106 On the Cultivation of Herbs and Salads. 



of papers on the Culture of Herbs and Salads, a subject not 

 generally well understood, but yet of great importance and one 

 which involves much capital and labor with our market gar- 

 deners. Mr. Cuthill's papers will detail the method of grow- 

 ing these for the London market, which requires an immense 

 supply ; and as most of the same kinds are grown in larger or 

 smaller quantities here, the system of cultivation pursued by 

 the London growers, cannot be otherwise than useful to all. 

 As is the case with the cultivators of vegetables, there are, as 

 Mr. Cuthill truly observes, "knick-knack ways," in which, 

 after all, consists their superior system of management : — 



I purpose giving a series of short articles upon herbs and 

 salads. It may be supposed that little can be said respecting 

 such things ; but as London growers, whom I have already 

 shown to be first class cultivators of fruits and vegetables, 

 have also a few knick-knack ways of managing herbs and 

 salads, I hope that what I may have to state in the course of 

 my papers will be found of some service. 



Herbs and salads are nature's medicine ; and if man were 

 to use more of them in connection with his daily food, he 

 would pass on through life in a much more comfortable way 

 than he at present does ; for there is scarcely a plant, how- 

 ever humble, that has not its medicinal purposes. People of 

 every clime know this, and even animals are led by instinct 

 to select those which their wants at particular times require. 

 Those persons who use a fair proportion of fruits, vegeta- 

 bles, herbs, and salads, are always in better health than those 

 who live largely, and almost exclusively, upon animal food. 

 The bad effects of the latter kind of food becomes more 

 especially apparent in winter, when their usual exercise is 

 comparatively limited. In what I have to say on the subject 

 I shall confine myself entirely to a few of those herbs and 

 salads which require particular modes of cultivation. 



I have repeatedly visited the herb grounds of various dis- 

 tricts, and more especially those of Mitcham in Surrey, some 

 nine miles south of London, where hundreds of acres of 

 many sorts of herbs are grown. So extensive, indeed, are 



