)5S 



BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 



[Ch. XLV. 



plan, and this border may be kept for the smaller vegetables, pot-herbs, &c., 

 leaving the middle of the plot for the larger crops; next to the border make 

 a walk all round of two feet six inches ; then divide the middle into beds as 

 shown in the plan. . 



" The first thing necessary is to drain the ground ; witliout draining, un- 

 less the soil is very liglit indeed, your garden will never prosper. The 

 stagnant water in the winter, autumn, and spriug, rots the roots of plants, 

 and kills the seeds, and the soil is rendered less fertile by the constantly 

 soaking 'wet. Cut some drains slanting across the ground into a ditch on 

 the outside, if there is one, and fill up part of the drains with bushes and 

 loose stones ; but, if there is no ditch, dig out the walk ])retty deep and fill 

 in the bottom witli stones, broken bricks, and dry rubbish and bushes. This 

 draining is one of the main points ; and next to draining comes trenching 

 — and trenching deeplv. Nothing improves ground so much as working 

 it; begin by trenching (if the soil admits of it) three spits deep. This, how- 

 ever, cannot of course be all done in one year, as it would take too much 

 time, but it may be done by degrees : after it has been trenched three spits 

 for one crop, then a simple digging will be enough for the second crop, 

 and for the third a digging of two spits will, for the three crops, always give 

 a fresh surface, which is a matter of great importance in growing fine vege- 

 tables ; draining and trenching are of more consequence even than manure, 

 as those will find who try the experiment. 



" Of course manure is not to be neglected when it can be got, and it 

 may be procured from many sources which are not sufficiently attended to; 

 wood ashes will do sometliing ; the rotten leaves, stalks, &c., not eaten by 

 the pig, are excellent manure. Soap-water of the wash-tub again is of 

 value ; the scouring out of the ditch is good manure; and a few barrows of 

 turf sods got from the common or any neighbouring bank, chopped up and 

 dug in green, will be as valuable as a load of dung ; the scrapings of roads, 

 if the soil is heavy, are also excellent, and much assist in lightening the 

 ground. 



'* The following is the plan of the garden we have noticed, and it is laid 

 out in 11 diflerent beds ; the walk round it is numbered 12 : — 



" We shall now state what will be the best mode of cropping this ; 

 viz. — 

 " Bed, No. 1 in the plan. — Onions, spring crop ; sown beginninp^ of March. 



" No. 2. — Long orange carrot, spring crop ; sown in the middle of INIarch. • 



" No. 3, — Parsnips, spring crop. This ground, wilh the onion and carrot beds, 

 to be planted in the autumn with large early York cabbages, sown 

 about the Ist of August. 

 " No. 4. — Cabbages sown about the end of February ; winter, fallow. 

 " No. 5. — Scarlet runners, sown at the end of Apiil ; winter, fallow. 

 " No. 6.— Peas and beans, sown in February till JIay. The ground to be after- 



