FAKMERS' GARDENS. 347 



skies or our soil, for in no otlier part of the world can a greater variety of lua- 

 cious and well-liavored vegetables be produced. 



In a letter which I received some years ago from a distinguished American 

 gentleman then in Liverpool, it is said, under date of August 17 : 



'■^-The supply of vegetables in an English market is much interior to that in our own 

 market-houses at this season. Potatoes are of excellent quality, better than in New England. 

 Turnips are plenty, and cabbages in all their varieties are exceedingly abundant. But these 

 are the great staples in the vegetable line on an English dinner table, now that green peas, 

 which are never equal to our own, are going out of season. The bean tribe is very poorly 

 represented by a few string beans, which are almost tasteless when cooked, and though shell 

 beans occasionally appear, they never have the richness to which an American taste is ac- 

 customed. Indian corn in its green state is, of course, utterly unknown, and England will 

 never be able to appreciate the luxury of a dish of succotash. All the squash family are 

 Btranger.s to the English table, although I have known of an attempt to raise them under 

 glass, and have seen one or two diminutive Pj^ecimens of the results. 



" One vegetable, or rather fungous dehcacy, which we comparatively lack, is the mush 

 room, and you may just now see here bushels of these poisonous looking toadstools heaped 

 up among the scanty supplies of better esculents. In view of these facts it is no wonder that 

 the Englishman should be a grosser flesh eater than the American, and it seems very certain 

 that a vegetable diet can never be a luxurious or fattening one in this climate. 



" As regards fruits, the inferiority is still more lamentable. An uutravelied Englishman 

 has no idea of the deliciousness of a peach, a pear, or even an apple, although I have been told 

 of a certain apple called the Ribston pippin, which is said to have been equal to the best of our 

 own, but which is now almost extinct. So far as my experience goes, the pigs of America would 

 not thank you for better specimens of either of these fruits than I have ever seen in England, 

 of native growth, excepting in a hot-house. It is only by extending the branches against a 

 brick wall, heated by interior flues, that the horticultui-ists produce even the semblance ot 

 fruit in the open air. Their strawberries, it must be owned, are very large, but look much 

 better than they taste. But after aU the wonder is, not at the failures, but at the successes 

 of English horticulture, for a person accustomed to the almost tropical heat of our simnner 

 months cannot help being surprised that anything whatever should thiivo in the watery sun 

 beams of what the English call then summer." 



After having secured a suitable location, properly prepared the soil, and pro- 

 vided necessary shelter, the seeds should be sown or the plants set in rows at 

 a proper distance from each other. A common fault in kitchen gardens is the 

 crowding of plants too closely together. Each plant should have room to 

 spread its roots, and to admit a free circulation of air to every part of it. In 

 beds which are to be cultivated wholly by the hoe, the rows may be somewhat 

 nearer to each other than where the horse hoe is to be used between them. 

 Where culture by the horse hoe is practicable, it will save much labor, and is 

 always desirable, except, perhaps, at the last hoeing, when the large plants will 

 be more liable to injury. The hills of cucumbers, squashes, and melons should 

 be at least eight feet apart, and ten would be better. Beets, parsnips, and car- 

 rots, should not be less than six inches apart in the rows. Nothing is ever 

 gained by crowding them nearer than this. Sow plenty of seed, and, at the 

 proper time, thin out the plants with an unsparing hand, and it will be found 

 good economy at harvest time. 



As spade cultivation would take too much time, a farmer's garden should be 

 so arranged as to be ploughed easily. A very convenient form is to lay out the 

 garden in squares twelve or sixteen feet each way. Around the border of the 

 squares sow, in a single row, beets, carrots, onions, parsnips, bush-beans, &c., and 

 in the squares, plant melons, squashes, cucumbers, pole beans, peas, sweet 

 corn, &c. 



In this way all the vegetables are much easier cultivated, have plenty of 

 air, sun, and room, and grow fairer and to a better size. 



It has been said the good farmer is known by the clean culture of his fields. 

 This is more emphatically true of the gardener. In the rich, warm soil of the 

 garden weeds grow apace, and will not only stifle the more slow-growing 

 plants, but will withdraw from the soil the elements of nutrition they need as 

 their size increases. Constant and careful hoeing is necessary to rapid and 

 vigorous growing. It keeps the soil loose and melloAv, so that it can be more 



