Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1878 — Early Vegetables. [ARTICLE]

Early Vegetables.

No farmer’s garden should be without a liberal supply of good vegetables. Almost every farmer raises a few; but they are too often started late and left to grow without proper attention. The idea is to have the plants—especially of the early cabbage and tomato—well grown before the season out of doors begins. Those who are so situated that it is inconvenient to obtain a supply of plants from a nursery can grow the plant for themselves, with very little extra trouble. A good plan is to have a hot-bed, and no farmer but that, with a little patience, an old window-sash and a few common boards, can make one. From the middle to the last of February is the time to start it. The boards are to be nailed together in the form of a box, from ten to twelve inches deep, the right size for the sash, and with the back some six or eight inches higher than the front. .Dig a shallow pit, a little smaller than the frame and about a foot deep, setting the frame over it. Fill in with, from twelve to fifteen inches of horse-manure, free from long straw, and top ofi‘ with two or three inches of garden-soil, made fine. Sow the seed for cabbage and tomatoes in rows from six to eight inches apart, and over the whole put the sash. When the plants are an inch or two out of ground, thin out, leaving some two inches between each plant. The bed should be kept moist by frequent sprinklings of tepid water. When the plants have obtained a vigorous growth, it is better to thin again, takmg out every other plant. After the first thinning the plants should have air daily for an liour or two at mid-day, by raising the sash a little from one side of the frame. By the time the plants grow high enough to reach the glass there will probably be no danger from frost and the sash may be raised up higher and left so, or entirely removed from the frame. As soon as the open ground is in condition the plants should be set out, not less than six feet apart each way, for the tomatoes. Water the plants freely at the time of transplanting, then mulch with dry earth, and they will grow without further watering. By the use of a hot-bed lettuce and radishes can be had weeks earlier than when grown in the open air; and cucumbers may be started and afterward transplanted equally as well as tomatoes or cabbage. Tomatoplants may also be started in a box kept in a room whore there is a steady fire, giving the plants ail the sun possible during the day. Rich earth is all that is needed for this purpose. It is better to keep the box covered with glass, to prevent the evaporation of moisture; and the plants should be sprinkled with tepid water nearly every day. It is a good plan to transplant tomatoes that have been started in boxes as soon as the plants have the third leaf. Old fruit-cans, filled with mold, may be used for this purpose. The bottom should be punched full of holes or taken out entirely. The transplanting should then be continued by changing from one can to another, as

this has been found to strengthen the plants As soon as possible give the Slants outdoor sir by raising awlnow or putting them out of doors in the middle of the day; and finally transplant to opdq ground the same as if raised in a hot-bed. For starting melons and cucumbers in-doors the best pots are small pieces of sod, turned grass-side down and placed upon a board. When •the season is wftfm enough set out sods and all in the garden, having rich, loamy soil, and cover up to the leaves of the plants.— N Y. Independent.