14 
January, 1890. 
I 
ORCHIVRDgIGRRDEN 
Vegetable Garden for January. 
"While frost reigns supreme out doors the 
crop of ideas for the coming season is the 
best one to cultivate. Some of our crops 
failed last summer. Was it altogether 
the fault of the season and the seedsman? 
Are we blameless in the matter ? Can we 
not see where we could have done better 
under the same circumstances? Perhaps we 
expected bricks without straw. Vegetables 
on poor land without manure ; good crops 
on wet land vs ithout good drainage. 
A few weeks ago I met in Norfolk a 
gentleman who has long been making drain 
tile there and preaching thorough drainage 
to the truck glowers in that region. He 
was visiting fairs in Virginia and North 
Carolina, as he said, a drainage missionary, 
not so much to sell his tile, for he has al- 
ready more orders than his works can fill 
rapidly, but to stir up the people to start 
tile factories and use tile all through the low- 
land country. He told me that last spring 
he had a call from a gentleman, who had 
been a vehement opponent of tile drainage, 
asking quotations for a large lot of drain 
tiles. ‘ ‘ I did not think I should ever come 
to this” said he, “ but this season has forced 
me into it. Only a few days ago I was be- 
moaning the almost total destruction of my 
crops of early peas and potatoes by the 
water, and as misery loves company I went 
over to condole with a neighbor who I 
thought had been throwing away money on 
tiles. To my utter amazement he had the 
finest crops of peas and potatoes he had 
ever raised. That settled it, and I am go- 
ing to drain my land at once.” There are 
many people in all the lowland country of 
Virginia and North Carolina, and on the 
Delaware and Maryland Peninsula, who 
are trying to grow truck for the northern 
markets on land that needs underdrainage, 
who could double their profits by an intelli- 
gent system of drainage. If the land you 
are growing vegetables on needs drainage 
now is the time to plan and get at the work. 
Tiles are best, but a drain made by laying 
two pine poles side by side, with a third one 
on top will answer for a long time. In 
some way manage to dry your soil so as to 
work it earlier in spring and prevent the 
drowning out of crops in summer. 
COLD FRAMES. 
When cabbage and lettuce plants are 
wintered over in cold frames they will need 
careful attention — not so much to prevent 
freezing as to prevent the plants from get- 
ting tender and excited into growth in mild 
spells. Keep the sashes stripped entirely 
off, when the thermometer is above 30 de- 
grees and even when as low as 25 degrees 
give plenty of air by tilting the sashes at 
the back. Always give the frames a little 
air when the sun is shining on them no 
matter how cold. 
I have long ago abandoned the practice 
of wintering over cabbage plants from fall 
sown seeds for I find that better plants 
and fully as early can be had by starting in 
the winter. In the latitude of North Caro- 
lina I start Jan’v 1st, and a month later 
would do in the latitude of Philadelphia. 
Sow the seeds in shallow boxes in a warm 
green-house or in default of a green-house 
in a good hot-bed. Sow quite thickly and 
as soon as large enough to handle, even be- 
fore the rough leaves appear, transplant to 
other boxes about an inch and a half apart. 
Let these boxes be three inches deep. Fill 
half full of old, rotten manure and finish 
with good garden loam. As soon as the 
plants have recovered from this transplant- 
ing place the boxes in a cold frame and pro- 
tect from severe cold until inured to the 
lower temperature. Then give all the air 
possible in mild weather so as to harden 
the plants into a robust, stocky habit and 
have them ready to go into theopen ground 
from the middle of February to the middle 
of March, according to latitude. If they 
have been properly hardened off in the 
frames they won’t mind a sharp freeze or 
two after they get outside. The advantage 
of having them in boxes is that the boxes 
can be handily carried to the field and each 
plant taken out with a trowel and set with 
lump of manure attached to the roots and 
grow right off in the freshly worked soil. 
