November 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
89 
great care must be taken to press the earth firmly to 
each plant, or the frost, if early and severe, will 
throw them out of the ground. This may seem 
somewhat curious to those who have not witnessed 
the effect of frost, but it is nevertheless perfectly 
true. A thin stratum of spent tanner’s bark will in 
a great measure prevent this not-to-be-desired oc¬ 
currence. Old plants of pansies—that is, such as 
have been blooming almost till now—are scarcely 
worth preserving, unless it happens to be a good, 
scarce kind. In such a case, we should take up the 
plant, divide it carefully, preserving a portion of the 
root to each division, put them in pots, and keep 
them under shelter till spring. We have a list by 
us of nine kinds of pansies that we observed at a 
place near Edinburgh, but time and space prevents 
us inserting it this week. They were the best 
pansies we ever saw, and during a long journey of 
nearly three months, when we were constantly on 
the look out for good new things, that is saying a 
good deal in their favour. We shall give them their 
names and description next week if possible. 
T. Apple bv. 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Asparagus. —Where good plants are plentiful they 
may be forked out carefully in succession for forcing. 
At first, as previously directed, the bottom heat 
should be moderate, for the goodness and abundance 
of the crop depend much on this provision. The 
open ground plantations should at once have a liberal 
application of rich manure, if not already done. Fork 
it in, leave the surface rough, and the winter rains 
will wash down the fertilising matters of the manure 
to the roots of the plants, and the frost will mellow 
the surface of the soil. 
Cabbage. —Those who have plants of esteemed 
varieties should look them over, and select for pro¬ 
ducing seed those which head the soonest and are 
the handsomest shaped. Place them where they are 
intended to stand for seeding. 
Coleworts. —Those which are forward and are 
forming their hearts may be taken up advantage¬ 
ously and laid in by the heels in any sheltered cor 
ner, to be protected during severe frost. The ground 
thus cleared may be manured, trenched, and cast 
into rough ridges, to be well forked about during 
frosty mornings. 
Cabbages. —Large varieties with hard hearts may 
be pulled up and stored, by hanging them up in any 
dry outhouse or cellar, where they will keep for a 
considerable time in good condition. This prevents 
the waste by bursting and rotting, if they arc left in 
the ground, at this season of the year, when frosts 
and wet prevail. Savoys, early headed, may be 
treated in the same manner. 
Cauliflowers and Brocoli now forming heads- 
should be diligently watched, and all not required 
for immediate use hung root upwards in a dry shed 
for winter store. 
Celery should now be carefully earthed up during 
fine dry afternoons, or much disappointment may 
arise from its becoming cankered and rotten. Thu 
late planted celery should be kept clear of suckers,, 
and the surface about it be kept loose by frequent 
stirring. 
Rhubarb. —Roots of the early varieties may bn 
made to yield an early produce by any cottager who 
may have the spare corner of a fuel-house, cellar, or 
any other dry place. Nail a few old boards together 
just to hold the roots, or they may be put into an old 
bucket or butter firkin cut in two. 
Sea-kale. —Plants should be thoroughly cleared 
from all dead leaves and refuse, but such leaves as 
still remain green should be neither cut nor pulled 
off. The crowns of the plants should then be pro¬ 
tected by covering them an inch or two deep, either 
with coal-ashes or, what we find much better, with 
some kind of charred refuse. 
Sea-kale Forcing. —Another mode than that men¬ 
tioned in our last is the following:—Some of the 
stools which, by dropping their leaves first, showed 
that their crowns were earliest ripened, should be 
taken up carefully, with as much uninjured roots as 
possible. These planted thickly in boxes, placed in 
a mushroom-house, and watered frequently with tepid 
water, will jiroduce two or three crops of nice shoots 
throughout the winter months. Forced sea-kale may 
also be produced in any dark cellar, or indeed in any 
room, if the precaution is taken of covering the 
crowns to the depth of six or eight inches with leaf- 
mould, or well decayed tan or charred refuse.* We 
have also practised other easy and cheap methods of 
forcing this vegetable. In the houses, when forcing 
early grapes, peaches, pines, &c., we have placed 
boxes and tubs filled with its roots, and when we 
have had room to spare, in the juts of such houses, 
we have placed quantities there in rows in succession, 
and have had abundance of excellent shoots. We 
have also erected slight hot-beds, with well-wrought 
fermenting materials, placed on a foundation of wood 
primings. On the top of the fermenting materials 
we put twelve or fifteen inches of leaf-mould, decayed 
tan, or some kind of light earth, for the roots to be 
planted in. On this we place a rough box or frame 
of the required size, formed of four boards nailed 
together, ten or twelve inches broad. A slip or two 
of board is nailed across to support a covering of 
boards, mats, or thatched hurdles, for the purpose of 
keeping the plants in the dark. A frame of this kind 
six feet square will produce a good succession of well 
bleached sea-kale. Against the outsides of the frame 
may be heaped up any kind of rubbish, and when the 
heat declines it may be renewed by the application 
of linings of fermenting materials. By one or the 
other of these plans a cottager might obtain a sufii- 
cient produce not only to repay him for his labour, 
but a surplus wherewith to purchase garden tools and 
seeds. By taking up the plants and forcing them in 
these modes, they are so weakened as not to be worth 
replanting. To obtain good strong roots for thus 
forcing in succession every year, it is necessary to 
sow every April in drills one foot apart. Transplant 
the seedlings in the following March on a well- 
trenched, manured, and pulverized piece of ground. 
Apply liberal soakings to them of liquid manure in 
the growing season, with salt added in quantity re¬ 
gulated by the strength of the plants. By the autumn 
* Mr. Barnes is of opinion that “ this is a much less troublesome, 
cheaper, and simpler, mode of producing forced sea-kale, and that it 
may be produced throughout the winter with more certainty and in 
finer condition than by forcing it with fermenting materials on the 
ground where it grows.” He is also of opinion that this mode pro¬ 
duces smaller shoots, and exhausts and ruins the roots. Now, we 
are sorry to differ from so good an authority as Mr. Barnes on all 
these points. The heaviest crops and the finest forced sea-kale exhi¬ 
bited at one of the best country shows in England, we know, is from 
roots that have been forced by means of leaves heaped over them, as 
described by us at p. 79, for the last twelve years. Then, as to the 
trouble and expense, let the detail of the two systems be compared. 
Mr. Mills, gardener to Baroness de Rothschild, forces by means of 
leaves, &c., over the plants in the bed, and says in his Treatise on the 
Cucumber, &c. p, 100, “Plants of sea-kale may be taken up and 
forced in frames, in the same manner as asparagus, but the heads 
will not be so fine, independently of which they will be destroyed 
after the first forcing.”— Ed. C. G. 
