VEGETABLE GARDENING, OR OLERICULTURE 7 



of May or early in June a crop of beans is taken from the land, 

 thus making three crops from the soil between the last of October 

 and the first of June. The land is then cultivated and planted in 

 cowpeas, which are plowed under, thus making four crops, three 

 of which are very remunerative, upon the same land during a 

 single growing season. 



Special equipment. Besides taking advantage of the season and 

 utilizing the land in the best possible way by a succession of crops 

 as well as by a catch-crop system, the successful market gardener 

 and truck grower provides against adverse conditions in nature 

 by the use of every device which will overcome such conditions. 

 In those localities where droughts are liable to occur and to inter- 

 fere seriously with the quality and the yield of the product, irri- 

 gation facilities are provided which enable the grower to supply 

 water at the critical time. This is frequently an advantage with 

 some of the delicate crops, not only because of the necessity for 

 providing water, but because the water can be applied in a par- 

 ticular way which prevents the occurrence of injurious plant 

 diseases and discourages the increase of harmful insects. In ad- 

 dition to such irrigation facilities, gardens are equipped with cold 

 frames, protected either by glazed sash or by " muslins." Muslin- 

 protected frames are built somewhat after the fashion of the ordi- 

 nary cold frame, but are covered with cloth that is, unbleached 

 muslin which may or may not be treated with a preservative 

 solution. In mild climates this arrangement enables the grower 

 to carry successfully half-hardy plants over periods when the 

 weather is too cold for them to remain in the open unprotected. 

 At the North, where such simple devices do not provide suffi- 

 cient protection, growers resort not only to cold frames but to 

 hotbeds, which are heated either by fermenting stable manure 

 or by pipes from a hot-water or steam-heating plant. Where 

 the object is to carry the plant beyond the transplanting stage 

 a more elaborate structure is required. Greenhouses are erected 

 and provided with suitable heating apparatus to maintain con- 

 genial conditions throughout the winter months, in order that 

 plants may be carried under glass throughout their whole period 

 of growth. In the vicinity of no city in the United States is this 

 industry more largely developed than in the vicinity of Boston, 



