THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 29 



and when slightly trodden must be covered with boards to shut in 

 the heat and keep out the cold and wet. Finally, the beds should 

 be covered with six inches depth of the same hot dung. In a mild 

 winter the routine may be modified with a view to economy ; and, 

 as the season advances, the amount of heating material required to 

 start a bed will become less and less. 



A better quality of forced asparagus, less fat, but green, and 

 therefore tender, and with the welcome flavour of a good sample, 

 may be obtained by taking up the plants and forcing them in pita 

 and frames. It is a very simple business. The plants should be 

 taken from beds three or four years old, and planted in light soil on 

 well-made hotbeds, or beds heated by hot-water pipes. A gentle 

 heat suffices, and indeed the slower the forcing the better the pro- 

 duce. As the glass protects the plant from frost, it may enjoy light 

 and air, except when the weather is severe, and therefore need not 

 be much moulded up, the object being to obtain short, plump, dark- 

 green shoots of the most'tender and richly-flavoured kind, fit to "set 

 before a king." A large, deep bed of leaves, with a sufficiency of 

 old lights and walls of turf, or loose bricks, or stout boards set on 

 edge with pegs to hold them, afford machinery enough for the pro- 

 duction of the finest forced asparagus, provided only there is a 

 strong plantation of some years' standing to begin with for the 

 supply of stools for the purpose. 



PLANTS TOUCHED WITH FROST. 



[HATEVER is touched with frost keep dark and cool, 

 and damage will be lessened, if not entirely obviated. 

 The effect of frost on plants depends considerably on 

 the state it finds them in. Soft-wooded greenhouse 

 plants are killed instanter if they are in a moist atmo- 

 sphere and growing temperature with full enjoyment of light ; but 

 if moderately dry, and well covered so as to he almost in total dark- 

 ness, very many even of the tenderest will bear a few degrees with 

 impunity. This advice may be of use now, for we may have a smart 

 time of it yet, before the cowslips blossom. If frost gets into a house, 

 and makes its mark on the minimum thermometer, draw down the 

 blind, if you have one, at once, or cover the lights with tarpaulin, 

 straw, or whatever may be at hand to exclude the light, and be par- 

 ticularly careful not to get up the heat in a hurry. To raise the 

 temperature is, of course, essential, but it will be well to keep it 

 at about 33° for a day at least, that thawing may take place slowly. 

 A few degrees of frost met in this way will do much less harm than 

 is generally inflicted where the terrified cultivator heaps on the fuel, 

 jn the mistaken notion that fire is the proper antidote to freezing. 

 The same remark holds good as to fruit. The frost gets into part 

 of the store of apples and pears, and some are frozen hard. If they 

 are allowed to thaw slowly, and in the dark, they are not a whit the 

 worse for the visitation. If thawed in full daylight, they would 

 probably melt in the operation. 



.Tannery. 



