CHAP. VIII VILLA GARDENING 433 



fiunuals. I wrote this on the last day of 1883, having just made 

 my usual sowing of Cauliflowers. The sorts are Veitcli's Early 

 Forcing, Early London, Walcheren, and Autumn Giant. The seeds 

 are sown in pans covered lightly with sandy soil, and placed on a 

 shelf in a house where the temperature is about 60° at night. 

 When the young plants appear they will occupy a position in the 

 fidl light near the glass, and when large enough will be pricked off 

 into 60-sized pots, one plant in each pot. The soil and pots will 

 be taken into the house to be heated a little before potting takes 

 place. The plants are grown on in the same temperatm-e till March, 

 when they will be well established ; they should then be hardened 

 off, and planted out early in April. This plan will not give more 

 trouble than is taken every spring with the same number of bedding 

 plants, and they do not bolt as sometimes happens vnth those raised 

 in August. Still another way of raising the first early Cavdiflower 

 plants may be described as intermediate between the cool treatment 

 first mentioned and the warm plan last described. About the 

 middle of October sow the seeds in boxes and place in a frame which 

 rests on, say, an exhausted Melon or Cucumber bed, and still 

 retains a little of the summer's warmth. Keep close till the seeds 

 germinate, then give air freely, and when the plants are large 

 enough pot oft' singly in small pots. Winter on a shelf in the 

 lightest part of the greenhouse. 



Planting under Handlights. — These are old-fashioned but 

 very excellent contrivances, of which I suppose no one has too many. 

 About March — acting, as all must, accortling to the character of the 

 weather — arrange the lights for the early crop in a warm, sunny, 

 sheltered position, where the soil is deep and rich, 3 feet apart each 

 way, and plant fovu- plants under each light. As the season ad- 

 vances ventilation will be required, either by placing the lights on 

 bricks, or, if the lights have movable tops, by altering their position. 

 A few early Cauliflowers may generally be obtained by planting in 

 front of a south wall, almost close to it, to take advantage of the 

 sun's warmth, which accumulates there both on the soil and in 

 the air. Such plants may be further assisted by a ridge of soil 

 in front; and when the weather gets warm later in the season 

 this ridge will help to confine the soakings of liquid manure which 

 good cultivators will obtain by hook or by crook for their early 

 Cauliflowers. 



SuccESSioNAL SOWINGS should be made in March in heat. 

 A few seeds may be sown among any other young crops, such as 

 early Horn Carrots, as the Cauliflowers will be transplanted before 

 any harm can be done. If it is not convenient to do this, sow the 

 seed in a box, and place it where there is some artificial warmth, 



2 F 



