2O A MANUAL OF 



at their best a mere handful of leaves, \ve can 

 see no pleasure or profit in growing them. 



Next in order of ripening to Henderson's 

 Summer comes the well-known Early Win- 

 nigstadt, and closely following this the Fott- 

 ler's Early Driimhead, which, for a general- 

 purpose cabbage, we consider the best the 

 world has yet seen. There may be other early 

 varieties which have more merit than these 

 four, but if there are such, we have not yet 

 seen them. We have a field of cabbage this 

 season containing forty-five early and late 

 varieties. A report of their comparative 

 merits may be found in the latter pages of 

 this work. 



SOIL FOR HOT-BEDS. A great mistake made 

 by many novices in gardening is to use soil in 

 hot-beds which is too heavy, so that the fre- 

 quent waterings pack it down tightly, and the 

 hot sun bakes it so hard that nothing can 

 grow in it as it ought. The soil for this pur- 

 pose should be much lighter and looser than 

 common garden soil usually is. 



How TO OBTAIN IT. When working ma- 

 nure-beds, it was our usual custom to throw 

 out the dirt each summer as soon as through 

 with the beds for the season, and shovel out 



