The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-09-06


accompanying complement of glass.
are necessitYfe r the market-gardener
who intends tS: do anything more than
''farm.gardening." Market-gardening
In the latitude north of New York City
cannot exist without these helps. TO
buy large quantities of vegetable plants
is expensive. while to raise the same
quantity is to have your own stock,
with some to sell<as payment for the
trouble. There is no secret in hotbcd
management; it wants good, well-made
sashes, two-inch plank TO rest them on,
and these sunk in the ground, to keep
the manure from losing its hest in cold
winter weather. Ibuy sashes 3x6 feet;
set with double-thick English glass, size
6xS; tackled, puttied and bedded in
Pinch pine sash with horns 2 inches
long at each corner to carry them by.
Such sashes l have had in use fifteen
wears, and they win last a lifetime
with good care; they rarely break;
dogs and cats walk over them, and they
sustain the weight Of heavy SHOWS.
Other sizes of sashes, or glass, are the
index of inexperience or ignorance.
Horse manure is the heating material
used, and one solid foot in depth OF
this, smoking hot from the pile when
| the bed is made, will force plants better
than anything else have tried. The
| first week of February plant q seed
bed Of lettuce. Early in March ] set
the plants out in hotbeds; these head
up to sell during May. Cauliiiowers o!
| cucumbers are started for second
crop-in places inside vacant by the sale
of lettuce-from plants previously
raised for that purpose; the cucumberS
in pots, the cauli6owers in beds pre-
pared for them. Cabbage seed il
planted about March L pricked out the
last of the month in cold-frames. and
the cabbage bed planted to lettuce
Tomatoes are pricked out to succeed
the early lettuce and cabbage, some
times; and sometimes lettuce, cabbage
or tomato follow radish. Radish will
gro from the seed in six weeks. Celery
and peppers remain in the hotbcds til
ready for the field. Gaa e,uC1 .fs
L Long radishes need at least eigh
inches of soil over the manure, while
the round ones will grow in five or ST
inches, as will lettuce. But if larg
heads of lettuce are wanted they mus
be set fifty plants to the sash in tn
Il beds, and in earth foot deep; lettuc
1 needs a cool head and warm feet, an
a deep soil for big heads, while
shallow soil, with seventy-five plants I
the sash, is the rule for the early
forcing, small head lettuce. Th
smaller heads will mature quicker
while the big heads will sell bette
later in the season. The tomatoes ar
pricked out into beds, two feet fror
the earth to the glass. to allow tn
|; plants to get in blossom before time
. set in the open ground. The glass
the fall can again beput to good us
bv using it to cover the lettuce set
the beds, which will mature frol
Thanksgiving to New Years, aftt
which time the beds lie idle till Febr'
ary, unless used to winter small lettut
or cabbage plants for early setting
the spring opening of the beds.
Water is . necessity. Twenty-fi'
sashes win in dry time require barr
|, I of water daily and often more. N
supply comes from q tank filled by
hand pump and flows to the BET
! through q rubber hose by the force
gravity; one man can fill the tank al
u then water until it is empty. The lats
the season and the dryer the weathe
the more water is used, especially
the sashes are taken of, which becom
necessary after the middle of Ma
, Then the sun and drying winds dry d
v beds rapidly. Cucumbers and eau
j flowers then suffer If not abundant
d watered. To stop watering then mea
n to lose all the crop, and all past labo
3 while continual watering may me.
cucumbers and caulihowers to sell I
' less than the cost OF production. II
is . dilemma with two horns. Half {
!. | ounce of -eithsr cabbage, lettuce.
I. | tomato seed, sowed under one Sx6 glas
!. will make 1900, 1000 and 800 go
/ plants respectively to prick out ! 50
4 broadcast; but celery plant in ro'
two inches apart and thin out Is th
;. grow. transplant peppers from {
!. seed-bed direct 70 where they are
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