FORCING SALADS, POT-HERBS, &C. 



521 



the others that are forming. The plants may be grown in a house at any 

 temperature above freezing, and below blood-heat ; the medium, 60° to 65°, 

 is preferable. They succeed well when planted out in a pit or frame, with 

 or without bottom-heat, in rows 18 inches apart, and 3 inches in the row ; 

 and, as they advance, they are to be topped as above, and sticked. Planted 

 at Christmas, they require about eight weeks to bring fruit fit for the table, 

 in a temperature of 60° or 65°. To have kidney-beans all the year, the first 

 sowing for forcing should be made in August, and sowings should be 

 made every four or five weeks till April, after which the crop in the open 

 air from plants which have been raised in heat will come into use. The 

 aphis and thrips often attack the French bean when grown under glass, but 

 these insects may be readily destroyed by fumigation, by tobacco- water, or 

 by quassia-water. 



1105. The common garden pea (Pisum sativum, Z,.), may be forced, but 

 being a native of a colder climate (the South of Europe), not so successfully 

 as the kidney-bean. The best early varieties are the early May, early 

 Warwick, and early frame. It is necessary to begin at a low tem- 

 perature, and not to exceed 50° or 60° with sun heat, and from 40° to 50° 

 during the night, till the fruit is set. Afterwards the temperature may 

 be increased, so as to vary during the day from 55° to 70°. The peas may 

 be sown in pots or boxes, and either fruited in them, or transplanted into 

 other pots or boxes, or a pit. In general the best mode is to grow them in 

 pots or boxes, because these admit of being kept well ventilated and close 

 to the glass. Without abundance of light and air it is in vain to attempt 

 forcing the pea. For the earliest crop the seeds may be sown in October, 

 and these will produce pods in February or March, from which time by 

 successive sowing, peas may be obtained till they are produced in the open 

 ground from plants which have been raised in heat, and transplanted into a 

 warm sheltered situation. Whatever description of forcing is adopted, trans- 

 planting is found to check luxuriance, concentrate growth, and produce a 

 greater amount of blossom in a limited space. 



Sect. XIV. — Forcing Salads^ pot-herbs, sweet-herhs^ and other 

 culinary plants. 



1106. Lettuce, chiccory, radish, cress, mustard, rape, parsley, chervil, 

 carrot, turnip, onion, and similar plants, may be raised in pots or in beds, 

 in a gentle heat, and quite near the glass. In general it will be of little 

 use beginning to sow sooner than January; and indeed, with the exception 

 of the carrot, parsley, and onion, February will be soon enough, on account 

 of the light required. Young carrots being much used in soups, some 

 families require a supply all the year, which is to be obtained by successive 

 sowings in the open air and on heat. The first sowing on heat may be made 

 in January, to succeed the autumnal sowing in the open garden; and the 

 second may be made in February or March, to serve till the first crop in 

 the open air comes into use. 



1107. Small salading, such as cresses, mustard, rape, radish, chiccory, 

 lettuce, &c , to be cropped when in the seed leaf, or in the third or fourth 

 leaf, may be sown in boxes or in beds, and kept in a warm, moist atmo- 

 sphere, near the light. As the plants forming small salading are always 

 cut beneath the seed-leaf, as soon as one portion of salading is gathered, the 



