Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/73

 Popular Science Monthly

��Growing Other Vegetables in Cellars Near Paris seed is sown in the open air between April and June. At the beginning of winter the young chicory is taken up, the leaves cut off just above the neck and the chicory placed in heaps covered with leaves in a shed. A layer of manure is arranged in a dark cellar, and the roots tied in bundles are set in it. The chicon,- shoots out rapidly in the warm air. At the end of two or three weeks it is read\- to use; no care is needed except occa- sional watering.

Early potatoes have also been grown underground. The potatoes are placed on beds of garden mold laid on planks two feet from the ground. The cellar or galler\' must be absolutely dark. After three weeks the potato sprouts are cut down several inches. Two or three months later the sprouts are surrounded by a number of small white potatoes. The growths can be arranged so as to have a succession of new potatoes from October to March, when they arrive from the south. The method although ingenious, has not proved to be very profitable.

So far as mushrooms are concerned they can be grown almost anywhere out of doors and also within doors, according to the Department of Agri-

At right : A bed of endive in a subterranean passage. The cellar farms have been found especially useful for blanching vegetables

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culture. Where there is a dry bottom on which to place the beds, where a uniform and moderate temperature can be maintained, and where the beds can be protected from wet, winds, draughts, and direct sunshine mushrooms will thrive.

����Placing potatoes in a mold. The plantings are arranged so as to provide for a succession of new potatoes from October until March, after which time the demand is supplied from the South

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