105 



ounce of seed will be more than sufficient for an 

 early bed of this kind, siipposing- it to contain forty 

 superticial feet, and a smaller quantity will answer 

 for later beds, of which you must have several if you 

 plant extensively. After the first great heat has sub- 

 sided, which will occur in about four days, cover the 

 dung- with dry and well screened earth three or four 

 inches in depth, and on this, in about two or three 

 days more, if no scorching heat continues, sow the 

 seed of the hJack or Negroland species, carefully and 

 lig^htly covering it with screened wood or coal ashes, 

 mixed with one third of rich earth, less than half 

 an inch in thickness. Your later beds, (according 

 however to the state of the weather) should be more 

 exposed and colder than the very early ones; and from 

 all you will have occasion to prick out into warm and 

 richly maniired garden borders, a larg-e portion of 

 the most forward plants when the foxirth leaf has 

 sprouted and the fifth is ready to sjjrouf, as a neces- 

 sary means of ensuring a timely supply for the field, 

 and of giving vigour and elbow-roovi to the rest, so 

 that they may throw out their side leaves freely. An 

 Irish acre will take 18,000 plants, but from a bed of 

 forty superficial feet you cannot draw, at one time, 

 fit for the field, more than about 2,000 plants, and 

 you must wait ten days before you can call on it again, 

 so that you will see, if you have much land to plant, 

 and wish to get in your plants in proper season, the 

 indispensable necessity of siiccessive hot-beds and 

 extensive pricking out ; great attention in these 

 stages of the plant is necessary to guard against snails 

 and slugs. The next points for consideration, are 

 the description of soils in which the plants are to be 

 set, the kind of manure required, and the mode of 

 planting out. 



The soil should be rich and dry with a sound warm 

 bottom, free from springs and all under water ; * al- 



* Land enriched by tlie flooding- of rivers. 



