Are often considered a great luxury, and always command a high price.
Early vegetables are secured by hotbeds and the various methods of
forcing, as given under the different species. Early fruits are obtained
by dwarfing, as given on that subject. Location, soil, and mode of
cultivation, also, have much to do with it. Warm location,
finely-pulverized soil, often stirred and kept moist, will materially
shorten the time of the maturity of fruits and vegetables. Seeds
imported from the North, where seasons are shorter, will mature earlier.
Another means of hastening maturity is to plant successively, from year
to year, the very first that ripens; this tends to dwarf in proportion
as the time of maturity is hastened. In this way such dwarfs as the
little Canada corn, that will mature at the South in six weeks, have
been produced. Various early plants, as tomatoes, cabbages, peppers, and
egg-plants, may be started in boxes or flower-pots in the house. Planted
in February here, or in January in the South, they will grow as well as
house-plants, and acquire considerable size before it is time to place
them in the open ground. This is convenient for those who have no
hotbeds. They must be kept from frost, and occasionally set out in a
warm day to harden, and they will do well.