March, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
i /7 
dry out thoroughly 
the next day. When 
pulled off and 
thrown in a heap 
they will probably be 
frozen stiff the next 
time you may want 
to use them. 
first part of this 
month. So soon as 
the second or third 
true leaves begin to 
show they will be 
large enough to 
handle conveniently. 
If vou intend to 
Until the days grow warmer, care must be exercised 
in watering the cold frames 
So soon as the soil in the frames is ready to work, it 
should be made rich and mellow 
Find the time some Saturday this month 
to get stakes and boards, and put up a 
coldframe to which you can transfer any 
sash you may need through the season in 
their present position. As the warmer 
weather comes you will have no further 
use for the sash which have been over the 
frames that were set out to lettuce, 
radishes, carrots and beets, or any in 
which hardy plants, such as cabbage, cauli¬ 
flower, beets or lettuce, may be growing, 
if you have not put them in flats. Instead 
of simply putting the glass sash from 
these frames aside, you should have a 
frame ready where they may be used a second time over cucum¬ 
bers, melons, beans and similar things. For this use, the glass 
sash may be bought a couple of weeks sooner. Make some 
frames the same size as the sash and cover them with plant-pro¬ 
tecting cloth, which costs only about thirtv cents for enough to 
cover each frame. 
During March, about four weeks after the seeds of beets, 
cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower have been put in, the tender 
things such as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, should be started. 
There is little danger of getting the temperature too high until 
they are well up! At night, 70 degrees will not be too much if 
you have a place where they can be 
kept as warm as that, and during the 
day, 10 or 15 degrees higher may be 
given without getting it too warm. In 
such a temperature, of course, the soil 
tends to dry out very rapidly, par¬ 
ticularly in flats; and as the weather 
also is much brighter than it was a 
month ago, you will have to be careful 
to see that the soil never gets dried 
out. It may prove fatal to the sprout¬ 
ing seeds. And it is even more im¬ 
portant than it was in the case of the 
early seeds to have a very light, fine 
soil to plant them in; it can hardly be 
made too light and dusty. 
I ’lants will be growing much more 
rapidly now than when they first came 
up, and care must be exercised not to 
let the little seedlings wait too long- 
before transplanting. All those sown 
last month should be transplanted the 
transplant them directly into the 
frame, there to grow until ready to 
set into the garden, the soil 
should be enriched with old. 
well-rotted manure and bone 
flour. Usually it is more con¬ 
venient to handle them in 
flats, which should be at 
least three inches deep. 
Put a layer of finely pul¬ 
verized manure in the 
bottom of each, from a 
half to an inch thick, and 
cover this with a soil 
which is clayey enough to have a tendency to be sticky; add 
some sand, and, if necessary, some leaf mould and chip dirt, but 
usually these will not be required, especially for the early vege¬ 
tables. It is always best to do the transplanting out of the 
direct sunshine, and if it must be done in the open frame, it is ad¬ 
visable not to do it in the middle of the day should it happen to be 
very sunny. If the soil is at all dry, give the flats a thorough 
watering the day before you transplant. Immediately after 
transplanting give them a watering with a fine spray (not apply¬ 
ing very much, however, if the soil was watered the day before), 
and keep them in some place out of the sun or covered over with 
newspapers during the warmer hours 
for the few days following. Should 
conditions of soil and temperature be 
right, the roots will take hold and es¬ 
tablish themselves very quickly in 
their new surroundings. 
In transplanting, the plants should 
be put about two inches apart each 
way. Thev can be put a little closer 
and still make very good plants, but 
nothing is to be gained by crowding 
them. A dozen good plants will yield 
more, and yield it sooner, than twenty- 
five poor ones. 
What has been said about giving 
fresh air and plenty of it to the crops 
planted in the frames applies equally 
well to the transplanted seedlings. 
Those that begin to run up tall and 
spindling, or the leaves of which look 
Keep an eye open for aphis; a few days’ neglect and they will light-colored usually need ail'. If 
be beyond control. Use tobacco dust or a strong nicotine spray ( Continued Oil pCICJC 187) 
The deeper you dig the garden, the better; but whether you dig with 
wheel-hoe or with a spade, digging is no slouch job 
