r 20 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



February, 



but the additional help of a little artificial 

 heat enables us to produce the most desira- 

 ble summer vegetables in the middle of 

 winter, or at such other time as we may 

 desire them. 



Glass Without Artificial Heat. Much 

 can be done by the use of glass alone, espec- 

 ially in localities where the winters are not 

 exceedingly severe. Of course, hardy plants. 

 Lettuce, Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc., can be 

 successfully wintered over in cold frames 

 (simple, tight-fitting boxes covered with 

 common sashes, and in severe weather per- 

 haps with mats or shutters) even at the 

 extreme north; but here we aim to preserve 

 the growth already made, not to force a new 

 growth during winter. 



In milder climates, especially along the 

 Atlantic coast from New York City south- 

 ward, cold frames and cold houses are and 

 can be used for the production of hardy 

 winter vegetables, for instance, Spinach, 

 Lettuce, Radishes, Parsley, also Carrots, 

 Beets, Soup Celery, etc. The beds and 

 houses are usually sowed with Spinach (the 

 hardiest of these vegetables) in the fall; and 

 the crop is ready for use in February or 

 March, when they are at once planted with 

 Lettuce or sowed to Radishes and other 

 crops, which are ready for use in March, 

 April and perhaps May. 



In all these instances the glass is simply 

 used as a preserver of natural heat and 

 moisture, and as a protection from wind 

 and draught. A little in the way of winter 

 gardening may be done by any home gar- 

 dener, if he will devote a frame with a few 

 sashes to this piirpose, and place it in a well 

 protected, sunny location, making every- 

 thing snug and tight, and using mats and 

 shutters when needed. Here a few Parsley 

 and perhaps Celery plants may be kept 

 green and growing, to supply material for 

 flavoring soups, etc., and for garnishing, 

 while Spinach should be the main early crop, 

 to be followed towards spring by Radishes 

 and Lettuce, or anything else that is desired. 



The market gardeners at the east some- 

 times ase houses, or rather pits, svich as 

 shown in engraving page 100, but with the 

 heating arrangement left out. Each roof is 

 formed of two tiers of sashes, which may be 

 of the common liot-bed sash size (3 by tj), or 

 preferably a little longer. The walks or 

 alleys between the beds are sunk into the 

 ground about 18 inches deep, giving just 

 room enough to walk erect under the center 

 of the roofs. The beds or benches are about 

 level with the ground. The whole arrange- 

 ment, in either capacity (as cold pit or warm 

 house) is as simple, economical and sensible 

 as can well be imagined. Its advantages, 

 especially of convenient operation, when 

 compared with the cold frame method, are 

 too obvious to need further explanation. 



The majority of home growers will most 

 likely find the double structure too large 



DETAILS OF WINDOW CASE. FIG. 3. 



for their purpose, and in that case a single 

 pit, which would appear like one-half of the 

 engraving, will give on a smaller scale all 

 the advantages of the double house. Here 

 the gardener can take comfort among his 

 vegetables, and work in any kind of weather 

 without inconvenience. 



Gardening With Heated Structures. 

 The simplest and yet most common way of 

 forcing vegetables is by means of the ordin- 

 ary hot-bed. Fermenting horse manure 

 under the soil furnishes the moist heat so 



congenial to thrifty plant growth, and the 

 only fault to be found with it is that it is 

 not lasting, nor otherwise sufflciently under 

 control. The depth of manure should be 

 regulated according to the season and local- 

 ity. For growing vegetables during the 

 coldest weather, in a cold climate, the layer 

 may have to be two or even two and one-half 

 feet deep, while a foot less may be sufficient 

 late in the season, or in a locality where mild 

 winters are the rule. 



If the bed is well heated by manure 

 underneath and well protected by banking 

 and otherwise, crops of Radishes, 



Lettuce and other vegetables are 



easily grown. Be sure to utilize —Z. .1 

 every inch of space all the time. .Z'Z 

 Plant close without crowding. Rad- ~"l; 

 ishes will grow in rows three or four — ■ •- 

 inches apart, and an inch or less ~ 



apart in the rows, especially if the 

 larger ones are picked for use, and 

 the smaller ones left to grow. Let- 

 tuce may be set seven inches apart 

 in seven inch rows, and a row of 

 Radishes can also be grown between 

 each two of Carrots,Beets, Lettuce, 

 etc. They grow so fast that they ~. 



are out the way when the other 



plants needithe room. 



Fire hot-beds, as found in use 

 here and there, have an advantage over 

 the manure bed in their regular, steady and 

 easily controlled heat supply. They are 

 sometimes single, oftener double, beds with 

 a flue under a strongly built and well-sup- 

 ported floor, with a furnace at one end, and 

 a chimney at the other. Their disadvantages 

 are first the dry quality of the heat, which 

 should be counteracted by the evaporation 

 from pans with water placed at intervals 

 upon the flue; second, the disposition of the 

 foundation to rot away. 



