4 o THE BOOK OF MARKET GARDENING 



termed three-quarter spans, can be cheaply erected, 

 and will prove useful for early produce, often without 

 artificial heating arrangements. 



Forcing fruits or flowers for the winter, or early in 

 the year, is a difficult, expensive, and uncertain business, 

 severely testing the skill of the most experienced 

 growers, especially in town districts, with all the dis- 

 advantages of a smoke-laden atmosphere, dense fogs, 

 and diminished light to contend against. .Some succeed 

 in a satisfactory degree, but they also have heavy losses 

 to face at times, and it is not a branch of the business 

 beginners should venture upon. 



Another form of forcing by which sheds are utilised 

 for securing early Rhubarb, Sea-kale, or Asparagus, is, 

 however, worthy of attention ; the expenses are not 

 large, the demand is considerable and fairly constant. 

 There is more room for extension in methods of this 

 kind than in forcing crops under glass for the earliest 

 markets, though competitors already in the field are 

 numerous, and some have engaged in the work on a 

 large scale. 



The value of even temporary protection in the direc- 

 tion of preserving many crops from injury, and thus 

 avoiding heavy losses, is often shown. Here is one 

 example which occurred in the early autumn of 1 905. 

 In a market garden district where some hundreds of 

 acres were planted with early flowering Chrysanthemums 

 for cutting, the whole crop was rendered quite unsale- 

 able by two or three sudden sharp frosts. A short 

 distance away in a similar situation a grower who had a 

 large acreage under these plants adopted a simple means 

 of protection, by means of slight wooden uprights and 

 cross pieces at intervals, across which tiffany or similar 

 light material was stretched at night. The cost in 

 materia] and labour was an insignificant percentage on 

 the total value of the crop, and the whole of the flowers 



