FIRST DAYS OF 1890 IN THE GARDEN - STARTING THE HOT-BEDS - SOWING THE SEEDS - PROTECTION WATERING - METHODS WITH THE DIFFERENT VEGETABLES - OUT-DOOR WORK - IMPLEMENTS.

Seventh Paper.

ITH the beginning of February we commence to look for signs of returning spring here in the middle latitudes. During the months when snow and ice have kept the secrets of the soil locked up, we have waited, with what patience we might* and planned against the coming of this time. Now, on these first bright days, when we can see the effect of the sun's warmth upon the earth, we are anxious to be out and at work. But the frost is not out of the ground yet, or if it is, has left behind a moist and sticky condition that prohibits as yet any horticultural efforts. Under such circumstances we turn naturally to the hot beds, of which we made the frames last month, and here shall find an escape for all of our superfluous energy. Before the harvest can be reaped the seed must be sown, and before the seed is sown the bed must be prepared. The initial work with the hotbed this month is to secure just the right sort of manure and put it in the bed properly. If horses enough are not kept upon the place to furnish the requisite amount of fresh manure, it will be best to arrange with a livery stable to have the product saved for a few days before it it is wanted. It should be saved under cover, and not piled so that it will heat.

If left for more than a few days, it will be best to inspect it personally, and if found to be heating turn the pile over with a fork. When a sufficient amount has accumulated, choose a warm day, when you can work out of doors without discomfort, and begin operations. If, as suggested in a previous paper, the bed was filled with refuse in the fall, throw this out, so that it may be used for additional protection about the frame, leaving a layer of only a couple of inches at the bottom to keep the fresh manure from the cold ground. Now throw in the manure, packing it down constantly until it is a foot deep, level, well packed in the corners and along the edges, and as solid as it can be made. Upon this fill in soil to a further depth of six inches. Too much care cannot be used in securing this to have it of proper quality and free from weed seeds. If it was not secured and stored under cover in some available place last fall, trouble may now be experienced in getting just what is wanted. The soil should be a rich loam.

Clay is difficult to keep in proper mechanical condition in the hot-bed. It must be dry enough to handle well a difficult condition to secure at this season, when the surface freezes at night and thaws during the day, and must not come from weedy ground, as the weeds will start ahead of the seeds and make much extra work. The best place to secure the right soil is in the woods. Go into the fence corners, or into the hollows, where the leaves blew knee deep in the autumn. Rake the now decaying leaves aside, and you will find beds of fine black soil, which has been protected by its covering from freezing, and which by the same protection has been kept free from weeds.

After the dirt has been put in the bed, rake off smoothly, but leaving the surface inclined a little toward the front, put the sash on tight, and leave it for a couple of days for the first violent heating to subside. Then sow the seed (this first bed should be used for lettuce) in drills eight inches apart. The drills may be easily made by pressing a lath down edgewise in the soil, and covered by laying the same implement flat and pressing it down again above the drill. The seed must be sown more thickly than we expect it to remain, as some will not germinate, and some plants may be wanted for transplanting in the open ground. Lettuce seed is very fine, and it is difficult to sow just right Aim to have about three seeds to the inch of drill. If they all germinate they can be thinned out easily as soon as the shoots appear above ground.

After the seeds are started, if the bed has been well prepared, and frame and sash are tight, the beginner may have some difficulty in regulating the heat. The trouble will be, not in keeping up a sufficient amount of heat, but in keeping the bed from getting too hot at times and in maintaining an even temperature. Too much heat will produce a quick, slender growth, which will be difficult to develop into a good plant, and which will be more susceptible to injury than a stockier plantlet would be.

At night the bed must be covered tight. In the morning it should be examined the first thing, and if there is much steam or undue heat the sash should be raised a very little and kept up until the excess escapes. The bed may not be opened in the direction of the wind, as when the plants have been in such an atmosphere over night they would be very easily injured by a frosty breath. As the season advances, and the rays of the sun generate greater heat beneath the glass, the sash may be kept up a little while in the middle of the day, but should be closed early enough to secure and store sufficient heat to last through the night.

Getting Ready for Some Early Things in a Sunny Spot.

By carefully watching this first bed for a few days, noting the germination of the seed and the starting and growth of the plantlet, much useful knowledge regarding the details of hot-bed management will be acquired. Thus it is best to prepare this first bed as early as possible, and use it as a basis of study for the future work.

