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DREER’S

VEGETABLES UNDER GLass

A LITTLE HANDBOOK TELLING HOW TO
TILL THE SOIL DURING TWELVE

MONTHS OF THE YEAR

*
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY A. DREER, Incorporated
714 Chestnut street

1896

in
ay

a)

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
HENRY A. DREER.

SPANGLER & DAVIS, PRS., PHILA

PREFACE.

The old house of Henry A. Dreer begs leave to offer to
the American public a little book on winter gardening ; on
vegetable culture under glass.

It is assumed that the best way to tell how to do things
is to tell how things are being done by successful gardeners ;
to deal meagerly in theory and largely in fact.

So we have woven with our own long experience a series
of recent field observations; notes made by our own people ;
pictures taken with our own cameras; and, in places, the
literal words used by practical gardeners in describing their
processes and in giving their conclusions.

To keep our business abreast of the times it is necessary
for us to constantly note what the world is doing. In this
little work we present a few pages from our note books to

the horticultural public.
Henry A.-DREER,
Incorporated.

Philadelphia, October 1, 1896.

What business man, except a soil
worker, will ‘‘stop and talk’’ with
a stranger? Who but a farmer or
fruit grower or gardener will tell of
his experience so fully and so freely,
and so entirely without hope of gain?
Who else will so frankly reveal his
business secrets for the benefit of
his fellows? Who else so clearly
recognizes the fact that the world

is large enough for all mankind?

-

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNING.

People without experience or capital
must begin at the foot of the ladder, if
they would succeed in under-glass gar-
dening.

The key to the whole situation is the
single sash, for when its uses and func-
tions are fully understood, and its possi-
bilities realized, the novice has become
an expert, and is ready for greater things.

The sash which at the start covers a
cold frame is at length made to do duty
on a hot bed. ‘The hot bed sash, which
originally began work in the spring, is
put to work in the autumn, and made to produce results in
winter time.

The next step is to use the same frame of glass on a
sash-covered forcing house, and of course the next is the
forcing house constructed of large-sized glass, on the most
advanced modern ideas.

This little book will be divided into three parts. The
first part will explain the several steps or stages by which
the single sash, in a natural way, grows into the great glass
structure which converts winter into summer. ‘The second
part will enumerate the more important winter crops, and
give directions for their culture. The third part will be
devoted to the winter crops of minor importance; crops
9

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SSS SSS SS STE

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10 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

which in certain favored localities may become of major
importance.

The sash will always have its place in the economy of
the garden; a place which the forcing houses cannot fully
supply. Itis the duty of the sash to render small services
to many people, while the forcing house renders large services
to a few people. The sash is everybody’s helper.

I look upon the pleasure which we take in a garden as
one of the most innocent delights of human life.—Addzson.

CHAPTER II.

COLD FRAMES, ‘‘ BOXES’’ OR ‘‘STRINGS.’’

A cold frame is merely a glass-covered garden. The
sides are of boards. The top is made of one or more mov-
able sashes. The soil ought to be very rich. An ordinary
sash covers eighteen square feet of ground space, being
about 6 x 3 feet in dimensions. Sashes seven or eight feet
long can be obtained, and are sometimes used, but the six-
foot size is most convenient.

Many plants perish from the effects of frost. Others,
including both vegetables and flowers, are not injured by
severe freezing. Their growth is checked, but their vitality
is not impaired.

The function of the cold frame sash is to ward off cold
winds, to keep the ground clear of snow, and in the spring to
increase the feeble heat of the slanting sunbeams, and thus
to foster plant growth. The ground will freeze solid in the
cold frames in winter, but to a less depth than in the open
garden.

The construction of the cold frame or ‘‘box’’ is simple.
For a single sash four boards are required, but for a range of
sashes the necessary lumber is less in proportion. The sash
can be bought from the seedsman ; the frame must be made
by a carpenter, so as to accommodate the requisite number of

sashes.
i

12 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

In private gardens a more elaborate frame or ‘‘ box’’ is
usually made. In addition to the four boards absolutely
demanded for the sides and ends a six-foot board is cut diag-
onally, and used upon the sides, with a six-inch strip across
the top. This provides for a six-inch pitch to the glass. The
same frame, made deeper, is used for amateur hot beds. The
market gardener, operating on a large scale, constructs his
‘boxes ’’ more cheaply, as will be explained.

A ‘Box.’

A Walk or Alley. A “Box.”

THE ‘‘BOXES’’ AT REST.

The summer picture entitled, ‘‘ The ‘Boxes’ at Rest,”
is from a photograph of the grounds of a Philadelphia mar-
ket gardener. It shows how the boards are set and how
supported. Ordinary inch boards, free from knots, are used.
In the centre of the picture we look into a path or alley
planted with radishes. The ‘‘ boxes’’ on each side con-
tain celery—a single row in each ‘‘box’’ or frame. The
alley is about four feet wide; the ‘‘ boxes’’ or frames six
feet wide, to be covered by six-foot sashes. The small posts

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 13

with beveled tops supporting the upright boards are set in
the walk or alley, in order to utilize every square inch of
under-glass space in the bed.

The gardener ‘‘rests’’ his frames in summer by strip-
ping them of their glass and changing their crops. No idle
days are allowed them. No weeds are permitted to grow
in them. They must get along without any summer holi-
days. Even the alleys are cropped.

The picture shows how easy it is to work the ‘‘ boxes ”’
and alleys by horse power. It is only necessary to remove
the ends of the ‘‘boxes,’’ and the horse may be driven
through, as no cross bars are used, as was formerly the
custom.

In the spring the horse aids in preparing the ground for
the open-air crops, and in the autumn in getting ready for
winter. Ofcourse the horse cannot be used in cultural oper-
ations while crops are in the frames.

It will be understood that the words ‘‘frames’’ and
‘“boxes’’ are synonymous. The Philadelphia market gar-
dener employs the latter term. The Boston gardener calls
them ‘‘strings,”’

It is not uncommon for gardeners to take care of two or
three thousand sashes. The Budlong people, near Provi-
dence, Rhode Island, operate ten thousand sashes. Miles
of them! And all are protected on the north side by high
wooden fences.

A PHILADELPHIA WINTER GARDEN. In the northern
part of Philadelphia, on Richmond street, John Davis oper-
ates about two thousand sashes. His ‘‘boxes’’ occupy
a rectangular space which is wholly surrounded by a high
board fence, which serves to break the force of the wind.
His frames are built in the most simple manner ; simply two
lines of boards set on their edges, one line being twelve
inches high and the other six inches high. There is a six-
foot connecting board at each end of the ‘* box,’’ of course.

14 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

This picture shows how Mr. Davis’ sashes are stored
for the summer. They are neatly piled up against one of the
fences or wind breaks by which his ‘‘ boxes’’ are surrounded,
and are covered with lids (shutters) or boards as a protection
against wind and hail.

SUMMER STORAGE OF SASHES.

WorTHY OF MorE ATTENTION. ‘The cold frame is
worthy of much wider attention than it to-day enjoys. It is
suited to the needs of the farmer, who seeks to add to his
marketable products or to better his food supply. It is indis-
pensable to the gardener, who must prolong his autumn
cropping season and hasten the coming of spring. It is a
way open and available to people who ‘‘ want to make a
little money.’’ It is a necessity to the flower lover, since it
will carry so many things safely through the winter, to say
nothing of its early spring violets, pansies and daisies.

It will yield herbs and salads in variety in early spring,
and hasten the starting of the summer crops. Few people,

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 15

indeed, have ever fully developed the possibilities of pleasure
and profit possessed by an ordinary, glass-covered cold frame.

AVAILABLE Crops. The cold frame is adapted to quite
a long list of hardy or half-hardy things, as will be hereafter
discussed in more or less detail. Of the twenty-four ‘‘crops’’
mentioned in this book all except seven are distinctly suited
to cold-frame culture, and all of the exceptions (omitting
mushrooms) may be started in the frames in the spring of
the year, and hastened on their way toward maturity by the
kindly influence of the glass.

REQUISITES AND HELpPs. In addition to the sash and
the frame upon which it rests there are several requisites for
success in cold frame operations. The soil of the bed must
be of the right character; rich, easily worked and well
drained. Rotted sod is the best known basis for such a soil,
and a big heap of sod ought, therefore, to be kept always on
hand in a convenient place. Properly stacked up and made
compact, such a heap will slowly decompose into soil of ideal
fineness and quality. The heap ought to be once turned
(a few months after it is made). It will need no further
attention until wanted for use in the frames or for hot beds.

The culturist need never be afraid of too much manure,
provided it is well prepared ; that is, stacked, heated, turned
and rotted down into a short, fine, sweet condition. In
theory it is a loss to permit the ammonia of fermenting
manure to escape into the air, but in practice it pays hand-
somely to have manure that is at once available for plant
food. It is better to lose a little ammonia than a great deal
of precious time; and it is well to remember that rotted
manure is the best plant food known to the market gardeners,
whose profits depend upon quickly grown crops.

WinpD BREAKS. The gardener must not neglect to pro-
vide a wind break. ‘The owner of a small lot of sashes can

16 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

usually find a suitably sheltered place for them on the south-
ern side of buildings or shrubbery, but the extensive operator
always builds a board fence to shield his glass from the north
and west winds. See the remarks on this subject elsewhere,
in connection with the cold frame culture of lettuce. To
shut off the cold winds is an important matter. Do not
neglect it.

CHANGE OF SOIL. It is a matter of common observa-
tion that new structures (frames and greenhouses) are usu-
ally free from disease. This means that disease germs are
not likely to be present in new and clean places. Hence, it
is strongly advised that the soil of the cold frame, for a
depth of several inches, be changed every year. We believe
the labor and expense are warranted, whether there is dis-
ease in the soil or not. There are expert operators, to be
sure, who do not change the soil and who succeed. But mil-
dew and other diseases are far more prevalent where the
same soil is used year after year. Summer cultivation of the
frames, in vogue among large operators, is the next best
thing to changing the soil.

CARE OF FRAMES IN WINTER. Instead of laying
down fixed rules for the management of cold frames in win-
ter it is deemed best to refer the reader to the chapter on
lettuce culture, which treats the subject in a definite manner.
The principal thing to bear in mind is that ventilation must
be given every day during winter when the sun shines, and
even in cloudy weather when the ground under the glass is
unfrozen or likely to thaw. Over ventilation seldom does
harm to hardy plants, while under ventilation is almost cer-
tain to be followed by weakness and disease.

A shutter made of light boards, called a ‘‘lid’’ by Phil-
adelphia market gardeners, may be used at night upon
sashes in winter if desired, but the shutter is more commonly
employed in connection with hot bed work. For a design

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 17

for a good and cheap shutter or ‘“‘lid’’ see the cover of this
book, the illustration being made from a photograph. Use
half-inch boards, including the cleats.

It is not imperative to cover the sashes with shutters or
mats at night during cold weather. Most large gardeners
do not do so. Nevertheless, it will pay small operators to
thus protect their frames, for the protection hastens spring
growth. ‘

If free and regular ventilation be given to the winter
crops the sashes may be removed in March and used for
other purposes; even for hot beds, if desired. Crops on
which shutters have been used at night must not be exposed
to the weather too early.

FALL AND SPRING MANAGEMENT. ‘The hoe may be
used both spring and fall among the plants in the cold frames.
A small bladed hoe is necessary for the purpose. Watering
will be needed just after the plants are set out, and some-
times in the spring, but not in mid-winter, though it is
always good practice to strip the frames of their sashes
during warm rains.

CoLD FRAME ‘‘RoTaTIONs.’’ Here are four cold frame
‘‘rotations’’ practiced by Philadelphia market gardeners :

Spinach, sowed about September 15, cut at Christmas ;
radishes, sowed in February, pulled in April; bush beans,
sowed in April.

Corn salad, sowed about September 15, cut at Christ-
mas ; radishes, sowed in February, followed by beans,

Lettuce, sowed about September 15, cut in April and
May, followed by beans.

Spinach, sowed about September 15, cut at Christmas ;
lettuce (plants from the seed bed or seed) in February, fol-
lowed by beans. Beets are frequently sowed in February,
and other crop arrangements are possible.

18 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

SEED SOWING IN FEBRUARY. The working of soil
under glass in February (without heat) is possible or impos-
sible according to its quality. A stiff clay at that season of
the year is certain to be wet, heavy and unfit for any kind
of manipulation, while a well-drained, sandy soil (if not
frozen) will be loose and friable.

Philadelphia gardeners enjoy a mellow, sandy loam,
containing some gravel, the natural soil favoring early spring
operations under glass without artificial heat.

In parts of the country where the soil is of a different
nature, by reason of excess of clay, it is necessary to prepare
beds and borders in advance, if early spring operations are
contemplated. This can be done by drainage and by the use
of sand, woods earth, rotted sod, well-rotted manure, &c.,
&c., worked up and incorporated so as to make a rich, light
medium. Such a medium, when not actually frozen, is sure
to be mellow. Litter may be employed as a mulch to pre-
vent the deep freezing of ground not in use during January.

PRICES AND PROFITS. On a large scale the gross
annual receipts from each sash may be set down (under
present prices) at ¢1 to $2.

On a basis of a half-dozen sashes it is provable that
something like the following, per sash, .could be done: 50
heads of lettuce at 5 cents, retail, $2.50; cucumbers, started
under glass, $1.00; beans or celery, 50 cents. Total $4.

Or, if violets or pansies are sown, larger results can be
obtained, if near a market. Pansies potted and in bloom
sell well in the early spring. Violets in cold frames will
bloom delightfully in winter, especially as the days lengthen.

The price of a so-called six-foot sash, glazed and painted,
free on cars at Philadelphia, is now (1896) about $2.10.
Anybody can figure out the cost of the boards needed to
make a cold frame or hot bed. A six-foot sash, sometimes
called a ‘‘ three-by-six ’’ sash, is 38 x 72 inches in size.

CHAPTER III.

THE HOT BED.

