Endive:—This is a substitute for lettuce for which I personally have never cared. It is largely used commercially. Broad-leaved Batavian is a good variety. Giant Fringed is the largest.
Kale:—Kale is a foreigner which has never been very popular in this country. Dwarf Scott Curled is the tenderest and most delicate (or least coarse) in flavor.
Kohlrabi:—This peculiar mongrel should be better known. It looks as though a turnip had started to climb into the cabbage class and stopped half-way. When gathered young, not more than an inch and a half in diameter at the most, they are quite nice and tender. They are of the easiest cultivation. White Vienna is the best.
Leek:—For those who like this sort of thing it is—just the sort of thing they like. American Flag is the best variety, but why it was given the first part of that name, I do not know.
Lettuce:—To cover the lettuces thoroughly would take a chapter by itself. For lack of space, I shall have to mention only a few varieties, although there are many others as good and suited to different purposes. For quality, I put Mignonette at the top of the list, but it makes very small heads. Grand Rapids is the best loose- head sort—fine for under glass, in frames and early outdoors. Last fall from a bench 40 x 4 ft., I sold $36 worth in one crop, besides some used at home. I could not sell winter head lettuce to customers who had once had this sort, so good was its quality. May King and Big Boston are the best outdoor spring and early summer sorts. New York and Deacon are the best solid cabbage-head types for resisting summer heat, and long standing. Of the cos type Paris White is good.
Muskmelon:—The varieties of muskmelon are also without limit. I mention but two—which have given good satisfaction out of a large number tried, in my own experience. Netted Gem (known as Rocky Ford) for a green-fleshed type, and Emerald Gem for salmon-fleshed. There are a number of newer varieties, such as Hoodoo, Miller's Cream, Montreal, Nutmeg, etc., all of excellent quality.
Watermelon:—With me (in Connecticut) the seasons are a little short for this fruit. Cole's Early and Sweetheart have made the best showing. Halbert Honey is the best for quality.
Okra:—In cool sections the Perfected Perkins does best, but it is not quite so good in quality as the southern favorite, White Velvet. The flowers and plants of this vegetable are very ornamental.
Onion:—For some unknown reason, different seedsmen call the same onion by the same name. I have never found any explanation of this, except that a good many onions given different names in the catalogues are really the same thing. At least they grade into each other more than other vegetables. With me Prizetaker is the only sort now grown in quantity, as I have found it to outyield all other yellows, and to be a good keeper. It is a little milder in quality than the American yellows—Danvers and Southport Globe. When started under glass and transplanted out in April, it attains the size and the quality of the large Spanish onions of which it is a descendant. Weathersfield Red is the standard flat red, but not quite so good in quality or for keeping as Southport Red Globe. Of the whites I like best Mammoth Silver-skin. It is ready early and the finest in quality, to my taste, of all the onions, but not a good keeper. Ailsa Craig, a new English sort now listed in several American catalogues, is the best to grow for extra fancy onions, especially for exhibiting; it should be started in February or March under glass.
Parsley:—Emerald is a large-growing, beautifully colored and mild-flavored sort, well worthy of adoption.