1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
145 
Spring Salads. 
Salads are relished by most persons the year 
round; but in Spring particularly, when new 
vegetation is putting forth, they are regarded 
as especially seasonable. They look refreshing 
upon the table and are acceptable to the palate. 
Water-cress is among the earliest of the salad 
herbs, but as this requires a constant stream of 
running water for its successful culture, it is not 
within the reach of most persons. Corn Salad, 
or Fetticus, is a very popular salad with Euro¬ 
peans and is generally cultivated for our city 
markets. It may be had very early, and is very 
readily raised by sowing in autumn and cover¬ 
ing with a slight winter protection. It is a mild, 
tender herb, without much taste of itself. Mus¬ 
tard makes a good salad. It may be sown 
broadcast as soon as the ground is thawed, and 
should be cut or pulled when 2 to 4 inches 
high. Cress or Peppergrass is a very common 
salad, either used by itself, or mixed with Let¬ 
tuce. It should be sown very early upon a light 
quick soil, and cut for the table as soon as large 
enough. Lettuce is however the universal and 
popular salad plant. Some of the hardy kinds 
may be sown in Autumn and covered during 
Winter with straw or coarse litter. Sow very 
early in the Spring. It is a common custom to 
plant rather thickly in rows and allow the 
plants to crowd one another—in this way a 
partial blanching is effected. Lettuce can only 
be had in perfection by growing the plants 
singly. To have it early, sow in the hot bed or 
in boxes in the house, and as soon as the 
weather will allow, transplant in rows, a foot 
apart each way. The soil should be highly 
manured with well rotted compost and every 
means used to ensure a rapid growth; hoe fre¬ 
quently and give liquid manure. Slow grow¬ 
ing plants will be without the tenderness and 
crispness so desirable in lettuce. Sowing in the 
open air may be done as soon as the ground can 
be worked. For varieties, we prefer the Butter, 
Ice Drumhead, aud Neapolitan Cabbage, (the 
latter is on our seed distribution) though almost 
any sort is good, if well grown as above directed. 
Lima Beans, and How to Plant Them. 
Few products of the garden are more accept¬ 
able than Lima beans, cooked green, and also 
when ripe. For some reason many persons fail 
in growing them well, however. They either 
do not come up at all, or they make a weak or 
sickly growth. If planted like the smaller va¬ 
rieties, with one to three inches of earth over 
them, and this perhaps packed down with the 
hoe and by rains, the cotyledons or seed-leaves 
can not force their way to the surface, and they 
rot. The soil should be dry, loose and warm, 
and the covering very light—hardly more than 
just to hide them. It is best to raise hills of 
moderate hight, and set poles before planting; 
then stick the beans in with the eye down, and 
leave them at or just below the surface. A very 
good plan is, to prepare a small bed of light, 
warm soil, on the south side of a tight fence, 
and stick in the beans all over its surface, two 
inches or so a part, and sprinkle on a very light 
covering of sand, or fine soil. If needed, a 
sprinkling of water may be given often enough 
to keep the soil damp. If a chance cold night 
occurs, throw an old blanket or mat over the 
bed. When sprouted, before rooting, transfer 
to hills. A still better way, perhaps, is to start 
the separate beans in bits of sod, and transfer 
these to the hills. See particulars under “ Hot¬ 
bed Substitutes,” on page 99, April Agriculturist. 
- --—■ om- i » - 
Blackberries. 
Blackberries. 
Lima Beans. : Asparagus. 
Corn. 
Nutmeg-melons: Tomatoes. 
Cauliflower. : Early Potatoes. 
Winler Squashes. 
1 Egg Plant. 
Peas. 
: Salsify. 
Bush Beans. 
Kohl-Rabi. : Early Turnips. 
Cucumbers. 
Rhubarb. 
Summer Squashes. 
Carrots. 
Late Turnips. 
Kale. 
e eiy. 
Sage and other Herbs. 
Beets. 
Seeds. 
Strawberries. 
Water-melons. 
Grapes. 
Grapes. 
were Y-shaped, and so arranged as to be moved; 
by means of this I could mark out rows at dis¬ 
tances of C inches, 12 inches, or 18 inches, 
which are the spaces 
How I Laid out My Vegetable Garden. 
