CHAPTEE XYIIL 



VEGETABLES WHAT SHALL WE PLANT? HOT-BED ITS 



CULTUKE, ETC. 



The changes which the art of the florist has produced in double and 

 variegated flowers, are not to be compared with the effects of cultivation 

 on vegetables which have been for ages man's peculiar property. In 

 their wild state, they are now scarcely recognizable. 



From the Colewort, whose scanty leaves do not weigh half an ounce, 

 come -the sixty pound cabbages which are often seen in the markets. 

 From a small, bitter root, comes the potatoes, Early Eose and Peerless, 

 which exhibit the wondrous changes which have been wrought in them. 

 And so on to the end of the catalogue of vegetables ! What encourage- 

 ment do not these facts afford to the cultivator who desires to make 

 improvements in some classes of vegetables. If he is a benefactor to his 

 race who can make two blades of grass grow in the place of one, surely 

 he is one who gives to us a " Trophy " Tomato or a Brezee's " Peerless ! " 



Leigh Hunt, speaking of vegetables, says: 



" What a perpetual reproduction of the marvelous is carried on by 

 nature, and how utterly ignorant we are of the causes of the least and 

 most disesteemed of the commonest vegetables ; and what a quantity of 

 life and beauty, and mystery, and use, and enjoyment is to be found in 

 them, composed out of all sorts of elements, and shaped as if by the 

 hands of fairies ! What workmanship, with no apparent workman ! 

 What consummate elegance, though the result is but a radish or an 

 onion ! " 



The care and oversight of the vegetable as well as the flower garden, 

 frequently devolves upon women, and as it costs no more time and 



