MONTHLY CALENDAR. 507 



the year: grubs and wireworm are then buried deep enough to destroy them. 

 The effects of the club become apparent in hot sunny days : cabbages, &;c,, 

 hang down and turn blue, and often become infested with aphis. This disease 

 I consider the most vexatious with which the gardener has to deal. How far 

 it may be prevented by the use of wood-ashes, &c,, is a matter of doubt ; still 

 I believe the causes of it may be traced ; and of these two are most prominent : 

 first, an injudicious application of manure in small gardens that are already 

 too manured, — I find this most prevalent ; second, the exhausted state of the soil 

 arising from the too unvaried use to which it is put. The plants that are 

 subject to the disease are strong feeders, and exhaust the soil very much ; 

 but it is reasonable to suppose they leave food suitable for other plants. I 

 have known instances of ground being left to weeds for several years, when, 

 although cabbages clubbed badly before, they did not after the vacation ; the 

 ground showing a fertility that would justify any one in believing that weeds 

 have a wonderful faculty for restoring ground that had been exhausted by 

 kitchen crops. 



1569. It is the practice in some gardens to have the orchard, or at least the 

 •fine-fruit garden, within the walls of the kitchen-garden, and even to form 

 edgings to the vegetable quarters with them, and this is a time of prepa- 

 ration for planting. As the kitchen-garden is usually inclosed by walls, 

 it may be desirable to adopt this arrangement ; but the edging system 

 should be avoided, and fruit-trees, as well as bush-fruit, have a quarter 

 appropriated to themselves. Selecting a i^iece of ground which has been 

 ■continually cropped, proceed to plant the young bushes of currants, goosc- 

 b»erry, and raspberry, in rows of about eight feet apart for gooseberries 

 and currants, and six for raspberries, and about two feet less in the rows. 

 While the bushes are very young and small, the ground between the bushes 

 may be cropped with almost anything required, but may be particularly 

 useful for raising asparagus or seakale plants for forcing, or it may be i^lanted 

 with strawberries. As the bushes increase in size, let them have all the room 

 they require ; plant nothing between that will crowd them, for the nearer the 

 roots of these bushes approach the surface, the better and more abundant will 

 be the fruit. It is not advisable to dig the ground where the root-fibres aro 

 likely to be ; after a time, therefore, the ground should never be disturbed, and 

 where manure is required, let it be applied as mulch ; that is, lay the manure 

 on the surface, and the bushes will receive the benefit of it as much as if dug in. 

 Of course, weeds will grow, the chief of which are grasses, and they are to per- 

 form an important part in restoring the ground to fertility. They should bo 

 mowed occasionally, to prevent them getting too tall, so as to interfere 

 with the trees, and in a measure to prevent seeding. These bushes will bear 

 fruit in great abundance for eight, ten, or twelve years ; by that time the 

 bushes will be nearly exhausted, and the ground restored to a fertile condition 

 for kitchen crops. Brassicse which formerly went off with the club, and peas 

 which turned yellow before their time, will gi-ow now in perfection ; and if 

 the ground is kept in order by flat-digging or by bastard trenching, cabbages 



