| Show CHINESE TRICKS OF TRADE some unique gardening methods which have brought large financial returns worth copying by nf F rittenhouse A chinese market gardener of our town who has grown rich at his bust ness has some very unique methods but which are worth copying for his gardens both artistically and financially are a great success lie ile saves savea ills his squash and pumpkin seeds for the next years planting by the simple process procesa of keeping the squash or pumpkin that especially strikes his fancy in a cool dry p place lace until the next planting season then be plants them with pieces of the c preserve onions in winter pulp adhering and they appear above gro ground und with mushroom like promptness ilia hlo muskmelon seed he ties up in a bag of coarse burlap and covers this loosely with rich soil allowing the seeds to sprout before planting them ile he also preserves hla his cucumber seeds in the cucumber which he coats carefully with as soon Is as pulled from the vine when he irrigates Ini gates ilia his potatoes a and nd he raises two crops on the same land each year he waters long and deeply and his potatoes never grow near enough to the surface to get sunburned as do those of the inexperienced gardeners who lightly sprinkle the surface of their potato patch as scantily and as often as they sprinkle their lettuce beds there Is no question as to the superiority perio perlo rity in size arid and quality of the deep grown potato over those grown close to the surface ills his beet seed are soaked in water for at least forty eight hours before planting lie he sets them to soak in warm water and during the daytime keeps the vessel containing them as much in the sunshine as possible I 1 I 1 have never yet seen him bim throw away a young plant of any description ile he merely transplants them and I 1 to do not believe it an exaggeration to say that nine tenths of the plants survive and flourish for he IF is surely a past master in the art for it Is an art of transplanting for example when his lettuce plants grow to about the height of two inches he thins out the bed and clipping oft off about in an inch of the root tip of each plant he pulls up III he e re plants in long rows and th the transplanted lettuce makes a more rapid and larger growth than the plants which lie he has left undisturbed the replanted or rather transplanted lettuce with its clipped roots grows to such enormous heads beads that at a short distance they remind one of thrifty cabbage rows ile he never uproots the head bead lettuce he markets instead lie he leaves the stalks in the ground and waters arid and cultivates them whereupon they pr produce odice another head in about half the time required for the head to reach a marketable size ills beet plants plantis are transplanted with roots in precisely the same manner Rs as the lettuce ills onions which art arp invariably started from the seed he refuses lap to uee sets apts are transplanted after having haring their roots clipped and grow to he be larger in circumference than the ordinary saucer ile he also beheads his cabbage leaving the stalk to grow ho fie cuts nicks or gashes in the growing stalk which watered and add tended produces produce 3 a second growth that are in ill appearance fair imitations of brussell bruss pl sprouts sprout 8 and quite as a good to eat ills faith in the forcing powers of warm water la Is sublime I 1 have known him to heat apat water for his radishes fit n the chill days of spring testing its temperature as carefully as if preparing a babas bath ile he to Is equally expert in rooting rose cuttings this he does docs during the en tire year ear but he be considers august the most auspicious month though 1 I doubt if he could give a reason reabon for thinking so ile he plants his cuttings by thrusting Ms his spade once deep in the soil eoll ile he then slips the cutting in the opening draws out the spade presses the earth down firmly and the cutting is 1 planted |
