French Garden. Crops, &c. 99 



closely matted up for a few days, when it will be found that 

 the temperature in the frames is sensibly warmer than that 

 outside. Then is the time to sow and plant. Hardy cabbage 

 and cos lettuce, cauliflowers, stump-rooted carrots, radishes ; 

 turnips, peas and potatoes will all give very satisfactory results 

 under this treatment, and come just at the time when there is 

 a good popular demand, and yet early enough to realise com- 

 paratively high prices. 



Forcing varieties of lettuce may be grown in cold frames 

 if an extra barrowful of old hot-bed manure is put under each 

 light and the paths between frames are filled with litter, so 

 as to keep frost from penetrating the frame-board ; in fact, this 

 treatment will make the conditions inside a cold frame more 

 congenial for any crop. In any case, during cold weather each 

 frame should be covered at night with mats. 



Spare frames may also be very usefully employed in pro- 

 tecting beds of parsley or spinach through winter ; or they may- 

 be used for covering mint or strawberry plants in March so as 

 to forward them a week or two in advance of open-air crops. 

 Where such forwarding is intended the beds should be planted 

 of the proper size to be covered by a frame. 



Warm Beds for Melons and Cucumbers. During April the 

 cauliflowers and carrots growing on hot-beds under frames are 

 gradually hardened, until by the middle of the month the 

 frames are removed entirely and the crops are left standing in 

 the open. The frames thus released are taken to the section 

 intended for melons or cucumbers. Here warm beds are 

 made by putting hot manure in shallow trenches and covering 

 with soil. The frames are put on these beds and the plants set 

 out at once, yielding fruits during the summer. The frames 

 are removed from the melons about the end of July or early 

 in August, according to the weather, and cauliflower plants 

 are then set on the beds amongst the vines, thus giving an 

 autumn crop of cauliflowers to follow melons. Cauliflowers 

 are not planted on the cucumber beds unless the crop shows 

 signs of being over early. Full detailed instructions regarding 

 melons and cucumbers will be found in the articles under their 

 respective heads in the Details of Cultivation. 