When lettuce and cauliflower have been 
planted together in frames and it is desir- 
able to have the lettuce bear early to be out 
of the way of the cauliflower, the frames 
must be kept a little closer and covered 
in cold nights to exclude the frost after the 
lettuce turns in to head. It will stand a 
good deal of frost while unheaded, but a 
freeze after heading will spoil it. 
The seedmen’s catalogues will now be 
coming along resplendent in colored covers 
and chromo illustrations. They arc attrac- 
tive and useful volumes and contain a vast 
amount of correct and valuable information. 
Don’t invest too heavily in the novelties. 
Try a few of the most promising, but put 
your dependence upon the proved stan- 
dard varieties. Always make out your list 
of garden seeds and order them long before 
you want to plant them. You will always 
be more promptly and better served than if 
you wait until the seedsmen are overrun 
with orders. 
In Southern Virginia and Southward, ad- 
vantage should be taken of any open 
weather to put the crop of earliest peas in 
the ground. These early sown peas should 
be sown in warm dry soil and covered by 
lapping two furrows from each side over 
the seed furrow forming a sharp ridge If 
the rows run east and west these ridges will 
have the sun on one side nearly all day and 
will warm up better than level land. Just 
before the peas come up harrow the ridges 
down so as to give them a fresh surface to 
come through. 
The market grower wants an early pea 
that will give its crop all at once and there- 
fore the little Early Pea of many names, of 
which Dank i O’Rourke is the type, will suit 
him best, l.ut in the home garden we want 
a pea of better quality and which will last 
longer in us . The Alpha will do for this. In 
small garders, where it is desirable to goto 
some troubl to get peas extra early, make 
some long i ; i ow boxes or troughs by nail- 
ing three bui iding laths at the ends to two 
blocks a little larger square than the laths 
are wide, so as to make a long narrow box 
with an open crack on each side of the lath 
forming the bottom. Fill as many of these 
as you may wish with soil and plant a row 
of peas through the centre of each. Pack 
them closely together in a cold frame, 
about a month sooner than you can work 
the ground outside. Give them careful at- 
tention and plenty of air on all favorable 
occasions and harden them off so that they 
will be ready to go out as early as tha 
ground is ready. Then plant them, box 
and all, in the furrows end to end so as to 
make a row of the desired length. This 
will give you quite a start of all your neigh- 
bors and enable you to beat them with 
home grown peas. To one fond of his 
garden the pleasure of crowing over his 
neighbors is always worth some trouble and 
expense. 
VEGETABLE FORCING. 
Green houses where lettuce is forced need 
more attention now to prevent too high a 
temperature, as the days lengthen and the 
sun gets higher. The nearer the night 
temperature of the lettuce house can be 
kept about 40 degrees the better. Tobacco 
stems strewn over the hot water pipes and 
frequently renewed is the safest way to keep 
the green fly out. If fumigation is resorted 
to it is much better to give a light fumiga- 
tion on two successive nights than to give 
a heavy one at once. 
Tomatoes in pots will now be ripening. 
These, of course need a higher temperature 
not less than 60 degrees, nor over 70 de- 
grees at night. Keep all useless growth 
out and train to a single stem. A good 
handful of nitrate of soda dissolved in a 
two gallon pot of water makes a good and 
convenient liquid manure when the pots 
are well filled with roots. 
Under the benches in the lettuce house 
will be found a good place to force Rhu- 
barb. Pack large whole roots not less than 
three years old closely together and cover 
them with sphagnum, and keep constantly 
moist and you will get a good crop of 
blanched pink stalks that will pay well for 
the trouble. The roots are worthless after 
forcing and a fresh supply should be started 
annually from such. — W. F. Massey. 
market Gardening as a Business, 
The are thousands of farmer whose lands 
are near to the smaller towns, hotels, water- 
ing places and summer boarding houses, 
where, if the farmer would devote a few 
acres to fruits or vegetables, or both, there 
is scarcely a doubt that it would be found 
that every acre so cultivated would be much 
more profitable than if devoted to ordinary 
farm crops. In most cases success would 
