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.”

“In the larger garden, tomatoes followed peas, turnips the wax beans, early lettuce for fall use took the place of Refugee beans.  Corn salad succeeded lettuce.”

“The spinach was followed by cabbage, while turnips, beets, carrots, celery, and spinach gave a second crop in the plot occupied by Gardus peas and Emperor William beans.”

" Winter radishes came after telephone peas, Paris Golden celery was planted in between the hills of Stowell’s blanching.  The plot of early corn was sown to turnips.  The hotbed was used during the late fall and winter to store some of the hardy vegetables, and the latter part of October there was placed in it some endive, escarole, celeriac, and the remaining space was filled up by transplanting leeks, chives, and parsley.” (Bailey, “Principles of Vegetable Gardening,” page 38.)

“If spinach is grown in frames, the sash used for one of the late crops above may be used through the following winter.

“This, like the last case, makes a total of five frames, the cost, depending on make and material, from one to five dollars; twenty sash and covers, at, say, $2.75, $55; manure at market price, calculating at least three or four loads per frame.  This is a liberal estimate of space, and should allow for all ordinary loss of plants, and for discarding the weak and inferior ones.  It supposes that most or all of the plants are to be transplanted once or more in the frames.  Many gardeners have less equipment of glass.” (Same, pages 49-50 )

Growing vegetables under glass gives smaller returns than flowers; as, for instance, a head of lettuce brings much less than a plant of carnations, and suffers more from the competition of southern crops.  Nevertheless, the greenhouse-grown vegetables have come into prominence lately because they can be raised in houses that are not good enough for flowers.  Lettuce and tomatoes are the principal crops; some growers raise thousands of dollars’ worth each year.  The greenhouse is also used for forcing plants which are afterwards transplanted to the open air.  This develops them at a time when they could not grow outdoors and gives them such a start that they are very early on the market, thereby realizing the highest prices.