Page:The family kitchen gardener - containing plain and accurate descriptions of all the different species and varieties of culinary vegetables (IA familykitchengar56buis).pdf/133

 .—It is indispensable, in good gardening, to have this popular vegetable fit for the table at the earliest possible period. We therefore advise all to resort to the best and most expeditious means at their command. Hotbeds, in March, are generally used to grow a few hundreds, or thousands, as wants require. Sow the seed very thinly, and cover it slightly. It is generally sure of vegetating, and if the plants come up thickly, they draw and crowd each other. In a few days they will be three or four inches high, requiring to be freely aired, if in a hotbed, at all favorable periods in time of sunshine. As they advance in growth, transplant into other frames, under glass, where they will stand two or three inches apart, to harden and prepare for removal to the open ground. About the first of May select some sheltered spot; plant them three feet apart, by the side of a close fence, or other erection, where they will have the full benefit of the sun the whole day. When they are about a foot high, draw earth to their stems and surround them with branches for support. The earliest plants should have a few inches taken off their tops as soon as they have set their fruit. This will cause them to ripen more rapidly. Where there is plenty of space under glass, it is a good plan to pot a quantity of the plants in April, and encourage their growth by every possible means, transplanting them into the open air as soon as there is a possibility of settled, warm weather, which is generally about the second week in May, in this vicinity.

Those who have not such convenient arrangements as above, can place a small box or large pot, with good rich earth, in their kitchen window, and sow in it a few seeds, about the middle of March or the first of April. By this means they will have the crop ready two or three weeks before those that are sown in the open air. For a general crop, sow about the last week of April, on a sheltered, warm spot of ground, in light, rich soil. If the nights are cold, cover with a little straw or other brush. Keep the plants thin, that they may 6*