The hot bed is
merely a modified cold
\ frame; an improved
\ < cold frame; a heated

\SSES\ cold frame, if the con-
SAU tradiction be pardona-
ble. The same pattern
of sash is employed,
but the board sides of
the frame are either higher above ground or deeper below
ground. Hot beds are not often made in long ranges like
cold frames, as the forcing house is more economical for large
operations, as will be explained hereafter. The hot bed will,
however, always have a place in private gardens. d

It will be observed that the board sides of the hot bed
are planned for depth ; for holding a considerable quantity of
manure underneath the soil. It is sometimes recommended
that the manure be two or two and a half feet deep: we
believe that one foot of properly prepared manure, well
tramped, is quite sufficient. Thus, if we have one foot of
manure, four inches of soil, and eight inches of air, the box
must be made two feet deep. In filling the bed it is well to
put in fifteen inches of manure, as it will speedily settle to
twelve inches, and will leave just about enough air space
under the glass.

The hot bed is usually made ready in February or
March, in the latitude of Philadelphia. It is well to sink
the box into the earth for half its depth, and heap the earth
up against the boards on the outside, as a protection against
cold winds. Hot beds may be made up in December and

19

20 DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

operated all winter, if desired ; but they require close atten-
tion in the colder months.

PREPARATION OF MANuRE. Do not adopt the rough-
and-ready plan of taking the manure direct from the stable
or shed in cold weather. On the contrary, it is far better to
collect the requisite amount and make it into a compact heap.
Use the watering pot, so that it may be made uniformly
damp, or even wet. Do not, however, make the heap soggy
with water. In a few days an active fermentation will be in
progress, when the heap should be turned, shaking out all
lumps, working long straw into the centre of the new pile,
and again using water, if necessary.

The aim is to induce an active and uniform fermentation
of the whole mass, and to make this fermentation so active
that it will continue after the soil is put upon the bed. A
well-made hot bed will maintain a regular soil warmth for
weeks, while a poorly made bed will be warm in spots and
cold elsewhere.

We are aware that some gardeners take manure direct
from the stables, and make a hot bed on short notice, putting
on the soil almost immediately, and planting seeds without
delay. Everybody knows that a pile of fresh manure will
set up an active fermentaton, without any care or preparation
whatever, and the expert gardener simply takes advantage
of this fact. Still, the plan of carefully stacking and turning
the manure, adding water if necessary, is a better and safer
one for the amateur gardener. A cold, hfeless bed in mid-
winter is not desirable, and hence the above advice. Care in
detail does not cost much, and insures results. It is some
trouble to make a hot bed properly, but it is the cheapest
way in the end.

SoIL, VENTILATION, &c. Use the same soil as for
cold frames—clean, well-rotted sod. Pass it through a coarse
screen, or trust to a fine rake, as you please. After tramping
the prepared manure firmly in the hot bed, cover it with at

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 21

least four inches of soil, and put on the sashes. Place a
thermometer in the bed, and await results. In the course of
two or three days the beds may be trusted with seeds. The
thermometer ought not to register much over 70° ; if the heat
is greater it is better to delay matters for a few days.

There is a possibility of burning the seeds by putting
them too soon in a new hot bed, especially if the sun shines
upon the closed sashes. ‘The beds must be aired even before

-A SASH, A SHUTTER AND A GARDENER’S DAUGHTER.

the young plants appear above ground. ‘The seeds may rot
in the ground if over-heated. It is necessary to air the beds
slightly from the start, even in cool weather; and to give
more and more air as the plants increase in size and as the
season advances.

There ought to be a thermometer kept in the hot bed,
and the day heat not allowed to get above 70 degrees. The
night heat ought not to fall below 50 degrees. Shutters,
mats, carpets or litter will make it easy to keep young plants
warin at night.

22 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

WHAT MAY BE GRowN. There is scarcely a limit to
hot bed possibilities in the way of starting plants in the early
spring. Seeds of all the tender vegetables and flowers may
be entrusted to the gentle heat of the hot bed soil in March ;
and even in February, under proper care. ‘The length of the
March day, however, is much more conducive to plant growth
than the earlier season, and for most purposes the March hot
bed will be found quite sufficient in this latitude. March 15
is early enough to sow the seeds of all the usual bedding
plants and flowers, provided the glass is well managed. A
quick growth is preferable, and this can be secured by sowing
seed at this season, with its rapidly increasing daylight.

Remember that to have all things in readiness to sow
seeds March 15 the hot bed must be made up before that
date. Preparations must begin in February, for it will
require not less than two weeks in the winter time to get the
manure in prime order.

THE PLEASURE OF It. Aside from the profit of the
hot bed (which is considerable) there is a keen pleasure to all
real gardeners in thus calling the earth into activity before
winter is over. Even the steaming manure is highly sug-
gestive of healthy vegetable growth; and after the manure
has been hidden by the heavy coat of dark brown soil we
have at our command a veritable spring garden, in which our
choicest seeds may be trusted.

The quick response of the seeds to the warmth and
moisture, the bright green of the young plants, and their
rapid growth from day to day, call for our admiration and
make us rejoice, whether we are gardening for fun or for
business.

IMPORTANT DETAILS. After the seeds are well started
they must be transplanted or pricked out, an operation
necessary in all hot bed work, if we want best results. The
young plants have grown too closely and too rapidly to be-

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 23

strong. They must be taken from the seed rows, separated
from each other, and replanted in suitable quarters. The
hardy ones can go to the cold frames, while the more tender
sorts must still have the gentle bottom heat of the hot bed.
Some gardeners transplant even radishes, though others do
not, saying that the practice makes too many fibrous roots.

It is at transplanting time that the gardener wishes for
expansion, for more sashes. He finds himself with a host of
little plants, all demanding elbow room, and he sees that the
coming of spring will create a market for just such healthy
plants. ‘The cropping season out-of-doors can be hastened by
the use of well-started things like these, and the neighbors
are certain to want plants for their gardens.

It is the same with the flower seeds. The young plants
ought to be reset in more ample quarters, so that they can
have root expansion, and make a more hardy and stocky
growth than was possible in the crowded seed row.

The hot bed is the second step in the art of growing
vegetables during twelve months of the year. Its economy,
from a financial standpoint, is in working the frames to their
fullest capacity, following one crop immediately with another.

In the autumn, as heretofore intimated, we may if we
please set the hot beds again to work in forcing winter
crops, and may produce lettuce, radishes, &c., even in Janu-
ary, at a time when high prices prevail.

Handsome profits reward success in winter gardening.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ‘‘ FIRE BED.”’

There is a device or structure used in southern New
Jersey to a limited extent (and perhaps elsewhere) known as
the fire bed or hot air bed. Fire takes the place of ferment-
ing manure, and yet it is different from a greenhouse.

It is not in wide or general favor, but is well adapted to
certain purposes, as for instance for starting sweet potato
plants in early spring. :

The fire bed consists, essentially, of a broad bed of earth
with fire beneath it, and with a covering of muslin or glass.
A crosswise section of the bed is shown in the smaller cut
and a-lengthwise section in the large cut. The cuts, with a
descriptive article, appeared in farm Journal for March,
1886.

TIVM LNOH4

ASHES
LDL

Cross SECTION. LENGTHWISE SECTION OF
FIRE BED.

The larger cut shows the relative position of the furnace
to the bed. The ash pit is several feet below the natural
surface of the ground. The front wall must be of brick or
stone, but the wall at the opposite end of the bed may be of
wood, if desired. ‘There is an arch over the fire, and another
over the hot air chamber, with earth above, as shown. The
hot air flue, which is also the smoke flue, is carried grad-

24

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 25

ually upward until it reaches the air space which is under
the entire seed bed. Out of the open space beneath the bed,
at the end opposite the fire, there is a square wooden chim-
ney made of boards, which carries off the smoke and the
other products of combustion.

The arrangement of earth, as shown in the cut, prevents
the heat in the seed bed from being excessive at the furnace
end. The terra cotta or brick flue leading from the fire ter-
minates several feet from the lower end of the wooden chim-
ney, at a point perhaps fifty feet from the fire.

The chimney is twelve to sixteen feet high, and the bed
itself is say twelve feet wide and sixty feet long. For such
a bed the furnace must be about four feet deep, two feet high
and eighteen inches wide. An eight inch terra cotta flue
would answer for such a furnace.

The seed bed is supported by sleepers thrown across,
four feet apart, on which boards are laid. The bed is a foot
deep over the fire, and six or eight inches deep at the chim-
ney end.

The small_cut shows the manner in which either glass or
cloth may be used to cover the bed.

Many such beds are to be seen on the New Jersey side
of the Delaware river, not far south of Philadelphia ; but, as
already stated, their use is confined to certain localities.

The love of the thing: that is the key to success in any
line of work. It is nowhere more true than in horticulture.

CHAPTER V.

FROM FRAME TO FORCING HOUSE.

The next step upward in the art of winter gardening,
when cold frames and hot beds no longer fully meet the
requirements of the cultivator, is the construction of a steam-
heated or water-heated forcing house, using the same or
similar sashes as those employed on the frames and hot beds.

The advantage of the sash-covered house (as compared
to frames) is that it enables the gardener to work under

INTERIOR VIEW OF LOUIS REICHNER’S SASH-COVERED FORCING HOUSE,
PHILADELPHIA, SHOWING CAULIFLOWER AND RADISH CROPS.

cover; that he can reach his plants without exposing them
to the weather ; and that the temperature can be better con-
trolled. The element of economy is also to be considered, for
while the sashes will cover no more ground space on a forc-
ing house than they formerly covered on the frames, yet a
more rapid crop rotation can be secured by the greenhouse,
as compared to the more primitive plan, and the gardener’s

26

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 27

time is used to better advantage, since there is no period of
enforced idleness in the winter season, nor is time sacrificed
in lifting and shifting the sashes, the shutters, &c.

We present in this chapter several illustrations of the
sash-covered forcing house—a most useful structure. Such
a house is exactly adapted to the needs of the progressive
gardener who has begun in a small way and who has accu-
mulated a considerable number of sashes. It is the connect-
ing link between the old way and the new way, and is now
much used here and in New England. Methods everywhere
are undergoing a rapid change.

On some of the largest market farms near Boston will
now (1896) be seen extensive sash-covered houses for forcing
vegetables. The owners have been impressed by the better
economy of the large greenhouse as compared with ‘‘strings’’
(cold frames), and have taken this method of turning to
account their otherwise out-of-date glass.

The several illustrations for this chapter are from photo-
graphs of Philadelphia establishments, and are suited to the
requirements of this latitude.

By reference to the interior view of Mr. Reichner’s house
it will be seen how the sashes are laid on to form the roof.
The construction of the house is also shown in part, and it is
easy to realize that the glass roof can be wholly removed.

The peak or highest part of the roof is not much more
than six feet above the surface of the middle bed, and the
‘‘square’’ of the house is about two feet above the ground.
The permanent glass sides in Mr. Reichner’s house are 24
inches high ; in Mr. Esher’s house 20 inches high.

The beds are made directly upon the ground, three in
number, separated by sunken walks, a little over a foot in
width at the top, and a foot in depth.

The soil of the beds is held in place by

ee | ee ie boards, and the boards along the walks are
supported by iron braces, of the shape shown

28 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

in the cut. The brace is made of flat iron, stiff enough to
support the strain upon it. Each of its three parts is one
foot in length, but its upper ends are fourteen inches apart.

The economy of space secured by these sunken walks is
obvious. In Mr. Esher’s house the distance from the bottom
of the sunken walk to the sash above is 5 feet 5 inches, which
requires a man to stoop slightly in going from place to place.

The house being so low there is no loss of fuel in heat-
ing it, and as there are no raised beds there is no staging to
be kept in repair.

3

SUMMER VIEW OF SASH-COVERED FORCING HOUSE OF JOHN C. ESHER,
AT COLLINGSWOOD, N. J.

THE CONSTRUCTION. Mr. Esher has a number of sash-
covered houses for forcing vegetables, all built ‘upon the
same general plan. A partial description of one of them will
serve to illustrate how all are constructed. The picture will
aid in giving an idea of the framework.

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 29

As there are two rows of sashes on each side of the
house there must be five lines of support, the peak or ridge
piece serving for two lines of sashes. These five lines are
permanent. The outer lines, forming the sides of the house,
are of wood, resting upon wood, with glass below. The
interior ones rest upon iron pipe posts, which are strong and
yet light, occupying but little room.

Each of the two hundred (or more) sashes required to
cover one of Mr. Esher’s houses is 7 feet long by 3% feet
wide, glazed with 10 x 12 panes.

Each sash when on the house is held in place by two
screw bolts. These bolts pass through the sash, take hold
of the wood beneath easily, have square heads and can be
removed with little trouble.

Provision is made for ventilation by making every third
sash of the upper row, on each side of the house, movable at
its lower end. This admits fresh air immediately over the
walks on both sides of the house.

The joints of the sashes are covered with weather strips
to keep out the cold, and along the peak of the entire roof
where the sashes come together there is nailed a strip of felt
or tarred paper, which effectually turns the rain and snow.
The paper is tacked in place with circular tin roofing buttons.

THE VENTILATORS. Sometimes the sash to be used for
a ventilator is simply hinged to the opposite sash, at the
upper end. This permits the lower end of the sash to be
raised at pleasure. Mr. Esher has what he thinks is a better
plan. He takes two pieces of hoop iron, each a foot in
length. In each piece five holes are drilled. Through the
middle of each piece a six-inch wood bolt is passed, and
driven part way into the top of the ridge piece of the green-
house.

In summer time, when the houses are not in use, these
bits of hoop iron still remain in pairs (a sash’s width apart)

30 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

on the top of the ridge piece. In the autumn, when the
sashes are put on, the opposing sashes come together at
these points, and wood screws (screw bolts) fasten the hoop
iron strips to the styles (wooden bars forming the sides of the
sash). Hence, upon completion of the work, each venti-
lating sash is held in place at the upper end by two strips of
hoop iron (instead of hinges). This thin iron is flexible, and
is in all respects as good as a hinge, and does not rust out
like a hinge. ‘The lower end of the sash is lifted exactly as
in the case where hinges are used. The ends of the styles,
at the top, are beveled, so as to make the opposing sashes fit
closely together.

le
|

LOUIS REICHNER’S FORCING HOUSE.

