VEGETABLES VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 117 



degrees above zero. Yet we hardly ever before had finer 

 plants. 



The sashes so taken off nearly 1,000 in number were 

 used for our flower business, but, had we desired it, they 

 might have been used on temporary frames, and grown a 

 crop of Lettuce which in five weeks from date of plant- 

 ing, March 1st, would have easily given $2 per sash. I 

 mention these facts to give confidence to the hundreds 

 now engaged in market gardening, who,, from dread of 

 exposing their plants in spring, not only do them an in- 

 jury, but lose the profit of a second use of their sashes. 

 A third use of sashes may be had in growing Tomato, 

 Swe&t Potato, or Egg plants, after the crop of Lettuce is 

 sold, or forwarding an early crop of Cucumbers or Melons. 

 (See ' Forcing Cucumbers.") 



CHAPTER XV. 

 VEGETABLES, THEIR VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 



In describing the modes of cultivating the different 

 varieties of vegetables, I shall notice at length only those 

 of the most importance, and the most profitable for mar- 

 ket purposes, while for those of less value as market 

 crops, tjae directions for culture will be such as are 

 adapted to private gardens only. 



A limited number of kinds will be described, and such 

 only as our experience has shown to possess the greatest 

 earliness and productiveness. Nothing is more perplex- 

 ing to the beginner than to be bewildered by descriptions 

 of perhaps twenty so-called varieties of a vegetable that 

 in reality does not embrace four distinct kinds. For 

 example, in early Cabbages, there are some hundred 

 or more varieties described; yet we find, after having 



