558 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XLV. 



nip, broad-beans, and scarlet-runners, demand his chief care : peas require 

 more space than their produce is wortli. 



Next to stocking his garden with the most useful kinds of vegetables, 

 his utmost endeavours will be required to keep it in good heart. Success 

 depends chiefly on this ; and therefore he must collect every particle of 

 vegetable or animal matter, in a hollow place between his house and gar- 

 den, to receive every kind of drainage from the former, and all refuse trom 

 the latter; also all sorts of litter and cattle droppings from the public lanes, 

 roads, and commons; which, when thrown together, and turned once or 

 twice till sufficiently rotten, will be found excellent manure. Ashes, lime, 

 rubbish, marl, or chalk, may also be added, and mixed in the compost. 



We shall now proceed to describe the best and easiest modes of culture 

 of all the most suitable vegetables for a cottage-garden, and in such plain 

 terms as that the directions cannot easily be misunderstood. 



The potato we notice first, because it is certainly the most useful and 

 profitable of all others to the cottager. It is most successfully cultivated 

 on well-broken and deeply-digged ground, in rows two and a half or three 

 feet asunder, in order that the stems mav be earthed-up as highly as is 

 necessary. The tubers, as they are called by gardeners, are the eatable parts, 

 and mav be planted whole, if small ; but they are usually divided into sets, 

 each containing- at least one eye. — rejecting the root-eye and the one next 

 to it. The sets should be cut three weeks or a month before the planting- 

 season, which is at any time between the 20th of March and end of April. 

 Planting, however, may be continued throughout May and June ; but the 

 increase from late plantings is always small and inferior in quality. The 

 soil can scarcely be too rich, provided it be dry and light enough. 



The proper depth at which the sets should be planted in the ground, at 

 seven inches apart, should be at least six or eight inches, it being found 

 that shallow planting is unprofitable. Soon as the stems appear above 

 ground, they should be frequently hoed among to keep down weeds, and 

 the surface open ; and, when they have risen six or eight inches high, the 

 loose earth should be drawn towards them, so that the plants may stand in 

 a ridge of loose earth to encourage the swelling of the tubers on each side. 

 The flowers should be plucked off, so that no apples be allowed to form. 

 AVhen the tops wither, the crop is fit to be taken up. 



Every cottager should endeavour to procure the best, or rather the most 

 profitable sort, and, if possible, from where the soil is of a different descrip- 

 tion from his own. The same sort of potato does not thrive long in the 

 same district ; and, therefore, new sorts, or a change of sets, is necessary. 

 The Champion^ or Early Shaio, or any similar new sorts, should be pre- 

 ferred, because their increase is greater, and they are less suliject to the 

 cu7l or other disease ; but as a general rule, whichever sort succeeds best 

 in any given neighbourhood, that kind should have the preference. 



The potato is a winter vegetable, and should only be so considered by 

 the cottager. If raised for use in June and July, he will find them an 

 expensive luxury; the cottager's winter store of this useful vegetable 

 should therefore be carefully secured, AVhen the haulm is nearly dead, fix 

 on a dry time to raise the crop : let them lie on the surface till perfectly dry 

 and free from earth, and then let them be pitted or housed on a dry spot, 

 among perfectly dry straw, and safely covered from wet or frost. The 

 quantity of crop will always be found in some degree proportionate to the 

 size of the sets, on the rich dryness of the soil, and on the culture they 

 have received during their growth. If the latter end of spring and summer 



