136 
FORWARDING TOMATOES. 
contains an acid as fine as the Gooseberry, for pies and tarts 
a square rod of ground will supply a family ; and it may be 
used till midsummer or later. [For fuller explanations , see 
article Rhubarb.] 
FORWARDING SALAD HERBS, SMALL PLANTS, 
&c. 
For the purpose of raising Mustard, Cress, and other salad 
herbs, also Egg-plants, Tomato plants, &c., in small quanti- 
ties, a hot-bed may be made, early in the spring, of good 
heating materials, on the top of which may be laid leaf mould, 
old tan, or light compost, to the depth of about nine inches. 
The various kinds of seed may be sown in boxes or flower- 
pots, and plunged in the top mould up to their rims, and by 
being well attended to, a supply of small salads, as well as 
small seedling plants, may be raised without much labour or 
difficulty. This method is also well calculated for raising 
annual flower plants at an early season. 
FORWARDING TOMATOES. 
As this vegetable has become highly appreciated of late 
years for its excellent qualities, it may be necessary here to 
observe, that plants raised from seed sown in hot-beds the lat- 
ter end of February, or early in March, as directed in former 
pages, will grow to the length of four inches and upward by 
the first of April, which is one month earlier than they can 
with safety be trusted in the open garden. If a few of these 
be puljed from the hot-bed, and transplanted into flower-pots, 
they may be kept growing therein until settled warm weather, 
and then turned out and deposited in the ground with the 
balls of earth entire ; or a fruiting-bed may be prepared by 
the first of April, in the manner recommended for Bush 
