THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



matters, as that of the necessity of protecting 

 newly set plants. I was brought up in the ortho- 

 dox dogmas of gardening and taught to protect 

 everything that went into the ground until it had 

 taken root, and I remember the wearisome hours 

 spent in placing shingles, paper caps, and the like 

 between the plant and any possible rays of the sun ; 

 and I especially recall several hundred small plants 

 which were once covered with the most " scien- 

 tific " of paper caps, provided with an attached 

 stick to thrust into the ground to hold them in 

 place. I spent the leisure hours of several evenings 

 fashioning these out of stiff paper, and I viewed 

 with pride the little army of tents in orderly array 

 that gleamed white in the morning sun. But my 

 pride turned to humiliated dismay when the tents 

 were lifted at eventide that the plants might have 

 the benefit of the night air; fully fifty per cent 

 of my plants lay wilted and dying. The water in 

 the soil, unhindered by any protecting dust mulch, 

 had, under the ardent rays of the sun, drawn to 

 the surface and, confined within the narrow con- 

 fines of the tents, was rapidly reduced to steam, 

 and the poor plants, confined within a Turkish 



bath, were literally cooked to death. That ended 



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