108 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap. 



until any par t of January or February, they may be then moved into 

 a hot-bed, and will be very fine in March : if left to stand in the 

 ground and kept clear of slugs, they will still be a good deal earlier 

 than lettuces sewed in the spring, even if sowed m a hot-bed. But, 

 with all these means, so few can generally be had early in the 

 spring, that for general use, that is to say, for kitchen-gardeners 

 to get them for tradesmen's families pretty early in May, they must 

 be first raised in a hot-bed, sowed there early in March or late in 

 February, or sowed under glass upon cold earth, in the fall of the 

 year, and preserved as mere plants to plant out, having been kept 

 from the frost and the wet during the winter. This sowing takes 

 place in September ; the lights are placed in such a way as to let 

 no wet get into the frames ; the lights are taken off entirely in mild 

 weather ; a great deal of air is given ; and in March, these plants 

 are fit to go out into the natural ground, where they are sometimes 

 injured by the frost, but generally they are not. This is the way 

 in which the great crop of early lettuces is generally raised ; and 

 that it the best way the long experience of the market-gardeners 

 has amply proved. As to the sorts of lettuces, the green coss and 

 the white coss are the best : the former is of a darker green that 

 the latter, is rather hardier, and not quite so good. Among the^a^ 

 sorts are the brown J)utch, the green cabbage^ and the tennis-ball : 

 there are many other sorts, as well of upright as of flat, but it 

 would be useless to enumerate them, as it would only bewilder the 

 reader in his choice. As to the saving of the seed, half a dozen 

 plants that have stood the winter will be quite enough. The seed 

 will be ripe in August; biids must be kept from it, or they will 

 have all the best before you gather it. The stalks ought to be cut 

 off and laid, till they be perfectly dry, in the sun, the seed then 

 put away in a perfectly dry place, and in a place where no mice 

 can get at it ; for if they get at it, not one good seed will they leave 

 you in a very short time. 



159. MANGEL WURZEL.— This may be called cattle-beet, 

 but some persons plant it in gardens. It is a coarse beet, and is 

 cultivated and preserved as the beet is. 



160. MARJORAM. — One sort is annual and one perennial. 

 The former is called summer and the latter winter. The first sowed 

 on heat in the month of March. As its seeds are small, a good- 

 sized garden-pot sown with it, and placed in a corner of the cu- 

 cumber-bed, will produce five hundred plants, which being gra- 



