TIMES AND SEASONS. 15 



growing stature met by increasing light and (out- 

 of-doo,rs) increasing heat. Seeds of certain plants 

 can indeed be sown in the fall or under glass as late 

 as December, yet they are struggling against the 

 solar tide and are never so thrifty as when the " young 

 flood " of the year sets in. Peas, that are short-lived 

 plants, may be sown out-of-doors in August, and will 

 mature a crop before frost, yet they do not display 

 the vigor shown by plants of the same class planted 

 in April or May. 



In the garden and out-of-doors the growing season 

 is, of course, dependent also on the temperature. The 

 spring, even in Vermont or Michigan, begins with the 

 turn of the season, yet it is practically delayed out- 

 of-doors for several months, or till the increasing 

 light and sunshine raises the air to temperatures 

 suitable for growing plants. In like manner the end 

 of the growing season is forstalled by the return of 

 cold weather many weeks before the actual end of 

 the season at Christmas week. 



The first thing we have to decide is this : — Can 

 we take advantage of the actual beginning of the 

 growing season without regard to the beginning of 

 spring out-of-doors ? If we can do so, we shall find a 

 very great gain in the matter of early vegetables. 

 Our object must be to get the greatest possible result 

 from our garden, and to do this we must begin the 

 spring work as soon as the season really opens. For 

 instance, the tomato is a native of a tropical climate, 

 where the warm weather begins early and ends late. 

 In the latitude of New York the season out-of-doors 

 is not long enough to bring its crop to maturity. 

 We, therefore, gain time by starting seeds in the 

 house soon after the season turns. The plant being 

 sheltered from the cold and finding the spring really 

 at hand, grows rapidly, and by the time the warm 



