The Country Gentlemaii s Magazine 



49 



ROTATION OF CROPS IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



'■ I ^HIS is a subject worthy the attention of 

 X the cultivator who aims at the largest 

 possible production and the highest possible 

 quality of every kind of kitchen garden crop 

 he cultivates. But we are bound to say, by 

 way of preface, that rotation cropping is of 

 less importance to the gardener than to the 

 farmer, and for this good reason, that the 

 first has usually a greater command of manure 

 than the second, and where liberal manuring is 

 practised, rotation is of far less consequence 

 than where manure is a scarce article, and is 

 commonly applied in so scanty a manner 

 that the crops have to depend mainly for 

 their development on the natural capabilities 

 of the soil. But to both parties this is a sub- 

 ject of importance, and if differing in degree 

 in the respective cases, is alike in principle, 

 for it is determined by the natural relations 

 of the plant and the soil as to their several 

 chemical constituents. 



The principle may be illustrated by con- 

 sidering the demands of two of the most 

 common garden crops. If we submit a 

 Cabbage to the destructive agency of fire, and 

 analyze the ashes that remain, we shall find 

 in them 21 per cent, of sulphuric acid, 12 per 

 cent, of phosphoric acid, 20 per cent, of soda, 

 1 1 percent, of potash, and 20 per cent, of lime. 

 It is evident that we cannot grow a Cabbage 

 on a soil utterly destitute of these ingredients, 

 to say nothing of others which occur in 

 smaller quantities. The obnoxious odour of 

 suljiliur emitted by decaying Cabbages might 

 indicate to any one accustomed to reflect on 

 ordinary occurrences, that this mineral is an 

 important constituent of Cabbage. If we 

 submit a Potato tuber to a similar process, the 

 result will be to find in the ashes 55 per cent, 

 of potash, I per cent, of soda, 13 per cent, of 

 sulphuric acid, 12 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid, and 2 per cent, of lime. Now the les- 

 son for the cultivator is, that to prepare a soil 

 for Cabbage it is of the utmost importance to 

 employ a manure containing sulphates, phos- 



VOL. IX. 



phites, and soda and potash salts in con- 

 siderable quantity; as for the lime, that can 

 be supplied separately, but the Cabbage must 

 have it. On the other hand, to prepare a soil 

 for Potatoes, it is of the utmost importance 

 to employ a manure strongly charged with 

 salts of potash and phosphates, but it need 

 not be highly charged with soda or lime, for we 

 find but little of these elements in the Potato. 

 As in one case sulphur and soda may be said 

 to predominate, so in the other we may say 

 that potash predominates, while in both the 

 phosphates are equal. Now there are soils so 

 naturally rich in all that crops require, that 

 they may be tilled for years without the 

 aid of manures, and will not cease to 

 present the cultivator with an abundant 

 reward for all his pains. But these 

 soils are exceptional, and those that con- 

 stantly need manuring are the rule. One 

 pqhit more, ere we proceed to apply to 

 practice these elementary considerations. In 

 almost every soil, whether strong clay, 

 mellow loam, poor sand, or even chalk, 

 there are comminglings of all the minerals 

 required by plants, and indeed if there were 

 not, we should see no herbage on the downs, 

 and no Elms, and Alders, and Ivies climbing 

 as they do to the topmost heights of lime- 

 stone rocks. But usually a considerable 

 proportion of those mineral constituents on 

 which plants feed, are, as it were, locked up 

 in the staple, and are dissolved out slowly as 

 the rain, the dew, the always moving air, and 

 even the sunshine act upon them. As the 

 rock slowly yields up its phosphates and 

 alkalies and solutions of silica to the wild 

 vegetation that runs riot upon it, so the cul- 

 tivated field (which is but rock in a state of 

 decay) yields up its phosphates and alkalies 

 and solutions of silica for the service of 

 ])lants quickly, because it is the practice of 

 the cultivator to stir it about and continually 

 expose fresh surfaces to the transforming 

 power of the atmosphere. It has been said 



