116 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



To give an idea what amount of colel Cabbage and 

 Lettuce plants will stand without injury, I will relate an 

 experience I had in my early days of market gardening. 

 A particularly mild spell in the latter part of February 

 had led us to believe that spring had come. Out went 

 the teams, and the ground was manured, plowed, and 

 planted with Cabbage and Lettuce to the extent of two 

 acres, which was all finished up by the 26th of February. 

 It was my second year in the business. I was yet an in- 

 experienced hand, and my neighbors predicted that my 

 venture was a foolhardy one, and would result in total 

 loss, no one having ever before planted such crops in this 

 section at such an early season. But fortune favored me ; 

 the weather continued mild long enough to allow the 

 plants to "strike root," and though the thermometer 

 afterward marked as low as fifteen degrees above zero, 

 and the ground was frozen for full ten days, so that it could 

 not be again dug or plowed, yet the wild venture proved 

 a success, and I had the satisfaction of having the first 

 Cabbages from that February planting that were sold in 

 market. I never after had an opportunity of planting so 

 early, and would not do so if I had, for it was simply 

 favorable conditions that saved the crop. If the cold 

 snap had set in immediately after planting, there is but 

 little doubt the plants would have suffered injury. But 

 the experience was valuable in showing what severity of 

 frost such plants would stand without injury. Much 

 depends on the condition Of the plants ; if taken from 

 the hot-bed or frame without being previously exposed, 

 they might be in condition to be as easily injured as a 

 Tomato plant. 



The past season I had the sashes taken off my entire 

 crop of Cabbage and Lettuce plants on March 1st (they 

 being hardened beforehand by ventilating), and never 

 covered them again. They were twice covered up with 

 snow, and the mercury several times marked only twenty 



