148 Gardening 



On the other hand, the seeds of many warm-season 

 crops rot in cool soil ; the seedlings are injured by cool 

 weather and are usually killed by frost. The plants 

 grow very slowly, except in hot weather, and they are 

 killed by the first autumn frosts. The more quickly 

 maturing of these crops are grown from seed planted in 

 the garden ; but in the northern part of the United States 

 the season is too short to allow those with a long growing 

 period to be raised entirely outdoors. The seedlings 

 of such crops are, therefore, started indoors or under 

 glass, and when the soil and air became warm, the plants 

 are transferred to the open ground. In the more south- 

 ern states the warm-season crops yield harvests from 

 May to October. 



Quick-growing cool-season crops. Leaf lettuce, spring 

 radishes, spinach, turnips, and peas are short-period cool- 

 season crops. The seeds are planted in the garden as 

 soon as the soil can be worked in the spring, and the crops 

 mature before hot weather arrives. Onions from sets also 

 are grown in this way. As the seedlings endure frost, 

 first plantings of these crops can be made from ten days to 

 two weeks before the latest killing frost of the locality. 



Crops of these vegetables may be grown in the autumn 

 also, by planting them late in summer. The varieties 

 that are best for autumn are often different from those 

 that are best for spring planting. During late summer 

 the conditions are rather unfavorable to the seedlings, 

 and properly starting the autumn crops requires more 

 skill than does the spring planting. Success with such 

 crops depends in large measure on careful nurture of the 

 young seedlings. 



