Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/42

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BUIST’S FAMILY KITCHEN GARDENER.

If they do, take as much arsenic as will lie on a ten cent piece, mix it with a table-spoonful of Indian meal, and lay it on a piece of tile or board in the frame, where it will be dry, which will soon destroy them. Early in Spring, transplant to the compartments of the garden designed for them. Lift the plants carefully with a trowel, retaining as many fibres and soil as possible. The plants should all be assorted, planting the strongest where the crop is expected to be earliest, so that all may come to maturity regularly. In their subsequent growth, if any fail or run to seed, supply the deficiencies with fresh plants. As the crop progresses, hoc frequently and deep; destroy every weed, and as the plants grow, draw eartlı round the stems, which will strengthen and forward them. The large Late Yorks require the same care and treatment. They will mature in succession, according to the lateness of the sort. Where a supply of plants has not been obtained in the Fall, it will be necessary to sow seed on a hot-bed about the middle of February—for the management of which see the article Cucumber—only the hot-bed will not require to be so strong, and a greater portion of air admitted to the frame in sunshine, and even a small portion at night when there is no frost, gradnally hardening them as they grow, till they become fit for planting out, which will be about the end of March or first of April. I have scen, however, where the garden depended upon the exertions of the cook, or the dexterous management of the housewife, a good crop of carly Cabbage plants grown in the kitchen window. It is a lamentable fact that many of our otherwise industrious farmers would have no vegetables were it not for the exertions of the female portion of the family. The health and comfort of a family would be greatly enhanced by giving a full portion of attention to the manuring and cropping of a vegetable garden. It is absolutely necessary in this country, that every farmer should be a gardener, and every gardener a farmer.

For the late Summer, Fail, and Winter supply, sow the seed