[The above plan, together with the notes be¬ 
low which accompanied it, are to be taken as 
suggestive merely. The size, form, and loca¬ 
tion of a garden will in every case determine 
the plan. The appearance of a garden may 
often be improved by a proper arrangement of 
the tall and low growing plants.— Ed.] 
Editor of the Agriculturist: Having long 
looked forward to retiring from business in the 
city, to a farm in the country, I a few years 
ago so far secured my wish as to obtain a plot 
of ground, about 100 feet square, upon which to 
realize my long cherished desire to be a cultiva¬ 
tor of the soil. I commenced without experi¬ 
ence, and of course made many failures before 
I attained even tolerable success. I will not 
trouble you with an account of my failures, fur¬ 
ther than to state that they were mainly due to 
sowing too early or too late, and to using either 
too much or not enough seed. My object is to 
give a plan of the disposition of my beds—not 
because I think it the best that can be adopted, 
but it is easier to alter a bad plan than to ori¬ 
ginate one altogether, and I think an inexpe¬ 
rienced person, as I was, will go to work more 
readily if he have a map of the route some 
one has traveled before him. The plan hardly 
needs explanation. There is a walk all around, 
24 feet wide, leaving a border of five feet next 
the fence. Two principal walks, five feet wide, 
cross each other at right angles. These are all 
the paths that are really needed—more would 
waste too much space and give extra trouble in 
keeping them in order. No raised beds are 
made,'as these, where the ground is naturally or 
artificially drained, are needless. By avoiding 
small beds, the soil can be well and cheaply 
put in order by the plow and harrow; I used a 
subsoil plow and found a decided advantage in 
it. My hot-beds were on the space occupied 
afterwards by watermelons, the manure used in 
them being forked in for the crop. Not having 
a seed-sowing machine, I constructed a marker 
like a large wooden rake, the teeth of which 
most generally requir¬ 
ed. The marks being 
made, the seeds are 
sown by hand and 
then covered by draw¬ 
ing the earth over 
with the back of a 
rake or with the foot. 
On April 15th, I sow¬ 
ed spinach, onions, 
early turnips, cabbag¬ 
es, early beets, peas, 
salsify, and a few car¬ 
rots, and planted ear¬ 
ly potatoes. Spinach, 
radishes, etc., are not 
down on the plan; 
these I sowed in the 
spaces between hills 
of potatoes and cu¬ 
cumbers, aud wher¬ 
ever there was a spare 
spot. The 1st of May 
I made a sowing of 
most of the other 
seeds; on the 15th I 
set out the plants 
from my liot-beds, 
and put in melons of 
late squashes. June 20th, the 
late beets, turnips, peas, and sweet corn for suc¬ 
cession, were sown. As the results of my la¬ 
bors I had better and fresher vegetables than 
could be purchased in market, the great pleasure 
of working the garden, and the great satisfac¬ 
tion of enjoying the fruits of my own toil. C. H 
all kinds and 
Some less Known Garden Vegetables. 
Correspondents ask us for brief description?, 
of several of the garden vegetables, the seeds ol 
which are found in the catalogues, but which 
are not generally known and cultivated. Many 
of them are mere flavoring herbs, and others 
are articles of food which are only obtained 
with considerable trouble, and their cultivation 
is mainly confined to the professional gardeners. 
Artichoke. —The plant usually known by this 
name in this country, is the Jerusalem Artichoke , 
a kind of sunflower, which bears tubers some¬ 
what like a potato. The true Artichoke is near¬ 
ly related to the thistle. It bears an enormous 
thistle-like head of flowers, which are surround¬ 
ed by a cup of thick fleshy scales. This is the 
portion which is eaten. The seed is sown in 
drills, the plants thinned to a foot apart, and 
cultivated during the first season. During the 
Winter the plants are earthed up or covered 
with litter, and in the following Spring they are 
set out in clumps or hills of two or three plants, 
the hills 4 feet apart each way. They need a 
very rich soil. The heads which are produced 
the second year, are cut as soon as they are ful¬ 
ly formed, and before the scales begin to open. 
They are boiled and served with drawn butter. 
The crowns need protection hi Winter. Old 
plants throw up several suckers which may bo 
taken off and planted to increase the stock. 
Burnet. —A hardy perennial plant, the young 
and tender leaves of which have a taste and 
smell like cucumbers. Sow in Spring and thin 
to 6 inches in the row. 
Cardoon. —Is a plant much like the Artichoke, 
the leaf stalks of which, after being blanched 
