FEBRUARY. 
49 
the pit. The frames are rough to look at, 2 ft. 6 in. high at the back, 
and 1 ft. 4 in. at front, made as follows: Four corner pins of oak, the 
desired height for back and front, are procured 3 inches square; a 
f-inch rabbit is made on the side of each square, to receive the |^-inch 
boards forming the frame; these are screwed on the corner pins, and 
besides these one is placed half way and the boards screwed on it, to 
strengthen the back and front. Your readers will see by this we have 
a space between the boards of 1-| inch, which in winter we fill with 
dry saw-dust, which acts as a non-conductor, and keeps the frame dry 
and warm. The coiner pins are carried up 4 inches above the frame, 
and we lift them about by these means, and I also in the winter nail 
rods across from these pins, on which we place the mats for protecting 
the frame from frost, and as they never touch the glass by three inches, 
they more effectually exclude cold than when placed directly over the 
sashes. The three sashes to each division are glazed with stout sheet 
glass, and the frame well tarred over once in two years, dressing it with 
boiled oil in the interim. A rough affair, you will say, but I am 
prepared to back it for usefulness against any I have seen. 
At this season I have one division filled with Potatoes (Ashleaves 
and Oxfords), planted a fortnight back in pots, 48’s. They stand 
thickly, and the pit was previously filled with tree leaves. I have also 
fifty pots of Mitchell's hardy Cauliflower, in 32-size pots ; and I have 
one hundred pots of true Bath Cos Lettuce, which will be transferred 
to a warm border presently. In this division we merely exclude frost; 
the Potatoes are plunged and will soon be up, and when four inches high 
we shall fill this division with them, planting them in about eight 
inches of mould, and earthing them up as we proceed. We then sow 
early frame Radishes over the soil, which are ready to draw before the 
Potatoes overgrow them. The Potatoes will be ready by the end of 
April, or early in May, after which we turn up the bed and plant it 
with Melons. Before the Melons are turned out a few inches of loam 
are placed over the leaves, and small pieces of Mushroom spawn 
deposited over the surface of the bed, which are covered as the earthing 
up proceeds ; when the Melons are finished in September we water the 
bed, and have a good supply of Mushrooms up to Christmas. The 
surface of the bed is covered with pots full of cuttings—Geraniums, 
Fuchsias, Verbenas, and all my stock of flower-garden plants for the 
ensuing year are here struck. The Mushrooms find their way up 
among the pots, and it is curious to find that they sometimes overturn 
a pot of cuttings in their upward progress. 
We may now take Division 2, which now contains a crop of Carrots 
and Radishes, interlined ; besides which I sow Leeks, Celery, Cauli¬ 
flowers, and Lettuce with them, removing these latter when they get 
in the way, by pricking them under hand-glasses on a south border. 
The Lettuce and Cauliflower come in to succeed the autumn-sown 
plants ; it is true they want nursing, but then we get them in fully 
three weeks before anything sown in the open ground can be produced, 
and this is something. As the Carrots are pulled—and we clear them as 
we go—I prick out a few Celery for the earliest crop, and as space is 
VOL. XI., NO. CXXII. E 
