500 



RAISING VEGETABLES IN OLD GARDEN SOIL. 



bad treatment and exhaustion.) I feel al- 

 most certain that the shortening-in mode 

 of pruning, and the use of ashes, will drive 

 this malady out of the countr}', if cultiva- 

 tors can be brought to estimate properl}' 

 their joint value. 



It is, no doubt, best to prune the peach 



tree early; but, as I have seen no bad ef 

 fects whatever from shortening-in as late 

 as the middle of May, I advise such of your 

 readers as may not have performed that 

 operation already, on their peach trees, to 

 take knife in hand and sally forth immedi- 

 ately. Yours. A Jerseyman. 



TO RAISE GOOD VEGETABLES IN OLD GARDEN SOIL. 



BY A CONSTANT READER, NEW-YORK. 



Dear Sir : I presume there are many per- 

 sons, like myself, who have in their posses- 

 sion old kitchen gardens, in which, although 

 the soil is rich, and appears in excellent 

 condition, yet it is extremely difficult to 

 get good crops of certain A^egetables. I 

 suppose this is owing to the long time that 

 the soil has been under cultivation; for I 

 have noticed, in my travels in the western 

 states, that in many of those parts every 

 species of our garden vegetables grows as- 

 tonishingly well there, and to such a size, 

 and in such abundance, as almost surpasses 

 belief. The cultivation required there is 

 scarcely worth the name. They just turn 

 over the soil, deposit the seeds, and dress 

 the plants out once, and a most abundant 

 supply is the result. 



This is, no doubt, owing to the perfectly 

 new soil, unexhausted of its fertility, and 

 naturally abounding with vegetable sub- 

 stances, ready to be converted into food for 

 plants. 



Now in our old gardens, on the sea-board, 

 certain kinds of vegetables, as beets and 

 potatoes, are easily grown year after year 

 in the same soil, and give us regular and 

 good crops. But there are also some sorts, 

 like the bush bean, the cauliflower, etc., 

 which are brought to perfection with a great 



deal of trouble, and are almost always un- 

 satisfactory crops. 



I take it, that this is owing to the long 

 continued culture of the soil; and that there 

 is something in new soil quite different 

 from manure that these plants require, and 

 will not grow without. 



Probably a little experiment, which I 

 have made in my garden for two or three 

 years past, will serve to exemplify this. 

 Taking this view of the matter, — that cer- 

 tain vegetables wanted a fresher soil than 

 that of an old kitchen garden, I thought I 

 would, perhaps, be able to supply it by 

 bringing up some of the subsoil, which had 

 never seen the light, and mixing it with the 

 old soil of my garden. As I did not care 

 to go to the expense of trenching my whole 

 kitchen garden upon an uncertainty, I made 

 my first experiment by trenching a plat of 

 it, upon which I intended to plant hush 

 beans. This I did directly before planting, 

 I had the ground dug to the depth of two 

 spades and a half, (say about two feet,) and 

 the old soil of the top well intermingled with 

 the subsoil throughout. I had a fair coat 

 of stable manure spread over the soil be- 

 fore the trenching commenced, which, of 

 course, was incorporated with the whole. 

 I judged this necessary, as the subsoil is a 



