CALENDAR!AL MEMORANDA FOR FEBRUARY. 
79 
towards the end of the month. Place the sets, whether whole or in pieces, 
five inches deep, and in rows thirty inches apart. The tops of this planting 
may perhaps he killed by night frosts in April or May : but, nevertheless, 
they will yield tubers at an acceptable time. 
Many different things must be sown in this month, as cabbage of sorts, 
savoys, cauliflower on a moderate hot-bed ; celery under a hand-glass on a 
south border, or in a box placed in a frame or hot-house ; carrot for an early 
crop ; parsley and Hamburg parsley, a single drill of red beet; spinach to 
succeed that sown in Autumn; a bed of leeks towards the end of the 
month for transplanting; parsnep, various sorts of lettuce, radish, and small 
salad herbs twice. 
Ail kinds of crops in rows or drills will require hoeing among, and some 
of them may require earthing up. The action of the hoe assists to dry the 
surface, and renews the cultivated face thereof, as well as assists the growth 
of the plants. 
It is not yet too late to do many things advised to be done in the three 
preceding months; such as transplanting fruit trees, making new plantations 
of horse radish, or liquorice, where required; carrying on manure or pre¬ 
pared composts ; trenching, &c., &c. 
The business of the melon ground and forcing houses now engrosses the 
principal part of the time, and much of the care, of the gardener. One 
excellent rule in the management is, never to defer doing what is necessary 
till the necessity is actually visible. The business of gardening is based on 
forethought; and he who cannot foresee what is likely to happen a week or 
two before the instant day, is by no means well calculated for the duties of 
forcing. We have lost, or seriously injured, many hotbed crops by merely 
delaying to apply till Saturday a lining which should have been put up on 
the Thursday before. Experience teaches what is necessary for every plant 
artificially treated, and practice enables a man to judge from ordinary 
feelings whether circumstances are favourable, especially as to the necessary 
temperature ; still a thermometer may be consulted with advantage even by 
the most experienced hand. 
The stove, green-house, and flower-garden, require the usual superintend¬ 
ence. The latter may still undergo any necessary alterations and improve¬ 
ments, as to reducing or enlarging beds, or clumps; dividing the overgrown 
stools of perennials and planting new sorts; the beds of bulbs and tubers being 
carefully defended against hail-storms and severe frost. About the end of 
the month dahlia seeds may be sown, and raised on a little heat, and so may 
all other annual or other plants which are wished to flower early. Seeds of 
both greenhouse and hothouse plants are also best raised about this time in 
order to meet the summer. Another set of flowering shrubs may be brought 
into heat to succeed such as are fading. 
