14 
A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN. 
lettuce, both up and doing well ; but had they 
been left uncovered last night, they would 
have perished ; the litter must not be re- 
moved while the frost lasts. Yonder, I see, is 
a man pumping water on the wall through a 
fine rose, which is something like the rose on 
the spout of a waterpot, only that the holes 
in those garden engines are made of various 
sizes, that the water may be forced through 
in small streams, as fine as dew, or coarse, like 
rain. The rose he is using has very small 
holes. The object in this operation is net 
easily guessed ; but if you notice the part of 
the wall that he has left, it is completely 
coated with ice, and as the water, fine as were 
the particles, was forced from the engine, it 
filled all the crevices, so that all the insects 
that may be lodged in and about the wall 
are frozen in solid ice ; and it will be few, if 
any, that will escape with life — insects and 
eggs will be destroyed. If the man sent the 
water in larger streams, it would not freeze so 
quickly. Frost is a great destroyer of animal 
vitality, as well as of vegetable life ; and al- 
though everybody is not aware of the good 
done by watering a wall, it should never be 
neglected if the opportunity of a sharpish day- 
frost offers itself. Let us now turn back, and 
see how the hot-bed progresses. I see he has 
completed it, and placed the wooden frame on 
the top, and the glasses upon that. The dung, 
you see, projects a foot all round the frame ; 
the only object of this is the additional body 
of dung for the sake of the heat being greater 
and lasting longer than it would with a less 
quantity. Since we left, he has made another 
bed half the height of the other or rather 
more ; this is intended for asparagus. He 
has already put three inches thickness of soil 
upon the dung inside the frame ; upon this he 
will place, side by side, as thick or rather as 
close together as he can pack them, the roots of 
three year old asparagus, or older if they can 
be got strong and healthy ; these he will cover 
up with soil three inches thick above the 
crowns. The reason for not building up the 
dung so high as the other bed, is that the 
heat is not wanted so great, nor is it required 
so long as that for cucumbers or melons, 
which the larger bed is intended for. A great 
body of dung will sometimes heat very much 
more than it ought, notwithstanding all the 
precaution we can take ; therefore it is neces- 
sary to watch narrowly the first few days. 
The w r ooden stake you see thrust into the side 
of the dung, reaches to the middle, and by 
pulling it out and feeling the end, you may 
always tell the heat of the centre. If it is 
found too hot, and likely to burn, it must be 
taken partly to pieces, shook out again, and 
remade ; but if the previous management of 
the dung has been right, there will be no 
trouble. The gardener has tilted up the glass 
behind, to let the steam out of the large bed, 
but the lower one is closed up. The steam 
that goes through the mould will be sweet 
and wholesome ; besides which, it will take 
some hours to heat through the mould which 
covers the dung. 1 wish you to remark the 
difference between the weather of to-day and 
yesterday — one, all sunshine and warmth, the 
other, cold, frosty, and cheerless. This shows 
that no unconditional directions can be given 
for any particular month, because here we 
have two consecutive days in January, one of 
them a summer's day, as it were, and the other 
hard winter. We will not lengthen our walk 
to-day : the house is the most comfortable 
place, for it has begun to snow. 
As the snow has all thawed, and it is more 
than a week since we took a walk in the gar- 
den, we will take a stroll down some of the 
principal walks, though there is not much 
going on. Now observe this lump of earth, 
which before the frost, was as hard almost as 
a brick, you see I can crumble it with my 
stick ; but it would not do to work upon it 
yet, for the feet would press it again together 
into hard lumps, which would perhaps remain 
so for months when dug up again ; the thaw 
expands the water that is in all the pores of 
the earth, and that pushes all the particles 
away from each other, and completely breaks 
the texture ; but whenever it is trampled on, 
it would be again compressed into its clay-like 
structure, and require enormous labour to chop 
it or knock it to pieces. You see the frost 
has even made the gravel walks rotten, but 
the heavy roller passing over this will set it 
to rights. I see the gardener has completed 
his asparagus bed, and has put three heaps of 
mould on the cucumber bed, one under the 
centre of each light. These heaps have been 
in two or three days, to make the warmth of 
the dung penetrate them. See, he is coming with 
some cucumber plants in pots : let us pay 
attention to his proceedings. You see the soil 
which he put in a heap like a cone, he now 
stirs round in the centre, by which he forms a 
sort of basin, throwing or rather pushing the 
soil over the edge to run down the side of 
the cone. Having made this basin or hollow, 
he now turns the plants out of the pots, and 
does not disturb the ball of earth that comes 
out of the pot whole, but places it in the 
centre of the hole and presses it down, so that 
the bottom of the ball of earth is only three 
inches from the dung ; he now draws down 
enough of the soil to cover up the side of the 
ball to the surface, and having watered it, to 
settle the earth close to the ball : it is done. 
He will do the other two just the same. In 
a few clays the roots of the plants will have 
