September 10, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



VEGETABLE CULTURE AND SUPPLY. 



A CHAPTER ON WAYS AND MEANS. 



EGETABLES succulent, tender, abundant, 

 and of the highest order of excellence, of 

 every tind in its season, natural or artificial 

 — that is to say, either from the open g.ar- 

 den or by means of artificial heat, are so 

 much and so generally appreciated, that a 

 somewhat clearer knowledge of the ways 

 and means that are more or lees necessary 

 for their culture appears desirable. 



It may, I think, be very safely premised 

 th.at vegetable culture generally is not at all what it ought 

 to be, not so much regarding quality as quantity. It is 

 the regular unfailing supply, leading steadily onwards 

 throughout the year from crop to crop, from one kind 

 to another in unceasing flow, that is required, and not 

 a series of fitful crops upon which little reliance can be 

 placed ; for a good crop of any popular vegetable that 

 is not promptly followed by others of the same or kindred 

 sorts serves but to whet the appetite, and create wishes 

 and expectations that are doomed to disappointment. 

 That the efforts of many an earnest man are crippled 

 and often rendered altogether futile by evils which it is 

 totally oirt of his power to overcome is undoubtedly cor- 

 rect enough, and to such I offer my hearty sympathy ; for 

 I write in no carping spirit, but with a sincere desire to 

 assist them. In trying to do this, general teiins only can 

 be used, for it is impossible to frame arbitrary rules that 

 would apply in every case, each presenting its peculiar 

 features which must be treated solely on its merits. "We 

 must adapt ourselves, and therefore our measures, to cir- 

 cumstances, and it is only by doing this thoroughly but 

 cautiously that we may hope to conquer the difficulties 

 that invariably arise. 



Now there are three things that are indispensable for 

 every garden — water, manure, and labour power; give 

 me these and I will not care much about soil, situation, 

 or any minor details ; only let me have enough of these 

 three grand powers, and I will undertake to maintain a fuU 

 supply of high-class vegetables in spite of ungenial seasons. 

 Be very sure this assertion is made in no boastful spirit, 

 the writer has had too many battles to fight, too many 

 difficulties to grapple with, to indulge in empty boasting ; 

 if it were not so these notes would not now be written. 



No really good vegetables can be grown without abun- 

 dance of moisture in the soil, and wheir it is asserted that 

 certain summer crops — such as Celery, Spinach, Turnips, 

 and Lettuce — have run to seed prematurely, and the 

 weather is blamed, experience plainly tells one that it 

 is not so much the weather as the culture that is at fault; 

 either nutriment or water — perhaps both were wanting. 

 Mark, now, I did not say the cultivator, but the culture ; 

 for when a man has diligently applied every means at his 

 disposal, and then has to endure the bitter mortification 

 of looking forward to inevitable failure simply because he 

 cannot obtain the materials wherewith to finish what he 

 began so well, he certainly merits pity, and not blanre. 



No. 702 -Vol. XXVII., New Series. 



I said that I should be indifferent as to the nature of 

 the soil, but it is obvious that one could only feel so with 

 an ample staff of labourers; restrict this when the soil 

 is bad and failure must follow. It is altogether useless 

 for anyone to say that a given area of land only re- 

 quires a stated number of men to cultivate it thoroughly. 

 Nothing can be more unsound or more calculated to mis- 

 lead than such a statement, and to prove this as clearly 

 and forcibly as possible I cannot do better than describe 

 a little of my own experience. 



A few years ago I had charge of a garden which had 

 been under tillage for several centuries. It was a fmall 

 garden, and I do not suppose any great amount of science 

 or skill had ever been brought to bear upon its culture ; 

 however, rough-and-ready as it was, the practice of suc- 

 cessive generations of quaint old gardeners through all 

 this long course of years, during which the land and 

 people were undergoing a gradual change from a wild 

 state to culture and civilisation, it was very evident that 

 those of later date had kept the boU well stirred and 

 renovated with abundance of manure, and so for once 

 I found a deep yet light rich loam requiring nothing more 

 than a very easy routine of seasonable manuring and 

 digging to produce excellent vegetables. The garden 

 which I now have presents as striking a contrast to this 

 as could well be found. It is quite new, having only been 

 under cultivation for about three years, and previous to 

 the clearance of the site it was covered principally with 

 a stunted undergrowth of Oak and HoUy, interspersed 

 with immense beds of "Whortleberry. It is on the Weal- 

 den formation, and the soil contains a very large per- 

 centage of silica, distributed in such minute particles that 

 a heavy shower or two will batter the surface into a hard 

 close mass, which then looks as impenetrable as a paving 

 stone. Taken in its virgin state it was almost barren, 

 and the results of a series of trial crops showed that the 

 seeds of most vegetables would barely vegetate in it, and 

 what young plants came up soon dwindled away, even 

 Jerusalem Artichokes and Horseradish failing to do more 

 than put forth a few weakly shoots, the strongest roots 

 dying the first season. To take such a soil in hand, in 

 view of meeting the requirements of a large estabhsh- 

 ment, was to begin at the beginning with vengeance. 

 Draining, trenching, frequent digging, with heavy and 

 repeated dressings of manure and ashes are slowly but 

 surely effecting a radical change. I use the term slowly 

 advisedly, for although an ample supply of vegetables is 

 now obtained, yet the soil requires a special preparation 

 for each crop. Thus, for example, in such a simple matter 

 as a bed of Cabbage, a plentiful dressing of manure is 

 given ; but in digging, the hard clods of crude soil are 

 not to be broken with the digging forks, but have to 

 be got to pieces afterwards with Canterbury hoes, then 

 crushed with an iron roller, stirred a second time with 

 hoes, and sometimes when the weather is very dry it has 

 actually been found necessary to use water before the 

 soil could be reduced to the requisite condition of fine- 

 ness. Then for every row of plants a deep furrow is made, 

 and filled with leaf mould, or a mixture of soil and 



No. 1851.— Vol. LII , Old Sseies. 



