170 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



are nutritive to others ; thus, a crop of peas and a crop of wheat being sown 

 on the same ground, and under precisely the same circumstances, it is found 

 that the wheat will absorb all the silica from the soil, while the pea leaves 

 this component part of the soil untouched. Some plants, according to 

 Dr. Daubeny, absorb strontium ; the spiral-rooted polygonium, while it 

 takes up common salt, refuses acetate of lime ; and so with many other plants. 

 Cropping the land, therefore, year after year with the same plants has long- 

 been abandoned. 



404. In the garden, where it is more difficult, from the limited space and 

 numerous crops, to obtain a perfect system of rotation, it is sought to renew 

 the constituents withdrawn from the soil by manuring, by ridging up vacant 

 ground so as to expose the largest possible surface to the action of the atmo- 

 sphere and the salts contained in the vdnter's snow, and by the admixture of 

 virgin soil ; but wherever it is possible, rotation of crops should be adopted. 

 Mr. Mcintosh recommends the following as one he has found successful : — 



First Year.—'Pea.s and Beans. 



Second Fear.— Broccoli, Savoys, Winter 



Greens, and other Brassicae. 

 Third Fear.— Carrots, Parsnips, Herbs. 

 Fourth Year— Onions, Turnips. 

 Fifth Fear.— Spinach, Spring Onions,Let- 



tuces, Cauliflowers. 



Sixth Year. — Savoys, Broccoli, Winter 

 Greens, Eed Cabbage, Leeks. 



Seventh Year. — Potatoes. 



Eighth Year — Turnips, Cabbages, Leeks. 



Ninth Year. — Celery, Cardoons. 



Tenth Year. — French Beans, Scarlet Run- 

 ners, &c. 



Many modifications of this arrangement will be found necessary in practice, 

 but something approaching it may be studied with advantage. There are, 

 besides, permanent crops, such as asparagus, seakale, and artichokes, where 

 no such rotation can take place. Other systems of rotation and grouping 

 have also been proposed : I have met with none so complete, or so much to 

 my liking, as that proposed by IMr. Errington, the experienced gardener at 

 Oulton Park. In this system of grouping he places first— 



405. The Deepeners ; comprising asparagus, seakale, rhubarb, horseradish, 

 and globe artichokes. These will require a deep soil ; so that, before planting 

 them, it is necessary to work the ground at least 3 feet deep, and, if the 

 soil is good to that depth, 4 feet is better ; they bear the third year, and 

 should not occupy the ground more than ten or a dozen years, as young plants 

 are more productive than old, besides their use as deepeners of the soil for 

 other crops. 



406. The Preparers, which are all root-crops, as potatoes, carrot's, parsnips, 

 turni]^s, salsafy, and scorzonera's ; but Jerusalem artichokes, peas, beans, 

 including scarlet ninners, celery, onions, and such-like crops, being all, with 

 the exception of salsafy and scorzoneras, of less than a year's growth, and, with 

 the exception of most of the root-crops, requiring plenty of manure. 



407. When these crops come off, the ground should be well manured ; it 

 will then be in first-rate condition for the next gi-oup,— namely. Surface-crops. 

 These consist of saladings, such as lettuce, endive, radishes, corn-salad, 

 rompion, American cress, parsley, spinach, French beans, early -horn carrot, 

 and such light crops, being mostly of not more than six months' growth* 