A further illustration of how the movable sashes are set
on the framework of the house is shown in the summer-time
picture of one of Louis Reichner’s houses, at Belmont avenue
and Ford road, Philadelphia.

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 31

A great advantage of such houses as these, in addition
to points already noted, is the ease with which they can be
thrown open to the weather in summer. Mr. Esher, for
instance, grew a crop of celery (close planted so as to be self-
bleaching) in the beds of his forcing house during the sum-
mer of 1896; and another user of such a house testifies that
stripping the house of its glass in the summer makes it safe
to employ the same soil for at least two years, whereas in
a near-by house that is permanently covered with glass he
finds it necessary to change the soil every year in order to
escape disease.

The two gardeners referred to in this chapter (Messrs.
Esher and Reichner) are both located within convenient reach
of the great wholesale markets of Philadelphia. Their prin-
cipal crops are radishes, lettuce, cauliflower, beets, water
cress, mint, &c. They also grow rhubarb in the winter sea-
son, but in greenhouses of a different pattern, having plat-
forms or staging under which the rhubarb roots are placed.

THE SUCCESSION OF Crops. In the sash-covered forc-
ing houses just described the winter’s work begins in Sep-
tember, from the 15th to the 2oth, before the glass is put on.
The beds are made ready and sowed with Cardinal Globe
and White Box radish. Lettuce seed is started in an outside
bed, and brought into the houses later. Water Cress (Dreer’s
Erfurt) is sowed in October, and Snow Storm cauliflower
about the first of November.

For cultural directions concerning these and other win-
ter vegetables the reader is referred to the subsequent pages
of this book, where each is briefly treated under its respec-
tive name.

Mr. Esher’s main reliance is the radish, of which he
expects three crops always, and sometimes gets four crops.

Houses of this description are particularly adapted to the
radish, lettuce, beet and cauliflower, and are recommended
to gardeners whose markets demand any of these crops.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GREAT MODERN FORCING HOUSES.

There are but few larger glass houses in the world than
the one-acre structures at the Dreer grounds, at Riverton,
New Jersey, and it is, therefore, not out of place for a book
with the Dreer imprint to speak with some authority upon
methods of turning winter into summer.

These glass houses at Riverton, however, are not used for
the commercial production of winter vegetables, and so we

Sea a GIP ee ss cedar

, rbrorby Ne : or Noe

VEGETABLE FORCING HOUSES OF W. L. ALLEN, AT ARLINGTON,
MASSACHUSETTS.

have looked towards Boston for types of the best and largest
American forcing houses, and for the best methods of growing
vegetables for market in the winter season.

It is one thing to grow things under glass, regardless of
cost, and another to show a clear and satisfactory balance of
receipts above expenses. The Yankee grows vegetables on
business principles, rather than for sentiment or luxury, and
as his houses are among the best to be found in this country

we have turned our camera in his direction.
32

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 33

A Pennsylvania or New Jersey trucker, visiting New
England, is surprised at the number and size of the vegeta-
ble forcing houses to be seen at Arlington, Belmont and
other suburbs of Boston, near Providence, Rhode Island, and
elsewhere. The largest of the Rawson greenhouses, at Ar-
lington, attains to the great size of 50 by 4oo feet, with panes
of glass 20 by 30 inches in dimensions.

Many establishments in the same neighborhood have
houses almost as extensive. John S. Crosby, William H.
Allen, D. L. Tappan and others have very large under-glass

SMALL DOORS IN NORTH SIDE OF BOSTON FORCING HOUSE.

establishments at Arlington ; and the Hittinger Brothers, at
Belmont, have a place that is a model in all recent green-
house appliances. These people and their neighbors grow
acres of lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, &c., in the winter time
and exchange their products for bank accounts.

The illustrations show the general plan of construction
of the New England vegetable greenhouse. The beds are
made upon the ground, and the soil (in most of the houses)
is changed or ‘‘shifted’’ every year, wholly or in part. The
method of using the forcing house to best advantage, in point

34 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

of economy of time, is explained in the chapters on lettuce
and cucumbers.

A great help in the matter of changing the soil of these
great houses is the small door on the north side of the house,
as herewith shown. A line of these doors extends from end
to end of the forcing house, being cut through the double
wall of boards on the cold side of the building. The doors
are, of course, permanently closed during the winter.

GLASS DOORS OR VENTILATORS, NEAR GROUND, ON WARM SIDE OF
BOSTON FORCING HOUSE.

‘

On the southern side of the house, below the ‘‘square”’
or pitch of glass, a number of glass doors or ventilators are
placed. ‘These doors or gldss windows swing outward, being
hinged on their upper edges, and are used during any time
of the year, whenever required by the temperature of the
house. ‘These ventilators, in connection with others at the
peak of the glass roof, aid in producing a perfect circulation
of air above the plants growing inthe beds. The ventilating

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. * 35

glass window, on the south side of the house, is frequently
hinged on the lower edge, and made to swing inward.

The first cost of the modern forcing house is not as great
as formerly, though it is still considerable. Its use is fully
warranted for commercial operations, and it is likely to
become increasingly common in all parts of the country.

Winter gardening throughout the United States must ~
increase under to-day’s conditions. The under-glass crops
are all ‘‘ money crops.”’

CHAPTER VII.

A WINTER WORK ROOM.

Here is a suggestion for a
aarroem|! winter work room; a place for
WASH BOR Box doing all the laborious details of

Qaonse “getting ready for market.’’ It
is from one of our 1896 note books,
and is an almost exact copy of the
‘“wash room’’ of John S. Crosby,
of Arlington, Massachusetts. Mr.
\I Crosby is entitled to the merit of
. its simple and convenient details.
Everybody in the market
gardening business knows the
vast amount of labor involved in washing, bunching and
preparing stuff for market at all seasons of the year, and
that this work in winter is often painfully cold and altogether
disagreeable.

The above work room or ‘‘ wash room” is a model of
comfort and convenience, and its best feature is its simplicity.
It is not expensively built, yet every detail seems perfect.

Numerous windows admit light by day, and electricity
furnishes illumination by night. The boiler and its pipes
keep the place comfortably warm.

The floor of the wash room, which is of cement, is raised
say two feet above the level of the ground outside the
building.

Large doors open for the reception of the market wagon,
which stands below the level of the wash room floor. The
doors close with the wagon on the inside.

36

)

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 37

The washing trough (about 4 by 10 feet in size) is divided
in the middle, so that one portion can be emptied while the
other is full of water. The water is drawn directly from
spigots, and escapes immediately under the washing box.
The floor slopes so that all drainage is toward this spot.

In one corner there is a wooden platform, raised a few
inches, for the storage of crates, boxes and baskets. The
tables for bunching can be placed in the centre of the room
or in any other desired position. Stairs lead to an over-head
apartment, as shown in the left of the cut.

This wash room, as intimated above, has the charm of
cheerfulness. It is built on business lines for business pur-
poses, and is calculated to rid the gardener’s business of the
unpleasant winter work of former days. It will be noticed
that the market wagon can be loaded in the same apartment
in which all the work of washing and tying is done; and, if
necessary, the wagon can be safely locked up in this place
at night.

Its well graded cement floor and the arrangement for
bringing in the market wagon are especially worthy of notice.
The stuff to be made ready for sale can be brought into the
room from the front or the rear, as may be most convenient,
as there is a door on each side of the building.

ne

American horticulture has reached a stage where profits
depend upon doing things well.

CHAPTER VIII.

BORDER WORK AND IRRIGATION.

It is rather difficult to define the meaning of the word
‘‘border,’’ as used by American gardeners, since the term is
somewhat elastic in its application.

In general it may be said to mean any small piece of
ground exposed to the air and sun which is not a part of the
open field. It is not glass-covered, and it is usually sheltered
by a building, fence, wall or hedge, so that it cannot be
swept by cold winds. The north and west are the direc-
tions from whence come the cold, drying winds of February
and March; winds which cause so much destruction to the
canes of raspberries, blackberries and the like, and which
are really more hostile to vegetable life than severe cold itself.

A border, therefore, may be described as a piece of warm,
sheltered, out-of-doors soil. The richer the soil the better
for its purpose. It may be so small as to be worked with
the spade, or so large as to require the plow.

The ordinary border is merely a small, warm, sunny bit
of rich, dark mould, which dries off quickly in spring by
reason of its location, its good drainage, and its exposure to
the sun.

On the other hand, we see some quite extensive borders
in the fence protected enclosures of the large market gardeners.

Border work is so intimately associated with under glass
operations that the subject must be mentioned in this little
book. Part of the work of the cold frame and most of the
work of the ordinary hot bed is done with a view to spring
operations in the open air; and as every day in early spring
counts for so much it is necessary to join the glass work and
the open air work as closely as possible. The border is the

connecting link.
38

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 39

In addition to its spring-time usefulness the border ought
to carry many things safely through the winter months,
the plants being protected only by straw, salt hay or other
litter. Lettuce plants will go through the winter without
harm. Onions planted in October will yield early shoots or
““scullions.’’ Spinach will be ready for the earliest market ;
it can be cut, in fact, all winter, during mild days. And
there are many other purposes for which the border is pecu-
liarly adapted. Of course this part of the garden is to be as
rich as well-rotted manure will make it. A two-inch coat of
manure ought to be dug under previous to every crop, and a
complete fertilizer also used as a stimulant of rapid growth.

This excessive manuring is entirely safe where plenty of
water can be used. . And thus we come to consider the sub-
ject of irrigation.

The border must be frequently and thoroughly watered
in the spring of the year. It must be planted to its utmost
capacity, cultivated to perfection with hand hoe or wheel hoe,
and worked in all respects as intensely as the hot bed itself.
The border offers opportunity for the most concentrated forms
of out-of-doors gardening.

IRRIGATION OF BoRDERS. To take well-started plants
of beets, lettuce, &c., out of the frames in the early spring,
or to sow seeds of radish or other early market crops in the
open border, and then to have all plans frustrated by drying
winds or prolonged drought is neither satisfactory nor profit-
able. There are crops indeed (cauliflower, for instance)
which resent any interruption in their growth, and which
never fully recover from injury sustained in transplanting
into dry soil.

It is hence necessary to be prepared to irrigate the border ;
and the more thoroughly the work is done the better. Ona
small scale the watering pot will answer, but on a large scale
a rubber hose pipe is mostly employed by market gardeners.

40 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

We here present a picture of a cheap, practical and
effective scheme for watering an extensive plat or border.
The picture is drawn from a photograph made on the large,
well-kept place of the Messrs. Hittinger Brothers, at Bel-
mont, Massachusetts.

ees
ceo
4 EE oe
Yb 3

tS S|

¢
i

The essential feature of the scheme is an elevated two-
inch central pipe, running the length of the plat. It is held
up by iron posts made of pipe. A horse can pass under the
main horizontal supply pipe. The water pressure is 25 lbs.
to the square inch. At points say 18 feet apart cross pipes
extending twelve feet in both directions are inserted, as
shown in the picture. At the end of each lateral pipe is an
umbrella (revolving) sprinkler. The weight of the sprinkler
and small lateral pipe is supported by a wooden stake or pole.

At the Hittinger establishment this scheme of irrigation
covers about an acre of ground. Sixty sprinklers are

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 41

employed, and are all run at the same time. The time
required to give the ground a thorough soaking is about
thirty minutes. The amount of water used in that time is
about 15,000 gallons.

The cost of this system of irrigation is not great. The
whole acre of ground thus supplied with moisture is made
productive up to its fullest capacity, no matter how dry the
weather may be in early spring.

Lying immediately on the warm side of a great vegetable
forcing house (partly shown in the picture), with deep, rich,
mellow soil, this border was the largest and most successful
thing of the kind noted in our 1896 observations.

The economy of construction, the uniform way in which
the water is applied to every portion of the ground, and the
ease with which it is managed, are the principal points in its
favor.

No matter how careful a man may be with hose or
watering pot, he will give some parts of the ground more
water than other parts ; but a mechanical sprinkler, operating
uniformly at many points, will almost equal the clouds them-
selves in the even distribution of steadily falling drops of
water.

The supply of water for such a system of irrigation may
come from a tank, from a force-pump, or from a street main.
The plan is feasible and economical, and tends to reduce out-
of-doors gardening to an exact science.

The possibilities of pleasure in winter work under glass
are as great as the possibilities of profit.

CHAPTER IX.

INSECTS AND DISEASES.

This little book is so entirely elementary that we can
give only one brief piece of advice about plant diseases, and
that is to have none of them.

Disease seldom or never troubles plants set in fresh soil
in new frames or new houses, and this is one reason why
beginners so often have ‘‘ good luck’’ at the outset, to be
followed by ‘‘bad luck’’ in later years. Of course there is
in reality no “‘luck’’ about it. The beginner works with
wholesome surroundings.

The disease called ‘‘ damping off,’’ which affects many
under-glass crops, is supposed to be of fungous character.
It mostly results from bad air. Free ventilation and cleanli-
ness will usually prevent it; though it sometimes troubles
plants in the open air. It is especially common in old frames
or hot beds, near decaying boards, and in soil that has been
previously used. Its prevention is possible, in the way indi-
cated, but the death of the plant is sometimes our first notice
of its presence in the bed.

‘“‘Burning’’ of lettuce is also supposed to be a fungous
disease, the result of improper management. ‘The lettuce
decays at the heart, and is rendered worthless. Fresh soil is
the best remedy, if other conditions (including ventilation)
are not at fault.

