, in some room where the 

 temperature will be about right, and the win- 

 dow should be one that will afford as much sun 

 as possible. The plants may grow in the boxes 

 for the first four weeks. I believe the best let- 

 tuce-growers usually transplant twice. This 

 not only makes a stronger root, but it is econo- 

 my of space, (iive the plant more room as fast 

 as it needs it, and not any faster. In the latter 

 part of January, and during Feburary, lettuce 

 will do very well in a cold-frame. It should, 

 however, be pretty well hanked up with manure 

 around tiie sid<^s; and when the weather is very 

 severe, a shutter or straw mat should he put 

 over the sash. Cold-frames and hot-beds are 

 cheaper than a greenhouse — that is, the first 

 cost is less; but after you get to doing very 

 much with these latter appliances you wili. 

 sooner or later, want some sort of glass structure 

 that will permit you to get inside and work 

 during cold or stormy days. Every one who 

 farms, or who hires hands for working in the 

 ground, sooner or later finds it cheaper and 

 more convenient to hire his help l)y the year. In 

 this way the man becomes accustomed to the 

 ways, knows where things are planted, and in 

 many ways is oftentimes worth double the price 

 of a green hand, even though the latter has the 

 same ability. W^ell. if we hire help by the year, 

 what shall we do with tlemi in winter time or 

 during stormy days in spring and fall? And 

 this is just where a greenhouse comes in. How 

 shall we made a structure for this purpose 

 cheapest? 



A CHKAP WAV OF MAKIXft A COI.D GRKEN- 

 HOUSE. 



One of our greenliouses has been so much 

 shaded by the new buildings, made necessary 

 by the enlargement of our business, that I have 

 been for some time thinking that it would have 

 to be moved to some point where we could have 

 every bit of the sunshine. In fact. I Iiave never 

 had a greenhouse in my life, until within the 

 past ten days, where it had nil the sun in the 

 months of December and .January, from morning 

 till night. Now, such structures, exposed to 



dampness, frost, and sunshine!, rot out very 

 (luickly — especially the part that comes next to 

 the ground. Stcuje is (?xpensiv(\ and it conducts 

 frost in a way that makes it not just th(> thing. 

 How, then, shiill we have our glass su()[)orted 

 in souHi way that will lie dm-able and frost- 

 proof, to a hirge extent? I will veil you what I 

 did. I purchased pine lumber, '.'xd. in lengths 

 from ■.'<) to 30 feel, long. Then 1 hunted up all 

 the old iron pipe I could find, about an inch or 

 an inch and a quarter, outside diameter. You 

 can get discarded gaspipe in almost any collec- 

 tion of old iron: or if you go to the plumber's or 

 repiiir shops you can almost always find second- 

 hand pipe that, can be had at a very low figure. 

 (hiv long string-pi<'ces, 2x6, are Norway pine or 

 hemlock — something durable, and that will 

 hold nails. With an expansion bit we bored 

 holes in these strips about feet apart. The 

 holes are to go in the narrow way, and reach 

 almost tiirough the narrow stick — say to a 

 depth of 4 inches, the holes lieing of such size 

 that the pipe will drive in snug and secure. 

 Now these ii'on pipes or iron stakes an; to be 

 driven into the ground. We drive tliem into 

 our soil from 2^j to 4 feet, the depth de- 

 pending upoH how far they are to ris<' above 

 the ground. You can stretch a line and drive 

 the pipes first, and then drive your piece of tim- 

 ber over them afterward. Sticks supported in 

 this way make the plates for the glass sash to 

 rest on. For the center pieces, the pipes reach 

 out of the ground about 4 feet; then, by sinking 

 the paths between the beds down a foot and a 

 half or two feet, there is no diflficulty in walk- 

 ing all through the structure if you walk in the 

 paths. Such a structure, containing 4.5 sashes, 

 we put up last' week in about four days. It is 

 warmed by exhaust steam running in tiles back 

 and forth under the beds. These iron pipes are 

 the only support the building has. Around the 

 outside of the structure we board up to the 

 plates with some kind of cheap lumber, and 

 something that does not rot easily — say 

 chestnut, hemlock, or Norway pine. After 

 boarding we banked up with dirt almost to the 

 sills. This boarding is fastened to the iron 

 pipes by common staph'S large enough to go 

 around the pipe and clinch in the Ijoards. In 

 this same way we board around the beds, leav- 

 ing the paths between the boarding. The main 

 roof of the building is made of 32 sash: 4 rows 

 of 8 each, running east and west. These 32 

 sashes have only a slight inclination to the 

 south, except the extreme southern row. which 

 comes down to the ground with quite a sharp 

 slant; then, to get the evening and morning sun, 

 we have a row of sash on the east and west 

 sides, sloping down to the ground like the row on 

 the south side: and on the north side we have a 

 similar row; but, as the^re is no sun to catch 

 with these, instead of coming clear down to the 

 ground, the lower edge of the sash rests on a 

 support about three feet from the ground. The 

 structure is i)articularly for raising veg(>table- 

 plants; and by the first of May, or perhaps a 

 little later, and when frosts are no longer 

 to be feared, the sash are all to be lifted 6ff' and 

 piled up. We have practiced this^for a great 

 many years, and we find it much more satisfac- 

 tory than a greenhouse where the glass is not 

 movable. When the sash are all stripped off, 

 and the plants receive the full benefit of all the 

 lat(!r summer showers, it is just a sight to see 

 them boom. 



KAISI.Nfi fELEKV IN WI.NTER TIME. 



I am reminded of this matter this Thanks- 

 giving morning by the tremendous demand 

 there is for our White Plume and Self-blanch- 

 ing celery. Our stock is so nearly exhausted 

 that we have had to put the price for the 



