PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 63 



rather than too much mauure. Market gardeners make the ground 

 black with it every year, and get two or three heavy crops annu- 

 ally from the same ground. Having manured the ground heavily 

 with stable, barn-yard 6v hog manure — the three combined are 

 excellent — plow deeply, and either subsoil or run the common 

 plow the second time in the furrow to deepen the soil. Vegetable 

 gardens are usually too hastily plowed in the hurry of other work. 

 The soil should be completely broken and made so fine that the 

 myriads of little rootlets can penetrate through every part of it; 

 hence a second, or cross-plowing will pay well, then harrow down 

 finely. Where the garden is not too large, forking or spading it 

 up is better than plowing, and where there are strawberry and 

 asparagus beds, rhubarb, currants, raspberries and other small 

 fruits, beside the dwarf and other fruit trees, it is often necessary 

 and always desirable to spade up, and a fork-spade is the best 

 implement to do it with. To attain the best results, the ground 

 should even be trenched, or spaded two spits deep, mixing manure 

 well through the whole. Once trenching in this way answers for 

 years. Farmers, with their hundreds of acres, will smile at the 

 idea, but market gardeners, who cultivate land worth $500 to 

 $1,000 and more per acre, find their account in it. Even a form- 

 er's garden ought to yield the family a large portion of their liv- 

 ing, rather than the few imperfectly grown vegetables too often 

 seen there. Remember, too, that no after care or labor can make 

 up for imperfectly preparing the soil and bad planting. 



Having prepared the ground, the next thing is to lay it out, and 

 this will depend somewhat upon the shape. As a general rule, be 

 the garden square or oblong, it is best laid out with a main walk 

 three feet wide through the center, and lesser walks around the 

 sides three feet from the outer edge, thus leaving a fruit or other 

 border upon each side next to the fences. These may be set with 

 currants, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, gooseberries, etc., or 

 planted with tomatoes. The remainder of the garden may be 

 divided by cross-walks as desired. It is not advisable to plant 

 everything in beds, as the waste by so many walks is not compen- 

 sated by any advantage. The vegetables may be planted in rows 

 across one of the plots, and there is no necessity for a division 

 between the sorts, a row of beets being next to a row of turnips, 

 &c. In most cases it is well to plant or set the strawberries, rasp- 

 berries and other fruits, also rhubarb and asparagus, wholly upon 