One thing that must be borne in mind is that the sun will speedily exhaust all the moisture naturally contained in the six inches of supplied soil, and that no moisture can be drawn from the ground beneath on account of the intervening mass of manure. So water must be regularly supplied to the surface, and it should be done by a hand-sprinkler having a very fine rose, so that the ground will not be made wet or heavy in places.

The work of preparing the beds and sowing the seeds of the different sorts of vegetables is practically the same ; but their succession must be determined by the relative time at which the plants may be set in the open ground, as well as upon the length of time required for the germination of the seed. Thus, lettuce may not only be put out earlier, but it is slower to start than cabbage and cauliflower ; and if tomatoes should be started at the same time as the latter, they would be too large to handle by the time the season was far enough advanced to put them out.

In handling the beds, too, after the plants are started, the peculiar needs of each must be studied. Cabbage will stand a degree of cold that would ruin the tomato plants, and while the latter must be more carefully protected, they may be easily killed with kindness. They will stand almost any amount of heat if sufficient moisture accompanies it; but let the bed become both hot and dry, and the warm sun of a late April afternoon will soon put them in a sorry plight. In order to make the plants hardy and able to endure exposure when planted out, all the beds should be given as much air as possible whenever the days are warm enough to permit raising the sashes a little way.

Radishes in particular, if tried under glass, must be kept moist and cool, approaching as nearly as possible to the normal condition and temperature of the open ground in May. If too hot and dry they will run up to stalk, leaving the root tough and pithy.

As the season progresses, and day by day we find that it is growing a little warmer and the soil growing a little dryer, in some favored spots dry enough to work it will be difficult to keep our hands from the hoe and the spading fork - more difficult, perhaps, than it will be three months hence! To relieve this uneasiness there are a few things that we may do very early. Among the first of these is to make an onion bed. This may be done as soon as it is possible to work the soil, and both seeds and sets planted. Subsequent cold weather, or even the slight freezing of the ground that may ensue, will do no harm.

As the pressure of time will not be felt so much now as later on, let us do this first work thoroughly and without regard to the amount of labor expended upon it.

In the first place, we will not think of the plow yet, but will rely upon the spading-fork for preparing the soil, and without regard to the question as to whether we shall have enough manure to cover all our land at the same rate, we will put on this piece just as much of it as we can work under. The manure pile must be worked over with a fork, and all coarse stuff, stalks, long straw, etc., thrown out, as we want nothing here that will be in the way of the teeth of a fine rake. When enough has been culled out and torn up fine with the fork, wheel it to the desired spot and distribute it evenly to a depth of say three inches. More would be better, but this is as much as can be well worked in. Now spade the ground up as deeply as the fork can be driven, breaking it up and raking off at the same time, leaving it smooth and mellow, and the surface as fine as a steel rake can make it.

Sets must be planted to secure early green onions for the table and for market, as the seeds are slow to start and will not make edible bulbs before early summer. White bottom sets are best, and the largest ones should be sorted out and planted by themselves, as they will be the first to get large enough for use. By planting these separately they may be gathered the more easily, and that portion of the bed cleared quickly and put to other use.

A garden line should be used in planting all beds, and the rows made absolutely straight and at equal distance from each other. With the rows twelve inches apart the conditions of economy of ground and facility of cultivation are best harmonized; the sets should be pressed down well into the loose surface soil, with the thumb and finger, about three inches apart along the row.

If intending to furnish a supply of green onions for market, not less than a half-bushel of sets should be planted. These would occupy about one-sixteenth of an acre of ground, or say a strip 25 feet wide by a little more than 100 feet long.

I would not advise a beginner to do more than experiment very slightly with growing onions from seed. To attain any degree of success, every condition must be most favorable; the land must be rich and free from weed seeds ; the crop must have careful attention from the time the little green loops appear above the ground until midsummer, and the work required is of the sort that demands the utmost patience to accomplish successfully. But if one wishes to experiment, let him sow a few rows of the bed, putting the seed in by hand, two or three to the inch, and cover it very lightly indeed with fine soil. As onion seed is slow to start, it is well to hasten its germination by soaking in tepid water for a day; then dry it off, so it may be separated easily for sowing. A garden drill may be used for these and other small seeds, and should be among our stock of implements; but at first I would advise sowing a little by hand, to become familiar with the quantity of seed needed and the depth at which to cover, etc.

Onion growing from the seed is one of the most profitable branches of horticulture in which one having only a little land can engage. But there is none in which such discouragement is apt to come to the beginner as will prohibit any second attempt in that line, and the most prolific cause for such discouragement is in attempting too much in the beginning.

J. K. R.