THE

AMERICAN GARDENER'S

CALENDAR.

JANUARY.

THE KITCHEN GARDEN.

PREPARATIONS FOR EARLY CROPS.

TN such parts of the Union where the ground is not at this time bound up with frost, continue to dig the waste quarters of your kitchen garden, first giving them such manure as they require; laying them in high sloping ridges, to sweeten and be improved by the frost, &c., more especially if the soil be of a stiff nature; by which method its adhesion is destroyed, the pores are opened for the admission of air, frost, rain and dews, all of which, abounding with nitrous salts, contribute, in a high degree, towards its melioration and fertility; and besides, a great quantity of ground thus prepared, can be soon levelled in the spring for sowing or planting; which, if neglected would require much time to dig in a proper manner, and that at a period when the throng of business requires every advantage of previous preparation.

When the ground at this time is frozen so hard as not to be dug, which is generally the case in the Middle and Eastern States, you may carry manure into the different quarters and spread it, repair fences, rub out and clean your seeds, prepare shreds, nails and twigs, for the wall and espalier trees, which are to be pruned in this and the next month; get all the garden tools in repair; and procure such as are wanting; provide from the woods a sufficient quantity of pearods, and poles for your Lima and other running beans; dress and point them, so as to be ready for use when wanted.

Here it may be well to remark, that many people who neglect to provide themselves with pea-rods at this season, when it can be so conveniently done, are necessitated, when the hurry of business overtakes them in spring, to sow their peas and let them trail on the ground; in which situation they will never produce, especially the tall-growing kinds, one-third as many as if they were properly rodded.

The various kinds of Early Peas will require rods from four to five feet high; the taller Marrowfat, Champion of England, and other tall-growing kinds, will require them to be from six to seven feet high, exclusive of the part to be inserted in the earth; they ought to be formed or dressed fan fashion, the lower ends pointed, for the ease of pushing them into the earth, and laid by, either under some shed, or in any convenient place, till wanted; one set of rods will, with care, last for three years. The same kind of rods that the tallgrowing peas require, will answer for the generality of running Kidney Beans; the Lima beans requiring strong poles from eight to nine feet high.

If in this and the next month, you neglect forwarding everything that can possibly be done, in and for the garden, you will materially find the loss of such inattention, when the hurry and pressure of spring business overtake you. Every active and well inclined gar dener will find abundant employment in the various departments of the garden at this season, and need not be idle, if disposed to be industrious, or to serve either himself or his employer.

FRAMING.

Many will think that the instructions hereafter given for the raising of early Cucumbers and Melons, in frames, are too diffuse; especially in a country which abounds in these kinds of fruit, produced in such quantities, in summer and autumn, without artificial heat, or very much trouble.

The remark may be just, but the principal motive for giving these lengthy instructions is, to exercise the young gardener in the art of managing Garden Frames in general; an art absolutely essential to every good Gardener, and which cannot be better exemplified than in the raising of early Cucumbers and Melons. And besides, these fruits coming into use at an early season, will be much valued and esteemed.

As several other kinds of kitchen garden vegetables are desirable at an early season, such as cresses, rape, lettuce, mustard, radishes, &c., to cut while young; asparagus, radishes, peas, kidney beans, &c., to be forwarded in early perfection; cauliflower and cabbage plants, to succeed those sown in September, and to produce a principal crop for early summer use; you should now provide the necessary supplies of hot stable dung, rich earth, and other requisites proper for their cultivation in hot-beds, as explained for each, under its respective head.*

HOT-BED FRAMES AND LIGHTS.

If not already provided with hot-bed frames and lights, you may get them made agreeably to the following instructions. Large frames

The whole of these requirements may be more effectually secured by close and compact low houses, heated by hot-water pipes. Though more expensive at first, there is a final saving.

ought to be made of inch and half, or rather two inch plank, of the best yellow pine, nine feet two inches long, four feet ten inches wide, as high again in the back as in the front, to give the top a due slope to the sun and a proper declivity to carry off the wet when covered with glass lights, to move off and on occasionally; every joint ought to be tongued, the better to prevent the admission of cold air into, or emission of warm air out of the bed, but in such manner as the Gardener may think proper. The back and front are to be nailed to corner posts, so as to admit the ends to fit in neatly, which ends are to be made fast to the posts by iron bolts keyed in the inside, for the greater facility of taking the frame asunder when necessary; each end must be made one inch and a half higher than the back and front, so as that one-half its thickness may be grooved out on the inside, for the sash to rest and slide on, and the other half left for its support on the outside; when finished give it two or three good coats of paint before you use it, and with a little care and annual painting, it may last you twenty years.

These frames will take three lights of three feet wide each, each light containing five rows of glass panes, six inches by four, overlapping one another about half an inch, which of all other sizes is the most preferable, on account of their cheapness in the first place, the closeness of their lap, their general strength and trifling expense of repairs; however, each person will suit his own convenience as to the dimensions of glass. Where the sashes when laid on the frame meet, a piece of pine about three and a half inches broad and near two thick, should run from back to front, mortised into each, for their support, and for them to slide on; in the centre of which, as well as in the ends of the frame, it will be well to make a groove five-eighths of an inch wide and near a quarter of an inch deep, rounded at bottom to receive and carry off any wet which may work

down between the sashes.