Aphides, or plant lice, can be destroyed with tobacco
smoke or tobacco water, though it is sometimes difficult to
kill these insets on the under side of lettuce leaves. It is
well to see that the seedling plants (when transplanted) are
free from the insects. Tobacco stems may be used among

the lettuce plants.
42

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 43

In discussing this question an English authority of the
present year (Carter’s Practical Gardener, London, 1896) says
it is surprising what a great insect-enemy pure water is; but
if this fails resource must be had to something stronger.
Three or four ounces of soft soap dissolved in a gallon of
water, and half a pint of tobacco liquor added, will kill all
ordinary insects, especially if the plants are syringed with
it at a temperature of about 120°, or dipped in it. It will
not injure the plants.

Maggots trouble some cold frame vegetables, especially
radishes, onions, etc. Powdered copperas sprinkled over the
beds, before planting, is mentioned by Professor L. H. Bailey
asa preventive. Carter’s Practical Gardener (London, 1896)
recommends gardeners ‘‘to strew sufficient fresh soot over
the ground to discolor it, before drawing the drills for recep-
tion of the seed.’’

There are many fungous diseases which the gardener
must combat, but let it be remembered that all the parasitic
fungi prey upon vegetation which is not quite up to its
greatest vigor. Under proper cultivation, watering and
ventilation, the chances are always on the side of the plant
or vegetable. It is in the gardener’s neglect of the requisites
for the growth of his plants that the fungus enemy finds its
opportunity and gets in its evil work.

Of all the avenues of failure bad ventilation is probably
the one that causes most trouble; and unwholesome soil the
next in evil effects.

It is advised that thorough cleanliness be observed ;
that the sashes be washed or painted every year; that the
unpainted wood work of the frames be renewed before decay
sets in; and that the same soil be not long used in any
structure (frame or greenhouse) from which the fresh air is
permanently excluded.

To follow this advice literally may not in all cases be
possible, but we may remind our readers that perfect cleanli-

44 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

ness and perfect plant health are very closely associated.
Nature has assigned to the fungi the duty of watching perpet-
ually for cases of disobedience of health rules, and every
plant which suffers any loss of constitutional vigor is at once
attacked and destroyed. The careless gardener is thus taught
what practices to avoid in future operations.

We believe that old wood and old soil are almost certain
to produce ‘“damping off’’ of plants, even under what may
be termed good management ; and a mushroom house where
the boards are decayed is quite sure to produce unsound
mushrooms. In the latter case we have an instance of a
fungus preying upon a fungus. Perpetual motion seems to
be nature’slaw. When a plant ceases to grow it is destroyed.

Work the lazy garden. You pay rent for it all winter,
do you not? Make it earn dividends every month of the
year.

CHAPTER X.

THE PLANTING OF THE SEED.

Seed planting in winter is quite the same operation as in
summer, and the same rule holds good, to wit: the smaller
the seed the nearer the surface. Many seeds are perfectly
hardy, while others lose their vitality when sown in cold or
wet soil. In the modern greenhouse seeds may be planted
in mid-winter, or at any other season of the year.

Lettuce, radish, cauliflower, beet, water cress, &c., may
be sown (with heat) whenever it suits the convenience of the
gardener, at intervals through the winter ;.and there are no
rigidly fixed dates for planting the seeds of beans or melons.

Tomatoes and cucumbers, being crops of prominence
and of long duration, are started, we may say, in mid-sum-
mer, and again near mid-winter.

Parsley, spinach, carrot, cabbage, corn salad, endive and
pansy have fixed planting dates, to meet special markets.

Mushrooms are grown from spawn (to be had of the
seedsmen). Onions are mostly raised from bulbs, except
where the seed is sown in spring under glass for transplanting
to the outside beds. Potatoes are multiplied exclusively
from tubers.

Asparagus, rhubarb, daisy, mint, and violets are grown
from roots for the most part.

Another classification of the winter crops enumerated in
this book may be made as follows:

Grown without heat : Spinach, cabbage plants for spring,
corn salad, endive, onion, daisy, pansy, violet. Grown with
heat: Tomato, cucumber, cauliflower, beans, melon, mush-
rooms, potato. Grown both ways: Lettuce, radish, parsley,
beets, water cress, carrots, rhubarb, asparagus, mint.

The starting point, in all cases, is in reliable seeds,
roots, &c. The planting of the seeds and their subsequent
care is a matter requiring intelligent and continued effort.

45

PART If.

THE UNDER-GLASS STAPLES.

LETTUCE, CUCUMBER,
RADISH, TOMATO.

For the second part of our little book on the culture of
winter vegetables we have selected four crops which are so
largely grown, and grown in so many places, that they may
be termed the leading under-glass staples. These four crops
will be treated more in detail than those mentioned in Part
III; albeit in some localities the things which in this book
are treated as minor crops will loom up into primary import-
ance, and will take their places as the principal money
makers. ‘The four crops here brought forward must, how-
ever, be recognized as the leaders in the eastern part of the
United States at the present time.

CHAPTER XI.

LETTUCE.

Lettuce must be regarded as the most important of all

the under-glass crops, and it is now in demand during every
46

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 47

one of the twelve months of the year. It is necessary to grow
different kinds of lettuce at different seasons, but otherwise
the succession of seed time and harvest is unbroken. The
tribe is a hardy one throughout, and yet there are kinds which
bear more freezing than others, while, on the contrary, there
are varieties which are quite able to withstand the scorching
effects of summer heat. The request for crisp, well-grown
lettuce is now answered in the markets from January to Jan-
uary.
There are at least five distinct methods of lettuce cul-
ture practiced by market gardeners, which will be briefly
described. These five methods may be called ridge culture,
cold frame culture, hot bed culture, forcing house culture
and open air culture.

RIDGE CULTURE. Ridge culture begins with the sowing
of the seed in the open ground in September. The broad-
cast method is commonly employed, and no great care is
exercised, since the object is merely to obtain strong plants
in October or early November. ‘The precaution must be
taken to ‘‘firm’’ the seed in the soil at planting time, as the
weather in September is often dry, and if the soil is not
pressed closely about the seeds there may be delay in germi-
nation. Lettuce seed as a rule starts quickly into growth.

Late in October the young plants are ready for the
ridges, which are made by running a plow in both directions
in furrows twenty inches or two feet apart. The top of the
intervening furrow is smoothed with a hand rake, and a row
of lettuce plants, eight inches apart, is set on the south side
of the ridge. Sometimes another row is set on the north side
of the ridge also. It is as the gardener may determine by
experience. The single southern row, as a rule, seems to be
more satisfactory.

The hardy nature of the lettuce plant enables it to strike
root before the coming of severe freezing weather, and after

48 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

the roots have started to grow the plants are comparatively
safe from injury. They need to be protected with salt hay
or straw during the mid-winter months, beginning in Decem-
ber, and allowing the protection to remain on the plants until
March. In spring the covering is removed, the soil stirred
with a hoe, and the lettuce plants made ready for heading,
an end which they accomplish in April or early May.

The ridge system has been and still is extensively fol-
lowed by Philadelphia market gardeners, though the tend-
eucy is toward the quicker results secured by under-glass
methods. * The object of the ridge is to get good drainage
and a kindly exposure to the sun’s rays, and these ends may
be secured in almost any garden without much trouble or
expense.

The open-air seed bed of the autumn, in which the seed
was dropped September 15, will usually carry its plants
unharmed through the winter, if protected with straw or
litter. The young plants from such a bed can be used for
mid-winter forcing or for spring planting if desired. The
advantage of the ridges, with their autumn-set plants, is
merely in the fact that they save time. The earliest warm
days start the plants to growing.

CoLD FRAME CULTURE. The next simplest way to
grow lettuce is in cold frames or ‘‘ boxes.’’ There is no arti-
ficial heat of any kind ; no bottom heat furnished by manure.
The glass protects the plants against wind and snow, and
also fosters growth to some extent even in winter time. But
during the months of December, January and February the
lettuce plants do little more than hold their own. Vet all
the time (except during excessive cold) they are adding
strength to their roots; and this is not strange when we
observe the persistence with which chickweed and other
hardy plants grow in the cold frames during the winter
months, and the apparent ease with which violets come into

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 49

bloom in the same situation while winter still holds the out-
side world. Plants appear to be dormant during winter, but
for all that many of them are actively at work, especially in
their underground portions.

Cold frame lettuce plants are commonly taken in October
from the out-of-doors seed bed sown September 15. They
are set in the sash at various distances apart, or from
seven to ten inches. ‘The old way, still followed by some
gardeners, is to put fifty plants under each sash. A system
now in vogue at Philadelphia is to plant eight by nine inches
apart. This allows for thirty-eight plantsto thesash. This
is for large lettuce, the price of which warrants the extra
space allotted to it.

This handy marker for frames and borders can be made
——— by anybody in a few minutes.

Cut it from a piece of one-inch
beard, 35 inches long and 4 inches wide. Bore a hole for
a rake handle, allowing for slant. Make the distance
between the points exactly eight inches.

Lettuce seed may be sowed in frames in February for
early spring plants. The beds are put in order, made
smooth, struck out in both directions with a marker, and a
few lettuce seeds dropped at every ‘‘hill’’ or crossing point
of the lines. After the lettuce has made a little growth all
the plants except one are removed. This method is em-
ployed at a season (in early spring) when the ground is
so cold that transplanting is difficult. As a rule, however,
we would recommend transplanting wherever possible, as it
always favors root development and better subsequent growth.

The winter treatment of cold frame lettuce is simple.
Air is given during the day and the sashes are closed at
night. This is the practice of the market gardeners. The
sashes must not be kept closed during the day when the
ground under them is thawed or likely to thaw. Moisture
under a sash will produce foul air and disease. Only when

50 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

the mercury is very low is it safe to allow the sashes to
remain closed during the day time, and even then it is a dan-
gerous thing to do if the sun shines on the glass. Free ven-
tilation is the safe rule. Snow must be removed and the
walks or alleys between the ranges of glass kept open, so
that the beds can be properly examined every day.

Watering the cold frames is not necessary in winter
time, and but seldom in the early spring.

The Philadelphia truckers and market gardeners do not,
as a rule, cover their cold frames at night with ‘‘lids”’
(shutters) or mats. Private gardeners and amateurs, on the
other hand, will find it to their advantage to do so. It
hastens the maturity of the lettuce and several days can be
gained in the crop.

The Philadelphia cultivators are, however, careful to
build high board fences on the north and northwest sides of
their glass to keep off the cold winds; and this plan is
worthy of imitation. Indeed, it is essential to success. The
height of four or five boards is sufficient here. New Yorkers
use six boards, and the Boston ‘‘ market farmers” employ
seven boards (laid sidewise) in the construction of their
screens or wind breaks. The Boston men, indeed, build a
wind fence for each row or ‘‘string’’ of frames. For in-
stance, they put up a seven-foot fence (seven boards), lean-
ing toward the north. At its base, on the sunny side, they
set the cold frames, or ‘‘boxes,’’ or ‘‘strings.’’ ‘Then they
allow a considerable space (perhaps forty feet) before build-
ing another fence so that the shadow may not fall upon the
glass in the rear. Many of these wind fences or breaks are
yet to be seen in New England, and still have their uses,
although the Yankee lettuce growers for the most part seem
to have equipped themselves with forcing houses.

Hor Bep CuLTuRE OF LETTUCE. The hot bed culture
of lettuce is not very widely practiced on a commercial scale

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 51

in the vicinity of Philadelphia, but is well suited to the needs
of small gardeners and amateurs in this latitude. The large
grower of to-day must have a forcing house, but the small
grower can do well with a few sashes, getting the necessary
heat from an underground bed of fermenting manure. For
the preparation of hot beds the reader is referred to the
chapter on that subject.

The hot bed for lettuce culture can be made ready in the
fall, or at any time during the winter. If lettuce is to be
forced during the severe weather of January and February
there must be a greater depth of manure employed in the
construction of the bed than where it is made up in March
simply for starting the seeds of bedding plants.

A depth of two feet of manure is none too much for a
mid-winter bed for forcing lettuce. A temperature of from
50° to 65° is desirable ; and fresh air must be given in the
day time, even in cold weather.

Plants can be had from the out-of-doors seed bed, or
from seedling plants in the cold frames. Such plants respond
quickly to the genial bottom-heat of the hot bed, and are
stimulated rather than stunted by the cool air which reaches
them from above when the sashes are raised.

The only reason market gardeners do not use hot beds
is that they find a better economy in forcing houses; but
the hot bed is well suited to amateurs or small gardeners, as
already stated, and the bed can be employed for a second
crop of lettuce if worked to good advantage. That is, it is
possible to take well-grown plants from the seed beds (or,
preferably, once transplanted), and quickly force them into
head in a winter hot bed. Then, by having other well-grown
plants available, a second crop can be brought forward in the
same bed before it has lost all of its bottom heat.

Forcinc Hovusz CuLture. The forcing house plan is
simply the hot bed system developed on broad lines, but it has

52 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

gone so far and become so famous that it must be separately
classified. It is the hot bed system with the manure replaced
by hot water or steam, and with the movable sashes replaced
by great glass structures of which nobody dreamed a gener-
ation ago.

Lettuce is pre-eminently the most profitable of the forc-
ing house crops, though other popular vegetables and fruits
are now rapidly coming into favor. It is lettuce, however,
to which the greatest winter acreage is given. ‘Two crops of
lettuce are always grown and sometimes three crops, and the
glass then goes to cucumbers, tomatoes, &c. But lettuce has
first place, as will be described in the paragraphs about
Boston methods.

Oren AIR CULTURE. The fifth of the great methods
of lettuce culture, the out-of-doors way, is not within the
range of this little book. In passing, it may be well to say
that lettuce may go into the open ground as soon as the soil
can be worked. Young plants ought to be ready in the
earliest spring, from seed sown in frames or from wintered-
over plants.

If the plants are set out or sowed in the open ground in
rows ten inches apart, and allowed to stand eight inches apart
in the rows, there will be room for all the necessary cultural
operations and for the subsequent development of the heads. -
The richest and mellowest soil is demanded for successful let-
tuce culture, whether under glass or in the open air.

