100 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



Open-air Crops. As soon as the last of the forced crops are 

 gone, the hot-beds now cold are cleared of all roots and 

 leaves, lightly forked over, raked level, and at once planted 

 with crops which will mature before the following winter. 

 These consist in the main of celery, celeriac, endive, cos 

 lettuce, carrots, and cauliflowers, any of which may be inter- 

 cropped with quickly-maturing subjects, such as radishes, 

 spinach, cabbage lettuce, or turnips. Good well-grown plants 

 should have been prepared in readiness for these beds, so that 

 there will be no loss of time between one crop and the next. 



In addition to those grown on hot-beds and on cold-beds 

 under glass, and those which follow these on the same beds in 

 the open-air, there are crops grown on ordinary well-manured 

 soil entirely in the open. Some of these are planted out in 

 autumn and have to take the chances of damage or destruction 

 by exceptionally severe weather; in some cases provision is 

 made for some form of protection by mats or dry litter, whilst 

 in others the plants are not set out until all danger from frost 

 is practically at an end. 



Various other Methods of Forcing and Forwarding. Other 

 crops than those already mentioned are produced early in the 

 French garden by methods more or less similar to those 

 already described. Amongst these may be mentioned vegetable 

 marrows, ridge cucumbers, dwarf beans, and tomatoes, all of 

 which may be set out early over a little warm manure and 

 protected by lights, cloches, or one of the protective devices 

 described and illustrated in Chapter XVII. Then there are 

 such subjects as seakale, chicory, asparagus, mint, and nu- 

 merous others, all of which can be made to yield good profits 

 by forcing, either in pits or on hot-beds. 



For full detailed instructions respecting the intensive culture 

 of any of the crops mentioned above, and not already fully dealt 

 with, the reader is referred to Part II of this book, " Details of 

 the Cultivation of Vegetables,"" where every item is treated 

 separately under its own head. 