On the whole, there is no hot-bed con- 

 struction so convenient, economical and 

 satisfactory in every way, as the forcing pit 

 shown on page 100, and in some measure 

 already described as a cold house. For the 

 amateur it may be single and not very long. 

 A dozen common hot bed sashes, costing 

 $2\, will give him a pit with two beds 4)^ 

 feet wide and 18 feet long, or an aggregate 

 of about IHO square feet of tillage surface. 

 A small, cheap, hot water boiler with some 

 common iron pipe encased in 3 or 4 inch tile 

 and placed 13 or 1.5 inches below the surface, 

 altogether costing not over $40, will provide 

 the necessary heat. 



A structure of this kind will be an endless 

 source of pleasure. Here you can keep and 

 propagate your flowers, grow Lettuce, Rad- 

 ishes and other vegetables in perfection all 

 winter, and produce all the vegetable plants, 

 — Totnato, Egg Plant, Cabbage, Caiiliflower, 

 etc., that you and your neighbors want. 

 What you may be able to dispose of to your 

 neighbors, or at your nearest town, at fair 

 prices, will more than pay the whole expense 

 of running the pit and the interest on the 

 investment, giving you a bounteous supply 

 of vegetables at a time when they are scarce 

 and high-priced, of the very best plants for 

 out-door setting in spring, and all the pleas- 

 ure found in this work besides, for the little 

 labor of taking care of the pit,. 



The bottom, a fig 3, should be formed of 

 board 1}{ inch or 1}< inch thick, with three 

 pieces of 1 inch by }{ inch iron screwed 

 across on the under side, to keep it from 

 warping, and should be rounded on the 

 outer edge, and also have a drip groove 

 round the under side There should also be 

 a groove in the top side to receive the glass 

 panels. The narrow glass panels around 

 the bottom part of the case may be any kind 

 of thick glass painted inside of any desired 

 color; this will prevent pots or earth being 

 seen through the glass. It is, however, a 



a 



How to make a Window Case. 



Window eases fllled with thrifty plants 

 make an agreeable screen, and give an airof 

 comfort to a residence. Well-to-do people 

 may have them in fancy designs, in easy 

 curves with bent glass and with highly 

 ornamental tile bases, but the amateur will 

 probably be content with such a respectable 

 looking case as he can himself construct. 

 The design, shown in flg. 1, says Amateur 

 Gardening, is made with a view to suit an 

 ordinary sash window, and simply and 

 cheaply constructed. 



AN amateur's window CASE. FIG. 1. 



good plan as tending to durability, to have 

 a galvanized iron tray, as shown in cross- 

 section, flg. 1, to set inside, with pipes 

 through the bottom for drainage. The 

 upper panels, /. d. and roof, c, may be 

 glazed with sheet glass, and the wood be 

 any hard kind, or good red deal. In the 

 latter case it .should have three coats of 

 paint, and in the former one coat of boiled 

 oil, and then a coat of varnish. Care should 

 be taken that it is well supported so as to 

 bear not only its own weight, but also that 

 of any plants that may be put into it. To 

 this end good strong iron brackets, as shown 

 at flg. 3, should be used, and a fixing ob- 

 tained on each side near the top of the case 

 into the window frame. 



It may be advisable to screw on some 

 neat brass or maleable iron l angles at the 

 corners where the timbers are jointed to- 

 gether. Some red and white lead mixed 

 with boiled oil, to the consistency of glue, 

 should be put into all the joints. In this 

 case it is intended that the top rail, ;/. flg 1, 

 should reach to the meeting rail of the 

 window against which it is to be placed, so 

 that when the lower sash is lifted up, access 

 can be had to the case; at the same time air 

 will be circulated in it. Fig. 2 shows the 

 construction of the bars, rails and rafters 

 needed. 



For preserving plants in flower in winter, 

 a tiny hot-water boiler, set on a bracket 

 under the window, inside the room, and 

 heated by a gas jet from a fiexible tube, or 

 by an oil lamp, with a small lead pipe lead- 

 ing from the boiler around the case, may be 

 used for providing the required temperature. 



The Fruit Outlook. 



After a season so widely disastrous to the fruit 

 interests as that of the past one it is only 

 natural that fruit (growers ask themselves with 

 considerable apprehension what effect the un- 

 usual warm weather which thus tar has prevailed 

 this winter, will have on the next fruit crop. We 

 have not the gifts of a prophet; but it may be 

 well to state that we have before this seen the 

 buds of Peaches swell prematurely, and appa- 

 rantly all be destroyed by severe cold afterwards, 

 yet there were dormant or secondary fruit buds 

 enough to bring ^a most excellent crop. We 

 further believe that this is not an unusual occur- 

 ance. Nature has latent powers and reserve 

 forces she often develops in an emergency. 

 There is at this writing no serious grounds for 

 fear. Even if fruits do not set as full as usual, 

 superior size and quality after all may make up 

 for the deficiency in number. 



