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PRODUCTIVE FAMILY GARDENING. 



we hardly know how it could be defined, 

 unless we take an ordinary garden required 

 for an ordinary supply. There are not, 

 however, two families alike in this particu- 

 lar: one family may not consume a peck 

 of onions in a year, while another, no 

 larger, may eat several bushels; under 

 these circumstances (like the little work 

 called Gardening for the Million,) we re- 

 commend frequent sowing rather than large 

 crops, and lay it down as a rule that the 

 wants must regulate the supply. Produc- 

 tive gardening, therefore, may mean large 

 produce, abundance of everything ; but the 

 intended application of the term is large 

 produce without loaste, and the way to se- 

 cure this is to limit the quantity of perisha- 

 ble articles, and make all the abundance 

 and surplus of some crop which is always 

 saleable and not perishable, — that is, not 

 perishable within the period of several 

 weeks. We propose to direct briefly the 

 cultivation of the various subjects desirable 

 to a family, so as to make the most of the 

 ground. 



POTATOES. 



The numerous writers on the cultivation 

 of the potato differ as much in their plans 

 as if they were advising upon as many 

 different subjects. We have grown them 

 upon every plan. The indifTerence of the 

 root to many dififerent modes of treatment, 

 and its success occasionally under all, has 

 made all men too careless. We set out 

 with preferring whole tubers for sets, in 

 preference to cut sets, when they can be 

 got of the right size, and, when we can 

 get whole sets, we like autumn planting 

 better than spring. Whole sets should, on 

 account of economy, be small, that is, about 

 the size of a walnut in its green husk ; 

 those much smaller might prove weak, if 

 much larger there would be waste. Whole 

 tubers are less liable than cut ones to be 

 damaged by wet or frost, but for winter 

 planting, or rather for autumn planting, 

 they should be a clear six inches under the 

 surface, for which purpose the dibble must 

 be thrust down eig^ht inches. In selecting: 

 the place for potatoes, plant those intended 

 to be early under a south wall or paling, or 

 on a sloping southern aspect, using the 

 Ash-leaf kidney, Soden's early Oxford, Ri- 

 iot's flour-ball, Alliway's early seedling, 



and Looker's Oxonian, or any other of the 

 well-known early kinds. Plant any of 

 these a foot apart, in rows eighteen inches 

 from each other. Plant in October. Be- 

 tween these rows there may be planted 

 rows of cabbage plants, not more than six 

 inches apart, to be pulled as greens as soon 

 as they are large enough to eat, beginning 

 by taking every other one the first time 

 you go over them, and clearing them alto- 

 gether the second time. When the potato 

 plants are well up, let them be earthed, 

 that is, the earth drawn up round their 

 stems with a hoe ; but although we men- 

 tion October, the open weather from that 

 time till May would be good, if the vegeta- 

 tion could be kept back; for the instant a 

 potato begins to shoot the eyes, it begins to 

 take harm. Common sense dictates that 

 the instant the eyes begin to swell the 

 tuber ought to be in the ground; for this 

 reason, seed potatoes ought never to be 

 pitted, but when taken up they should be 

 dried on the surface of the ground, or what 

 is called greened. This process thickens 

 the skin, evaporates a portion of the mois- 

 ture, and adapts them for keeping, though 

 it totally spoils them for eating. They 

 ought then to be kept in a dry, cool place 

 until the period for planting arrives. Sup- 

 pose them disinclined to grow, and the eyes 

 not to start even till late in the spring, they 

 would be just as well planted the last day 

 as the first ; but we repeat that the instant 

 they begin to grow (before planting,) they 

 begin to lose quality. Presuming large 

 potatoes alone can be had for seed, the 

 necessity of cutting them into smaller sets 

 must be admitted ; but equal care, indeed 

 greater rather than less care, must be taken 

 to cut and plant before they begin to grow. 

 In a general way it may be observed that a 

 potato has the eyes for growing chiefly on 

 one half. Now if the potatoes to be cut 

 are in good order, and not growing, one- 

 half may be cut off for eating, the other, 

 containing the eyes should be so cut as to 

 have one strong eye on each shoot ; some 

 are more liberal, and have two, and in 

 some kinds of potatoes the eyes sit so close 

 that you are obliged to have more. These 

 cuts should be spread out to dry before 

 they are planted ; a little lime sifted over 

 them, so as to dust them all, is desirahle. 



