VEGETABLE GARDENING 91 



cannot be pulled out by drawing on a single leaf. 



After setting, pour a quart of water over and 

 closely around each plant, and then shade with 

 muslin screens for three or four days. Water 

 again when screens are removed. 



In ordering plants be sure to get a few extra 

 plants of each variety. These may be planted 

 /temporarily, and used later to fill vacancies. 



Michael's Early, Bubach, Gandy, and Aroma 

 are fine varieties, and give a long season of ripen- 

 ing. 



If other varieties are substituted, be sure that 

 at least two varieties, out of five, are staminate 

 flowered. The pistillate varieties are among the 

 best bearers, if they are properly pollenized by 

 staminate varieties planted near by, otherwise 

 they will not be productive. 



Plants set in manner here described will cover 

 the ground the first season, and bear abundantly 

 the following spring. In the North a light pro- 

 tection of leaves, or stable litter, will protect them 

 from winter kill. But the covering must not be 

 very thick, or they will often blanch and rot. Put 

 on barely enough cover to conceal the plants; a 

 little less will be better. The mulch or covering 

 need not be removed in spring. 



For stimulating growth, use nitrate of soda, a 

 pint to a bed twenty-four feet in length (six feet 

 wide). Apply the finely pulverized crystals by 

 hand, broadcast, by sifting between plants, being 

 very careful to keep the nitrate off the foliage of 

 the plants. This should be applied early in 

 spring, and repeated two or three weeks later. 



