PRODUCTIVE FAMILY GARDENING. 



519 



cultivated for its proper season, and only- 

 costly when forced. For instance, many 

 acres are grown that are merely put out in 

 rows and earthed up. When the sprouts 

 come forwaixl they break the earth on the 

 surface, the cultivator then removes the 

 earth low enough to enable him to cut off 

 the shoots down clean to the crown of the 

 plants. Here, as neither fire-heat nor dung 

 is used, it cannot be said to cost much. 

 The proper mode of cultivation is to sow 

 the seed three or four in a spot, these spots 

 being eigfhteen inches apart in the rows, 

 and the rows three feet apart. When they 

 have vegetated, keep the strongest and 

 take away the others, which may be trans- 

 planted in continuation after the same 

 plan, and, if carefully done, will not be 

 much behind those that have not been dis- 

 turbed. They may grow on for three sea- 

 sons with nothing more than the earth 

 drawn up to the roots, and being kept clear 

 of weeds. Now if you have large flower- 

 pots, or kale-pots, they may at Christmas 

 be covered over the individual plants, and 

 be surrounded by dung from the stable or 

 leaves, the plants will shoot much sooner 

 than if they were only earthed up ; but the 

 least trouble is to earth up the rows into a 

 flat-topped bank by digging an eighteen- 

 inch trench between the rows and putting 

 the soil that comes out upon the plants, 

 covering them eight inches. In the spring 

 the plants begin to shoot, and when they 

 break the surface it is known that the 

 shoots are long enough for the purpose, and 

 that they may be uncovered and cut, but 

 those under the pots covered with dung or 

 leaves will have been forward enough to 

 cut weeks before. Sea-kale, however, is 

 not an economical vegetable, because the 

 ground, like an asparagus-bed, is occupied 

 the year round for one crop. This can be 

 in part counteracted by cropping between 

 the rows as soon as the kale is cut, for the 

 bank is then levelled, the plants allowed to 

 grow till the autumn, and all this time 

 lettuces may be planted out and got ofTthe 

 ground ; or spinach, or a couple or three 

 drills of turnips sowed directly the kale is 

 done with, will come well into use before 

 the plants need be earthed up again. 



CUCUMBE'R AND VEGETABLE-MARROW. 



If you can sow in a hot-bed a few seeds 



of cucumber and gourds to use as vegeta- 

 ble-marrow, and have a spare place in a 

 south border to plant them, the chances are 

 that you get a good supply of both. Sow 

 them in April ; grow them singly in pots 

 till the second week in June, stopping the 

 shoots at the second joint ; plant them out 

 in June, and there will be a good recom- 

 pense for your trouble. [No hot-bed is 

 necessary in this climate. Sow the seeds 

 in deep rich soil in the open ground. Ed. 

 HoRT.] The vegetable-marrow must not 

 be allowed to grow too large ; they ought 

 to be eaten before the seeds are formed : 

 while young they are like marrow, but af- 

 ter a certain age they become a mere jelly, 

 and when they lose their firmness and 

 swell they are watery, faint, and unwhole- 

 some. 



LETTUCE AKD OTHER SALADS. 



Lettuce, corn-salad, small salad, and 

 other herbs for the same purposes, may be 

 sown each month, but corn-salad is by far 

 the most economical of all the small salads, 

 because you keep picking from it the leaves, 

 and they grow again continually. Lettu- 

 ces, both the cos and the cabbage sorts, 

 may be sown on a warm border in Februa- 

 ry, March, April, May, June, and July, and 

 in frames, or with some protection, all the 

 rest of the months. They may be watered 

 and drawn out for planting according as 

 they get strong enough, and ground is va- 

 cant. There is no season to regulate their 

 growth any more than their consumption, 

 but it may be taken as a general rule that 

 the cabbage kinds are the most hardy, and 

 do with least trouble all through winter, 

 and that, as they want protection, even 

 when sown in February, in an open bor- 

 der, the best way is to sow them with onions 

 for pulling young, and with radishes to draw 

 young, and the same litter that covers for 

 one will cover for all. Lettuces ought to 

 be planted out a foot apart in the row, and 

 eighteen inches from row to row. Radish- 

 es, like other salads, may be sown every 

 month, if the demand warrants its being 

 done, but in the summer time so many 

 things crowd in upon the gardener that he 

 hardly knows what to be at, so that he 

 ought well to study not only the most usefu 1 

 vegetables, but also those which are longest 

 in perfection when once produced. 



