38 OF ESCULENTS* SECT. XV. 



ture, hot-beds, and hot-houses. In cold ground they 

 are sometimes sown, close under a south wall, to- 

 wards the end of a dry March ; but April is soon 

 enough; for if thev get above ground without rotting, 

 (as the seed is apt to do, when the ground is long wet)' 

 a little frost will cut them off. It is a good way to 

 sow again in about a week, lest the first should fail to 

 come up. 



The latter end of March, however, if .some are 

 sown in a warm border, in patches, and covered with 

 hand-glasses, they will do very well. Or an early 

 crop may be produced by raising the beans, at this 

 time, on a gentle hot-bed, and planting them out, 

 when two or three inches high, under glasses, in 

 patches of four or five, and near two feet asunder. 

 If the beans are raised in small pots, three or four in 

 each, they may be turned out whole, with great ad- 

 vantage, as kidney beans do not always bear trans- 

 planting well ; and they may be covered on nights 

 with hand-glasses, garden pots, &c. 



When these forwarded beans are planted in rows 

 singly, let it be under a warm wall, and not (if it 

 can be avoided) till the end of April, or beginning of 

 Mai/; and protect them awhile at first, on cold nights, 

 with matting, or otherwise. 



As to the hot-bed culture of kidney beans, if any 

 are attempted to be brought to fruit on heat, let them 

 be raised, towards the end of February, upon one 

 gentle bed, (or in pots, at the back of a cucumber 

 frame) and planted out in another, in rows fifteen 

 inches a part, and at four inches in the rows; for 

 nearer they will not fruit well. The bed may be 

 about two and a half feet thick, and must have on 

 it seven or eight inches of mould, and the plants 

 treated with as much air as can safely be given them. 

 Line the bed before the heat is quite gone, to pre- 

 serve and forward them. The sort most used for 



