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GARDEN HUSBANDRY. 



GARDEN HUSBANDRY. 



290 



soil ; and dissimilar vegetables may grow together on the same ground. 

 Trees bearing fruit may be planted in rows, especially those of the 

 dwarf kind ; and under them those vegetables which do not require 

 much sun may be raised to advantage. This is a very common arrange- 

 ment in the market gardens near London. Raspberries, gooseberries, 

 and currants, are planted in the rows between the trees. These rows 

 being thirty or forty feet apart, leave ample room for vegetables. But 

 in those gardens where the finest vegetables are raised, and particularly 

 in those which are appropriated to the growth of seeds, no trees are 

 permitted to shade the ground : even the hedges, if there are any, are 

 kept low and clipped, that they may not give any shade, or harbour 

 small birds. The market gardeners near London do not raise many 

 peas or beans, except such as are forced and require glass frames to 

 protect them. The chief supply of peas in the season comes from a 

 greater distance, and is the produce of whole fields sown for that 

 purpose by the farmers within a moderate distance of London. This 

 crop would not be so profitable in a confined garden cultivated at a 

 great expense. 



The value of the produce in one year, from an acre of garden-ground 

 in the most favourable situation, is almost incredible. The expenses of 

 cultivation are very great. In inferior situations, where the produce is 

 legs, the expenses are also somewhat less. 



A garden should always be laid out in a regular form, with narrow 

 parallel beds, and paths between them. One or more roads, of suffi- 

 cient width to allow a cart to pass, should intersect these beds at right 

 angles, for the convenience of bringing manure and taking off the 

 produce. The beds should not be above six feet wide; so that a 

 person may easily pull up weeds, or gather the vegetables without 

 treading upon the beds. The surface-soil taken from the paths serves 

 to raise the beds, and in retentive soils may carry off the superfluous 

 water after sudden and violent rains. The whole grounds should have 

 been trenched two spits deep or more ; and this trenching should be 

 frequently repeated, to mix the upper with the under part of the soil, 

 and distribute the decomposed dung throughout the whole depth. 

 Thus in time a rich black mould will be produced, in which every 

 kind of vegetable will grow most rapidly. For early plants, and those 

 which are used in winter, and require to be protected from frost, 

 narrow beds are made lying in a direction east and west, and sloping 

 towards the south, with the north side raised high, so that their surface 

 forms an angle of twenty or thirty degrees with the horizon. This 

 gives the plants a protection from the north winds, and exposes them 

 more" to the influence of the sun. In very frosty weather, these beds 

 are covered with mats or loose straw. We do not mention frames 

 covered with glass, as they belong to a higher kind of horticulture : 

 but a moderate hotbed made with fresh dung, and covered with mats 

 laid over hoops, is indispensable for the 'raising of early vegetables. 

 By these means radishes and various salads may be raised very early in 

 the spring, and sometimes, in mild winters, without any interruption 

 during the whole year. 



An abundant supply of manure is indispensable in a market-garden, 

 and this can generally be obtained in large towns at a trifling expense. 

 The neighbourhood of a town is therefore a necessary circumstance 

 towards the production of the crop, as well as its sale. It would be 

 impossible to make a sufficient quantity of manure by means of the 

 horses which are employed to carry the produce to market ; and the 

 extent of land usually laid out in garden-ground could not raise suffi- 

 cient food for cattle, without taking up a space which may be more 

 profitably employed. The only animal which can be kept to advantage 

 by a gardener is a pig. This animal will live well on the offal of 

 vegetables ; and the gardens of cottagers could not well be kept in a 

 fertile state if it were not for the manure made by the pigs. 



The market-gardeners about Amsterdam are mostly Jews, and the 

 vegetables which they bring to market are similar to those of the 

 London or Paris gardeners ; but they excel particularly in raising 

 cauliflowers, large white cabbages for making saur-kruut, a dish much 

 relished in the winter by the Dutch and Germans, [CABBAGE,] French 

 beans, cucumbers and melons. They raise these last in such abun- 

 dance, that heaps of them are sold in the markets at a very low rate. 

 They also excel in the forcing of early peas and beans, and in the 

 general management of hot beds. 



The profit* of a garden near London, of the extent of ten or twelve 

 acres, are as great as that of a farm of ten times the extent cultivated 

 in the best manner, without the help of purchased manure. But if 

 manure can be obtained at a reasonable rate, as is often the case in 

 great thoroughfares, where many horses are kept for public con- 

 veyances, although there be no immediate demand for vegetables, a 

 garden may be very profitably cultivated, entirely for the purpose of 

 raising seeds. This branch of industry is the more worthy of notice, 

 as it may enable a cottager to improve his situation greatly by the 

 produce of a small garden or allotment of land. The demand for seeds 

 of all the most common productions of a garden, and especially of 

 flowers, is great beyond belief, and the profit of those who retail them 

 in small quantities is so great that they can afford a liberal price 

 to those who raise them with proper care so aa to keep the varieties 

 distinct. 



