PUMPKINS. 99 



never injured in the ground ; they always came up 

 strong and healthy. Occasionally we have a frosty night 

 in the spring which cuts down our early potatoes, but 

 those who plant moderately early are nearly as liable to 

 be caught as those who plant just as early as possible. 



Potatoes can be readily transplanted, and we frequently 

 start a few hills in the hot-bed, and transplant them into 

 the open ground when the tops are four or five inches 

 high. By covering them with a hand-glass, or shading 

 them for a few days with a muslin-covered box, these 

 transplanted potatoes will give a very early crop. It 

 need hardly be said that potatoes should be well culti- 

 vated and kept entirely free from weeds. For the early 

 crops especially, the land must be very rich, and kept scru- 

 pulously clean and no bugs suffered to feed on the leaves. 



The varieties are too numerous to mention, and every 

 year brings new candidates for popular favor. The best 

 early varieties that have been generally tried, are the 

 Early Rose, and Early Vermont, which is so much like the 

 Early Rose that it is difficult to tell them apart. The 

 Beauty of Hebron is one of the newer varieties, early, pro- 

 ductive; it is of good quality, and promises to be very 

 desirable. Gardeners should stick to the well-tried sorts, 

 testing the newer varieties only on a small scale. 



PUMPKINS. 



The common field pumpkin is usually grown as a sec- 

 ondary or stolen crop among corn. Careful farmers, 

 however, who wish to cultivate their corn thoroughly, 

 are getting out of the habit of planting pumpkins with 

 the corn. They think it better to devote a piece of land 

 entirely to the crop. A large yield can be produced in 

 this way, and the pumpkins will be larger, sweeter, and 

 better ripened. The better varieties of pumpkins can sel- 

 dom be advantageously grown among corn. They should 