But with respect to particular dimensions of frames, they are different, according to the plants they are intended to protect, but generally from nine to twelve feet long, from four feet eight inches to five feet wide, from eighteen inches to three feet six inches in the back, and from nine to eighteen inches in front, being for the most part twice as high in the back as in front, if not more.

The common kitchen garden frames may be of three different sizes, that is, for one, two, and three lights; the latter of which, however, are the most material, and which are employed for general use: but it is necessary also to have one or two-light frames, the former as seedling frames, and the latter as succession or nursery frames, to forward the young plants to a due size for the three-light frames, in which they are to fruit.

EARLY CUCUMBERS AND MELONS.

As it is generally the ambition of most gardeners to excel each other in the production of early cucumbers, &c., all necessary preparation should be made this month for that purpose, by preparing dung for hot-beds, in which to raise the plants; for they, being of a

tender quality, require the aid of artificial heat under shelter of frames and glasses, until the middle or latter end of May, especially in the Middle and Eastern States.

But by the aid of hot-beds, defended with frames and glasses, we obtain early cucumbers, in young green fruit, fit to cut or gather in February, March, and April, &c., and ripe melons in May and June. The proper sorts of cucumbers for the early crops are the early Kenyon's free bearer, and Syon House, and Walker's Improved; of which the first sort comes earliest; but the latter is considerably the finest fruit, and greatly preferable for general culture.

The following cut represents a house built for forcing the cucumber, which may be done in the coldest weather with perfect success.

Fig. 1.

The house is heated by a flue A B, or still better by hot-water pipes and a boiler; such a house might be ten feet long and ten wide, as desired, and in it bushbeans, strawberries, &c., could be forced, and young flowering plants will here find a congenial atmosphere. There is no necessity of going to the expense of such a house where there are other buildings in which tender exotics are grown and a night temperature of 60° is kept, as a small space may be used for this purpose, and four or five plants trained up near the glass, will give a supply for a small family the whole winter.

A

B

If early melons are also required, there are several varieties of the fruit the Cantaleupe is one of the best for its handsome growth, good size, and superior flavor; and is in much estimation.

The true Cantaleupe, or Armenian warted Melon, is very scarce in the United States; its fruit is large, roundish, and deeply ribbed, a little compressed at both ends, the surface full of warted protuberances, like some species of squash, the flesh reddish, firm, and of a most delicious rich flavor; of which there are several varieties, differing principally in color, and commonly called black rock, golden rock, &c.

This variety of melon derives the term Cantaleupe from a place of that name near Rome, where it was first cultivated in Europebrought thence from Armenia, a country in Asia, in which is situated the famous Mount Ararat.

But it may also be proper to raise some of the others for variety; the Romana is a great bearer, comes early, but the fruit much smaller, though well flavored; the Polignac, Nutmeg, the best for general crop, and Minorca, are also fine melons; but it may also be eligible to raise two, three, or more of the best approved different sorts.

Observe, that in procuring these seeds for immediate sowing, both of cucumbers and melons, it is advisable to have those of two, three, or four year old, if possible, as the plants will generally show fruit sooner, as well as prove more fruitful than those of new seeds, which are apt to run vigorously to vine, often advancing in considerable length before they show a single fruit; but when seeds of this age cannot be procured, new seeds may be improved by carrying them a few weeks previous to sowing in your waistcoat or breeches pocket. In order to raise early cucumbers and melons, you must provide a quantity of fresh hot stable dung, wherewith to make a small hotbed for a seed bed, in which to raise the plants to a proper growth for transplanting into larger hot-beds next month to remain to fruit; for this purpose a small bed for a one or two-light frame may be sufficient, in which case two cart loads of hot dung will be enough for making a bed of proper dimensions for a one-light box, and so in proportion for larger.

Agreeably to these intimations, provide the requisite supply of good horse-stable dung from the dung hills in stable yards, &c., consisting of that formed of the moist stable litter and dunging of the horses together, choosing that which is moderately fresh, moist, and full of heat-always preferring that which is of some lively, warm, steamy quality; and of which take the long and short altogether as it occurs, in proper quantity as above. And being thus procured, proceed to make the hot-bed, or previously to forming it into a bed, if the dung is rank, it would be proper to prepare it a little to an improved state, more successful for that purpose, by forking the whole up into a heap, mixing it well together, and let it thus remain eight or ten days to ferment equally, and for the rank steam and fierce heat to transpire or evaporate in some effectual degree; and by which time it will have acquired a proper temperament for making into a hot-bed, by which treatment the heat will be steady and lasting, and not so liable to become violent or burning, as when the dung is not previously prepared.

Choose a place on which to make your hot-bed, in a sheltered dry part of the framing ground,* &c., open to the morning and south sun; and it may be made either wholly on the surface of the ground, or in a shallow trench, of from six to twelve inches deep, and four or five feet wide, according to the frame; but if made entirely on the surface, which is generally the most eligible method at this early season, it affords the opportunity of lining the sides of the bed with fresh hot dung, quite down to the bottom, to augment the heat when it declines, and also prevents wet from settling about the bottom of the bed, as often happens when made in a trench, which chills the dung, and causes the heat soon to decay.

Then, according to the size of the frame, mark out the dimensions of the bed, either on the ground, or with four stakes, making an

* Framing Ground is a part of the Kitchen Garden well defended from cutting winds, and well exposed to the sun; particularly intended for framing of all kinds, and generally inclosed with live or reed hedges, or board fences, the former being the most preferable.