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toes. Squashes, however, ought not to be planted successively 

 on the same land. 



I have made it a point to get my seed into the ground at 

 the earliest possible time in the spring, as my nearness to a 

 good city market renders it expedient to give special attention 

 to the raising of early vegetables. In order to avail myself of 

 the the advantages of the earliest spring market, I found it 

 profitable to start my plants, such as lettuce, early cabbages, 

 tomatoes, etc., in hot beds. For this purpose I constructed, a 

 few years ago, three ranges of beds, each 225 feet long, situ- 

 ated on a southerly slope and facing the south. They are 

 made about a foot high and have a sash covering, and above 

 this a trellis covering, stuffed with salt hay or straw. These 

 hot beds are managed as follows : — In the fall I fill them with 

 litter, house the sashes and lay down the ti'ellis cover. This 

 prevents the earth from freezing inside of the beds. About 

 the first of March I take out the litter and put in about six 

 inches of horse manure, and cover the manure with about four 

 inches of soil, sow the seed and close the beds nights with 

 both coverings. After the seed comes up I water the plants 

 every other day, and keep the covers open in the day time to 

 let in air, except when the weather is too cold for the plants. 

 Transplant into the fields about the 15th of April. By this 

 means I can get cabbages into the market by the 20th of 

 June, and some exceptional years I have got them into Bos- 

 ton market as early as the 9th of June. The lettuce generally 

 heads in the bed ready for market by the 15th of April. To- 

 matoes are generally ripe and ready for market from the mid- 

 dle of July to the 1st of August. 



I have never tried the experiment of making butter, but 

 have taken it for granted that it was more profitable to sell 

 the milk, — especially in view of the fact that there was a , 

 good milk route connected with the farm when I commenced 

 occupying. This route I have supplied ever since. During 

 the summer the cows get their whole living in the pasture — 

 no extra feed. In the autumn they have had the range of the 

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