498 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



deep, in which drop the seeds pretty thickly, as they can be thinned 

 out to the proper distance after they come up. If the sand or 

 weather be dry at the time of sowing, g^ive a little water in the drill 

 and immediately cover up. If the seed be good, the plants will 

 soon appear, and when they are advanced to a size large enough 

 to enable the gardener to choose the most promising, let them 

 be thinned out to the distance of six or seven inches, the distance 

 at which they may remain. During the summer, the bed should 

 be occasionally watered with dujig water ; and this for the purpose 

 of encouraging the growth of the plants on their first setting off"; 

 and as manure given in this shape is more fugitive than when 

 applied in a more solid or concentrated state, it cannot impart 

 rankness to the plants when they arrive at that age fit to be brought 

 to table. 



The plants cannot be forced, nor should any of their shoots be 

 cut, the first winter after sowing ; but should be suffered and 

 assisted to establish themselves, and gain sufficient strength to 

 yield adequate crops, in the succeeding years. 



About the month of November in the second winter after sowing, 

 a part at one end of the bed should be prepared for forcing. For 

 this purpose, and in order that it may be done with facility and 

 effect, a rough wooden fi^ame or frames should be made, eighteen 

 inches high behind, and one foot high in front, shaped like a com- 

 mon hot-bed frame, and of any convenient and portable length ; 

 and in width, the same as the bed. Light wooden covers in con- 

 venient lengths should be fixed by hinges to the back ; these 

 may be raised at will for admission of light and air, and, in fine 

 weather, may be thrown entirely back. When the frames are 

 placed, dig out the alleys one foot deep to receive linings of hot 

 dung, which may be banked up against both the back and front of 

 the frame. The surface of the bed within the frame must be 

 covered with soft, short straw, or hay, nine inches thick, to arrest 

 ,the heat which rises from the linings, and form that warm humid 

 region into which the shoots will advance. The temperature of 

 these dark frames must be regulated by due attendance ; and in 

 intensely cold or frosty weather, the frames at night will require 

 coverings of mats and litter, to prevent the plants receiving a 

 check. 



The required supply of the family — the time for it — and the 

 length or number of the frames, must be judged of by the gar- 

 dener, and who will act accordingly ; but two frames are indis- 

 pensable ; because the second should be considerably advanced by 

 the time the crop in the first is all cut. 



Young plants may be transplanted ; and if they are to be had, 

 may be tried ; but the safer way is to sow and plant both, to pre- 

 vent disappointment ; and in order that the roots be not too much 

 exhausted by forcing, one bed should be forced in one year, and 

 another the next. 



The crowns of the roots have a tendency to rise; and as annual 



