MARKET GARDEN CULTIVATION DURING QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN. 399 



Sea Kale and Asparagus. — These are now forced upon a 

 new and greatly improved system, though the old practice of 

 forcing Sea Kale is still being worked. By means of a subter- 

 ranean chamber containing a hot pipe passing through an open 

 water channel, the roots are supplied with a warm and humid 

 bottom heat. Well-matured roots, raised in the open ground, 

 are lifted and placed very thickly over this chamber in frames 

 and protected from the outer air and light by suitable covering ; 

 and when the shoots are matured a delightfully clean blanched 

 vegetable well rewards the grower for all his previous care and 

 pains. 



I may add that this system has been introduced by one of 

 our most typical and enterprising market gardeners. With 

 regard to Sea Kale, the bed will produce abundant sets for future 

 out-of-door culture, yielding in time a further supply. With 

 Asparagus, however, forced roots are of no further use. In all 

 systems of forcing vegetables by packing such as I have described, 

 a quantity of adjoining farm land is necessary to keep up a 

 supply of well-grown roots. 



Mushrooms. — The old system of forcing Mushrooms on 

 triangular beds of manure with a straw protection is still largely 

 followed. The attempts to force them in houses or sheds have 

 met with very varying success. When well grown on the latter 

 system they have a more attractive appearance ; but to grow 

 mushrooms successfully in a house requires constant watchful 

 supervision, and experience often gained after much expense and 

 comparative failure. 



Salads. — In the direction of forced salads and vegetables 

 there is a large field for enterprise still open. Except Mustard 

 and Cress, which are well and largely grown, and a few French 

 Beans we are almost entirely in the hands of French growers for 

 our early supply. I look hopefully to the time when cheaper agri- 

 cultural glass-houses and frames shall enable British growers to 

 compete successfully with foreign and Channel Island producers. 

 At present English market gardeners find a more profitable use 

 for frames by raising seeds in them and forwarding early out-of- 

 door crops. As a rule vegetables thus assisted fetch much higher 

 prices than later ones. 



