GARDEN HUSBANDRY. 



GARDEN HUSBANDRY. 



Britain. That which in other countries U a luxury, provided for at 

 the public expense, U here rendered a kind of necessity, which all 

 permit, from the cottager to the noble, strive to poems. Nothing can 

 be more beneficial to the community, or more advantageous to horti- 

 culture itself, than this difference, for the result is not here and there 

 a magnificent garden, and all around it comparative sterility, but a 

 universal garden all over the country. The chief English garden con- 

 taining a Urge collection of plants is that of Kew, which is certainly 

 the richest in the world in Australian, New Zealand, and Himalayan 

 plants, and which was, during the war following the first French 

 revolution, almost the only place in Europe to which exotic plants 

 were introduced in considerable quantity. In consequence of this 

 establishment having had a monopoly of government support for above 

 fifty years, it has been the channel through which an enormous quantity 

 of new plants have been introduced to Europe from all part* of the 

 world. For many years however it was unworthy of the nation, from 

 the illiberal manner in which it was conducted. Of late years this 

 system has been abandoned, a liberal management has been introduced, 

 the collection is at least as accessible as that of other nations, and 

 under the enlightened direction of Sir W. J. Hooker, the whole esta- 

 blishment has assumed such a magnitude and importance as to place 

 it far above all other institutions of the kind. It now embraces within 

 the botanic garden proper an area of seventy-five acres ; has a noble 

 palm house, 862 feet long, and in the centre 100 feet wide, and 66 feet 

 high ; several good hothouses ; a new museum, &c. 



Next in importance among public gardens was that of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, at Chiswick, near London. It had been established at 

 the expense of the members of the society, and was intended both as 

 a place of experimental researches in horticultural science, and as a 

 station whence the most valuable, useful, and ornamental plants of all 

 kinds, might be distributed through the country ; for which purposes 

 its extent, amounting to 33 acres, was expected to be amply sufficient 

 For more than 30 years it exercised a most important influence over 

 the progress of horticulture, and was the medium of introducing by far 

 the greater part of the valuable exotica which have found their way 

 into cultivation since its foundation. No association of individuals 

 ever produced so marked an effect upon gardening in a few years aa 

 was brought about by the enormous distributions of cuttings of 

 improved fruit-trees, of the finest kinds of vegetable seeds, and of new 

 plants mostly imported direct from the British colonies and from the 

 west coast of America, made annually from this garden, independently 

 of th* collections sent in return to all parts of the world. Of late 

 years, however, it has been merely maintained as a place of experiment, 

 and is about to be replaced by a new garden at Kensington Gore, at a 

 cost of 100,0001. 



A very successful establishment of a nearly similar kind is the 

 Royal Society's Botanic Garden, which occupies the inner circle (an 

 area of eighteen acres), in the Regent's Park. It has a very spacious 

 conservatory, greenhouses, and an excellent collection of plant*. 



The botanic garden of Edinburgh is one of the finest and best- 

 managed in Europe. It consists of 16 acre.-*, delightfully situated, and 

 includes everything that can be required for the purposes of teaching. 

 The houses are remarkably good, and the healthy condition of the plants 

 deserving of all praise. It is particularly celebrated for its beautiful 

 specimens of heaths. Besides these, there are botanic gardens at Dublin, 

 Glasgow, Liverpool, Cambridge, and Oxford ; fine public gardens in 

 Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, and some other large towns; and a 

 garden at Chelsea, belonging to the Apothecaries' Company, who main- 

 tain it for the use of the medical students of the London schools. 

 The Chelsea garden was once among the most celebrated in Hun.]*-, 

 having been for nearly fifty years under the management of Philip 

 Miller, the author of the ' Gardeners' Dictionary,' and whom Linntcua 

 called the " prince of gardeners." Its situation has however become 

 unfavourable for a garden, in consequence of the number of houses 

 with which it is surrounded. 



The number of species included in London's ' Hortus Britannicus,' 

 or catalogue of the plants either cultivated in Great Britain or indi- 

 genous, amounted in 1830 to upwards of 25,000, exclusive of Crypto- 

 gamous plants; and although a vast number of deductions must be 

 made, it is not improbable' that there are at this time nearly as many 

 species known in the different British collections. 



GARDEN HUSBANDRY is" a branch of horticulture, the object 

 of which is to raise fruits, vegetables, and seeds for profit un a smaller 

 extent of ground than is usually occupied for the purpose of agri- 

 culture. 



The best examples of this kind of industry are found among the 

 market-gardeners near populous towns, particularly London, Paris, 

 and Amsterdam. By the application of much manual labour and an 

 abundant supply of manure they accelerate the growth of vege- 

 table*, and produce them more abundantly than where manure is 

 not so easily obtained, or where there is not so large a demand for the 

 produce. 



