THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



V, 



seed of potatoes, choose the best-shaped, 

 hardest tubers, that have no second 

 growth on them. Let them be 

 thoroughly ripe before taking up; 

 choose those that are about the size of 

 hens' eggs, and let them lay on a piece 

 of dry ground, in the full sun, for a 

 week ; then lay them iu shallow 

 baskets, and stow them away where 

 they will be safe from frost, damp, and 

 artificial heat, and so that a free circu- 

 lation of air, and some amount of light, 

 can reach them. By February they 

 will be green and hard, and little pur- 

 ple sprouts will be breaking, and they 

 are ju»t in trim for planting. Of all 

 other things, choose the very best for 

 seed : for early things, choose those 

 that are the earliest in the patch; 

 things that are prized for bulk and 

 weight, select the finest for size, and 

 general perfection, and gather allseeds 

 just before they are dead ripe, and dry 

 them on a piece of cloth, or sacking, so 

 that if any shell out, they may not be 

 lost. But, as a rule, the professional 

 seed grower will beat you nine times 

 out of ten, for he will not only grow 

 them better than you can, and at a 

 tenth of the cost, considering how 

 much more valuable your limited space 

 is for growing the things you most 

 want, but he will harvest and dress 

 them better, and if you deal with none 

 but respectable seedsmen, and avoid 

 the cheap rubbish that is vended in odd 

 corners, j 7 ou will save a good deal of 

 labour that is, generally speaking, but 

 barely productive. 



In growing large breadths, where a 

 market for perishable things is not 

 within reach, or if you have not the 

 convenience for sending small parcels 

 frequentby, so as to take advantage of 

 good prices just when you have some- 

 thing choice, place your dependance 

 chiefly on things that keep. Potatoes, 

 carrots, parsnips, turnips, mangel wur- 

 zel, grain, seed-beans and peas, grown, 

 field fashion, are things that can be 

 housed and sold at leisure; you are not 

 obliged to hurry them off at any price 

 the moment they come off, and there 

 is hardly any district in the United 

 Kingdom, where a fair price cannot be 

 got for them ; and to carry them a 

 distance in large bulk, during winter, 

 when there is not much doing out of 



doors, will not, generally speaking, 

 entail any very great expense. 



In suiting crops to your soil, remem- 

 ber that carrots, parsnips, and beet, 

 require a deep, friable, and rich mould ; 

 if sandy, all the better. All the cabbage 

 tribe require a rich loam and abundance 

 of manure ; beans prefer a clayey soil, 

 and are much grown to prepare such 

 soils for wheat. Newlj' broken land, 

 generally produces heavy crops of 

 potatoes, and there is no crop that 

 equals potatoes in commencing a course 

 of culture with a view to mellowing a 

 new soil, and fitting it for general 

 culture. As to fruits, apples and pears 

 seldom prosper on shallow soils 

 above gravel ; bush fruits, such as 

 currants, gooseberries, and raspberries, 

 do almost anywhere, but gooseberries 

 like rich stuff, and raspberries are par- 

 tial to moisture. Strawberries require 

 a rich deep loam firm on the surface, 

 and to pay well, they should have 

 abundance of water, unless the soil is 

 naturally moist. Liquid manure is par- 

 ticularly useful in the culture of this 

 profitable fruit. 



A proper rotation of crops is very 

 important, for there is nothing more 

 true than the gardener's adage, that 

 the " ground gets tired " of growing 

 the same thing in regular succession. 

 The same thing should never be grown 

 twice on the same spot, without some 

 other crop coming between "to clean 

 the ground," as the men of the blue 

 apron say. The best rule for a rota- 

 tion course, is never to follow a crop 

 with another belonging to the same 

 family — after peas, it would be a folly 

 to plant peas or beans, though the 

 sort might be different ; after cabbage, 

 no brocoli, cauliflower, or kale should 

 be planted, and it is not well to grow 

 potatoes on the same patch two seasons 

 running, though a course of winter 

 culture and fair manuring, may, in 

 most cases, render the ground quite 

 fit for potatoes again. The only ex- 

 ceptions to this rule, are mangel and 

 onions. I know many fields where 

 mangels have been grown every year, 

 for ten or twelve years in succession, 

 and the crops always heavy and profita- 

 ble, but then they were ridged up in 

 winter, and heavily manured in spring, 

 and no other crop ever put upon them. 



