1 64 VEGETABLES FOR EXHIBITION 



the additional trouble incurred to secure them is time 

 well spent. For early shows the seed must be sown 

 under glass during January or February, or, better 

 still, one sowing at the beginning of each month. A 

 brick pit with sufficient hot-water piping to counteract 

 frost is a distinct advantage, and failing this substitute 

 a hot-bed of leaves. There must be no undue hurry 

 in placing the prepared material in the frames, for 

 should this become overheated the chances of good 

 clean Carrots are remote. Sufficient warmth should 

 be maintained to create a growing temperature. Get 

 together a compost embracing the following ingredients, 

 or as much like them as possible : Old potting soil, 

 road grit, old mortar rubbish, peat, well-decayed leaf 

 soil, and light sandy loam which has been stacked for 

 some time. Mix in equal proportions, and to every 

 fifteen barrow loads of the mixture add one of wood ashes 

 and half a bushel of bone-meal or Clay's Fertilizer, 

 passing the whole which should be prepared some days 

 beforehand and thoroughly incorporated through a 

 quarter-inch-mesh sieve. In the bottom of the pit 

 place a layer of three inches of old Mushroom bed 

 material, covering this with the compost to the depth 

 of eighteen inches or two feet. Three good varieties 

 for these sowings are New Scarlet Intermediate, Cham- 

 pion Scarlet Horn and Veitch's Model. On fine days 

 the sowings should be syringed, shutting up the structure 

 early in the afternoon. Thin out as soon as the seed- 

 lings are large enough to handle, only partially at first, 

 but later on thin out to three inches apart ; ventilate 



