lass devoted
to vegetables, chiefly lettuce. There are more than five million
feet in the United States used for other crops. Ordinarily, under
favorable conditions, glass devoted to this work will yield an
average of fifty cents per year per square foot.

About the lowest estimate of cost per sash is five dollars; this
amount includes the cost of one fourth of the frame and covers.
There are usually four sashes to one frame. A well-made mortised
plank frame costs four to six dollars. A sash, unglazed, costs from
one to two dollars. Glazing costs seventy-five cents. Mats and
shutters cost from fifty cents to two dollars per sash, depending
upon the material used. Double thick glass pays better in the end as
being less liable to breakage. These prices vary greatly, however.

The following sample estimate by a gardener is for a market garden
of one acre, in which it is desired to grow a general line of
vegetables. It supposes that half of the acre is to be set with
plants from hotbeds.

One eighth acre to early cauliflower and cabbage, about 2000 plants,
if transplanted, would require two 6 X 12 frames, from two hundred
to two hundred and fifty plants being grown under each sash.

These frames may be used again for tomato plants for the same area,
using about 450 plants. This will allow a sash for every 55 plants.

One frame should be in use at the same time for eggplants and
peppers, two sashes of each, growing fifty transplanted plants under
each sash.

Two frames will be required for cucumbers, melons, and early
squashes; for extra early lettuce, an estimate of sixty to seventy
heads should be made to a sash. It is assumed that celery and late
cabbages are to be started in seed beds in the open.

In the fashionable suburbs of Boston "one hotbed 3 X 6 feet was used
in which to start the seeds of early vegetables. Plantings were made
in the open ground as soon as the weather permitted, and were
continued at intervals throughout the season whenever there was a
vacant spot in the garden. The following varieties of vegetables,
mostly five-and ten-cent packets, were planted: Pole and wax beans,
beets, kale, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumbers,
corn salad, endive, eggplant, kohlrabi, lettuce, muskmelon, onions,
peppers, peas, salsify, radish, spinach, squash, tomatoes, turnips,
rutabagas, escarole, chives, shallot, parsley, sweet and Irish
potatoes, and nearly a dozen different kinds of sweet herbs