D. M. FERRY & GO'S DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



continued rain followed by a bright sun 

 will so bake and crust the surface that 

 it is impossible for the young plant to 

 find its way through it, or a few days of 

 strong wind will so dry the surface that 

 no seed can germinate. In such cases 

 the only remedy is to plant again. 



CULTIVATION.— Not only should 

 every weed be removed as soon as it 

 appears, but the crust which forms after 

 a rain should be broken up and the 

 ground stirred as soon as it is dry 

 enough to permit it. The more fre- 

 quently and deeply the soil is stirred 

 while the plants are young the better, 

 but as they develop and the roots 

 occupy the ground, cultivation should 

 be shallower until it becomes a mere 

 stirring of the surface. We have seen 

 hundreds of acres of vegetables where 

 the yield and quality has been materially 

 lowered by injudiciously deep and close 

 cultivation after the roots of the plants 

 had fully occupied the ground. 



Labeling Boxes. 



HOT=BEDS. 



For early vegetables, some provision for|starting certain 

 plants earlier than can be done in the open air is necessary ; 

 for this purpose nothing is better than a good hot- bed, and 

 its construction is so simple and the expense so light that 

 every garden should have one. A hot-bed proper not ©nly 

 protects the plants from the cold, but supplies bottom heat. 

 By this term the gardener means that the soil is constantly 

 kept several degrees warmer than the air above, that being 

 the condition so far as heat is concerned, which is most 

 favorable for rapid and vigorous growth. It is evident that 

 to produce this we must in some way apply our heat below 

 the surface, and it is usually done by making a compact pile 

 of some fermenting material and covering it with the earth 

 in which the plants are to grow. 



HEATING MATERIAL, — The best heating material 

 that is easily available is fresh horse manure, containing a 

 liberal quantity of bedding of straw or leaves. Such manure, 

 if thrown into a loose pile, will heat violently and unevenly 

 and will soon become cold. What is wanted in the hot-bed is a 

 steady and moderate but lasting heat. To secure this, the 

 manure should be forked over, and if dry, "watered and 

 allowed to stand a few days and then be forked over again, 

 piled and allowed to heat a second time, when, after a few 

 days more, it will be ready for use. The object of this 

 repeated forking over and piling is to get the whole mass 

 into a uniform degree of fermentation. 



SASH.— Gardeners commonly use sash made esp 

 for hot-beds and glazed with small lights cut from odds an& 

 ends and so furnished at very low rates. Such sash can 

 usually be procured in any of our large cities, and cost much 

 lesstmn if made to order. For garden use, however, we 



Filling Flower Seed Boxes 



Putting up Seeds in Bulk. 



much prefer a small size that can be easily handled, and the 

 use of larger and better glass. We would recommend that the 

 sash be three by five feet, and that the glass be not less than 

 10 X 14, laid with not more than one-quarter inch lap. In giv- 

 ing the order to one unaccustomed to the work, it would be 

 well to state ^^ hat they are to be used for, and that they 

 need to be made like skylight sash. 



THE FRAME.— This may be made of sound one-inch 

 lumber, the back twelve to fourteen inches high, the front 

 ten to twelve. It should be well fitted to the sash so as to 

 leave as little opening as possible and yet allow the sash to be 

 easily slid up and down, even when the frame is quite wet. 



THE SOIL..— This should be Z?gr/if, ric/i,/r/ab/e. Any con- 

 siderable amount of clay in it is very objectionable. If possi- 

 ble, it should be quite dry and unfrozen when put into the 

 bed; for this reason it is much better to prepare it the fall 

 before and cover the pile with enough coarse manure or 

 straw to keep out frost. 



MAKING THE BED.— This requires careful attention, 

 as future success depends largely upon the manner in which 

 this work is done. Having cleared away all snow and ice, 

 build a rectangular bed one foot larger each way than the 

 frame to be used, carefully shaking out and spreading each 

 forkful, and i-epeatedly treading down the manure so as to 

 make the bed as uniform as possible in solidity, composition 

 and moisture. It is of the utmost importance that this shak. 

 ing apart and evenly pressing down of the maniu"e should 



