Forbes's Hortus Wokirnefisis. 605 



ferent periods, when the articles were fit for use, what was 

 the quantity produced, and the cost of fuel, labour, &c., &c., 

 we should have had valuable statistical information. Instead 

 of this, however, we have merely a general treatise on each 

 particular article cultivated ; and, to show that these treatises 

 are of the most common-place kind, we shall quote that on 

 sea-kale, because it is one of the shortest in the book ; and 

 the reader may judge for himself, by comparing it with the 

 same subject as treated of in any gardening book which he 

 may happen to have by him. 



" SEA-KALE. 



" This is reckoned one of the most valuable esculent vegetables that is 

 indigenous to Britain that we have got, and, when accelerated by artificial 

 heat, it is considered by many to be equal, or but little inferior, to the 

 asparagus. The shoots of the sea-kale, when blanched, are extremely 

 useful in culinary dishes during the winter, months, and are, at that period 

 of the year, a luxury at table. 



" Various methods have, in consequence, been resorted to for brino-ino- 

 it to perfection at an early season, when there is a scarcity of other veo-e- 

 tables. But the more general and equally successful mode adapted for its 

 cultivation is, by covering the beds or ridges, on which the sea-kale is 

 growing in the natural ground, with hot stable dung, or a mixture of dung 

 and tree leaves. The beds selected for this purpose should consist of 

 strong crowns, whose roots have got well established in the ground. Those 

 crowns that were planted the preceding spring, if well supplied with water 

 in dry weather, while striking root, will be fit for accelerating the ensuino- 

 winter. 



" The decayed leaves and stems of the plants should be all cleared 

 away, and the surface of the beds stirred up and cleared from weeds and 

 filth ; and then a covering of old tan, leaf mould, or coal ashes spread over 

 them : then, over each crown, place a large flower-pot, or such pots as are 

 generally made purposely for the blanching of the sea-kale. The holes in 

 the pots must be all stopped, in order that the steam arising from the fer- 

 menting substances may not get in to injure the tender shoots when they 

 are in a growing state. As soon as the plants are covered with the pots, a 

 layer of the fermenting materials should be spread over all the bed, to the 

 depth of from 15 to 20 inches; which thickness should be regulated accord- 

 ing to the state of the weather, but observing not to make the bed too 

 strong, in case of injuring the crop, or drawing up the shoots in a weak 

 state. If a temperature around the plants of from 55 to 60 degrees can 

 be kept, it will be quite sufficient for bringing this vegetable to perfection 

 in the course of about three weeks after the beds are made up, and which 

 may be had at the table in December, and its season prolonged until they 

 appear in the open ground; and if covered with coal ashes or turf mould, 

 it will considerably tend to blanch the shoots, and accelerate their growth." 

 (p. 439.) 



Here we have not a word of the manner of cultivation 

 practised at Woburn ; and, indeed, for anything that appears 

 in Mr. Forbes's volume, there may be no sea-kale grown 

 there at all. The same will apply to the other treatises in 

 this part of the work, such as those on asparagus, rhubarb, 

 potatoes, kidneybeans, cherries, &c. 