The gardeners near Paris, some of whom have gardens within the , 

 outer walls of the city, are called Haraichm, from the situation of tln-ir 

 gardens in a low district which was formerly a marsh (marait). The 

 imfaftn of this laborious class in proverbial. Their whole life is 

 devoted to their gardens. They work the whole day in the greatest 

 'i-nt of the sun, an. I Ion? before tho rent of the inhabitants a-.vake they 



are on their way to the market with their produce. The soil hi whi< h 

 they raise their vegetables is naturally a poor sand, but by constant 

 manuring it has been converted into a very rich mould abounding in 

 humus. From its porous nature, and the frequent recurrence of dry 

 summers, it would produce little without constant and abundant 

 watering. The raising of water from numerous wells dispersed through 

 the grounds, and conveying it to the growing plants, is the most 

 laborious part of the work : during the whole summer thin labour is 

 incessant. There ore large stone cisterns in which the water is allowed 

 to remain, that it may acquire the temperature of the air ; and from 

 these it is carried by pipes into various channels which inters. 

 garden in every direction. These gardeners divide the season into 

 three periods. Tho first begins in October, when they sow lettuce* in 

 a hot-bed, which are pricked out a month after, anil planted finally in 

 a sheltered bonier about the end of January, the ground having been 

 well dug and abundantly manured with very rotten dung taken from 

 the hotbeds. At the same time they sow radishes and leeks among 

 the lettuces. The radishes are sold by the end of March, the lettuces 

 in May, and the leeks in June. This completes the first season. The 

 ground is now dug again, and manured with fresh long stable dung 

 mixed with the earth of which the hotbeds were formed ; in this they 

 plant alternate rows of endive or scarolles (both varieties of chicory;, 

 and of cucumbers, which produce gherkins for pickling and &iur> s. 

 The endive is sold in July, and tho small cucumbers continue to be 

 gathered till September. In the third season, which is the shortest, 

 another digging and dunging is given, after which they sow radishes 

 and small winter-salad, of which the French have a great variety. 

 Winter endive is also planted for blanching. From this statement it 

 appears that the ground produces a constant succession of culinary 

 vegetables, and that it is manured thrice in the year. The great 

 object is to have a rapid succession, and to allow no plant to occupy 

 the ground long. Cabbages, cauliflowers, asparagus, artichokes, and 

 other vegetables which remain a long time on the ground, are culti- 

 vated at a greater distance from Paris, where the land lets at a lower 

 rate. These plants will bear to be carried to a greater distance than 

 the delicate vegetables which are used chiefly in a raw state aa salads. 

 The only perennial plant in the gardens of the Maraichers is sorrel, of 

 which there U a great consumption. This is continually dunged and 

 watered to accelerate its growth, and is cut many times in the season. 

 It must however be allowed that this forcing with manure and water, 

 although it produces large and delicate fibres, does not give the flavour 

 which belongs to vegetables grown in common earth, and which have 

 had a more natural growth. 



The market-gardens near London are on a larger scale, and if they 

 produce fewer salads and pot-herbs, they produce better and more 

 substantial vegetables, and likewise a Urge quantity of fruit. The 

 best soil is a moist alluvial loam deposited from repeated over- 

 flowings of the Thames, which are now prevented by banks or dykes. 

 But an increased demand for vegetables has caused much inferior soils 

 to be cultivated as gardens, and increased labour and manure have 

 supplied the deficicnry in natural fertility. The gardeners' year 

 properly begins in autumn, when the laud is dug, or rather trenched, 

 and well manured. Various vegetables, whiih will be required in 

 winter, are now sown, and especially those which are to produce plants 

 to be set out in spring ; spinach, onions, radishes, and winter naiads 

 are sown, and when the weather is severe, are protected by a slight 

 covering of straw or mats. In February, the cauliflowers which have 

 been raised in frames or under hand-glasses are planted out. The 

 cabbage plants are pricked out The radishes, onions, and salads go to 

 market as soon as they are of sufficient si/e, and sugar-loaf cabbages 

 succeed them. As the cauliflowers are taken off, they are succeeded 

 by endivn and celery, and the same is the case with the cabbages. 

 Thus there is a constant succession of vegetables, without one moment's 

 respite to the ground, which, in consequence of continual stirring and 

 manuring maintains its productive power. Deep trenching in some 

 degree prevents that peculiar deterioration of the soil which would be 

 tho consequence of the frequent repetition of similar plants. This 

 effect is most perceptible when the plants perfect their Mi I. which is 

 seldom or never allowed to take place in market gardens ; but great 

 attention is paid to the species of plants which succeed each other on 

 the same spot. The principle which experience and theory unite in 

 establishing, is that of avoiding the too frequent recurrence of plants 

 which belong to the same natural families. The great variety cul- 

 tivated in gardens, in comparison with the common produce on a farm, 

 enables this principle to be fully acted upon. Those gardeners who 

 overlook this, and repeatedly sow or plant the same kin.l ol 

 in the same spots, are soon aware of their error liy the diininn 

 the produce, both in quantity and quality, and liy various diseases 

 which attack the plants, however abundant may be tho food supplied 

 to them, or careful the tillage. 



The principle on which the gardens are cultivated, is that of forcing 

 vegetation by means of an abundant supply of dung, constant tillage, 

 and occasional watering. , The whole surface is converted into a species 

 of hotbed; and crop succeeds crop with a rapidity which is truly 

 astonishing. Those vegetable* which arrive at a marketable Bttc in 

 the least time are always the most profitable, and those aluo for which 

 there is a constant demand at .ill tirnesof tho year. M'ith an abundant 

 supply of manure, the market gnrdencns have no fear of exbaust : ng thu 



