December, 1914 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



159 



and Big Boston will do 

 well with a temperature 

 of 40 to 50 degrees 

 throughout their growth. 

 For quick results with 

 lettuce now you should 

 buy plants from some 

 neighboring florist or 

 market gardener, or they 

 may be had by mail 

 at very slight expense. 

 The plants are trans- 

 planted once before being 

 set where they are to ma- 

 ture, thus securing a sav- 

 ing of space during more 

 than hah their period of 

 growth. A small flat of 

 seeds or a couple of feet 

 of drill along the edge of a 

 bench planted now will 

 give you enough plants 

 to follow up the crop 

 which you set out at this 

 time. 



December and January 

 are the months in which 

 cucumbers and tomatoes 

 are generally sown, so 

 they can be used to fol- 

 low the lettuce when the 

 strengthening sunshine 

 and the warmer nights 

 makes it more feasible to maintain the 60 

 or 70 degrees at night and the 80 to 90 de- 

 grees during the day required for the best 

 development of the plants. If the green- 

 house is so small that there is no separate 

 warm section in which these things can be 

 started and brought on 

 until space is available in 

 which they may be set out, 

 a small frame on the order 

 of a coldframe 

 may be used 

 in the house so 

 that the temperature in 

 it may be carried a few 

 degrees higher than in 

 the rest of the house. 

 The tomatoes are 

 started in the usual 

 way, but at the 

 t r a nsplanting 

 after the first 

 (or at the first 

 if the seed is 

 sown very 

 thinly so 

 that extra, 

 strong large, 

 seedlings 

 may be attained) the young plants 

 may be put into three or four-inch 

 pots, and after they have rilled 

 these, which will be in the course 

 of two or three weeks if the con- 

 ditions ' are right, they may be 

 shifted into a size larger if bench 

 room is not yet available for set- 

 ting them out. An abundance of 

 well rotted manure and a little 

 fine, bone meal should be mixed 



This 4 x 4 ft. bench in a sash covered leanto with door opening into the cellar will furnish enough lettuce 



for the average home table 



with the potting soil. If paper pots instead 

 of clay are used, it will be a much easier task 

 to keep them from drying out. As cucum- 

 bers are difficult to transplant unless one has 

 had experience with them, it is best to start 

 a few seeds, not more than four or five, in 

 each of the required number of paper pots, 

 and after these are well up, thin them out 

 to not more than two. They should be 

 given plenty of light and kept as near the 

 glass as possible so that they will not be- 

 come drawn and weak. A rich compost 

 with a layer of fine manure at the bottom, 

 if used in the pots, will give the plants a 

 strong start in the few weeks' time they have 

 to get ready for their permanent position. 

 When the plants are ready to be set, 

 and a solid bed and manure that is still 

 actively fermenting — such as you would 

 use for a hotbed — are 

 available, a narrow trench 

 with the manure packed 



in tight at the bottom under 

 the plants will give them 

 an extra start after trans- 

 planting. Where this 

 method is not practicable, 

 make a generous hole for 

 each plant enriching it 

 well with either fine, short 

 manure or a good handful 

 of a mixture of cotton- 

 seed meal, bone-dust and 

 dried-blood or tankage. 

 Keep the plants carefully 

 shaded for a few days after 

 setting them out. Under 

 these congenial conditions, 

 both tomatoes and cucum- 

 bers will make a very rapid 

 growth. Training should 

 be attended to carefully 

 and constantly. All side 

 shoots should be removed 

 from the tomatoes as soon 

 as they are big enough to 

 pinch out and a large part 

 of the foliage, where it 

 interlaces or shades the 

 young fruit, may be cut 

 out with advantage. 



For radishes, beets, and 

 carrots the soil should not 

 be made too rich, espec- 

 ially in nitrogen, as this 

 has a tendency to produce rank growth of 

 top and an inferior quality of roots. I have 

 found that a liberal dressing of unleached 

 wood ashes gives especially good results 

 with these, and a single pailful of ashes 

 goes quite a ways in the greenhouse. All 

 of these things will do well with a tem- 

 perature the same as that given lettuce. 

 The radishes may be sown in rows very 

 thinly from 4 to 6 inches apart and the 



Cucumbers started in 

 pots will produce fruit in 

 a few weeks after being set 

 out 



Grand Rapids lettuce, a reliable kind. Seedlings ready to plant, and ready for table 



Products of winter gardening: Davies' Perfect cucum- 

 bers. Grand Rapids lettuce, Crimson Giant and Rapid 

 Red radishes 



beets and carrots from 10 to 12 inches. 



The beets are generally transplanted the 



same way as lettuce except that they are 



set only 3 or 4 inches apart, but they 



may be grown directly from seed if 



there is space enough for them. You 



can grow a row of radishes between 



the rows of beets and carrots. 



In growing vegetables under 

 glass, there are a number of things 

 to be attended to that one ordin- 

 arily pays no attention to out-of- 

 doors. One of the most impor- 



