FEB.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 123 



seed therein, for an early crop ; the best kinds to sow are the solid, 

 and red celery, both of which are excellent. 



Break the earth very fine, and either sow the seed on the surface, 

 and rake it in lightly ; or rake the surface smooth, sow the seed 

 thereon, and cover it with light earth, sifted over near a quarter of 

 an inch deep ; or the ground being formed into a three or four feet 

 wide bed, and the surface raked, then with the back of the rake trim 

 the earth evenly off the surface about a quarter of an inch deep into 

 the alley ; sow the seed on the bed, and with a spade cast the earth 

 over it evenly, and rake the surface smooth. 



Though this seed may not come up for a length of time, there 

 will be no danger of its perishing in the ground, and it will be in a 

 state to receive the first advantage of the growing season : if a 

 frame and lights, or hand-glasses can be spared to put over it, they 

 will greatly forward its growth : when raised in this way, though it 

 will not be so early, it will not be so subject either to start to seed, 

 or to pipe, as if sown and forced in a hot-bed. 



But those who wish to have celery as early as possible, should 

 sow the seed on a slight hot-bed, and cover it \vith a frame ar.d 

 lights, or with hand-glasses ; or in default of these, cover on nights 

 and bad weather with mats, placed on hoops stuck arch-ways over 

 the beds to support them ; being careful, in either method, when 

 the plants are come up, to admit the free air every mild day. 



There should not be many of these early sown plants, planted out 

 for a continuing supply, only a few to come in before the general 

 crop, for they will soon pipe and run up to seed. 



Sowing Radish Seed. 



Towards the end of this month, if the weather is mild and the 

 ground open, you may dig a warm border to sow therein some 

 early-frame, short-top, and white turnep-rooted radish-seeds, to 

 draw for sallads in April and early in May. Dig another piece at 

 the same time for salmon-radish, which will succeed the former. 



Let them generally be sown broad-cast on the surface, either in 

 a continued space, or in four or five feet wide beds, and rake them 

 in with an even hand ; or in sowing large crops in one continued 

 space, if quite dry light ground, it is eligible, before raking in, to 

 tread down the seed lightly, then rake it in regularly. 



You may sow among these crops of radishes, a sprinkling of 

 spinach and lettuce-seed ; the spinach will come in after the radish, 

 and the lettuce after the spinach. 



The radishes sown last month must be carefully protected by co- 

 vering the glasses at night, and in very severe weather, with mats, 

 fcc. and they must have plenty of air occasionally, otherwise they 

 will not root well. 



In order to have radishes tolerably early, or to succeed those 

 sown in January, let some of the early kinds above mentioned be 

 now sowed on a slight hot-bed, as directed in page 14, and treated as 

 there advised : or you may sow them on such beds, under cover of 

 oiled-paper frames, or of mats ; but radishes are not apt to root well 

 under covering of mats, especially when necessity requires them ta 



