CARE OF LAWNS - WORK AMONG FRUITS - TRANSPLANTING - THE SPRING GARDEN - EARLY PEAS - BOOKS OF GARDENING.

Eighth Paper.

WH I L E the winds of March are blowing, the work of the garden can be pursued only tentatively. But if the ground is dry enough to permit of being out-of-doors with our tools, there may be found work to do every day, so that time shall no longer hang heavy on our hands. However well the lawn was cleaned last autumn, it should have fresh attention now. The mold of winter is to be loosened up with the rake and taken away. The debris of broken twigs that have been falling from the trees all winter, all dead branches that were overlooked before; the few scattered leaves that have thus far escaped us.; and the green stem of a dock, or plantain, or dandelion that has survived the winter, as such weeds will, must all be cut off, rooted out, and gathered up. Rough places must be smoothed again, poor places enriched again, bare places seeded again, for eternal vigilance is the price of a fine lawn.

Work the soil about the young trees with a spad-ing-fork. as far out about the trunk as the roots extend. Cultivate in wood ashes, or some other good fertilizer, and then keep the soil loose and clean throughout the season.

We cannot expect as quick returns from our fruit trees as from the garden, but that is no reason, as some seem to think, for neglecting them. The worse the treatment given them, the less care they have in the way of cultivation and fertilizing, the longer they will be in making a return upon the investment. Good treatment is essential in bringing them to early maturity. The strawberry beds should be cultivated by working the soil lightly between the rows, not deep enough nor close enough to the plants to disturb their roots. Then rake the mulch from above the plants and leave it between the rows where it will serve as a summer mulch, keeping the soil moist, preventing the weeds from growing, and, if drawn as close to the plant as it should be, keeping the fruit from contact with the ground. Many favor no cultivation of strawberries in the spring ; but aside from all other considerations, unless the ground is extremely clean to start with, it will be very difficult to keep the weeds in proper subjection by relying upon the mulch alone.

By the latter part of the month there will be some plants ready to remove from the hot-beds to the open ground. Even if not quite sure that we are through with freezing weather, a few cabbage and cauliflower plants may be put out, and protected at night with covers, as described in these pages in December last. Both these plants will withstand a good degree of cold, if they have been properly handled in the bed, and so made accustomed to the fresh air. In transplanting, take them up with a trowel in such a way as to retain about the roots a quantity of the rich soil of the bed; Exposure of the roots to cold and drying winds will check the vitality of the plant; and our object must be to keep the conditions as unchanged as possible. If the bed is showered lightly before lifting the plants it will be easier to retain the soil about them. It must not be understood that this method can be pursued on a large scale, as where thousands of plants must be handled in a day, as is the case with market-gardeners. There the plants are pulled up by hand, placed in bunches, and distributed along the rows by boys, who are followed by other hands who set them in.

But this first season we will take a little extra pains with every operation, so that we may not reap any of the fruit of failure, grown from the seeds of carelessness. For this early planting, and for some weeks to come, there will be sufficient moisture in the soil to answer all the needs of. the young plants. Later in the season, when putting out late cabbage and celery, we shall probably need to avail ourselves of our water privileges. If the ground upon which these plants are put is not already superlatively rich, it will be better to fertilize in the hill, rather than to spread manure broadcast. A wheel-barrow or hand-cart load of fine manure will suffice for a good many hills. A small shovel full should be thrown down at points two feet apart each way, and worked into the soil with the fork or hoe.

Thus the soil close about the roots, and from which the plant must draw its first sustenance, will contain an amount of plant food which it would be almost impossible to put within its reach by broadcast fertilizing.

Although cabbage may be a very common and plebeian vegetable, hardly to be named in the same garden that is to produce the more aristocratic cauliflower and the crisp celery, it is an item nevertheless which we will tolerate this season for the profit which it may afford. It may be true that every garden about us will contain cabbage, and trust everyone can grow it. But not everyone can manage to have it very early, to have good-sized, solid heads, and to have a proper succession. If we can accomplish this, and grow in all a couple of thousand heads of early and summer sorts, we shall have an item of steady income for a couple of months, and we may have the ground upon which it is grown cleared in plenty of time to be used for celery. To secure a good crop of cabbage, the cultivation must be thorough and constant. The nearer one approaches to the good old rule of " hoeing the cabbage every morning before breakfast," the nearer they will be to assured success.