In some agricultural districts it is the custom for the labourers to 

 plant turnips in their gardens in November, in order to obtain the seed 

 in time for sowing in the next year. They chooae the soundest and 



ARTS AND SOI. DIV. VOL. IV. 



best shaped, and by attention in keeping the ground clean, and allowing 

 only one sort to go to seed within a certain distance, they produce a 

 better seed than the farmer could; because the labourer and his 

 family having their garden constantly in view, can more easily keep off 

 birds and watch the ripeniug of the seed, so as to allow it to come to 

 perfect maturity, without danger of the pods bursting, and shedding 

 the seed from being left too long. Thus they can collect a bushel or 

 two of excellent seed from a small portion of land ; and this, at the 

 price of a guinea a bushel, which is cheaper to the farmer than if he 

 raised it himself, or purchased it of the seedsman, is a very profitable 

 crop to the labourer. An industrious cottager, without losing any 

 time, with the help of his wife and children, may much increase his 

 comforts in this manner, while at the same time he trains his children 

 in habits of industry. To no class of men would a knowledge of 

 garden husbandry be more useful. The improvement which may be 

 made in the condition and character of the poor, by combining in their 

 education a knowledge of the most common arts of life with that of 

 letters, which is often the only thing taught in schools, must be evident 

 to every man who has reflected on the subject ; and of all these arts 

 the most generally useful amongst an agricultural population is the art 

 of horticulture. The cottager who is acquainted with the means of 

 raising early garden produce, who can graft young trees, who knows 

 what plants may be propagated with a little care, and be readily sold 

 when in perfection, cam employ his labour with a double advantage. 

 And many a man, from a very small beginning, has, with a moderate 

 share of judgment and prudence raised himself to independence, if not 

 to affluence ; while he that plods on in the beaten track like a horse in 

 a mill ends his days in ignorance and poverty. 



The great superiority of those schools which have been established 

 to teach the children of the poor to work as well as to read, over those 

 which teach book knowledge only, is indisputable. A boy who can 

 manage a little garden, who takes a pleasure in watching the seed he 

 has sown, who plucks out every weed as soon as it appears, and who 

 prides himself on the fruit and vegetables which he can place on his 

 father's table, is more advanced in bis education than he who can only 

 read and write, however well he may do both. 



Many plans have been proposed for the distribution of the crops in a 

 cottage garden ; but none of them are suited to every situation. 

 Much depends on the nature of the soil, which may be better suited 

 to one kind of produce than another ; and also to the demand for any 

 peculiar class of vegetables. New sorts may often be introduced with 

 advantage. The raising of any useful plant with great care will often 

 give a man a reputation, which makes it advantageous to him to con- 

 fine himself to these principally, and raise them in the greatest per- 

 fection. An ingenious man wUl find out what is most for his own 

 advantage ; and from the list of plants which may be cultivated for 

 ornament, or for use, a selection may be made which may be well 

 suited to the situation of the ground and the circumstances of the 

 grower. The practice of the market-gardeners may be examined with 

 advantage ; and long experience, with the test of profit, will lay down 

 better practical rules than the most plausible theories. 



An allotment of laud, such as is now very frequently given to 

 agricultural labourers, may be cultivated to great advantage by apply- 

 ing judiciously the general principles of garden husbandry. There 

 are few cottages which have not already attached to them a small 

 garden of a few perches, in which common vegetables, such as cab- 

 bages, onions, and early potatoes, are raised. The same vegetables 

 may continue to be cultivated there, provided the situation is more 

 convenient from its proximity to the cottage, or a small part of 

 the allotment may be set apart every year for this purpose, so as to 

 change the crops, which is always an advantage. But the remainder 

 of the allotment should be cultivated on a regular plan, as a farm in 

 miniature, with this difference, that all the operations should be per- 

 formed with the minute attention of a gardener. Potatoes and wheat, 

 if the soil is not too light for the latter, or rye, in very sandy soils, will 

 be the principal crops, being immediately necessary to the support of 

 the family. These crops have sometimes been recommended to be 

 raised in every alternate year ; but whatever be the tillage or manuring, 

 there are few soils which will not soon be reduced in fertility by this 

 constant succession. One-fourth of the land in wheat, and one-fourth 

 in potatoes, is the utmost which can be profitably cultivated in one 

 year. The remaining half of the allotment must produce pulse, roots, 

 and green crops, by which animals may be fed and manure collected. 

 An allotment of three acres will enable a cottager to keep a cow, by 

 having a portion of it in clover or other artificial grass. In the 

 'Farmer's Magazine,' for February, 1802 (p. 38), there is an article 

 drawn up by Mr. John Sinclair, in which it is shown how this may be 

 effected without difficulty. But as the allotments usually given to 

 labourers seldom exceed half an acre, or at the most an acre, the keeping 

 of a cow is out of the question ; and the only animal which can be 

 profitably reared and fatted is the pig, to which we shall therefore con- 

 fine our observations. By means of pigs, the cottager may greatly 

 increase the profit which can be made from his allotment of land, 

 keeping up at the same time a proper degree of fertility. One-half 

 of his land must be cultivated to feed his pigs ; besides the smaller 

 potatoes which remain when the finest and best are taken out for the 

 use of the family, he may give them beans, barley, carrots, parsnips, 

 and turnips, especially the Roota Baga, or Swedish turnip ; and all the 



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