288 the amateur’s kitchen garden. 
This is a bad time to prune, but if this sort of work is in 
arrear, it may be carried on during mild open weather. Never 
prune during frost. Cuttings of gooseberry and currant trees 
and of quinces, doucin apples, and generally of sorts required 
for stocks, may be put in now, though it is full late. Trees 
on east walls had best be unnailed till the end of next month 
to prevent premature excitement. Manure bush fruits, and 
take care not to dig between raspberries. ‘In planting, be 
careful not to dig in any frozen soil. Dress fruit walls and 
old trees with a mixture of lime, soot, and clay. 
Give special attention now to cauliflowers, lettuces, &c., in 
frames, and dust them with lime occasionally. Make up a 
small hotbed for cucumbers and melons, and sow in pots, and 
when forward enough, make the fruiting beds. To force sea- 
kale, asparagus, and rhubarb, make up a hotbed in a pit or 
frame, and over the dung spread four inches of soil ; then 
take up strong roots and put them in pretty close together, 
and cover them with leaves. Always allow asparagus to be- 
come green at the points before cutting; if completely 
blanched, it is completely spoiled. Sow peas on slips of turf 
for transplanting. 
February. 
11 You have such a February face, 
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness.” 
There should be no delay in getting ready every inch of 
ground intended for summer crops. Get all plots requiring 
manure ready at once, as it is much better to have the ground 
prepared in advance, that the manure may be more com- 
pletely incorporated with the soil, than to sow or plant im- 
mediately after manuring. Ground for peas, beans, onions, 
cauliflowers, and broccoli must be liberally manured and 
deeply stirred. Mark out the soil for onions into four-feet 
beds, and raise the beds six inches above the general level, 
and leave the surface rough. Choose for potatoes ground on 
wdiich cabbage, or broccoli, or celery has been grown, and 
which for those crops was well manured last year. Make up 
sloping borders under warm walls and fences for early lettuce, 
radish, onion, horn carrot, and to prick out cauliflower and 
broccoli from seed-pans, &c. On dry soils plant potatoes as 
soon as possible ; sets should be of moderate size, and with 
short stubby hard sprouts upon them; when the sprouts are 
