420 VILLA GAEDENING part v 



side the garden and convenient for bringing in the manure and 

 leaves. Manure alone will not do without a good deal of turning 

 and intermixing ; there should be at least an equal part of leaves, 

 or it will be better if two-thirds of the bulk are leaves, especially 

 if the manure is fresh from the stable. When manure is used 

 without any admixture of leaves the heat is too fiery at first, and 

 when the first heat has passed, which it does rapidly, there is no 

 means of resuscitation except by re-making the bed and adding 

 fresh manure. As forcing with manure alone is usually so unsatis- 

 factory, I do not recommend it ; and it generally imparts a bad 

 flavour to the Kale. Seakale may be forced with the aid of 

 fermenting materials, by those who like that plan best, in an ordi- 

 nary hotbed, by lifting the roots in December, planting in a frame 

 placed on a bed of fermenting materials, and matting up the lights 

 to keep them dark, or wooden shutters may be used instead of 

 glass. The roots may be lifted and planted in a bed or heap of 

 soil in the Melon ground or on any convenient place, be surrounded 

 with boards temporarily placed, have other boards placed on the 

 top, a good thick lining of leaves and manure round the sides, and 

 a lesser thickness on the top. In short, there is no end to the 

 combinations which may be resorted to for the production of forced 

 Seakale ; and the person who cannot adopt one of the plans sug- 

 gested, or modify them to suit his own case, must be a dullard 

 indeed. There is no reason why Seakale should not be plentiful 

 in every middle-class garden in the kingdon. The roots should be 

 grown in an open sunny situation, to ensm-e well-grown and well- 

 ripened crowns, and the latter is quite as important a matter as 

 the former. When the leaves of fruit trees seem to cling linger- 

 ingly to the trees we think it an evidence of unripe wood, and we 

 would rather see them part easily and readily when the season's 

 work was done. So it is with Seakale or any other plant grown 

 for forcing. When the leaves ripen off" aU together, the roots will 

 start quickly and the crowns spring up strongly and in good time. 

 As Regards Diseases, Seakale may be said to have none. 

 Slugs and their kincked will eat oft' the young plants in spring, but 

 they yield to the usual modes of attack. The Turnip beetle and 

 its kindred are sometimes troublesome when the seedling jilants 

 first emerge from the soil, but dustings of fresh lime and sm-face 

 stirring will quickly dislodge them. 