VARIETIES. The varieties of lettuce in favor among
gardeners at this time are very numerous, and we can
merely give a few suggestions. Much depends upon soil and
situation.

For ridge culture in the neighborhood of Philadelphia
the sort that is most widely popular is the Early White Cab-
bage or White Butter. It is almost entirely hardy. Early

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 53

Dutch Butter Spotted is most used in cold frames. Big
Boston is also used for frames. Hittingers’ Belmont Forcing
is to be highly recommended for hot beds, forcing houses,
&c.; and Silver Ball has a record almost equally good. The
latter is also a good lettuce for open-air culture.

THE MarRKeET. There is an ever-increasing demand for
good lettuce. Every city, town and hamlet in the land is a
lettuce market. The demand will never cease; in fact,
it is likely to grow larger every year for many years to
come. We may therefore conclude that there will always
be ‘‘money’’ in the crop for those acquainted with the best
cultural methods.

Lettuce can be transported from place to place. It is a
good shipper, especially in the cooler months of the year.
But it is, after all, a perishable crop, which cannot be held
long or stored in any great quantities. It is, moreover, best
for table purposes when perfectly fresh. For these reasons
the small grower of lettuce will never be driven to the wall
by his greater competitor. He will always find a market
open to him.

LETTUCE CULTURE AT Boston. The lettuce growers
near Boston have achieved such wide renown on account of
their skill, and because their product stands so high in the
market, that it is well to look into their methods. Many an
envious Pennsylvanian or Jerseyman has wished for the
secret of ‘‘the Boston way’’ of growing lettuce, and more
than one attempt has been made to learn the trade secrets of
the Yankee gardeners.

Our own belief is that the New England people have no
‘trade secrets,’’ but rather that they succeed through the
excellent execution of methods already widely known. They
are aided, it is true, by a cool, moist climate, and a soil that
can be made perfect by the use of manure. They are also
blessed in being near to good home markets.

54 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

But, after all, the real success of the New England gar-
dener depends on his management of details. Nothing is too
much trouble for him, and he cannot get appliances that are
too good for him. We will presently explain the careful
details of some of his processes ; and as to his glass houses,
they are as large and as well equipped, probably, as any in
the world.

Let it not be imagined, however, that the business is
without its drawbacks, even on the coast of Massachusetts
Bay, for the Dreer note books have records (made in 1896)
of mildew and ‘“‘burn’’; and one Down-East gardener was
inclined to believe that Jersey had excelled Massachusetts in
her lettuce products in the New York markets during the
previous winter. There may be a bit of comfort to Jersey
truckers in this comment, for it goes to show a recognition
of the good quality of Jersey lettuce.

The Boston lettuce grower begins operations in his forc-
ing house in autumn on the following general plan. He first
prepares the beds by digging into them about three inches of
well-rotted horse manure. The beds are all upon the ground
(not on staging), and this amount of manure can be incorpo-
rated with the soil without much trouble. No artificial fer-
tilizer is used in the houses. (The date of beginning opera-
tions seems to be changing, with a tendency to get started
a little earlier each year.)

Six weeks before the young plants are needed for the
forcing house the lettuce seed is sown in an out-of-doors bed—
in a bed containing no manure whatever. This is to get
plants wholly free from the germs of mildew. This is a
point of great importance.

The young plants, once transplanted (3 inches each
way), are thus strong, stocky and perfectly healthy when
they reach the bed in the forcing house. They have spent
six weeks in getting ready to grow. They are now prepared
to make rapid progress in the six or seven weeks of time
allotted to them for heading.

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 55

They are set eight inches apart each way, and there is
nothing especially noteworthy about their life in the forcing
house. They are well ventilated, freely watered on bright
days, and kept at a steady temperature.

After the lettuce begins to head the temperature is kept
down to 4o° at night. In day time the temperature runs up
to 60°, but plenty of air is given.

Some New England growers now sow lettuce seed as
early as August 1. This puts plants in the forcing house
about the middle of September, and yields a crop ready for
market about November 1.

The next crop of lettuce is treated in the same way,
except that a two-inch coat of manure (instead of three) is
dug into the bed. The young plants are taken from an
in-doors seed bed. ‘The plants are, however, started in the
same manner and are as carefully transplanted and as well
rooted, so that no delay will follow their transfer to the forc-
house. They are so well developed that they can be headed
in about six or seven weeks in the large house.

The usual routine of work is to follow two crops of
lettuce with a crop of cucumbers (see chapter on cucumbers);
but there is a tendency now (1896) shown toward securing
three crops of lettuce, to be followed by cucumbers a little
later in the spring than under the ordinary way.

The details of the work done by the New England
‘‘ market farmers’’ are instructive. ‘Take, for instance, their
method of preparing manure for their forcing houses. This
manure is hauled fresh from the city stables. The long
straw is first shaken out. The manure is then brought to a
uniform condition of wetness, and is rotted by repeated
turnings. A fresh fermentation is started each time it is
turned, until finally it is short, sweet and exactly suited for
quick conversion into plant food.

There is not a detail in the whole operation of lettuce
growing in Boston that cannot be precisely duplicated in other

56 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

parts of the United States, save only the items of climate and
soil; and we believe that any one who will study the con-
struction of the New England forcing houses, the free admis-
sion of light and air, the position and treatment of the beds,
the starting and subsequent management of the plants, &c.,
can produce lettuce as successfully as they grow it at Boston.

D. L. TAPPAN’S VEGETABLE FORCING HOUSE, AT
ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LETTUCE PRICES. We can give only approximate
Winter prices for lettuce in the Philadelphia market, and
when we quote $10 down to $4 per 100 heads it will be
understood that the season and the demand are the controll-
ing influences, and that fixed prices do not exist. In the
same way cold frame lettuce may be quoted at from #6 to $3.
per 100 heads, but these prices refer to really fine stuff. Poor
lettuce goes a-begging.

At these figures there is a margin of profit on carefully
conducted operations, but there is no room in the business
for any except wide-awake, progressive workers.

Amateurs and beginners are perfectly safe with lettuce,
because the demand is unfailing and the crop reasonably cer-
tain. But when it comes to large operations, involving
heavy investments of capital, growers must of necessity do
like the Boston people in pushing for the best appliances and
most advanced methods known in modern gardening.

CHAPTER XII.

THE RADISH.

Admitting that the lettuce stands first in prominence and
profit among the under-glass vegetables, in forcing houses as
well as in frames, we feel warranted in giving second place
to the radish. This humble vegetable cannot command the
fancy prices so willingly paid in the winter season for fresh
green cucumbers and plump red tomatoes, but it far out-
scores these dainties in numerical consequence, and by sheer
abundance out-weighs them in money value.

WHITE-TIPPED SCARLET GEM RADISH.

From the Esher forcing houses (heretofore mentioned)
72,000 bunches of radishes were sent to the Philadelphia
market during one winter recently, the instance being cited
to show that there is a brisk demand in cold weather for the
green things which formerly marked the advent of spring.
Mr. Esher deserves the name of a radish specialist.

The radish is everybody’s vegetable. It is a half-hardy
thing, requiring a comparatively cool temperature for its
perfect development. It adapts itself to hot beds and forcing
houses quite well, but it objects to an over-heated forcing
house as much as to an excessively exposed cold frame. It

57

58 DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

grows too many leaves and becomes pithy in one situation,
and in the other case its growth is stunted or wholly checked,
and under severe freezing it dies. Its proper temperature is
from 40° to 65°, with plenty of fresh air.

In rich soil, with sufficient water, it is a quick cropper,
sometimes being ready for market in twenty-one days from
the seed.

Its period of sale covers the whole year, in its several
varieties, though its best season is in the winter and spring
months, when its merits as a crisp, toothsome relish cause it
to be most fully appreciated.

The seed is usually sown in the bed where it is to grow.
Such is the common practice near Philadelphia. Some of
the Yankee gardeners, however, have a different plan, for
they transplant the radish from its seed bed, just as they do
most of their crops, in order to increase the development of
the root.

The effect of transplanting anything is to check top
growth, and to encourage root growth.

Whether the practice of transplanting the radish does or
does not encourage the growth of small feeding roots to an
objectionable degree, and whether or not the expense for the
labor is warranted in the results secured, are open questions
on which we find a difference of opinion. They are points
which individual gardeners must decide for themselves.

To transplant or ‘‘prick out’’ radishes is not a slow
operation, and an expert can pass a thousand plants per
hour through his hands. It is, of course, a labor which
is to be avoided unless it pays in cash results.

It is good economy to work a winter forcing house to
its fullest capacity, saving the time of the house (whenever
possible) by doing all the seed sowing in smaller and less
expensive quarters, and even transplanting young plants
temporarily into beds less extensive and valuable than those
of the final forcing house.

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 59

Red and white varieties of radish (preferably the turnip-
rooted sorts) are used for under-glass culture. Of the reds
we know of nothing at this time superior to Cardinal Globe
and White-Tipped Scarlet Gem, although a new radish of
merit, almost leafless, has just (1896) been sent to America
from beyond the sea. It must be tested here before it can
be endorsed. White Box, of many shades of variety, is a
favorite everywhere, both under glass and in the open
garden.

In heated structures radish seed may be planted at any
season. The Philadelphia market gardeners begin to sow
radish seed in cold frames in February ; though March is a
more favorable month, on account of increased sunshine.

The long radishes require more time to mature than the
globular sorts, and are not so profitable under glass on that
account.

When not grown as a regular crop the radish is often
used as a minor or catch crop; that is, a crop to occupy the
ground during the growth of something of more importance.
They are thus grown in forcing houses, among cucumbers,
and in cold frames, between rows of carrots or beets.

Or the radish may be grown as part of a succession of
crops, as our 1896 note books indicate. There we have an
account of a market gardener who starts in early fall, gets
two crops of radishes, one of lettuce, one of tomatoes, and
one of cucumbers, making five crops in all, covering the
whole year in the operation. This work is done in a sash-
covered forcing house, where the glass is removable in mid-
summer.

The wholesale market price of radishes at Philadelphia
in winter may be quoted at $2 to $4 per 100 bunches. Of
the red sorts it requires ten or twelve to make a bunch, and
of the white sorts six or eight to a bunch.

In giving the place of second importance among winter
crops to this vegetable it must be understood that the market

60 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

as a whole is considered. There are comparatively few
gardeners who make a leading specialty of the radish, but a
very large number who use it in a small way or as a catch
crop. It is an important one as a whole because more
people are interested in it than in any other crop, possibly
excepting lettuce.

From 1000 to 1200 sashes can be worked on an acre of
ground. At the low rate of $1 per sash this means sales
amounting to $1000 or $1200 per acre.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CUCUMBER.

The cucumber is a leading crop in the greatest American
forcing houses. ‘The Boston gardeners have been getting as
high as $30 per hundred for White Spine cucumbers in
January ; and from that price down to $12 per hundred in
the later months. The New England cucumber growers
have had the Eastern markets almost wholly under their
control, for some years past, during the winter season.

END VIEW OF A GREAT FORCING HOUSE, SHOWING CUCUMBERS.

. There is a disposition now shown in this country to
grow for the winter market the long, so-called English
forcing cucumbers, of which something will hereafter be said.

61

62 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

The Boston method of growing lettuce is described in
Chapter XI, where it is mentioned that the first lettuce crop
is cut in November. The second crop of lettuce is headed
about the first of January, and the beds are then made ready
for cucumbers.

About December first cucumber seed is sown in a warm
bed; on heat, as they say. Such a bed is given bottom
heat from fermenting manure or from steam or hot water
pipes, usually the latter plan.

The young cucumber plants are pricked off twice
(sometimes three times), in order to give them good root
development; for, as we have elsewhere reminded our
readers, to transplant a seedling is to discourage its top
growth and to encourage its root growth.

The seedling cucumber plants are finally potted in five-
inch or six inch pots, and by the first of January, under
proper management, they are well started and vigorous, and
the pot is full of roots.

The White Spine cucumber, or one of its improved
forms, is the variety commonly used at Boston at this time.
Arlington White Spine is a favorite. The seed is grown in
the open air.

It will be remembered that the beds of the great New
England forcing houses are made upon the ground, and that
the soil is deep and mellow. For each of the two crops of
lettuce grown a heavy coat of well-rotted manure is used, so
that when the time comes for cucumbers the soil is well
supplied with plant food of just the kind needed by the rank
feeding roots.

But this is not enough; for previous to setting the plants
in the beds (early in January) trenches are dug from end to
end of the house, about a foot wide and a foot and a-half
deep. Not more than two or three trenches can be dug in
an ordinary house, as the vines require a great deal of space
for their proper development. From a single cucumber row

‘DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 63

the vines may be trained ten feet upward on two opposite,
sloping trellises, thus covering fully a ten-foot-wide strip of
ground space from one end of the greenhouse to the other.
A greenhouse twenty-five feet wide would therefore warrant
the digging of only two or three trenches.

Fermenting manure is placed in the trench to the depth
of ten inches, and firmly packed after the manner of making
a hot bed. Soil to the depth of eight inches is put on the
manure, and the general level of the bed restored. The
cucumber plants are dumped out of the pots and set directly
over the manure in the trenches, and a tropical temperature
is maintained in the house.

The plants are set 314 feet apart, two plants at each
point, for training in opposite directions upon the trellises.
The bottom heat furnished by the manure in the trenches,
aided by the temperature of the house itself, stimulates the
already vigorous plants into a rapid growth, and enables
them to produce blossoms and fruit in the course of a few
weeks.

The cucumber grower has no more
useful ally than the honey bee; and the
same industrious, unpaid laborer will do
good service among tomato blossoms.
Every New England gardener has one
~ or more swarms of bees, and a hive is
carried into the forcing house soon after
the cucumbers are planted, so that the

A FRIENDLY atuy Dees may be ready to visit the first
OF THE UNDEB-GLASS blossoms.

