April.] THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 329 
you may in the last. week of this month sow cucumbers, squashes, 
water-melons, and early musk-melons in the open ground, agree- 
ably to the directions given next month. If the weather proves 
favourable, and they are not attacked by frost after being up, they 
will succeed very wellj but if you have hand or bell glasses for 
their protection, there is no doubt of their success. 
It is generally observed, that cucumbers, squashes, and melons 
of every kind, may be sown in the open ground as early as Indian 
cornj but they are certainly somewhat more tender, and cannot be 
sown in the middle states with great certainty of success before 
the eighth of May. 
Kidney-Beahs. 
Towards the latter end of this month you may plant a first crop 
of kindey-beans in the open ground. Select a warm, dry, and 
favourably situated spot, and having dug and manured it properly, 
draw drills an inch deep, and two feet or thirty inches asunder; 
drop the beans therein two inches apart, and draw the earth equally 
over them,' do not cover them more than an inch deep, for at this 
early time they are liable to rot if cold or wet ensue. The kinds 
proper to be sown now, are the early cream-coloured, speckled, 
yellow, and white dwarfs. 
Endive. 
Those who are fond of endive as a salad, may now sow some of 
the seed, as directed in June, and blanch it when of sufficient size 
in the manner prescribed in August. But in the early summer 
months, lettuce has almost generally superseded the use of it. 
Sorrel. 
Sow now a sufficient supply of the broad-leaved garden sorrel, 
and also of the round-leaved or French sorrel j these, or either of 
them, may be sown on narrow beds or borders and covered lightly 
or raked in; when the plants are up keep them free from weeds, 
and in June you may transplant them either in rows along the bor- 
ders, or into three or four feet wide beds at the distance of nine 
inches, plant from plant, every way. 
Garden Orache. 
The Mriplcx hortensis, or garden orache, is cultivated for culi- 
nary purposes, being used as spinage, and is by some persons pre- 
ferred to it. The French particularly are very partial to this plant. 
There are three or four varieties of it differing only in colour; one 
is of a deep green, another of a dark purple, and a third with green 
leaves and purple borders. The green leaved variety, however, is 
that cultivated as an esculent herb, and is sown at the same time 
and treated in every respect like spinage. 
