100 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Subsequent cultivation. — The safe preser- 

 vation of the plants during winter de- 

 serves attention. They should be reared 

 in an open, airy situation, and, when the 

 leaves are about 2 inches in breadth, as 

 we have stated above, should be invariably 

 transferred to a nursery-bed, in an equally 

 airy place, kept free from weeds and dead 

 leaves, encouraged to make numerous 

 roots, which transplanting considerably 

 assists ; for the stockier and stouter they 

 are got to be, without being drawn up 

 tall and slender, or of too gross and suc- 

 culent habit, the better they will stand 

 the winter. It is not, therefore, expe- 

 dient to have the nursery-bed too rich, 

 as this would induce them to send down 

 naked tap-roots, and assume a degree of 

 grossness that would ill enable them to 

 withstand the frost. 



Hand-glass protection. — In October the 

 hand-glasses should be filled, and those 

 best fitted for the purpose are such as are 

 constructed in pieces, so that the top may 

 be removed entirely, or in part, on all 

 favourable occasions, for the sake of ven- 

 tilation, but more so to prevent the plants 

 being drawn up or advanced farther than 

 necessary. The glasses used for this 

 purpose by the London market-gardeners 

 are usually large bell-glasses, fig. 36, 

 blown of green coarse 

 glass, 18 inches in dia- 

 meter and 20 in 

 height, with a glass 

 nob at top, answering 

 the purpose of a han- 

 dle. The better sort, 

 however, is as shown 

 fig. 37, and is made of 

 cast-iron. The four 

 sides are in separate 

 pieces, and put toge- 

 ther by projections at 

 the corners, fitting into each other, and 



Fig. 37. 



Fig. 36. 



CAULIFLOWER 

 BELL-GLASS. 



CAULIFLOWER HAND-GLASS. 



fastened by a wedge, and are each 20 

 inches square. Lead, zinc, wrought-iron, 

 copper, &c, are the worst possible mate- 

 rials to construct such utensils with. 

 Some substitutes for these have been 

 proposed, but their utility verifies the old 

 saying — " Saving at the spigot, and losing 

 at the bung-hole." The cast-iron hand- 

 glasses will last for fifty years, the others 

 not as many months. They are glazed 

 with the fragments of glass which abound 

 in all gardens where hothouses exist. 

 The manner of planting under hand- 

 glasses is this : — In the best exposed place 

 of the garden, dig out holes in number 

 agreeing with the number of bell or hand 

 glasses at disposal. These holes should 

 be 2^ feet square, filled with one-half 

 rotted stable-manure, and rather more 

 than the other half the soil taken from 

 the hole, so that the place, when finished, 

 may be 4 inches higher than the sur- 

 rounding soil. The hand-glass should be 

 set upon this preparation to mark its 

 dimensions, and five plants placed in each 

 space — one in the centre, and one within 

 4 inches of each corner of the space. 



These are to be regarded as the per- 

 manent plants, but, to secure as many 

 more as can be, with a view to their 

 being taken up in spring and planted 

 elsewhere, six or seven more plants may 

 be pricked in between them. The glasses 

 are to be set at first over them, supported 

 on four bricks, one at each corner, and, 

 as the winter draws on, these are to be 

 removed, and the glasses set on the surface 

 of the ground, or rather pressed about an 

 inch under it, the better to exclude the 

 cold. Ventilation must now be attended 

 to by lifting the top off entirely, or par- 

 tially as shown in our fig., and only closing 

 it entirely down when severe frosts exist. 

 The bell-glasses are to be managed in a 

 similar manner, only on good days they 

 may be elevated on one side an inch or 

 two, or entirely removed. Here the ad- 

 vantage of the hand-glass in pieces will 

 be apparent. These glasses may be placed 

 at 3 feet apart, which will afford sufficient 

 room for each patch of plants to develop 

 themselves fully when the glasses are 

 removed in April. 



Wall protection. — Those transferred to the 

 bottoms of walls will, in general seasons, 

 stand well, and, if thinned out in spring, 

 the superfluous plants being transplanted 



