Oct.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 543 
at such times, are screened from the direct rays of the sun, its re- 
flected heat comforts without injuring them. 
The beds should be made the width of your garden-frames, and 
the plants set therein up to their leaves, in rows about three or four 
inches distant every way. When thus transplanted they will 
survive the winter much better than in the seed-beds; for their 
long stems being buried into the earth, are protected thereby from 
alternate freezing and thawing and the effects of the various 
cha/iges of weather, than which there is nothing more injurious to 
tender plants. The stems of these and cauliflower plants, are in- 
jured before the foliage, and it is of importance to keep those tender 
parts in an equal temperature, by which they will be preserved 
much longer, even it in a frozen state, than if they were exposed to 
alternate frost and heat. 
Select good plants from the seed-beds and, when planted, give 
them a gentle watering to settle the earth about their roots, observ- 
ing not to apply it too hastily, lest you wash the earth into their 
hearts. 
Put -on the frames immediately, and also the lights, but the glas- 
ses are now to be continued on, only for four or five days, till the 
plants have taken fresh root, observing during that period to shade 
the plants with mats or other protection from the mid-day sun; 
but when they have taken sufficient root, the lights are to be taken 
totally off, and the plants left fully exposed till the setting in of 
smart frosts, except in very cold nights or during the prevalence 
of cold heavy rains; for it is of considerable moment to have the 
plants tolerably hardy on the commencement of severe weather. 
But if they happen to be in a backward state, you should keep on 
the glasses every night to encourage their growth. 
When you have not the convenience of glass, you may defend 
the plants sufficiently in winter by means of boards and mats. 
Or, in the middle and southern states, you may plant some in a 
warm border, to be defended in like manner as before directed for 
lettuces; and if the winter proves tolerably mild, they may happen 
to stand it pretty well. But if at any time, particularly towards the 
end of February, or early in March, you expose the plants to a 
warm sun, while they, or the earth in which they stand are 
in a frozen state, it will inevitably destroy them. 
You should in mild warm weather, when the sun is not power- 
ful, give them an occasional airing, and the oftener this can be done 
so that they are covered up again in due time the better. 
Similar precautions are to be used with plants in frames, that are 
frozen, but such as are not, will be improved by exposing them oc- 
casionally, to as much air and sun as prudence may warrant, till 
planted out finally in March, &c. 
By pursuing this method you will have much earlier and larger 
cabbages, than can be expected from plants sown in the early spring 
months. 
3 T 
