THE OARDEX. 93 



it, and it also acts aa a tonic to the vines, making them more vigorous. I do 

 not confine the applications of bone daat to melon vines, but use it where- 

 ever I fear the striped bugs." 



A "Sey/v Method or "Watermelon Culture. — A correspondent of the 

 Rural Xew Yorker describes the following method by which an extraor- 

 dinary crop of watermelons was raised: Holes were dug ten feet apart each 

 way, eighteen inches square and fifteen inches deep. These holes were filled 

 \vith well-rotted manure, which was thoroughly incorporated with the soil. 

 V low, flat hill was then made and seed planted. When the ^-ines were large 

 uough to begin to run, the whole surface was covered to the depth of a foot 

 or fifteen inches with wheat straw. The straw was placed close up around 

 the ^-ines. No cultivation whatever was given afterward; no weeds or graaa 

 grew. The vines spread over the straw, and the melons matured clean and 

 nice. The yield was abtmdant, and the experiment an entire success. This 

 is surely worth trying. 



Boxe4 for Melons and Caciunbers. — It is a good plan to make boxes, 

 Bay twelve inches square and eight inches high, without bottom or top; these, 

 placed over the cucumber or melon hills, and covered with grass, give an 

 impetus to the plants early in the season that nothing short of a hot-bed will 

 effect. If very early, place a little fresh manure around these boxes to keep 

 the contents warm. It is astonishing what an effect this simple contrivance 

 will produce; and not only is it valuable for protection from the cold weather, 

 but it is equjdly valuable as a protection from melon bugs and other predatory 

 insects that seem to watch for our choicest esculents. 



Cacnml»ers on Trellises. — Xo one who has not tried it can have any 

 idea of the luxurious growth of a cucumber when trained on a stake, which 

 has a set of stubby side branches left along its length, and the crop on some 

 so trained was enormous. By this the vines occupy less spac<», and it is the 

 natural habit of the cucumber to cUmb instead of trailing on the ground. 



How to Gro\>- Early Cabbages. — A successful gardener wiifes: I 

 sow the seeds of the kinds I wish to grow in February or first of March, in 

 small or shallow boxes, in forcing-pit, hot-bed, or if these are not to be had, 

 a sunny window of the house will do. The boxes I use are eighteen by 

 twenty-four inches, three inches deep, made of one-half inch Ixx-rds. The 

 kteds of early cabbage I generally raise are Early Jersey Wakefield (best if 

 pure), Winningstadt, Early Summer and Fottler's Early Dnunhead. The 

 first two for early, the others for second early. I only treated the first two 

 as above stated; the second early I sow in common hot-beds from the 1st to 

 the 15th of March. After the seeds sown in boxes are up and about three 

 inches high, it is necessary to transplant them in other boxes, Uke those they 

 were sown in, about one and a half to two inches apart even.- way; or put 

 one plant in each pot, and pots close together in boxes, treating the same as 

 if planted in boxes. Fots are better than boxes, and I use them largely. 

 About one week or ten days before planting in garden, they must be hard- 

 ened off by exposing gradually, night and day, in the open air. I set my 

 plants the end of April or beginning of May. The plants which are in boxes 

 are taken in the Iwxes to the part of the garden where the ground is ready 

 to plant. Plant Wakefield twcntj- inches in rows and Early Summer the 

 same; the other kinds twentv-four inches. The rows should be thirty inches 

 apart, so that a cultivator can be used. Early radish, lettuce, spinach, etc.. 



