62 
THE CROCUS. 
The greenhouse, used as such, has, notwith- 
standing the frost, no fire in the furnace. It 
has had a little during the night, to keep the 
frost out, but the lower the temperature can 
be kept, so as to avoid actual frost, the better 
for the health of the plants. Those dwarf 
buildings with glass covers are called frames. 
These contain plants that are nearly but not 
quite hardy ; the brick sides are warmer than 
wooden boxes would be, such as the cucum- 
bers are growing in. The object of these 
pits is to preserve plants by keeping in the 
natural warmth of the earth. Some of these 
have plants which are completely hardy in the 
ground, but which, when potted, would be 
damaged if exposed, because the roots natu- 
rally reach the sides of the pot and would be 
frozen through ; whereas, in the ground, they 
go down into the earth and would not be 
reached. You see numerous beds and bor- 
ders covered with straw ; when the sun has 
been out awhile this will be taken off for an 
hour or two, but be carefully put on again ; 
It covers tender crops that would be damaged 
if not killed by the frost. Those shrubs which 
are matted round are nearly hardy, but would 
be injured were the fro^t severe, and they ex- 
posed, though ordinary frost would not hurt 
them much. But we must return to the house. 
Nobody would believe it possible, if they 
did not witness it, that two following days 
could be so extremely different in tempei'ature. 
Yesterday, everything was icebound. To-day 
all the eaves are dripping with wet ; all ap- 
pearance of frost has gone. The air is com- 
paratively warm, and the gardener is sowing 
his seeds again in some vacant places. He is 
covei'ing sea-kale with pots and dung to force 
it early and keep up a supply, and rhubarb in 
the same way, or rather upon the same prin- 
ciple. The man a little beyond the cross 
walk, is sowing more peas, and planting more 
beans. Another is, as you see, planting out 
cabbages twice as thickly as necessary for 
hearting, but this is that one-half may be 
drawn before they are full grown, to eat as 
greens. He under the wall is sowing ra- 
dishes and lettuces together to succeed for- 
warder crops. The green stuff almost like 
grass which the man is dividing from one 
large tuft into several smaller ones, is called 
chives ; they look like onions, and are a good 
substitute for them when these are scarce. 
And the youth who is planting bulbous roots 
in these holes, which he makes one inch deep, 
is planting shallots and garlic. The warm 
border at the foot of the fruit-tree wall is 
now being dug up just at the bottom, for the 
purpose of putting in these small potatoes ; 
they will be laid in the corner, and earth put 
upon them. These are sure to be an early, 
though not a prolific crop, Among the hot- 
beds the gardener is sowing seeds in one, and 
of several sorts ; some are annual flower seeds, 
and I observe he has put in some cauliflowers ; 
this reminds me that yesterday all the cauli- 
flowers under glasses were shut up close, now 
you see all the glasses are lifted clear off;: 
these will all be replaced at three or four 
o'clock, before the air gets too cold. Observe, 
the gardener is taking away the dung from the 
front of the cucumber bed ; this is for the 
purpose of replacing it with new hot dung. 
In the fruit garden the man is clearing 
the strawberries, forking up between them, 
dressing the surface with very rotten dung, 
digging between the gooseberry and cur- 
rant trees, and burying dung over their roots. 
There are some of them not pruned yet, but 
he ought to do them this month. The bun- 
dles of twigs which you see half buried are 
grafts of choice apple and pear trees, ready to 
be grafted on stocks, to propagate the choice 
sorts of fruit trees from which they were ob- 
tained. These need not be used for several 
weeks, they will be just as good then as now, 
because their juices are dormant, and the parts 
at rest, but they might be used now directly 
if there were leisure. 
In the flower-garden they seem to be busy. 
One man at the frame is stirring up the 
mould in the pots of auriculas, and throwing 
the loose earth out for the purpose of replacing 
it with very rich light compost mixed on pur- 
pose. He is doing it with rotten cow-dung, 
that is, cow-dung rotted into mould ; this is 
mixed with a little sand and it gives great 
strength to the plant. He leaves the carnations 
and picotees, the pansies and verbenas, and 
all other plants in the frame just as they were 
placed in the pots ; they want no attendance 
just now. Here the man is returning soil to 
the ranunculus bed, where he will plant some 
of the finest in about a week, say the loth, and 
these will be in full bloom in June. In the 
shed there, the man is potting the large roots 
of dahlias, which will be put in the propa- 
gating house to push their shoots, and these 
will be cut off close to the bottom, and being 
struck in a small hot-bed, will become plants 
ready to plant out in May. If the weather 
continues fine, he will sow many of the annuals 
in the border, but there will not be much 
more done this month. The place may be 
kept clean, and on fine days he will earth up 
the celery, but very little else. 
THE CROCUS. 
The great variety of this gay and very 
welcome spring flower renders it compara- 
tively easy to get hold of a few that, in some 
degree, approach the standard laid down ; and 