COLTOURIST. The cucumber (like other plants of
its tribe) bears two kinds of blossoms on the same vine.
One sort has stamens and the other a pistil. It is necessary
for the pollen of the former to be carried to the latter. The
work was formerly done by hand, with a camel’s hair brush,
until it was found that the same result could be obtained

64 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

more easily and cheaply through the agency of bees. The
little insects are also more certain to find and fertilize all
the cucumber blossoms than even an expert human operator.

Cucumbers demand a high temperature, as already
intimated. The house may run up to 100° in sunlight, but
ought not to fall below 60° at night, lest the plants be stunted.

The trellises are made by using A-shaped trusses of
iron or wood (V-shaped at the row, but A-shaped as to the
way the trusses or supports are constructed), reaching from
the bed nearly to the glass, with wires eight inches apart

JL”

f

A VETERAN CUCUMBER GROWER (JOHN S. CROSBY, ARLINGTON, MASS. )

running lengthwise of the house. The vines, which grow
with great rapidity, are tied to the wires with string or
raffia ; and it is no small trouble to keep the vines properly
tied up. When the work is well done the fruit can be
gathered from the under side of the trellis without difficulty.

In four or five weeks from the time the plants leave
the pots the cucumbers begin to go to market. The market
box of the Boston grower holds about ninety cucumbers.

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 65

-ENGLIsH ForcinGc CucumBers. A class or group of
cucumbers known and catalogued under this general name
is now coming into demand at Philadelphia and other cities.
Thus far the English forcing cucumbers are sold only to
what is called.the fancy trade ; that is, to people who know
the excellence of the article and have means to pay for it.

There are several growers at Philadelphia raising
English forcing cucumbers. The seed is scarce and high
in price, but this does not matter when it is realized that so
few seeds are required to supply even a large establishment.

The cucumbers of this group are very large in size,
being so long as to equal three of the common type. They
are practically seedless, and as to quality they are held in
the highest esteem by people acquainted with them.

They can be forced all winter, under the treatment
heretofore described, but each plant must be given much
room.

ROLLISON’S TELEGRAPH FORCING CUCUMBER.

John G. Gardner, an experienced grower, elsewhere
quoted, recommends that they be planted four feet apart in
the rows; two plants at a place, for training in opposite
directions. Mr. Gardner recommends the variety called
Telegraph.

Under proper treatment the fruit can be had in sixty
days from the seed (according to Mr. Gardner), and the
bearing season may be prolonged for months, and even
from one season to another.

As to prices, the cucumbers of this type will easily
bring 25 cents each in winter, and will be in demand among
a class of buyers who are both numerous and desirable. To

66 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

this class, by the way, growers of winter luxuries are cater-
ing with increasing profit year by year.

The kind known as Telegraph still holds its place
among growers of experience, but the Dreer house imported
three varieties from London during the summer of 1896 that
are so far ahead of all others in popular favor in England as
to be worthy of recognition in America. These three new
varieties are Lockie’s Perfection, Rochford’s Market and
Covent Garden Favorite. The latter two are in highest
esteem with the London market gardeners.

The growing of English forcing cucumbers is no more
difficult than the culture of other sorts, and as the demand
(at good prices) is likely to increase the subject is worthy
of attention from progressive gardeners.

TARERAGON.

Tarragon roots for forcing are now on the market. The
plant is largely used for flavoring vinegar.

CHAPTER XIV.

TOMATOES.

Pursuing the idea advanced in the preface, that the
best way to tell how to do things is to tell how things are
being done by successful people, we quote Warren R.
Shelmire, of Avondale, Chester county, Pa., on under-glass
tomato culture, whose cultural methods are given to us
for the purpose.

THE LORILLARD TOMATO.

Mr. Shelmire sows seed in July for the winter crop, and
in November for the spring crop. He considers Lorillard
best for winter and Mayflower best for spring.

After the young plants are well started in the seed bed
they are pricked out or transplanted ; and then, after some
further growth, potted in three-inch pots. This insures
strong root development. They reach the bed of the forcing
house say two months after the time of sowing the seed, at

67

68 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

which time the plants are about eight inches high. The
roots fill the three-inch pots.

Well-rotted manure of any kind may be used for the
under-glass tomato bed. Sheep manure is excellent. Finely
ground bone and bone black are suitable stimulants. ‘‘Be
careful,’’ says Mr. Shelmire, ‘‘ of commercial fertilizers.’’

The tomato plants are set two feet apart in the beds.
Each is trained to a single stem by pinching off all lateral
shoots. A heavy string is tied to the plant near the ground,
and carried to the rafter above. To this string the plant
is trained, and an upright position thus secured.

The day temperature of the tomato house ought to be
from 70° to 80°; the night temperature 60°.

The fruiting season begins in three or four months after
the sowing of the seeti; that is, in from one to two months
after the plants are set in the bed of the forcing house.

The blossoms must be pollenized regularly, at least
every other day. This is an important matter, bearing
directly upon fruit production, and hence upon the cash
tesults of the business.

The fruiting season lasts about three months. In winter
it is best to prepare the tomatoes for market by wrapping
them separately in paper, and packing in small baskets,
using plenty of paper as a lining for the basket. In spring
larger baskets are used, with excelsior as packing material.

The profits are quoted by Mr. Shelmire as being ‘‘ very
uncertain.’’ Ifthe cultivator succeeds in getting a crop well
set on the vines, and if mildew does not get into the green-
house, the tomato crop may be regarded as a fairly profitable
one.

OTHER PoINTs ABOUT ToMATO CULTURE. The Ohio
experiment station has been growing tomatoes in greenhouse
beds similar to those made for lettuce, about eight inches
deep, and sub-irrigated by means of draining tile. It is

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 69

considered advantageous to water the plants in this way,
rather than on the surface in the usual manner. The
estimated yield of under-glass tomatoes is two pounds per
plant. In this estimate each plant occupies only one and
one-half square feet of space. _

It will be observed that Mr. Shelmire’s plan allows four
square feet of bed space to each plant.

Some tomato growers have found that a hive of bees in
the forcing house adds to the certainty of pollenizing the
blossoms. The New England growers nearly all employ
bees for the purpose of fertilizing under-glass crops.

Fifty cents per pound has been a common New York
quotation for winter tomatoes, for some years past.

John G. Gardner, a well-known horticulturist (see
article on beans), sows tomato seed uly 27 for the first
under-glass crop. He expects fruit fn ninety days from the
planting of the seed. This planting date enables him to have
1omatoes ready for market about the first of November, im-
mediately following the end of the out-of-doors crop. He
continues to plant seed, at intervals through the winter,
planning to end the under-glass fruiting season in July,
when home-grown, open-air tomatoes are on the market.

PRR Es

CHAPTER XV.

THE MINOR CROPS.

ASPARAGUS, DalIsy, PARSLEY,
BEANS, ENDIVE, POTATO,
BEETS, MELON, RHUBARB,
CABBAGE PLANTS, MINT, SPINACH,
CARROT, MUSHROOMS, VIOLET,

” CAULIFLOWER, ONIONS, WATER CRESS.

CORN SALAD, * PANSY,

The list of winter crops treated in the third and conclud-
ing part of this little book does not exhaust the under-glass
possibilities, for almost all the garden vegetables are capable
of production during the whole year, with the facilities and
markets now within the reach of American gardeners.

Those mentioned above are the crops now commonly
grown in addition to the so-called staples treated in Part IT.

We do not mean to belittle the value of any of
these things in thus treating them’ as of minor importance,
for every part of the country—every latitude, every altitude,
every geological belt—is especially adapted to a certain crop
or crops, and success is often a question of learning what is
best suited to the location and surroundings of the individual
gardener.

This is, indeed, a very fortunate circumstance, since it
gives to every culturist in the whole country some special
advantage, and by so much adds to the possibility of good
profits. Except for this variation the gardener would be
ruined by the universal competition.

70

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 71

In other words, we believe that every part of the coun-
try can produce something better than any other part of the
country.

The common bedding crops are not mentioned in detail
in this book because they belong more properly to the open
air group, yet the beginner in glass gardening must not make
the financial mistake of omitting to provide for such things.
There is a brisk spring demand everywhere for tomato, cab-
bage, egg, celery, pepper, beet, lettuce and other plants
needed for early gardening operations. The retail prices of
these things amount to many dollars during April and May.

There is a distinct and widely-marked tendency in
America toward better gardening ; toward the production of
crops which lately were regarded as unremunerative on
account of their limited sale. The increased demand for
what were once called luxuries has resulted in a change that
must be recognized as a new era in American gardening.
Operations in under-glass work are in progress all over the
United States of a size and character undreamed of a genera-
tion ago; and while there have been failures among these
new enterprises there have been so many conspicuous suc-
cesses that there is a temptation for ambitious young men to
engage in under-glass horticulture.

It requires good brains to manage a large American veg-
etable forcing house, and the results before us show that
brains have won profits in such enterprises.

From among the group of ‘‘ minor’’ crops will doubtless
come some important business successes.

CHAPTER XVI.

ASPARAGUS.

When it is known that the first
home-grown asparagus in the Phila-
delphia market sometimes brings $1
per bunch, and that the demand for
this succulent vegetable is in no dan-
ger of falling off, it is easy to under-
stand why the near-by truckers indulge
in a friendly rivalry in their efforts to
be first in the market.

The earliest bunches command
the highest prices, though for the

3 matter of that the quotations for aspar-
agus in the Philadelphia market are generally satisfactory to
the producers all through the spring season, as was the case
in 1896.

Asparagus can be forced in several ways. The large
roots can be taken from the outside beds in the fall, stored in
sand, and carried into the forcing house at any time during
the winter. This plan is a wasteful one, as usually man-
aged, and is advisable only under the special circumstances
of an extra good market or as a way of getting rid of an old
bed.

The roots thus treated are sacrificed, as they do not live
long after the violent handling which the plan necessitates ;
or, if they live, they have but little vigor.

A better way is one which is practiced by the Philadel-
phia gardeners, and which may be termed a money-produc-
ing method. It is to place sashes over undisturbed roots, in
the open ground.

72

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 73

To prepare for this work a proper location, with warm
exposure, is selected. Three rows of asparagus are planted,
the rows two feet apart. They are given the usual treatment,
being well cultivated in summer and heavily manured in
the late autumn. The greatest strength and development
are sought for by the gardener so that the roots will respond
to the demands made upon them.

About the third year after planting the asparagus may
be forced with glass. Lines of boards are set on their edges
on both sides of the bed, about eight feet apart, and eight-
foot sashes are laid crosswise, making an ordinary cold frame.

The glass materially hastens the genial soil warmth
which must precede the ‘‘shooting’’ of the asparagus, and
an early crop is thus secured.

In summer the sashes are removed, and the bed permit-
ted to renew its strength under open-air culture and condi-
tions. The roots are never disturbed.

The labor and expense of this plan of forcing asparagus
are so light, comparatively, that the practice is regarded as a
profitable one.

No plan which involves disturbing the roots is advis-
able, except under peculiar circumstances. The feeding roots
are long and slender, and are injured or broken if the plant
is moved. The cold frame plan, or a modification of it, is
the best of the cheap ways of forcing asparagus.

Imperial Long-Standing kale is sowed broadcast in the
open ground in August and September, for spring cutting.
It must be protected with straw or litter during the winter
months.

CHAPTER XVII.

RHUBARB.

Rhubarb seems to be gaining in popular favor, for we
hear of rhubarb specialists and their large crops, and we see
the construction of great stretches of framework over rhu-
barb beds that by the addition of sashes become forcing
houses in the spring of the year.

Allusion has been made in an earlier chapter to the pro-
duction of rhubarb under greenhouse benches. Some of the
Philadelphia growers follow this plan.

Louis Reichner, Belmont avenue and Ford road, takes
roots of the Paragon variety from the open field in the late
autumn, packs them a foot apart on the ground under one of
his greenhouse benches, and pulls the stalks twice in the
early spring. His bed of 1896 was 4% feet wide by 150 feet
long. ‘The roots are permitted to die after use.

The bunches are made of from three to five stalks, and
the wholesale price in winter is $8 to $10 per hundred bunches.

There is a space of about two feet from the top of the
rhubarb bed to the bottom of the bench or stage above it;
no loss of valuable room. New roots are brought in each
year from the open garden.

Daniel R. Comly, of Bustleton (Philadelphia), employs
a sash-covered pit, or sunken cold frame, for forcing rhubarb
in the early spring months.

John Davis, on Richmond street, Philadelphia, forces
rhubarb on the natural level of the ground, where it grows
all the year, by raising the sides of ordinary cold frames so
as to afford sufficient space for the development of the leaves.

Forcinc RHUBARB IN NEW ENGLAND. Our observa-
tions in Massachusetts in 1896 brought our camera within
74

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 75

short range of several very extensive rhubarb forcing houses,
one of which is partially represented in the engraving. The
sides of this house are covered with heavy paper, and provi-
sion is made for steam heating. When the sashes are in
place the building can be heated quite easily, as the heat is
not turned into the house until the winter is nearly over.
The general details of construction can be learned from the
picture.

The sashes
in summer,

RHUBARB FORCING HOUSE OF £. J. FAUNCE, ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
[Building 31 x 264 feet. ]

This is perhaps a fair type of the great rhubarb forcing
houses in New England. ‘They vary in construction. Some
are heated and some unheated. In the latter case the glass
is merely for protection and for holding the warmth of the
sunshine. Some have sloping roofs and some flat roofs.
In the latter the rain finds its way from each sash to the
ground below.

76 DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

From an 1896 note book we take the following figures
and estimates concerning a rhubarb house near Boston : Sashes
needed to cover the framework, 320; rhubarb pulled only
once; average yield estimated at 20 pounds to the sash;
average price 714 cents per pound; estimated gross receipts,
$480. This means $1.50 per sash.

