521 



Forcing Salads, Pot-herbs, Sweet-herbs, and other Culinary Plants. 



Lettuce, chicory, radish, cress, mustard, rape, parsley, chervil, 

 carrot, turnip, onion, and similar plants, may be raised in pots or in 

 beds, in a gentle heat, and quite near the glass. In general it will be 

 of little use beginning to sow sooner than January ; and, indeed, with 

 the exception of the carrot, parsley, and onion, February will be soon 

 enough, on account of the light required. Young carrots being much 

 used in soups, some families require a supply all the year, which is to 

 be obtained by successive sowings in the open air and on heat. The 

 first sowing on heat may be made in January, to succeed the autumnal 

 sowing in the open garden ; and the second may be made in February 

 or March, to serve till the first crop in the open air comes into use. 



Small salading, such as cresses, mustard, rape, radish, .chicory, 

 lettuce, &c., to be cropped when in the seed-leaf, or in the third or 

 fourth leaf, may be sown in boxes or in beds, and kept in a warm, 

 moist atmosphere, near the light. As the plants forming small salading 

 are always cut beneath the seed-leaf, as soon as one portion of salading 

 is gathered, the soil may be stirred and a second crop sown. Where 

 there is a constant demand for small salading, a sowing should be 

 made every week. 



Radish. To obtain the earliest spring radishes, sow on a hot-bed, 

 of dung or leaves, some of the early dwarf short-top varieties, such as 

 Beck's Superb Scarlet and Early Breakfast, in December, January, 

 or the beginning of February. Having made a hotbed two or three 

 feet high of dung, place on the frame ; earth the bed at top six inches 

 deep ; sow on the surface, covering the seed with fine mould about 

 half an inch thick; and put on the lights. When the plants have 

 come up, admit air every day in mild or tolerably good weather, by 

 tilting the upper end of the lights, or sometimes the front, one, two, 

 or three inches, that the radishes may not draw up weak and long- 

 shanked. If they have risen very thick, thin them in young growth, 

 moderately at first, to about one or two inches apart. Be careful to 

 cover the lights at night. Give gentle waterings about noon, on 

 sunny days. If the heat of the bed declines much, apply a moderate 

 lining of warm dung or stable litter to the sides, which, by gently 

 renewing the heat, will forward the radishes for drawing in February 

 and March. Remember, as they advance in growth, to give more 

 copious admissions of air daily, either by tilting the lights in front 

 several inches, or, in fine mild days, by drawing the glasses mostly off ; 

 but be careful to draw them on again in proper time. Small turnip- 

 radishes of the white and red kinds may be forced in the same manner. 

 For raising early radishes on ground not furnished with frames, a 

 hotbed made in February may be arched over with hoop-bends or 

 pliant rods, which should be covered with mats constantly at night, 

 and during the day in very cold weather. In moderate days turn up the 

 mats at the warmest side, and on a fine mild day take them wholly off. 



To produce full-grown cabbage-lettuces throughout the winter is a 

 desideratum on the Continent, where the higher classes have cabbage- 



