THE WINDOW-GARDEN. 



663 



make it possible to grow crops that could not well be grown 

 otherwise. Still, we would admonish all who think of 

 embarking in the business to make haste slowly, and 

 study their markets carefully. No greater mistake can 

 be made than to produce something that is not wanted 

 in the market, or is out of season for that market, or 

 that must be sold at too high a price for the consumers 

 in the locality. 



CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS. 



September-. — A small sowing of lettuce-seed should be 

 made about the middle of the month. Manure should 

 be secured for mushrooms. 



Octobe}-. — A second small sowing of lettuce should be 

 made early in the month, and the first sowing trans- 

 planted. Mushroom-beds may be prepared this month. 

 Near the end of the month, when the lettuce is trans- 

 planted into permanent beds, a sowing of turnip-rooted 

 radishes may be made. 



November. — Early in the month the second sowing ot 

 lettuce will need to be transplanted, and toward the 

 end of the month should be put into the permanent bed, 

 at which time radishes should again be sown. About the 

 middle of the month a large sowing of lettuce for the 

 main crop should be made. 



Decembe}-. — Tomato-seed for greenhouse crops should 

 be sown December 15, and a little later lettuce trans- 

 planted. 



January. — Lettuce-seed, for plants to be set in hot- 



beds and between tomatoes in the greenhouse, should be 

 sown early in the month, and the previous sowing trans- 

 planted. Transplant tomato and lettuce-plants about 

 the middle or toward the last of the month. Asparagus- 

 roots, pie-plant and dandelion may be put in under the 

 benches any time during this month or next. 



Fcbrziary. — Onion-seed for plants to set outdoors may 

 be sown in flats any time buring the month, preferably 

 about February 13. Seed for early tomatoes and cab- 

 bages for outdoor planting should be sown the latter part 

 of the month. 



March. — About Marcli 15 tomato-plants may be sej 

 into permanent beds with lettuce-plants between, and the 

 hot-beds filled with lettuce-plants. Radish-seed may be 

 sown, both in greenhouse and in hotbeds. 



April. — Celery-seed may be sown in flats. If not 

 ready to plant out, onions in flats should be transferred 

 to coldframes. 



J/ay, June, July ayid .iuffust. — Nothing can be done 

 in the greenhouse during these months, except to gather 

 the tomato crop, but preparations should be made early 

 in the season for the winter's work. Suitable bench-soil 

 must be prepared by composting sod and stable-manure, 

 or in the absence of sod, good garden soil may be used, 

 or even leaf-mold. A rich, friable compost is required for 

 successful work in the greenhouse, and it should be 

 ready for use in due season. — Prof. II'. J. Green, in 

 Bulletin of the Ohio Experiment Station. 



THE WINDOW-GARDEN. 



SOME SEASONABLE NOTES ON HOUSE-PLANT CULTURE. 



lOSITION.— Other conditions being 

 equal, the sunniest position that rooms 

 afford should be given to house-plants. 

 It is true that flowerless plants, or those 

 practically so in cultivation, like the 

 ferns, palms, ivies, dracsenas, etc., can 

 dispense with direct sunshine to an ex- 

 tent that would never answer for flowering kinds ; but even 

 these will retain their proper color and vigor better if 

 given some sunlight than if kept in a darkened window. 

 On this account, it is a good plan, when plants cannot 

 have considerable sunlight, to treat them to it occasion- 

 ally for an hour or two, by changing them to a lighter 

 window. 



AU house-plants do better for being not too close to 

 registers or stoves. One of the most successful plant- 

 collections we have ever known was situated in one end 

 of a large hall that received heat indirectly. Doors from 

 heated rooms opened into it, as well as the outer door 

 from the vestibule, admitting fresh air ; and these con- 

 ditions, together with excellent southern light, made it 

 an admirable place for pot-plants. It is better to have 

 air, like heat, reach the window-collection not too 

 directly in winter. Cold draughts invariably do much 

 injury to plants exposed to them. One reason why 



plants usually do well in the windows of a kitchen is be- 

 cause the air of this room is more permeated by fresh air 

 from outside through oft-opened doors, than is that of 

 other rooms. 



If the place where your plants are located is cooler 

 than the hothouse from which they were purchased, 

 water them with tepid water for a time. A suitable tem- 

 perature for the majority of house-plants is from 45 to 

 65 degrees at night ; the higher heat being suited to what 

 are classed in catalogues as hothouse plants, the lower to 

 greenhouse plants. 



Extent of Collection. — It is bad policy, especially 

 for beginners, to start the season with too large a col- 

 lection. Begin with easily grown plants, and proceed to 

 more fastidious ones by degrees. It is a mistake to 

 crowd the space for plants unduly. Let each specimen 

 stand nearly or quite clear from all others even it it be 

 at the cost of throwing out some plants. Half a dozen 

 fine, vigorous, uncrowded plants are much more satis- 

 factory than three times as many crowded, and, as a con- 

 sequence, ill-shaped and unhealthy ones. 



Watering. — No detail of house-plant management is 

 more important than that of watering. If you cannot 

 appreciate this, visit the commercial plant - grower's 

 houses, and see the trouble taken there to provide just 



