THE 



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. IV. 



OCTOBER, 1849. 



No. 4. 



Editor. We find you, as usual, in your 

 kitchen garden. Admirable as all the rest 

 of your place is, your own fancy seems to 

 centre here. Do you find the esculents the 

 most satisfactory of your various depart- 

 ments of culture ? 



Subscriber. Not exactly that ; but I find 

 while the shrubbery, the lawn, the flowers, 

 and even the fruit trees, are well cared for 

 and made much of by my family and my 

 gardener, the kitchen garden is treated 

 merely as a necessity. Now, as I estimate 

 very highly the value of variety and excel- 

 lence in our culinary vegetables, I take no 

 little interest in my kitchen garden, so that 

 at last it has become a sort of hobby with 

 me. 



Ed. We see evidences of that all around 

 us. Indeed, we scarcely remember any 

 place where so large a variety of excellent 

 vegetables are grown as here. Artichokes, 

 endive, sea-kale, celeriac, winter melons 

 and mushrooms, and many other good and 

 rare things, in addition to what we usually 

 find in country gardens. 



Sub. And what a climate ours is for 

 growing fine vegetables. From common 

 cabbages, that will thrive in the coldest cli- 

 mate, to egg plants, melons and tomatoes, 

 that need a tropical sun, — all may be so 



Vol. iv. 13 



easily had for the trouble of easy culture 

 in the open air; and yet, strange to say, 

 three-fourths of all country folks, blessed 

 with land in fee simple, are actually igno- 

 rant of the luxury of good vegetables, and 

 content themselves with potatoes, peas, 

 beans and corn ; and those, perhaps, of the 

 poorest and least improved varieties. 



Ed. Still, you cannot say we stand still 

 in these matters. Almost every year, on 

 the contrary, some new species or variety 

 is brought forward, and, if it prove good, is 

 gradually introduced into general cultiva- 

 tion. Look at the tomato, for instance. 

 Twenty years ago, a few curious amateurs 

 cultivated a specimen or two of this plant 

 in their gardens, as a vegetable curiosity ; 

 and the visitor was shown the " love ap- 

 ples" as an extraordinary proof of the odd 

 ta^te of " French people," who outraged 

 all natural appetites by eating such odious 

 and repulsive smelling berries. And yet, 

 at the present moment, the plant is grown 

 in almost every garden from Boston to 

 New-Orleans; may be found in constant 

 use for three months of the year in all 

 parts of the country ; and is cultivated 

 by the acre by all our market gardeners. 

 In fact, it is so popular, that it would be 

 missed next to bread and potatoes. 



