THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 333 



most likely require water ; use it tepid, at about 70', and give a mode- 

 rate soaking. Give a little air in the day, -when it is not actually 

 freezing, increasing the quantity as the grass shows itself above the 

 ground, or it will be found to be deficient in flavour. Besides, it 

 requires air to colour the points of the grass, or they have tlie 

 appearance of bleached sticks. 



I once forced some excellent asparagus in one of those old- 

 fashioned pineries with a pit running through the middle of it. As 

 the pines had been dispensed with, I grew my grass there without 

 any extra preparation, as the heat required for the early pines was 

 sufficient for the asparagus. 



In some good old gardens there are to be seen permanent beds 

 made for forcing out of doors. A four and a half inch brick wall is 

 run along each side to form the sides of the bed four feet deep, the 

 two feet from top being built on the pigeon-hole fashion, the vacant 

 space between the beds, to the depth of three feet, being left open to 

 receive fermenting materials, so that when it is desirable to force it, 

 the vacant spaces between have to be filled up with leaves, etc., and 

 the heat penetrates these pigeon-holes to the roots of the asparagus. 

 This plan is certainly an expensive one at the outset, but I question 

 if it is not as economical in the end as any other method known to 

 practical men. Where manure is abundant, as it is in many good 

 establishments near London, the gardener having first pull at the 

 produce of the stables, the pigeon-hole system is invaluable, as the 

 manure can be carried direct from the stables to the trenches, and 

 there undergo the first fermentation, which fits it for other purposes, 

 and turns to profitable account the rank heat which is usually 

 wasted. 



PLANTS FOR SMALL TOWN CONSERYATOEIES. 



EY A LO^DOX AMATEUFw 



AYINGr been a reader of the Ploeal "Woeld for some 

 twelve years, I begin to feel a sort of obligation to con- 

 tribute something to its pages, for by its help I have 

 learned to grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables. I have 

 ™ taken about one hundred and fifty prizes at exhibitions, 

 and for a long time past my garden, which used to be seriously expen- 

 sive, now more than pnys its own way, for if I value at market rates 

 all I obtain from it, I know I am considerably the gainer. I remem- 

 ber, when our worthy Editor gave his capital series of papers on 

 " Grapes for the_ Million," he told us how some of the sunny 

 town conservatories, which he described as ovens in summer and 

 refrigerators in winter, answered admirably for grapes, and would 

 even give in good seasons a fine bunch for every square foot of glass- 

 roof. Well, I have seen much of those little glass boxes, which the 

 kind builders stick on the sides of houses, and call " conservatories," 

 and about only one in ten, to my certain knowledge, is ever employed 

 for plant growing, in a way which satisfies their owners. All sorts 



