The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-02-27
Gardonlnr Under casa.


above caption the point is made by
w. F. Massey of the North Carolina
station, that market gardeners in the
South Atlantic coast plain do not suf-
iciently intensity their operations.
The area cultivated is generally too
large for the most satisfactory results.
Not enough glass is used North Caro-
lima Is as near New York city as Yer
mont is, and much better adapted to
growing crops under glass because OF
the simpler structures needed, tbs less
coal required for heating them, the alb
sence of long-continued cloudy wealth
er. and the greater abundance of win
ter sunshine Yet Vermont completes
with North Carolina in the New York
market. Crops like lettuce, which
grow in the North in the hothouses,
can be grown in the South in simple
frames under loose glass sashes in
the greatest perfection, an advantage,
which Southern planters should not be
slow to avail themselves Of.
The common practice of growing
lettuce in the South under cloth, for
market, is discouraged. Glass should
be used instead. 1t is more efficient
and much cheaper in the long run.
With glass other crops besides lettuce,
like beets and radishes, can be grown
in the winter, and seedlings Of egg
plants and tomatoes forwarded in the
spring. After skill has been attained
in handling sashes on cold frame,
the transition to the greenhouse and
heated dollhouse follows naturally.
Crops which require little skill in their
production in the open ground can be
grown by anybody and are cheap. The
greater skill which Ia necessary in
growing crops under glass limits COM
petition and increases the profits.
The lettuce, for instance, which is
grown under plant cloth, goes to mar
ket usually in barrels, and is sold as
Southern field lettuce by the barrel
Lettuce grown well under glass and
shipped in handy boxes is sold by the
dozen at a higher price, and completes
with the Northern greenhouse lettuce.
The gardener with glass gets his let
tuce into market at the Christmas
holidays, and is ready at once to re-
plant for crop to compete on more
favorable terms with the crop of the
man who is using cloth, and as the
spring crop usually sells for more than
the midwinter crop, his lettuce, being
in better condition. brings more
money. have gotten three times the
price for lettuce on the LIST of April
than got during the winter months,
though the first paid very we'll. The
many uses to which glass sashes can
be applied is another argument for
their use. After the lettuce crop is
shipped the tomato plants are hard
ened off in the frames, and as after the
does not need the glass, an extra set
Of frames can at once be used for the
tomato plants that have, been started
in .hotbed or greenhouse. And after
the tomato plants are removed to the
field the very tender eggplant can be
set in the frames and protected dur
ing the chilly nights, and thus brought
on at a time when it will command
good price. Or a hill Of cucumbers
can be planted under each sash from
plants started in pots in the green
house and brought on earlier than
those in the open ground far south of
us. Then after all the plants have
used the glass there is no better place
for the drying of fruit in summer than
under these same sashes. Those
whose interest is in the strawberry
crop can use the sashes to cover straw
berry plants set for this purpose in
frames, and If the sashes are put over
them the LIST of March or a little ear
lier, the crop is rapidly advanced and
the blooms protected from frost, so
that the fruit goes to market far ahead
Of the open-air crop.