4 Dreer's Gai^den Calendar. 



the ground is well drained, a better plan is to dig out a space the size of the frame,_^from 1 to 2 

 feet deep, according to the season and the heat required, in which the manure is placed, care 

 being taken to pack it firmly and evenly. 



The Cold Frame for wintering Cabbage, Cauliflower, Lettuce Plants, etc., should be constructed 

 of inch boards 1 foot higli at tlie back by 9 inches liigh in front and 6 feet wide; five short posts 

 to the length of IG feet boards will answer to keej) in position. The shutters should be 6 feet 

 4 inches long by 3 feet wide. The soil should be enriched by old manure unless in good order ; 

 the object being to preserve and not to grow during the winter. Give plenty of air by raising 

 tlie shutters, but on no consideration open the frame or expose the plants to the sun when the 

 ground or plants are frozen. 



Very many who read this article on hot-beds and cold frames have never seen either, and are 

 perhaps never likely to have one; to such there is an excellent substitute on hand in most 

 dwellings, in the kitchen or basement windows, facing South or East, inside of which is a tem- 

 perature usually not far from that required for the vegetation of seeds, and where seeds of early 

 vegetables, or tender plants for the flower boi'der, may be raised nearly as well and with far less 

 attention than in a hot-bed. 



In addition to the Hot-bed Frame, mats or shutters will be required to cover the sash during 

 cold days and nights. To work the garden, the necessary implements— spade, fork, shove], 

 rakes, hoes, trowel, garden-line and reel, watering-pot, and wheelbarrow, are the most im- 

 portant. 



Rotation of Crops.- As difi"erent plants appropriate diflferent substances, care should be 

 taken that deep-rooted plants, such as Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, etc., are not planted successive 

 seasons on the same soil, but should be followed by those plants whose roots extend but little 

 below the surface, such as Onions, Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach, etc. 



REMARKS ON THE FAILURE OF SEEDS. 



From a conviction that the Seedsman's fair reputation is often unjustly defamed, through 

 tlie failure of seeds, we would with brevity state some of the causes : 



L That some cultivators, through ignorance or forgetfulness of the fact that the products of 

 a garden, being natives of various soils and climates, require peculiar managen^^ent, deposit 

 their seeds in the ground at an improper season. To aid such we have prepared brief directions, 

 founded on practical experience in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where gardening operations 

 are generally commenced early in March. These directions may, hoAvever, be applied to all 

 other parts of the United States, by a minute observance of the difference in temperature. 

 ^ Thus, to the North, the directions for March will apply to April ; and at the South to January, 

 February or whatever season gardening o])eration9 may commence in the respective States! 

 Tlie early and most hardy species and varieties should not be planted until the ground can be 

 brought into good condition, as some species of plants, that in an advanced stage of growth will 

 stand a hard winter, are often cut off by a very sliglit frost while young, especially if exi>osed 

 to the sun after a frosty night. 



2. That some species of seed^, such as Beans, Beet, Cabbage, Lettuce, Pvadish, Salsify Turnip 

 etc., being from their nature apt to vegetate quickly, are often destroyed while germinatincr| 

 through variableness of the weather, and some are liable to be devoured by insects in forty- 

 e.ght hours after tliey are sown, and before a plant is seen above ground,\inles3 a suitable 

 remedy is applied in time to annoy the insects, 



3. That some species, such as Carrot, Celery, Leek, Onion, Parsley, Parsnip, Spinach, etc, 

 being naturally of tardy growth, taking (in unfavorable seasons) from two to three or four weeks 

 to vegetate, are apt to perish throu.-h incrustation of the soil, or other untoAvard and unaccount- 

 able circumstances which cannot always be controlled. 



4. That the failures often occur through Seeds being deposited too deeply in the ground, or 

 left too near the surface. Sometimes, for want of sufficiency of Seed in a given sjiot, solitary 

 plants will perish, they not having sufficient strength to open the pores of tlie earth, and very 

 fiequently ixijudicious management in manuring »ud preparing the soil will cause defeiit. 



