106 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



stalk, as it would have done there, it spindles and runs 

 to seed. If his knowledge of the art had been based on 

 common-sense, instead of the blind routine practice ac- 

 quired in a colder climate, he would have known that 

 our season from April 1st to July 1st would sum up 

 nearly the same mean of temperature here as it would 

 there, from February 1st to July 1st ; and hence it was 

 not only unnecessary here, but dangerous to the welfare 

 of the crop, to sow such biennial plants as Celery in any 

 other place than in the open ground, and that not before 

 April. It was just such an error that the market gar- 

 dener made who sued the seedsman above alluded to. 

 He had been following, likely, the English or German 

 method, and paid the penalty not only of losing his crop, 

 but losing his law-suit, by not adapting his practice to 

 our conditions of temperature. As the matter of sowing 

 the seeds of Cabbage, Cauliflower and Lettuce to make 

 plants to winter over in cold-frames, is one in which 

 there is a wide-spread interest, I may state that the time 

 of soAving in fall, in a country having such an area and 

 difference of latitude as ours, is somewhat difficult to fix 

 upon ; but taking the latitude of New York as a basis, 

 the safest time we have found to sow is about the 15th 

 of September. Of late years we have even sown some 

 kinds as late as September 30th, with excellent success, 

 in warm, well-sheltered positions, in a rich, well-pre- 

 pared soil. 



Each kind of seed has certain limits of temperature, 

 below or above which it cannot well germinate. Below 

 the minimum heat it remains dormant ; above its maxi- 

 mum limit, its vitality is destroyed ; between these two 

 points is found the temperature most favorable to rapid 

 germination. Practically it suffices to divide our garden 

 seeds into two classes : natives of temperate and natives 

 of subtropical countries. 



The temperature best fitted for the germination of 



