430 



PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 



rain-water ; 2. Always let it be milk-warm ; 

 3. To every quart of rain-water add half a 

 grain of nitrate of ammonia, or sulphate of 

 ammonia ; 4. Invariably keep up a continual 

 current of warm fresh air through the gar- 

 den whenever the circumsrances of the 



season will permit ; the easiest method of 

 accomplishing this, which is equally impor- 

 tant in large as in small houses, and yet 

 is almost universally neglected, we shall 

 consider on a future occasion. — Gardener^s 

 Chronicle. 



PRACTICAL HINTS TO AMATEURS. 



BY AN OLD DIGGER. 



You may plant peas, for the earliest crop, 

 as soon as the frost is out of the ground, 

 and it is fit to dig. Choose a warm, shel- 

 tered spot, and use rotten stable manure 

 and ashes in preparing the soil, before sow- 

 ing the seed. Peas don't mind a hard 

 frost, even when on rich or too high ground ; 

 and therefore the earlier you plant, the ear- 

 lier you pick. If you have to plant in the 

 open garden, you may hasten your crop 

 by sowing the drills east and west, and 

 setting a board on the ground edgeways, 

 on the north side, to shelter each row. 

 " Prince Albert" is one of the best early 

 sorts. 



Rhubarb is an invaluable plant to those 

 who like a spring tart. You may have 

 yours ready to cut a week before your 

 neighbor's, without the trouble of forcing, 

 if you set your plants in a border on the 

 south side of a wall or light board fence, 

 and take the precaution to loosen up the 

 soil, and cover each crown of roots with a 

 bushel basket full of black peat earth the 

 autumn before. 



Some men are marvellously fond of pru- 

 ning, and go about cutting a limb here, and 

 a branch there, without " rhyme or reason." 

 Don't prune your standard trees, unless the 

 branches are so unnatural as to crowd each 

 other; and even then, they should be thin- 

 ned out as little as possible to answer the 

 purpose. Or, in the other case, where the 



tree has got into a stunted and feeble state, 

 when a shortening-back the terminal shoots, 

 along with a good dressing of manure, will 

 make it push out strong, healthy shoots 

 again. 



If you wish to get early crops in your 

 kitchen garden, make some boxes two feet 

 square, and a foot high. Knock them to- 

 gether out of, any rough boards; and if 

 you cannot afford to glaze the whole top, 

 (and, to say the truth, it is a waste of money,) 

 put a single light in — a 7-by-9. If you want 

 a hill of early cucumbers, melons, or toma- 

 toes, dig out a hole of the size of .the box, 

 and two and a half feet deep, fill it with 

 fresh stable manure mixed with litter, tread 

 the manure down firmly till there is room 

 for six or eight inches of good light soil. 

 On the latter plant your seeds. They will 

 soon start, with the slight warmth of the 

 manure, and the box will protect them at 

 night, and during cold and stormy days, 

 till the season is settled. Every mild day 

 you will, of course, raise it up on one side 

 an inch or two, for fresh air ; and in posi- 

 tively warm days, remove it for a few hours 

 altogether. In this way, you will get a 

 crop, at small cost, a long start in advance 

 of the unsheltered growth along side, and 

 have none of the bother and vexation of 

 transplanting, from hot-beds. The boxes 

 cost very little, if you make them yourself; 

 and if laid away as soon as there is no fur- 