The rhubarb in this case is planted two feet apart each
way. It is well cultivated, and fertilized generously with
cow manure and hog manure. The glass is put on the house
about the middle of February, and removed after a total
service of four to six weeks, and then used over radishes in
frames. The house is provided with steam pipes. No
watering is done. The whole cost, above cultivation and
mianuring, is the labor each year of handling the sashes ; in
putting them on and removing them from the framework of
the house. Except during the early spring the house is
wholly open to the weather. The roots are not. moved.

The varieties of rhubarb most commonly grown are
Linnzus, Victoria and, Paragon. _Some growers have a
decided preference about variety; others do not know the
name of their own strain, depending wholly on cultural
methods for success.

Kohl-rabi or turnip-roote 1 cabbage is sown in January
and February in cold frames by the Philadelphia market
gardeners. The Early White Vienna is a favorite sort for
sowing at this time of the year. The voung plants are set
in the open ground for their subsequent development.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BEETS.

Market gardeners sometimes complain that beets are
“‘too slow’’ for growing under glass with profit. Neverthe-
less great quantities are thus grown in hothouses, hot beds
and frames, and there is reason to call the beet crop a good
one for the worker with glass.

When cold frame beets can be sold at the rate of eight
bunches for a dollar, wholesale, and hot bed beets at the
rate of five bunches for a dollar, wholesale, there is some-
thing in the business for the producer. A bunch will contain
from five to eight beets.

. CROSBY’S EGYPTIAN BEET.
These figures are realized for what may be termed the
first and best in the Philadelphia markets, but prices quickly
fall. The demand is continual, but Southern competition
has ‘injured Philadelphia prices to some extent. Still, this
market will always be a good one, capable of absorbing
enormous quantities of fruit and vegetables, and willing
to pay good prices for prime articles.
Another objection to beet culture under glass, aside
from the time required, is the room demanded by the leaves
or tops.

V7

78 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

To cure this defect several beets have been put on the
market which require but little space for their development.
Crosby's Egyptian is a recognized stand-by for under-glass
work, and Carter’s Excelsior is another favorite.

The Philadelphia gardeners sow beet seed in cold frames,
in February, in rows eleven inches apart, with lettuce
between. The lettuce is off in time to give the beet tops
room for development. Thomas Brooks, Jr., one of the
most extensive truckers in the Richmond street district,
favors Carter’s Excelsior for such use in frames.

If beets are wanted in mid-winter they can be had in
forcing houses or hot beds. The Boston gardeners some-
times grow beets as a catch crop under their cucumber
trellises, in the great torcing houses; but the beet prefers
a lower temperature than the cucumber, and does better
where it can get plenty of fresh air. Wherever the tempera-
ture is too high (say above 65°) the beet shows a tendency
to run too much to top. The same is true of the radish.

There cannot be doubt about profit in raising beets in
cold frames near a good market. The cost is small and the
risk light. Whether beets can be made to pay in hot beds
and forcing houses must be determined by the judgment of
individuals. It will depend on circumstances.

With the lettuce removed, as suggested in the plan of
Mr. Brooks, there would remain say three rows of beets
under each cold frame sash. At four inches apart this would
be about fifty beets to the sash, which might sell for ¢1 or
more in early spring. To this, of course, would be added
the lettuce sales, and also the value of the spinach cut at
Christmas, so that the gross annual sales of the sash might
easily amount to $2 or more under this rotation.

CHAPTER XIX.

CAULIFLOWER.

For a picture of cauliflower the reader is referred to the
frontispiece. The same vegetable, in growth, is shown in
the interior view of the Reichner forcing house, in Chapter 5.
It is a crop of no small importance, both under glass and in
the open air.

Cauliflower is worth from 25 to 50 cents per head,
wholesale, in the Philadelphia markets in winter. It is a
member of the cabbage family, requiring a comparatively
low temperature. Its cultural requirements are quite the
same as in the case of the radish, the beet, etc. Well started
plants set in the forcing house will produce heads in twelve
or thirteen weeks.

Cauliflower is a good under-glass crop, but one which
requires much room, on account of the size of the plants,
which must be set two feet apart each way, in order to
secure proper development. Seed sowing may be done at
any time in heated structures by amateurs; but market
gardeners plan to have their crops mature at certain dates,
when good prices are reasonably certain.

The Reichner plan is to sow the seed about the roth of
October, and pot off into 3-inch pots. This makes the
plants ready for the forcing beds between Christmas and
New Vear’s, and brings the cauliflower into market in
February or March. The Snow Storm variety is used.
The plants are set 18 inches by 2 feet in the beds. Other
growers favor Snowball, Erfurt, &c., and prefer to set 2 x 2
feet, as above stated. -Some of the Boston growers choose
to transplant twice, rather than use pots.

Mr. Reichner, who is a successful grower, says: ‘‘ Lots

79

80 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER-GLASS.

of manure, lots of water and plenty of air, and you will have
no trouble in growing cauliflower.’’ The temperature must
be kept down, or the head will ‘‘draw’’ into an open and
undesirable form.

A temperature ranging from 40° to 65° will answer for
such crops as cauliflower, radish, &c.; and free ventilation
is a requisite.

Beginners and amateurs are surprised to learn that
cauliflower seed is worth from 4o cents to $5 per ounce,
depending on the strain; but when the fact becomes known
that the seed is extremely minute, and that a packet of the
best sort can be had for 25 cents, the price seems more
reasonable. The cauliflower seed is so small that a little of
it goes a long way, if sown with care.

The cheapest cauliflower is in reality that which experi-
ence shows to be the best and surest-heading kind, regardless
of the first cost of the seed. We know of nothing at this
time superior for forcing purposes to Snow Storm, a variety
of ivory whiteness and a good header.

Cauliflower can be started in the fall (September 10 to
20) and ‘‘wintered over,’’ the same as cabbage, but it is
better to select some other sort than Snow Storm for the
purpose, as this one objects to any check or interruption
in its growth. Snowball may be safely carried through the
winter in frames, but there seems to be a disposition on the
part of gardeners toward early spring sowing in frames and
hot beds, and away from the practice of ‘‘ wintering over’’
which was once so generally in vogue.

Nothing can be more satisfactory than Snow Storm
cauliflower if given correct treatment from the date of seed
sowing to the time for heading. It will generously repay
good management.

CHAPTER XX.

MUSHROOMS.

Mushroom culture can be treated
but briefly in the limited space afforded
by a single chapter. But the mush-
room is a winter crop of so much im-
portance that it cannot be altogether
omitted from this book.

And yet it is not, properly speak-
ing, an under-glass crop, because the
greenhouse is not the best place in
which to grow it; though it is grown
to some extent under greenhouse benches. The changes
of temperature of the greenhouse are hostile to success with
mushrooms. Wherever there is light there is heat, and
wherever the light penetrates there are contrasts between
day and night temperatures. This is the only reason that
‘dark places’’ are better for mushrooms.

The mushroom in nature grows in the open field, in
full daylight ; but it grows best at a season of the year when
the day temperature is on the decrease and the soil tempera-
ture makes the night comparatively warm. The ideal
temperature for mushrooms is 57 degrees.

Many experimenters have ceased to grow mushrooms
on account of the uncertainty of the crop, but this is in
reality an argument in its favor, since it tends to insure a
good market and good prices for those growers who push on
to success. The price for the past ten years, taking an
average, has not been below fifty cents a pound ; and there
is a fair margin of profit to the grower at this figure. Some
expert growers have secured an average price of sixty cents,

81

82 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

as the trade is a fancy one, and prices depend largely on
success in pleasing a class of rather particular buyers.

The five requisites of success in mushroom culture are:
A proper bed, right moisture, good spawn, uniform tempera-
ture (near 57 degrees), and good management.

We may at once dismiss two of these requisites by
saying that good spawn can be had of any reliable seedsman
who knows what he is selling, and by emphasizing the fact
that a steady temperature of 55 to 60 degrees is the best
that is known.” We have three points remaining for con-
sideration : the bed, the moisture, and the management.

The common commercial mushroom is grown in a bed
made of horse manure and loam. A wet, soggy bed is to be
avoided, as it will rot the spawn. A perfectly dry bed is
also to be shunned, as the spawn will no more grow in such
a place than seeds will start in a box of dry dust.

The ideal mushroom bed is one in which there is a slow,
steady, gradually decreasing fermentation; a fermentation
which by its warmth and vapor quickens the spawn, en-
courages it to ‘‘run’’ or send out web-like filaments, and
which finally puts the bed in the condition of an autumn
meadow—a medium filled with a mass or network of spawn.

The whole bed ought to become just what the mush-
room ‘‘brick’’ was when it came from the seedsman, except
with more moisture. A handful of the material applied to
the nose will give an unmistakable odor of mushrooms.

If a heavy shower falls upon a meadow when the
mushroom spawn is in a feeble state, only partly ‘‘run,’’ the
spawn will perish and there will be no crop there in the
fall; and if the impatient gardener applies water to his
mushroom bed when the spawn is in its early, weak con-
dition the crop will be wholly ruined.

If nature (in a good mushroom year) be studied and
imitated the secret of growing mushrooms will be learned.
When the spawn has filled the bed, and the little buttons

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 83

begin to appear on the surface, we may safely (though
sparingly at first) use the watering pot. Later on the
application of water will do no harm. The effect will be
the same as that of a warm rain in August or September ;
there will be a great show of mushrooms.

DETAILS OF MANAGEMENT. Having outlined the end
to be attained the method of procedure may be briefly stated .
as follows :

Select a place (preferably a dark place) where a tempera-
ture of 50° to 60° can be maintained. A cellar will answer,
though a shed, stable or arch can be made to serve the
purpose. An underground situation, like a vault or cave,
is an excellent place ; perhaps the best of all.

Obtain fresh horse manure to the desired amount,
estimating that a ton of manure, after preparation, will
make about sixty-five square feet of bed (10 inches deep).

Prepare the manure by stacking, turning, shaking and
re-stacking, adding loam at the rate of one bushel of loam
to four or five bushels of manure.

Avoid the too free use of the watering pot ; the manure
must be moist, but not wet. It will require two or three
weeks to get the manure in good order.

Make the bed about ten inches thick, tramping or
pounding it so as to render it firm and compact. Jnserta
thermometer and await results.

If the manure is in good order the mercury will rise.
Sometimes it will go up to 100°, or even to 120° or 130°.
After a time it will begin to fall, dropping slowly or rapidly
according to conditions.

On the downward course of the mercury, when go° has
been reached, insert pieces of spawn. It matters little
whether they are broken large or small. A brick of spawn
ought to be sufficient for six square feet of bed. Insert the
pieces say two inches below the surface, and firm the manure
about the spawn.

84 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

Do not cover the bed until the spawn has been planted
for a week or ten days; then spread a coat of loam an inch
thick over the whole bed, and make the surface smooth and
firm. If covered too soon the soil will act like a blanket,
raise the temperature, and kill the spawn.

Do not apply water until the mushrooms begin to
appear, which ought to be in six or eight weeks from the
time of spawning. Litter may be used to prevent the:surface

END OF MUSHROOM HOUSE OF WYMAN BROTHERS,
ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

of the bed from drying out too fast, or a fine spray may be
thrown on the surface of the bed at intervals, provided the
water is not sufficient to sink below the surface.

A crop of mushrooms under the best management seldom
exceeds a pound and a half to the square foot. The average
crop is nearer half a pound ; and there are many total failures.

John G. Gardner, whose present address is West Consho-
hocken, Pa., is an expert mushroom grower. He takes the
manure almost as it comes from the stables, incorporates a

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 85

very large percentage of loam with it, makes deep beds, and
controls the heat and moisture so well that he gets unusually
large and long crops. The secret of his success is the care
and accuracy of his details. He imitates nature.

The Kift mushroom house at West Chester, Pennsyl-
vania, is a building seventy-five feet long by about ten feet
wide. It was formerly a greenhouse, with equal double

MUSHROOM HOUSE MADE FROM OLD GREENHOUSE, BELONGING TO
JOSEPH KIFT & SON, WEST CHESTER, PA.

pitch north and south. The building for some reason was
hard to heat, so without removing the sashes it was converted
into a house for growing mushrooms. The glass was
simply covered with roofing paper, on top of which hemlock
boards were laid, as shown in the picture. The peak of the
roof where the boards come together is covered with paper.
There is a door in each end of the building, but there are no
ventilators. The house is heated with steam. A mushroom
bed covers the entire floor, the walk being laid on raised

86 DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

wooden supports. There is also a raised bed three feet wide
along the north side of the building. This makes the total
area of the house 975 square feet. The house has produced
satisfactory crops of mushrooms for several years.

We give here (page 84) a picture of a large mushroom
house visited during 1896. It belongs to the Wyman
Brothers, extensive market farmers at Arlington, Massachu-
setts. Its great length is not shown in the picture.

The construction of the house is very simple. It is
made of hemlock boards. It is partly below the ground
level. It is heated by steam. The roof is covered with
paper and then with salt hay. The beds are made directly
upon the ground. They are three in number, with narrow
alleys between them for the convenience of those who care
for the crop. The width of the house is about 17 feet, and
of the beds about 4, 6 and 5 feet, with walks a foot in width.

The way to begin mushroom culture is to appropriate for
the trial any underground place that may be available, and
that can be heated if necessary in the winter season.

We know of one grower who used an abandoned vault
or cave near his dwelling; an underground apartment walled
with stone and with an arched ceiling. The temperature
stood at 57° or 58° all the year without artificial heat. We
have in mind other cases where mushrooms have been success-
fully grown in house cellars ; but there is always an objection
to carrying manure into a place under a dwelling house, lest
it breed disease.

CHAPTER XXI.

WATER CRESS, BEANS, MELONS, MINT, POTATOES.

The grouping of these five winter crops is artificial, and
is a mere matter of convenience.. Beans and melons demand
a tropical temperature for their quick development ; 65° and
upward. Mint, potatoes and water cress require less forcing,
but can be grown with profit under greenhouse conditions, if
near good markets. Water cress is the most important one
of the group, commercially speaking, at this time in the
winter market at Philadelphia.

