A HINT ON KITCHEN GARDENS. 



471 



ings are usually the substance, and the only 

 substance, of the things hoped for, and, as 

 frequently, the evidence of things not seen, 

 noi however, because the vision has no reali- 

 ty, but because there is no taste formed to en- 

 joy it. The man whose entire active life 

 has been devoted to legers, balance-sheets, 

 and bills of exchange, might as soon ex- 

 pect to turn his attention to shoeing horses, 

 and to find pleasure in the occupation, as 

 to be transformed into an admirer of na- 

 ture, which, after all, is the chief element 

 of rural enjoyment, by simply removing 

 from the city to the country. The city is 

 no hot-bed for the propagation of this rare 

 plant. Rural taste may, to a very limited 

 extent, perhaps, be transplanted from its 

 native soil to the town ; but like flowers, 

 in a dusty and illy ventilated room, it can 

 have but a sickly shrivelled existence there. 

 This taste, like any other power of the 

 ■understanding, is to be redeemed from 

 man's natural downward tendency to lazi- 

 £iess, ignorance and depravity, and, like 



any other mental bias, can be inculcated 

 with much greater facility early in life 

 than at any time afterwards. As we have 

 the elements of its universality in an ex- 

 tended proprietorship of the soil, I hope 

 yet to see the homes of our fair land made 

 beautiful to our eyes, and attractive to our 

 children. There is a sublime moral in 

 this. How many young men are entirely 

 ruined by the want of an attractive home. 

 A volume might be written upon this branch 

 of the subject; but, lest I be wearisome to 

 you, I will conclude these hints with my 

 own day-dream, which is, that all the 

 school-houses and homes of our land may 

 be made so attractive to our children, and 

 our children's children, that the vicious 

 pleasures and excitements of the town shall 

 not be sufficient to seduce them from their 

 love of the country, and to Him who, in the 

 benevolence of his nature, has given them 

 such ample sources of pleasure, and so rich 

 a heritage. S. B. Gookins. 



Tent Haute, February 24, 1849. 



A HINT ON KITCHEN GARDENS. 



BY GEO. KIDD, RED-HOOK, N. Y. 



Will you allow me, through the columns 

 of the Horticulturist, to suggest to those 

 about forming new gardens, that a devia- 

 tion from the usual European mode is de- 

 sirable. It is too generally the case, along 

 the Hudson, that the formality of the 

 kitchen-garden, and its close proximity 

 with the mansion, mars the effect of a fine 

 landscape ; and the necessarily tedious 

 mode of cultivating it, is by no means in 

 accordance with the energetic character of 

 the American-s. It is desirable, in many 

 respects, that the kitchen-garden should be 

 near the barn-yard, and so arranged that 



the bulk of the work may be performed 

 with the 'plough. 



The ground should be thoroughly sub- 

 soiled previous to cropping. Ail crops 

 should be in continuous rows, — allowing a 

 greater distance between the drills of the 

 smaller vegetables than in the old method. 



There are various implements to be pro- 

 cured at the agricultural warehouses, adapt- 

 ed to the cultivatit n of even small vegeta- 

 bles, like onions, by horse power. 



All cross-walks, alleys, and the usual 

 borders for flowers being dispensed with, 

 the ordinary allotment of space will still 



