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and that of pricking the young plants out, 

 that they may be removed and transplanted with 

 greater ease and convenience, and with less dan- 

 ger of being injured in their growth. It is usual 

 for each pot to contain two or three plants, 

 which are sufficient tor a one-light frame. Pots 

 of the sizes denominated thirty-two's and forty- 

 eight's are commonly made use of. 



In addition to these requisites, bass mats 

 are necessary to cover the glasses in the nights 

 with, and when the weather is bad. Straw and 

 other similar substances may be employed for 

 the same use, but they are much less convenient. 

 The periods of sowing and beginning the 

 works of forcing, in order to have this sort of 

 fruit in the early season, must vary according as 

 it is wanted ; but for the very early crops, as 

 those to be cut in the end of December and the 

 following month, and in February, March, and 

 April, — it should for the former be done towards 

 the end of October and beginning of the fol- 

 lowing month, and for the latter in December, 

 January, and the beginning of February. But 

 for later crops, to come in in June and thefollow- 

 month, it should be in April and May. Still 

 later crops are often produced on ridges in the 

 open ground without artificial heat. 



The general practice is, however, chiefly to 

 have only three crops, the first in March or April, 

 on hot-beds under glasses ; the second in May 

 and June, under hand-glasses ; and the last on 

 ridges, as mentioned before. 



In order to have the crops come in regularly, 

 an exact attention should be paid to the periods 

 of putting in the seed and beginning the work 

 of forcing. 



In the choice of seed for the different crops, 

 the early short and long prickly sorts are mostly 

 made use of for the early crops, but the latter 

 for the general ones, and those of the other larger 

 kinds for the later crops. The seed should be 

 taken from the earliest fruit, at the first or se- 

 cond joints, and be perfectly well ripened. And, 

 in order to prevent its running too luxuriantly 

 into vine, it shbuld be kept two years or more 

 before it is made use of, or, when employed 

 while fresh, be kept some weeks or months in a 

 dry warm situation, as by this means the plants 

 fruit better. 



Forming the Beds and raising the Plants. — In 

 the early culture of this vegetable, it is mostly 

 the practice, where there are sufficient conveni- 

 encies and plenty of dung or other materials, 

 to have recourse to two or more hot-beds un- 

 der frames ; as a small one for sowing the seeds 

 on, and a large one for growing the plants 

 upon; or sometimes the second is made of a more 

 moderate size, and used for nursing the plants 



in, previous to their being set or ridged out in 

 the large one for fruiting. 



But by making the beds of a good size and 

 in a substantial manner, with due attention to 

 linings, they may be grown very well on one or 

 two hot-beds. When cultivated on a small 

 scale, seldom more than one is employed. 



In forming the beds, attention must be had to 

 the size of the frames, and to making ihtm con- 

 siderably larger than the boxes. Some advise 

 only a few inches ; but Mr. Nicol thinks they 

 should extend beyond the frames at least eighteen 

 inches all round. 



In building the beds, the dung, prepared as 

 mentioned above, should be used in the follow- 

 ing manner, beginning with the most littery 

 part, and afterwards that which is more reduced. 

 The different parts should be well mixed together, 

 and beaten down with the fork, or trodden equally 

 in, where very littery, once or twice as the work 

 proceeds, till they are made up to the full height 

 of five feet in the back and four in the front of the 

 frame. Some suppose two feet and a half orthree 

 feet to be sufficient when the beds are merely in- 

 tended for just raising the plants ; but the former 

 practice is probably always the best where plenty 

 of materials can be easily procured. When 

 thus prepared, it is the custom of some to let 

 them remain with the frames and glasses upon 

 them for a few days, that the rank heat may be 

 brought up, and when it begins to go off to 

 cover them over with mould prepared in the 

 manner already described, to the depth of five or 

 six inches, sowing the seed in little drills half 

 an inch deep when the mould is a little warmed. 

 Others cover them almost immediately with dry 

 earth, tan, or other similar material, to the 

 depth of five or six inches, sowing the seeds in 

 small pots filled with mould, plunging them 

 previously for a little time in the beds, cauti- 

 ously guarding against too much heat at first, 

 by drawing up the pots when necessary. 



The author of the Scotch Forcing Gardener, 

 however, directs, that when the beds have been 

 made to the height mentioned above, they should 

 be turfed over in a careful manner, as in forc- 

 ing Asparagus, and the frames then placed upon 

 them, laying dry fine sea- or pit-sard in a 

 sloping direction, according to the frame-, over 

 the whole, to within six inches of the lights, 

 and above that two inches in thickness of light, 

 sandy loam. The seeds should then be sown 

 in small garden pots or pans filled with entire 

 vegetable mould from decayed tree-leaves, and 

 covered to the depth of half an inch, plunging 

 them to the brims in the centres of the beds 

 endways, and a foot fi uni the backs. The glasses 

 should then be placed over them. 

 5 R ? 



