80 



VEGETABLE GARDENING. 



afternoon, and the covering put on to retain the heat as soon 

 as the sun is low. In the warm weather of later spring, the 

 sash of the hotbeds and frames may be removed in the day and 

 kept on only at night. No exact rules can be laid down for 

 ventilating, but it is quite a simple matter to learn, if one is 

 observant and uses constant vigilance. Many persons just be- 

 ginning to use greenhouses and hotbeds fail to get best results 

 from them because they neglect the matter of ventilation. On 

 cloudy mornings it may not be needed, but if the sun comes 

 through the clouds it may warm the house or the beds in a 

 v^ery short t^me, so that when they are examined the whole crop 

 has been injured by the heat. This is a most common cause of 

 failure by amateurs in charge of greenhouses and hotbeds. 



In nature the night temperature in which plants grow aver- 

 ages from fifteen to twenty degrees below that of the day, and 

 it has been found in practice that when this condition is reversed 

 the plants do not do well. This, of course, can be easily avoided 

 by a little forethought. It is a bad plan, generally speaking, to 

 ventilate much in cold weather, when the leaves are wet. On 

 this account it is best to water early in the day, so that the 

 leaves may dry off before much ventilation is required. 



Watering. — Plants that are growing slowly do not need much 

 water, while those that are growing vigorously need a great deal 

 of it. Growing plants need water whenever they are dry. In 

 bright warm weather a rapid growing crop in hotbed or cold 

 frame will need watering every day while in cloudy moist 

 weather perhaps no water will be needed for a week. In fact, 

 watering in cloudy weather seems to encourage disease. When 

 applying water see that the soil is wet as far down as the roots 

 extend. It is only the beginner who just wets the surface soil 

 and thinks the plants sufficiently watered. If plants are wilting 

 for want of water in the soil give it to them no matter what 

 time of day, but it is always a great advantage in such cases 

 to shade as well as water them if the sun is shining. If a long 

 continued spell of cloudy weather is followed by a period of 

 bright sunshine it is not uncommon to see plants wilting that 

 have plenty of water in the soil surrounding them. In such a 

 case it may be desirable to shade them somewhat in the middle 

 of the day until they get used to the sunlight. In cold weather 



