Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-31
RAILWAY GARDENS.


make the following extracts:
RAILWAY GARDENS.
With us, the Sloping sides of cutting would
green with grass or laid out in gardens that
seem ready to slide down hill to the track.
These gardens along the sides of railways are
something peculiar to England.
They are to be seen almost everywhere. The
space between the track and the fence on both
sides is always put to some use, unless too steep
to hold the soil. Vegetables are most common.
Grass is used in some places, and near the sta
tons flowers are common. Often the name of
the station is marked out on the bank in cOlored
stones or in Towering plants; or the letters are
cut out of the sod, and the borders so made are
gay with flowers or green with vegetables.
These gardens seem to be cultivated by the
railway guards. Whether they rent them of
the companies, or how it is managed, is some
thing have not ascertained. 1t is enough to
know that not an inch of land is lost. Even
such wastes as these are made to yield food for
man or beast.
CULTURE OF SALADS.
By these | mean rape, cress and other small
plants cultivated for the leaves and stems. The
process is peculiar, and deserves passing no
tice. Beds about four feet wide, and of any
length, are prepared with very fine, rich soil.
Trenches are sunk along the sides to carry off
the rain. The seeds are sown very thckly over
the bed, and then, after good sprinkling with
the watering pot, Russia mats are spread over
the beds, and fastened down with wooden pegs.
Loose straw is then spread about foot thick
over the mats. In fOrty-eight hours the seeds
terminate, and lift the mats slightly. On the
third day the straw is taken off and the pegs
loosenedl On the fifth day the plants lift the
mat bodily. Then the mats are removed, dis
playing the plants about four inches high and
quite white. days exposure to the sun turns
them green, and they expand their seed leaves.
Twelve days from the sowing, the crop is ready
for the market. 1t is about four inches high,
and looks like miniature field of wheat. A
long fat knife is passed under the plants, now
ing down about q foot square. IL is so thick
that it stands upright. The cut lot is carefully
set upright in fiat baskets, and is then sold,
baskets and all, for one penny-a paying price.
BEANS UNDER GLASS.
Early beans under glass are certainly novel;
ties. Our early Mohawk bean is here forced for
the market. There are plenty of people in Lon
don, and probably in New York, who are will
ing TO pay liberal price for beans in April and
May They buy them by count-so much per
hundred pods The pods are large and eaten
green, as with us in the summer-that is, as
string beans. They are raised in great quaint.
ties, whole ranges of hothouses being devoted
to their culture; and, as far as | can judge from
mere inspection, the culture is attended with
profit. The process is somewhat like this: Fill
pight-inch pots with rich soil, and plant Just I'M
moderate temperature near the glass. With
steady and rather dry atmosphere they will adj
vance quickly. Give plenty of water and air as
often as the weather permits. When the plants
are well up, remove three OF the weakest. AS
soon as the roots begin to fill the pots shift to a
twelve-inch pot. The five plants, if kept grow
ing rapidly, will soon come into bloom.
If the weather is cold or cloudy, SO that air
cannot be given the fruit may be caused to set
by gently brushing the hand to and fro over the
flowers, or by shaking the plants A current of
air would be best, if not too cold. The plants
will bear when six weeks old.
After removing the crop throw the plants out.
Successive sowings must be followed up every
two weeks The first sowing is in December,
the last in May. Beans for late forcing without
fire heat are often grown in frames. In this
case the seeds are planted in rows in the frame.
Pots are by far the best The chief point to be
aimed at is plenty of fresh air and an even tenn
perature.
The American cultivator at once points TO the
fact that early beans can be raised at the south
and sent to the New York market The same
remark applies to London. The French garden
ers send their produce into English markets by
the steamboat load every day. In a certain way
it Injuries the London trade, but people quickly
learn to distinguish between vegetables that
have Travelled for ten hours by boat and rail and
those fresh from London hOthouses. Every
where in the shop windows one sees tomatoes,
Strawberries, melons, BEANS etc., marked eng
lish hothOuse," and with higher prices attached.
Comment is not necessary.
Tomatoes are forced to limited extent in
England. The plants are grown in borders and
subjected to rigid system of pinching
OUTDOOR GARDENS.
We will not mention any one place, but take
general survey over several miles of territory,
all of it closely planted with growing crops.
Every available foot is devoted to something
Rhubar6 stretches acre beyond acre, seemingly
IN sufficient quantities to sour the Thames were
it all stewed in that muddy little river Huge
patches OF lettuce, counting plants by the hum
dred thousands, spread out in pale green sheets,
like a lawn. The ground is lost to view as we
pass, so close do the plants stand to each other
There are dozen women tying up the heads
with bit of mating. This lettuce requires to
be bound up TO make it blanch. Think of the
labor TO be performed on an acre. Fortv-two
thousand plants in one acre, and every one TO
be handled. Our cabbage lettuce is not used
here, except occasionally for forcing. See that
field thrown up into high ridges That is full
of asparagus. The banking up is to cause the
shoots 10 push through deep soil. / doubt if
this is an improvement on our American
method.
There is another field in ridges, each about
five feet wide, with sunken path about two
feet wide between each The top of each ridge
has slope towards the south, and is thickly
planted with horn carrots. Last winter this
three-aere field was covered with glass The
| ridges are the places where the frames stood. A
| crop of some kind was gathered from it In
march, and then the carrots were sown. The
| nrst ten weeks of their existence was passed
! under the glass. The frames, when mild