6$ KEEPING COWS. [No. 



will grow fast and be straight and strong. 1 suppose 

 that these beds for plants take 4 rods of your ground. 

 Early in November, or, as the weather may serve, a 

 little earlier or later, lay some manure (of which I 

 shall say more hereafter) between the ridges, in the 

 other 36 rods, and turn the ridges over on this ma- 

 nure, and then transplant your plants on the ridges 

 at 15 inches apart. Here they will stand the winter ; 

 and you must see that the slu'gs do not eat them. If 

 any plants fail, you have plenty in the bed where you 

 prick them out ; for your 36 rods will notVequire more 

 than 4000 plants. If the winter be very hard, and bady 

 for plants, you cannot cover 36 rods ; but you may 

 the bed where the rest of your plants are. A little 

 litter, or straw or dead grass, or fern, laid along be- 

 tween the rows and the plants, not to cover the leaves, 

 will preserve them completely. When people com- 

 plain of all their plants being " cut off'" they have, 

 in fact nothing to complain of but their own extreme 

 carelessness. If I had a gardener who complained 

 of all his plants being cut off, I should cut him off 

 pretty quickly. If those in the 36 rods fail, or fail in 

 part, fill up their places, later in the winter, by plants 

 from the bed. 



119. If you find the ground dry at the top during 

 the winter, hoe it, and particularly near the plants, 

 and rout out all slugs and insects. And when March 

 comes, and the ground is dry, hoe deep and well, and 

 earth the plants up close to the lower leaves. As soon 

 as the plants begin to grow, dig the ground with a 

 spade clean and well, and let the spade go as near to 

 the plants as you can without actually displacing the 

 plants. Give them another digging in a month ; and, 

 if weeds come in the mean-while, hoe, and let not 

 one live a week. Oh ! " what a deal of work /" 

 Well ! but it is for yourself, and, besides, it is not all 

 to be done in a day ; and we shall by-and-by see what 

 it is altogether. 



120. By the first of June ; I speak of the South of 

 England, and there is also some difference in seasons 

 aud soils ; but, generally speaking, by the first of 



