OUR WIDE-AWAKE GARDENERS. 



33 



plants are handled as soon as the seed-leaves are well- 

 developed, and set 23^2 inches each way in another bed, 

 which gives the plants a chance to become stocky before 

 the last transplanting. 



Mildew and the green aphis are the enemies that 

 stand between the gardener and profit. The aphis is 

 easily kept off by fumigation with tobacco. Mildew is 

 not so easily conquered. Many remedies have been 

 tried, such as painting the heating-pipes with a mixture 

 of sulphur and lime ; but the key to the situation is in so 

 governing the temperature and ventilation that the 

 plant is grown under somewhat similar conditions as in 

 field culture. Absence of sunlight for several days 

 is almost sure to bring on mildew, and many crops 

 harvested during dark months do not pay for the coal. 



Cucumber seed is sown late in January in a warm 

 part of the house, in a soil underlaid six inches deep by 

 three inches of fresh horse-manure. The plants are cov- 

 ered by hotbed sash, thus insuring a high temperature, 

 while the remainder of the house may be only moder- 

 ately warm for the finishing of the last crop of lettuce. 

 To keep their feet warm after transplanting, trenches 

 are dug the length of the house, 14 inches deep and 

 wide, into which is placed 12 inches of fresh horse-man- 

 ure, and as this warms up, and the sunshine increases, 

 rapid growth results. By the last of March, picking 

 commences, continuing until July i, when the vines are 



exhausted. The first pickings, coming at a time when 

 the public appetite is keen, meet with a ready sale at 

 15 to 25 cents each. As the season advances and 

 supplies increase, prices gradually drop to two cents 

 each about June 25. 



Mildew is often a serious drawback, likewise the 

 black louse. The former is less troublesome when the 

 house is not too full of foliage. Sun and air among 

 the foliage is a preventive, and to accomplish this a 

 part of the foliage is cut out. For the destruction of the 

 black louse, the removal of the first infested leaves is 

 practised, tobacco fumigation having little effect in re- 

 moving this invader. 



The vines are trained on trellises, inclining both front 

 and rear at an angle of 45°. This gives a chance to 

 walk under the vines to gather the fruit. 



Abundance of water is necessary ; but the soil alone 

 should receive these frequent waterings, as applications 

 to the foliage will result in blight. 



Unless a hive of bees is placed in the house, hand pol- 

 lination is necessary ; otherwise, the fruit may not set or 

 perfect itself. 



The variety mostly grown is White Spine, and by ju- 

 dicious selection of seed stock, medium long, well- 

 shaped and dark green fruit is obtained. The long Eng- 

 lish varieties find no favor in the Boston market. 



Boston, Mass. E. P. Kirby. 



OUR WIDE-AWAKE GARDENERS. 



THEY TALK OF NEW VARIETIES AND 

 PROFITABLE AND MORE 



METHODS THAT HELP TO MAKE VEGETABLE- GROWING MORE 

 lATISFACTORY A FULL LIST BY DR. HOSKINS. 



N THESE times of closest coinpe. 

 tition in everything that cultivators 

 are growing for market, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary for the progressive 

 gardener to keep at least a corner 

 in his garden for the testing of 

 novelties in what he grows, and in the methods of 

 growing them. I have been doing this for up- 

 wards of 25 years ; but looking backward over that 

 time I do not see the progress in that part of our 

 art which might have been expected. 



Does any reader remember the Keyes tomato, a po- 

 tato-leaved variety introduced about 1866, which was 

 one of the first of the smaller sorts claimed to be many 

 days earlier than anything before known ? In four years 

 the Iveyes was forgotten, and dozens of other "earlier 

 than any " novelties in that line have followed it. Let 

 us note that not the "earliest," with no other merit 

 known in them, remain ; but the smooth, solid, pro- 

 ductive, full-flavored sorts, such as Trophy and Gen. 

 Grant, continue in demand. Now, also, a popular 

 variety has to be free from the tendency to rot, which 

 has become as much a terror to the tomato-grower 

 as to the potato-farmer. 



A much greater gain has been made in methods tha'^ 

 in varieties. This is truer near the large cities than else" 

 where, because the newer methods require large ex- 

 penditure on the plant, and greater skill in the working 

 of it. It is true that all kinds of iron-work have been 

 greatly cheapened, and the demand for out-of-season 

 vegetables proportionally increased. Both these facts 

 have favored the development of commercial winter 

 gardening, until now our tropical and southern caterers 

 are far from having the market in their control. I will 

 run briefly over the popular lists, and note where my 

 own experience has located a decided advancement. 



In Beans the new dwarf Limas are a long-desired 

 improvement in earliness and ease of management, and 

 they will stay. Among the poles, the new Brockton, 

 of the "Horticultural" family, is a decided advance. 

 The Early Golden-eyed Wax (which I grew for several 

 years before the dealers got hold of it), is early, free 

 from fungus-spotting, and productive; but the quality 

 is far from being up to the claims made for it. The 

 Kentucky Wonder is an excellent late snap variety. 



In early Turnip Beets, the Eclipse took well : but 

 the Edmands has gone ahead of it and is more perfect 

 and uniform, as well as earlier. In the later kinds, or 

 the long-rooted beet, there is no very recent gain. In 



