THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 



trouble, but keeps growing till the plants run up 

 to seed. To give additional size to the leaves, 

 cut off the seed-stalks. In taking away the leaf- 

 stalks for use, do not cut them, but wrench them 

 from the main stock, so as to take them out by 

 the socket. The variety called Victoria Rhubarb 

 is the one generally cultivated by growers for 

 market ; but the following, and especially the 

 first four, possess much more delicacy of flavour : 

 Slot's Monarch, Scottish Champion, St Martin's, 

 Nonpareil, Linnaeus, Prince Albert, New Crimson, 

 and Scarlet Defiance. Rhubarb may be forced 

 by very simple means. A common method is 

 to cover it in the early part of the winter with a 

 box, surrounded with tree leaves or stable 

 manure. This blanches as well as brings for- 

 ward the stalks. Some force rhubarb in darkened 

 forcing-houses, or cellars ; and we have known 

 farmers have it at Christmas, and onwards 

 through the winter, by growing it on temporary 

 deal boards suspended under the roofs of their 

 feeding-byres. For forcing, plants at least two 

 years old are most suitable; and outdoor plants 

 should be allowed to retain all their leaves for 

 at least the first year after planting. Watering 

 copiously is necessary in the early stages of growth, 

 whether in the open air or under boxes. A well- 

 planted plot of rhubarb will continue productive 

 for seven or eight years. 



Sea-kale is a perennial vegetable, deriving its 

 name from being found growing in a wild state on 

 the sandy coasts of Europe, including those of 

 England. The method of garden culture is 

 as follows : the ground should be trenched and 

 prepared as for asparagus ; and at any dry period 

 of March, when the surface-earth will work freely, 

 drills should be drawn by the line, two inches 

 deep, and the seeds scattered along them, or five 

 or six seeds should be inserted at distances of 

 two feet apart. The seeds are then covered with 

 earth, and when the plants become strong, they 

 are to be thinned of supernumeraries, leaving one 

 or two of the strongest remaining, eighteen inches 

 or two feet asunder every way. If the plants are 

 weak, it will be prudent to retain double the num- 

 ber. During the first season, nothing more will 

 be required than to keep the bed or row free of 

 weeds. In the following spring, if the plants 

 stand nearer to each other than eighteen inches, 

 the surplus number should be carefully raised, 

 and transferred to another prepared space, plant- 

 ing the crowns of the roots two inches below the 

 surface, and eighteen inches to two feet apart. Or 

 thickish pieces of the old roots cut in lengths of 

 two to three inches may be planted. In either 

 case the first crop may be taken the second year : 

 after sowing or planting ; and the plantation will 

 remain productive for many years. 



Sea-kale may be forced at various periods, com- 

 mencing with November, by inverting large pots 

 over the plants, and covering those with warm 

 dung, or dung and leaves, to excite and main- 

 tain a heat in the pot and soil of about 

 55 Fahrenheit. Or this may be done by remov- 

 ing its roots to a forcing-house, as recommended 

 for rhubarb. Thus sea-kale is at command from 

 December to March by heat, and then the succes- 

 sion can be maintained during April and part of 

 May out of doors by covering up the crowns with 

 inverted pots, having a little earth laid around to 

 keep them in place and exclude light. Straw in 



contact with any blanched plants is unsuitable, as 

 it communicates a bad flavour. Where the plant 

 grows wild, by sea-shores, it is gathered in the 

 finest condition when whitened by the sand, which 

 the wind piles gently over its head in the manner 

 of a snow-wreath. 



Spinach is an annual of which there are three 

 principal kinds : the round - leaved or smooth- 

 seeded, which, as well as the next, is sown chiefly 

 for spring and summer crops ; broad - leaved 

 Flanders; and the triangular - leaved, prickly- 

 seeded, or winter spinach. The first two should 

 be sown about the end of January, and again in 

 February and March, for successive spring and 

 summer crops, in drills twelve to fifteen inches 

 apart, or between rows of peas and beans, as the 

 crop will be removed before these require the full 

 space. The triangular-leaved is to be sown at the 

 end of July and in August for coming into use at 

 the beginning of winter and in early spring ; the 

 plants require thinning and hoeing. The outer 

 leaves only are to be taken during winter and 

 spring, the inner leaves forming in their turn an 

 ample succession. Spinach may be raised in any 

 common garden soil ; but the more that soil has 

 been previously enriched with dung the better ; 

 and for either winter or summer spinach it is 

 hardly possible to manure the ground too highly, 

 as succulency adds greatly to the value of this 

 vegetable. Liquid manure proves effective. Always 

 select an open situation, not too near low-spread- 

 ing trees, &c. ; as in close and shady places it is 

 mostly drawn up weak, and soon runs to seed, 

 without attaining perfection. A kind of wild- 

 spinach is not uncommon in Britain (Chenopodium 

 Bonus-Henricus} ; but it is inferior in succulency, 

 and more bitter than the garden sort, which, how- 

 ever, in the estimation of many, is surpassed by 

 the young shoots of the common nettle, that in 

 early spring abound under hedges, in old pastures, 

 and waste places. 



Leaf or Spinach Beets (Beta cicla and B. mar- 

 itima). Of the first there are three varieties 

 with plain leaves namely, white, red, and yellow, 

 each of which has a sub- variety with curled or 

 crisped leaves. Their cultivation is the same as 

 recommended for beet-root, page 554, All are 

 distinguished by the brilliant colours and large 

 size of their leaf-stems; which, besides insuring for 

 them prominent positions in the flower-garden, 

 and even in window-pots, are used in autumn and 

 early winter, cooked in the manner of sea-kale. 

 The leaves of their young thinnings, as well as 

 those of the other garden and field beets, form 

 agreeable substitutes for the common spinach in 

 summer ; and their very early as well as abundant 

 spring growth of young leaves specially recom- 

 mends them to cottagers, for use at a period when 

 green vegetables are scarcest. For spring use the 

 plain-leaved white is preferred, from being con- 

 sidered hardier than the others.; and it should be 

 sown in the last week of July or first of August, 

 the plants being thinned afterwards to only about 

 three or four inches apart The Sea-beet (B. mar- 

 itima) is noted by our oldest horticultural authors 

 as an excellent substitute for spinach, and might 

 with but little cultural care be grown largely on 

 sea-coasts that now produce little. 



Vegetable marrow is a species of gourd (Cucur- 

 bita), the pulp of which, from its richness and 

 flavour, has been called marrow. Its leading 



559 



