CHAPTER V 



FRAME CULTURE 



WHILE the use of cloches or hand 

 glasses which forms such an important 

 factor in French gardening has never 

 become a part of the American system of cul- 

 ture, chiefly because of the difference in cli- 

 matic conditions between the two countries, 

 frame culture has grown to important com- 

 mercial proportions not only in the leading 

 market garden sections adjacent to the large 

 cities, but in other favored localities where cli- 

 matic conditions and transportation facilities 

 are such as to foster the practice. Near many 

 of the Northern cities the use of both hotbeds 

 and cold frames have long been an important 

 feature of the work of the market gardener. 

 They are used not only for lengthening the 

 season by starting the plants earlier than they 

 could be produced in the open ground, but for 

 actually growing crops to a marketable stage 

 of maturity. 



The frame industry antedates the greenhouse 

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