162 



CULINAEY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



with standard or Ridder Morello cherries, 

 the branches of which are 3 feet from the 

 ground. A batten of wood, with notches 

 cut out opposite the stems of the trees, is 

 fastened to the wall by holdfasts at that 

 height ; to this, and to the wooden wall- 

 plate on top of front wall, the rafters are 

 fixed, at the distance of 3| feet, which is 

 the breadth of a great portion of our 

 glass lights and felt shutters, that either 

 may be employed if necessary. For pro- 

 tecting lettuce and endive the former are 

 not required; and the latter, during win- 

 ter, are mostly in use for covering over 

 the glass lights of pits, &c. during the 

 night. As a covering for this pit, we 

 employ the boarding used as portable 

 coping to the garden-walls (vide fig. 40, 

 vol. i.), which during winter is not re- 

 quired : these are laid upon the rafters in 

 an imbricated manner, but not fixed to 

 them, but they are secured to each other 

 by cords every 6 feet, after the manner of 

 Venetian blinds ; but instead of drawing 

 up, like them, they are folded up the one 

 over the other, when air is wished to be 

 admitted, or when it is necessary to open 

 them to take out the supply, remove dead 

 leaves, &c. When the plants are fully 

 grown they are removed from the quarter, 

 tied up, and planted in rotten tan within 

 the pit ; the boarding is put on, and the 

 whole safely secm-ed. We have never had 

 so fine a supply of endive before as we 

 have this season, and we are still cutting, 

 on the 10th of March, that which was put 

 in the first week in November. 



Soil and manure. — The object being to 

 produce the largest amount of vegetable 

 matter, and in the shortest space of time, 

 it follows that the soil cannot be too rich 

 or in too high a state of cultivation for 

 this crop. Beyond the application of 

 stable-yard manure, as usually applied, we 

 use no other manure, save that at every 

 watering we enrich the liquid by the addi- 

 tion of guano, soot, or pigeons' dung, and 

 occasionally ammoniacal liquor, or the 

 water through which gas passes during 

 the process of purification, which appears 

 to be an excellent manure for most garden 

 crops, but cannot everywhere be procured. 

 It should, however, be understood that this 

 liquor is not gas-tar, which of itself would 

 have very opposite effects. 



Taking the crop, and subsequent preserva- 

 tion. — Endive is always used in a blanched 



state, both for appearance sake and to get 

 rid of a certain natural bitterness con- 

 tained in the green leaves. It is divested 

 of its outer, coarser, and unblanched 

 leaves and roots, with any points of the 

 remaining leaves that may have been in- 

 jured, or have begun to decay. It is then 

 thoroughly washed, rinsed afterwards in 

 clear water, or in salt and water, allowed 

 to drip dry, and placed in a clean basket 

 fit for use. The preservation of the crop 

 being so connected with its subsequent 

 culture, for that the reader is referred to 

 the last paragraph. 



Forcing. — Endive is rarely forced in 

 Britain, our chief dependence being placed 

 on the preservation of the preceding year's 

 growth over winter. The truth is, with 

 all our affectation for French cookery and 

 salad-eating, we are a vast stride behind 

 our neighbours on the other side of the 

 Channel in both. They force endive, and 

 we do not. Their mode of proceeding is 

 thus given in the " Bon Jardinier," which 

 contains all that is new in French garden- 

 ing : " For early-forced scarole (broad- 

 leaved or Batavian endive) the seed is 

 sown in January, under glass, in a strong 

 heat. After the seeds have vegetated, and 

 the plants are fit to handle, which will, in 

 general, be from twelve to eighteen days 

 after sowing, they are pricked out on 

 another hot-bed, at a lower temperature 

 than the last, ventilation is attended to, 

 and in course of the end of February and 

 during March the crop is ready for use. 

 The plants, of course, are small compared 

 to those grown by us in the open air, but 

 they are produced in gi-eat number on 

 account of the extent of framing every 

 garden contains, and the abundance of 

 stable-yard manure procurable, by which 

 almost all the forcing in the market- 

 gardens about Paris is carried on. When 

 the scarole has attained the height of 6 

 or 8 inches in the frames, it is tied up 

 to blanch, which it does in a few days. 

 Sometimes they sow the seed in October, 

 in a bed vrith a mild bottom-heat, and 

 afterwards prick out the plants into a 

 similar bed, placing them at the distance 

 of about 6 inches asunder, either under 

 glazed sashes supported on frames, or 

 under cloches or large bell-glasses, placed 

 close together on the heated material. 

 These they cover in severe weather with 

 or straw mats, wliich they very 



