46 MY GROWING GARDEN 



hardly keep pace with those put into more cheerful 

 ground some days later. It is the same with sweet 

 peas; they love cool ground, I know, but they dis- 

 criminate against chilly ground, often soaked with 

 snow water. 



No vital harm has happened, in my garden, if 

 March has passed without a single seed being sown 

 in the open. My acute friend Kirby, a real seeds- 

 man, is threatening to put forth a table of soil 

 temperatures, so that we may know just what is 

 the right Fahrenheit degree at six inches depth to 

 spell quick germination for the peas and spinach 

 and other desirable "garden sass" items. I think 

 such knowledge would be most valuable to have 

 and desirable to work with. 



I remembered how as a boy I saw rhubarb 

 hurried up in early spring by covering the plants 

 with barrels. Two years ago I did it here, and with 

 the same success; but by accident the third March 

 one barrel was used that was completely tight — ^it 

 was a sugar barrel, I think. And there had been 

 heaped about it some rather hot horse-manure, this 

 as usual. The result was that under the tight barrel, 

 admitting no least ray of light, there sprang up 

 the most beautiful, tender and altogether delicious 

 leaf -stalks of rhubarb. The leaves under the barrels 

 that admitted some hght and air were good, but 



