HENDERSON'S GARDEN GUIDE AND RECORD. 17 



SALSIFY, or Oyster Plant. 



li oz. for 100 feet of drill. 

 The Oyster Plant succeeds best in light, well-enriched mellow soil, which, previous to 

 so^-ing the seeds, should be dug to a depth of eighteen inches. Sow eariy in spring, in 

 drills eighteen inches apart; cover the seeds with fine soil an inch and a half in depth, 

 and when the plants are strong enough, thin out to six inches apart. 



SEA KALE. 



Sow in the early spring in hills 3 by 2 feet apart, using eight or ten seeds per hill, and 

 thin out to three or four plants per hill. Cover with 4 to 6 inches of manure in winter. 

 As Sea Kale is only palatable when properly blanched, a covering of 12 to 15 inches of some 

 light covering, such as leaf-mold, manure from a spent hotbed or mushroom bed, should 

 be put over the plants early in spring. The young shoots will grow through this and blanch 

 as they grow. Old roots can be taken up and forced in a warm cellar, hotbed or greenhouse 

 by covering as above described. 



SPINACH. 



1 oz. for 100 feet of drill; 10 to 12 lbs. in drills for an acre. 

 Sow thinly in rows twelve or fifteen inches apart. The main crop is sown in Sep- 

 tember. It is sometimes covered up in exposed places -with straw or salt hay during 

 ■winter, which prevents it from being cut with the frost, but in sheltered fields there is no 

 necessity for covering. For summer use it may be sown at intervals of two or three weeks, 

 from April to August. Spinach is best developed and most tender and succulent when 

 grown in rich soil. 



SQUASH. 



1 oz. for 50 hills; 3 to 4 lbs. in hills for an acre. 

 It is useless to sow until the weather has become settled and warm. Light, rich soils 

 are best suited to their growth, and it is most economical of manure to prepare hills for the 

 seeds in the ordinary manner by incorporating two or three shovelfuls of well-rotted manure 

 with the soil for each hill, as is done for Melons. For bush varieties, from three to four feet 

 each way, and for the running sorts, from eight to ten feet. Eight or ten seeds should be 

 so-wn in each hill, thinning out after they have attained their third and fourth leaves, 

 leaving two or three of the strongest plants, 



SWISS CHAKD. 



Swiss Chard is a beet grown for its leaves, which are large, tender, succulent, and 

 highly esteemed as a "fresh vegetable ' on accoxmt of their agreeable flavor. The leaves 

 are boiled Uke Spinach, either entire or with the stem and midrib removed. Sow the seed 

 in April or May in drills 16 to 18 inches apart, and thin the plants to stand 10 to 15 inches 

 apart in the rows. Cultivate occasionally, and do not let the plants suffer from lack of 

 water. The leaves may be gathered during summer and fall, selecting only the best leaves. 



TOMATO. 



1 oz. for 1,500 plants; J lb. to transplant for an acre. 

 The seed should be sown in March in a hotbed, greenhouse, or inside the window of 

 a room, where a night temperature of not less than sixty degrees is kept, in drills five 

 inches apart and half an inch deep. When the plants are about two inches high they 

 should be set out three inches apart in boxes three inches deep, or potted into three-inch 

 pots, allowing a single plant to a pot. They are sometimes shifted a second time into larger 

 pots, by which process the plants are rendered more sturdy and branching. About the 

 middle of May, in this latitude, the plants may be set in the open ground, at a distance of 

 three or four feet apart, in hills in which a good shovelful of rotted manure has been mixed. 

 Water freely at the time of transplanting, and shelter from the sun until the plants are 

 established. Tomatoes produce better fruits when staked up, or when trained against 

 walls or fences. Grow to a single stem and keep all sviperfluous side shoots and other 

 growth that excludes sunlight from the fruit pruned off. 



TUKNIP. 



1 oz. to 150 feet of drill; 1 to 2 lbs. per acre in drills. 

 Turnips do best in highly enriched, light or .-^andy soil; commence sowing the earliest 

 varieties in April in drills, from twelve to fifteen inches apart, and thin out early to six 

 or nine inches in the rows. For a succes.sion, .sow at intervals of a fortnight until the last 

 week in May for early crop, and from August to September for late. August sowings may 

 be made for the fail crop, at which season they grow best. 