But it is not upon cabbage that we must rely for showing the first proof that we are good gardeners. Early lettuce and early onions, early radishes and early beets are all good enough in their proper times and places. But it is the early peas, after all, that make the mouth water, and the heart of the gardener glad. To achieve success here, is to my mind almost glory enough for one season. And it is a beautiful crop to handle, from the time of sowing the round, creamy seeds, to the '*day in fair May" when we gather the first plump green pods. Here, perhaps more than with any other garden crop, we can get satisfactory evidence that our efforts to promote earliness are being rewarded. To secure this desideratum my method is as follows:

Planning the Summer Work.

I select a piece of mellow land lying level, or sloping gently to the south, and as soon as it is dry enough to permit I prepare this with the spading fork and the rake, until it can be refined no further. Through this I open furrows with the garden plow, making them two feet apart (for economy of space must be observed when we work land by hand-power instead of horse-power); then scatter in the furrows some of the same fertilizer that was used for the cabbage hills, and mix with the soil by running the plow through the furrow again. Into this furrow I scatter the seed, not dropping them in a single straight line, but in a row perhaps three inches wide, and so thickly that there are probably 50 seeds to each foot of the row. They are then covered by running the plow alongside the row and throwing the furrow over on them. But before planting the seed, there is an important item of preparation that must not be omitted. Twenty-four hours previous to sowing, I mix the seed with rich, fine soil, in about equal portions, and keep the mass damp and warm until ready to use. In that time the hard epidermis will become softened and usually broken, and often a tiny sprout will be put forth.

They are then ready, when put in the ground, to avail themselves of every advantage that nature offers for their sustenance and growth. If purchasers are not found for the surplus hot bed plants as rapidly as desired, procure some small boxes from the grocery, put in them about three inches of good soil, draw the plants from the beds and put them in the boxes, and leave for sale at the best grocery store in the place. Put the plants close together in rows containing fifty or a hundred each. Cover the roots well with the soil, and lay a small twig between the rows so they may be counted out easily. If kept out of the sun and wind, and moistened each morning, the plants may be kept in good condition for several days. It is a mistake to leave the plants in the beds too long ; as soon as a plant is large enough to handle it is large enough to transplant.

Now that we have fairly entered upon the season's work in the garden, the beginner will have a thousand questions to ask. Every day some new problem will confront him, many of which in the nature of things he must work out for himself, and wait with what patience he may until the progress of the season writes his answer in success or failure. Many of the questions may be answered in some single horticultural work, or within a single series of papers, but not all of them. The questions that arise are too diverse to be met within so limited a compass. The library of our little place should be stocked - not with a single work on gardening - but with as complete a reference library concerning the art horticultural as our means will warrant purchasing. Particularly should there be treatises by the best authorities upon especial subjects, such as the arts of pruning and grafting, the values and uses of fertilizers, the chemistry of agriculture, the culture of small fruits, of especial money crops, etc., etc. To these should be added, or rather the first place should be given to, the best current periodicals.

These should not be for effect, nor to ornament the shelves of the library, but should be consulted in every operation until we have become so familiar with every process that theory and practice are wholly reconciled. Thus utilized, every book and magazine will amply repay the investment made in them.

If to the above is added a practical work on botany, and we make use of it to identify the plants and weeds and grasses that we find every day in our strolls and work about our country home, we may gain from its study both pleasure and profit. If we are able to identify the weeds upon the lawn it may help us in rooting out something that may become specially obnoxious if passed by in ignorance. To know the flowers and shrubs, to name and class them, does not show pedantry, but a healthful interest in nature and her works, which, if we do not possess, loses us something of that very flavor that we came hither to seek. In the city it may be that the proper study of mankind is man. But in the country our proper study is nature and her works, and this we should pursue diligently to the end that we may become better custodians of the treasures which she will pour upon our little plot of earth.