WaTER Cress. The illustration shows the vegetable
growing in water: it can be grown as well in the soil of a
greenhouse bed. It
is used in enormous
quantities all the year
in the large cities, be-
ing served with meats
} in the restaurants.

The culture of
water cress in brooks
or near spring heads is
well understood. It
will grow anywhere in
shallow, running water. Glass sashes placed over beds made
at or near natural springs will make it possible to obtain
fresh water cress all winter.

It can be grown in forcing houses, as stated. The
Philadelphia gardeners sow seed (True Erfurt) in October.
It is put on the market in pint boxes, packed with the leaves
uppermost. The boxes sell at ¢s5 to $7 per 100, wholesale.
Successional plantings are made, so as to have a fresh supply
all winter.

WATER CRESS.

87

88 DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS.

The culture of water cress in beds is slightly different
from the culture in running streams. In the former case it
must not be made too wet or it will become slimy. In the
latter case the constantly changing water removes any such
tendency.

BEANS. JohnG. Gardner, of West Conshohocken, Pa.,
(formerly of Jobstown, N. J.), mentions Sion House as his
best forcing bean. He has also used Long Yellow Six
Weeks (a green-podded bean) and Mohawk, but prefers the
one first mentioned. A tropical temperature (65° and upward)
is needed for beans in the greenhouse. Beans are sold in
half-pound and pound bunches in winter, and bring good
prices among a certain-class of buyers. The demand is a
fancy one, and beans cannot everywhere be grown with profit.

A dwarf variety of bean, with long, green pods, known
as Best-of-All, is used for forcing purposes by some Phila-
delphia gardeners. It resembles Sion House in many respects.

MELONS. ‘The Early Hackensack melon is mentioned
in the Dreer note books of 1896 as seen in cultivation in the
large forcing houses of the Hittinger Brothers, at Belmont,
Massachusetts. The crop was in fine condition, with numbers
of well-developed melons on the vines. The feasibility of
growing the melons to perfection was fully demonstrated.
The profit of the operation was not within our reach to deter-
mine. ‘The melon belongs to the class of fancy crops, and
profits depend almost wholly upon the market in which such
things are sold. In some places melons could be forced with
profit ; in other places the cost would exceed the receipts.

Mint. The cultivation of mint (spearmint) as a green-
house crop seems to be increasing rapidly, and our note books
show that it is now commonly grown in winter for all the
large city markets.

It is grown from roots to be had of the seedsmen, or by

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 89

the division of the roots of the wild mint of the meadows.
It grows in the soil of the forcing house without trouble.

Mint retails at 10 cents a bunch in the early spring. It
is used for flavoring meats, especially lamb.

Potato. It is no new thing for English gardeners to
force potatoes in beds and in pots. ‘They use a long, slender
kidney potato, which comes to quick maturity. Our note
books record a case where a Pennsylvania market gardener
in 1896 succeeded in growing ordinary potatoes under glass
in time to compete with the new potatoes from the South.
He sold the under-glass potatoes at about the same price per
half-peck as he afterward obtained per bushel for the out-of-
doors product.

Water cress, mint and parsley must be ranked among
the profitable minor crops.

CHAPTER XXII.

SPINACH, CORN SALAD, ENDIVE.

These three vegetables have a certain natural affinity, in
that all are quite hardy, and all are well suited to cold frame
culture.

SPrinacH. This
is the most impor-
tant member of the
group. It is grown
in enormous quanti-
ties near all the large
markets. The seed
is sowed in frames
(and in the open
ground) in Septem-
ber, and the spinach
is ready for the Christmas market, when it is worth from ¢2
to $3 per barrel wholesale at Philadelphia. The round-leaf
sorts are preferable. Dreer’s Round-Seeded Savoy is excellent
for fall sowing. The Bos-
ton gardeners sell their sur-
plus spinach to the canners,
getting 20 cents per bushel
for it. Spinach seed germi-
nates quickly, and the plants
¥ crow rapidly.

SAVOY SPINACH.

CorN SaLapD. This is

CORN SALAD. treated the same as spinach,

except that it is often planted

regularly like lettuce, while spinach is broadcasted or sowed

in rows. It is sold in the Philadelphia market in consider-
90

DREER'S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. gI

able quantities; perhaps one-fourth or one-third as much
corn salad as spinach. It brings 50 cents to $1 per bushel in
Philadelphia at Christmas. The Large-Seeded corn salad is
commonly grown.

ENDIVE.

Enpive. <A variety of endive commonly grown at
Philadelphia in fall and winter is the Giant Fringed. The
seed is planted late in August for the Christmas market, and
the young plants transferred to frames. The wholesale price
is six heads for about 25 cents, or 25 heads for $1. Heads of
endive, nicely bleached, are to be seen in all the Philadelphia
restaurants in fall and winter. Endive is used asasalad. It
is ornamental as well as edible. It is bleached by tying the
leaves together or by covering with a piece of slate or wood.

The Giant Fringed may be called the finest of the green
endives, and the Green Curled the best of the truly * curled”’
types. It is also green.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CARROTS, ONIONS, PARSLEY, CABBAGE PLANTS.

This chapter treats of another group of hardy or almost
hardy plants. All are adapted to the cold frame, and all are
within reach of the amateur gardener. They all figure in
commercial operations, and are of considerable importance
as money makers.

Carrots. The so-
called stump-rooted or
half-long sorts are gen-
erally used for under-
glass work. ‘They are
in wide demand for fla-

voring soups. The Phil-
’ delphia gardeners sow
€ carrot seed in frames
.rom October 1 to Octo-
ber 15. The rows are
«leven inches apart, with
lettuce between ; or rad-
ishes may be planted
between the rows of car-
rots in spring. Other gardeners sow the carrots in spring,
believing that fall-sown plants are stunted. Half-long
Nantes is one of the varieties that is used. Five or six car-
tots make a bunch, and the wholesale price is twenty-five
bunches for $1. Early Scarlet Horn and Earliest Short Horn
are used in hot beds and greenhouses.

HALF-LONG NANTES CARROTS.

Onions. Onion culture under glass ‘Shear Philadelphia
is confined for the most part to starting seed in spring, for

92

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 93

transplanting to the open ground, and
to the production of scullions or shoots.
The latter is an important and profitable
industry. Half-grown onions are set in
frames in the fall and allowed to make
roots and even sprouts. In the early
spring these shoots make a quick growth,
when they are pulled apart, cleaned,
bunched and sent to the market as
scullions. They bring $1.50 to $2 per
100 bunches. Yellow Globe Danvers and other sorts are used.

PARSLEY. This crop ranks with water cress in its import-
ance in the oe restaurants in winter. So important is it
WLS VE that when the home supply fails it

in. is imported from the Bermudas for
the Philadelphia market. It grows
easily, in cold frames or hot beds.
It requires but little heat. - It is
worth $3 to $4 per hundred bunches,
wholesale. The curled varieties are preferred. Its culture is
simple, as it merely demands a little shelter; good soil and
fresh air.

CABBAGE PLANTS. The wintering of Jersey Wakefield
and other first early cabbage plants is advisable in some
parts of the country, for early spring plants. The seed is
sowed in September or October, and the plants set deeply in
the soil of the cold frame. If freely aired they will be strong
in spring, and ready for quick growth. There is a disposi-
tion, as elsewhere noted, to depend more and more on early-
sown spring plants.

CHAPTER XXIV.

PANSY, VIOLET, DAISY.

There are two good reasons for introducing the names of
three flowers in this brief treatise on under-glass vegetables :
they are raised by the market gardeners in the same cold
frames with vegetables and sent to the same market, and they
represent a good deal of money in the early spring months.

THE Pansy. Pansy seed ought
to be sowed in September, and the
plants wintered over. It is immaterial
whether the seed be sown in the frames
or in the open ground. They will live
out of doors, if protected with litter,
but they will accomplish more growth
and store up more strength, and bloom
more quickly, if wintered under glass.

Pansies bring 25 cents per basket
of six to eight plants in the Philadel-
phia markets.

We especially recommend not the largest but the richest
types, with clear and deep colors and velvety texture. Dreer’s
Royal Exhibition has been developed with these points
especially in view.

THE VIOLET. There is no
sweeter fragrance than that of
a early spring violets, and the
blooms come almost for the ask-
» ing. ‘The roots are not expen-
~ sive, and the culture is simple.
It is only necessary to set the
= violet roots in frames under glass,
and give them abundance of air
94

DREER’S VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS. 95

during mid-winter. The first warm days of spring bring
forth the dormant buds. ‘The heat of the sun is quite suff-
cient to produce flowers in abundance in February and March.
The single, deep-blue variety known as Schcenbrun is in
most common commercial use here for cold frame culture.
Luxonne is a larger type of single
blue violet.

RI. K
WV.

be AN eee

a THE Daisy. ‘The daisy demands
the same cultural conditions as the
pansy and the violet. It is the least
common of the group, yet has many
admirers. There is a comparatively
new daisy called Snow Crest, bearing
large flowers on long stems, which is
worthy of trial along with the older
kinds.

INDEX.

PAGE,
Allen’s forcing houses ..... 32
Aphid esi opens eis, wee kes ae 42
ASDATAPUS c.n csc wae ede ete coe 72
IBCANS 5 genesis ususs alec wate sywnire 88
Bedding plants.......... 71
RCN ce rien etek ota Peso rte 63
‘BECtS 25s Giiainc actor eee Oe eee 77
Border PRsLry Je ce PS caMhor | ok 38
Boston methods, lettuce ones 53
Boston methods, cucumber - 62
SBOXOS en sats 6 Ad, Gre Wa, eee aL
Brooks, Thomas, Jr........ 78
Budlong&Co........... 13
“Burn” of lettuce... ... . 54
Cabbage. 6 be So ee 93
CATTOb so later oes, 6 Se se heirs 92
Cauliflower....... ese ae 29)
Change of soil.. .... potted, a eG)
Cold frame... 5 si eee es 11
Comly, DanielR......... - 75
Cormsalades. eects. sieve ene os 90
Crop rotation............ 17
Crops, list'ofs. 3. 2s 5k 46, 70
Crosby’s ‘‘washroom”...... 36
Crosby,JohnS.......... 64
Cucumber..... a es) SOL
Cucumber, Boston methods. . + + 162
IDRIS cere eee aries etek 95
Damping: Off... 06%. an se 2 42
Davis; JOD: 4 5 28s % 1 Oe as 18, 74
DiseAasesie ti a: spat nc come Sey 42
Dreer’s one-acre greenhouses... 32
Endivess. 66 266 wie sae le 91
English forcing cucumber... . 65
Esher, Joho @. s.0c ee es SS 28
Faunce, E. Js... ss es . 75
February work.......... 18
Bre: DEG sacar enies ne. jaisisr costo es tetis 24
Forcing houses...-....-.. 32
Gardner, JohnG...... 65, 69, 84, 88
Hittinger'sirrigation .....-. 40
Hot iain bedisn. screenees 24
HOtibed eau erence irersercne tether er take 19
Insectsina tae scemen un bse bene ite 42
Insecticides. .... Ser canon ets 43
Irrigation... 2... - ee ee ee 38
Kale: S:cucnaeneenus op ema em bea 73
Kift’s mushroom house. ..... 84

PAGE.
Lettucemm-seacuse acces e, ¢ jase, 46
Lettuce, Boston methods... . . 53
Lettuce marker........0+-. 49
MAGS tee Ses ets, aks eae ke 16
MARE re atiie te ated ee oe 43
Manure, Deerereee (2) 15, 20
Melon. . SC) Cum eaeD 88
Minor crops. easy ee coe funn Beeeoee VAN
Minti ae eeee eee anes - 88
Mushrooms. ......6:+22:. 61
Onions’, ter econ net eal cer 92
PANSY taints wan a rsheuieus cel loam oes 94
PATSICY << cobs) wi tae ee Ries <siesace 93
Plant diseases. ......-... 42
Plant (Ce ij tec): few torcannemenss - 42
Potato; 20s hc ess a> (eettia oa 89
Prices and profits... .. ene aren B15
Principal crops. ....-...- 46
Radish, cig) cuss cis. s) os one 57
Rawson’s forcing houses... . . 33
Reichner’s forcing houses. . . . 26, 30
Rhubarb......... ee ater 74
Rhubarb forcing house...... 75
Ridge culture. ° areas Le eee 47
Riverton greenhouses Sens. 4 32
Rotations of crops. ....... 17
DaSDicvagat ay cuey Weiay on petite Seletomes ss 9
Sash-covered forcing houses. .. 26
Seed planting........... 45
Shelmire, Warren R........ 67
SHUEET aren aie eves sh ste netey se 16
Soil and preparation of...... 15
Spipachyrn. Zac oreo a ters, 6 90
“Strings”... ... Spoke ets oar 11
Succession of crops.......- 31
Summer storage of sashes..... 14
Summer use of frames. ..... 12
Sweet potatoes. ......... 24
Tappan’s forcing house...... 56
TATTABOMN Gus os te) es epee ve eeusecse 66
TOMAtO <5 si60 cs he) icles 67
Under-glass staples........ 46
Ventilators........ Sime 129
Vidletavucee ss aetebenn srs clr 94
Wash room’... 2.16. ceo e 36
Watercress. ..-...- scscegionrer 0
Wind break. ......... -. 16
Winter work room....... - 36
Wyman’s mushroom house.... 8

ADVERTISEMENT.

In the pages of this little book the primary aim has
been to present facts; not to put forward the Dre brand
of this or that as being the only thing of its kind on
the market.

Nevertheless it is proper to remind the public that
we have for sale all the under-glass requisites, including
sashes, tools, implements and fertilizers, and all the seeds
and roots needed by amateurs and professional gardeners.

We can materially aid beginners in under-glass work
in the choice of varieties of vegetables most likely to be
profitable for market or satisfactory for domestic use.

Communications will receive prompt attention. Our

catalogues can be had on request.

Haney A. DREER, Incorporated,
Seedsmen and Florists;
714 Chestnut street,
Philadelphia, Pa.