Ch.XLV.] THE COTTAGER'S GARDEN. 561 



covered ; one plant only is left to each hole, and which naturally takes a 

 good shape from the facility with which the descending root penetrates the 

 loose earth. Where the soil is naturally light and porous, or made so by 

 careful digging, this scheme is unnecessary. When carrots are sown broad- 

 cast, they must be thinned by hand or hoe, leaving them four or five inches 

 apart. They sliould be raised in October ; topped and tailed, and laid 

 away among dry earth or sand, out of reach of wet or frost. The seed 

 requires to be well rubbed between the hands before sowing, otherwise they 

 hang together, and cannot be sown regularly. 



The parsnip is also a wholesome and useful root in a cottager's family. 

 The culture bestowed on the carrot suits them exactly, as well as time of 

 sowing, summer management, and time of taking up ; but they require a 

 rather stronger soil, and are an uncertain crop. 



As the turnip is so extensively cultivated on every farm, the cottager 

 need not take up much of his garden with them. One small sowing, of the 

 Early Dutch, made about the middle of April, will suffice, as the ground 

 they grow on will be wanted for some other crop about midsummer. 



The Long-pod and Windsor common bean are the only sorts worth 

 the cottager's attention, as they are by no means a profitable crop, unless 

 they are grown between rows of cabbage or some more valuable vegetable. 

 They should be dibbled on ground digged a month or two previous, in order 

 that it may be firmly settled down before the beans are planted in January, 

 or as soon afterwards as possible. They should be topped early, and cleared 

 off as soon as the pods are gathered*. Peas, as already stated, are scarcely 

 worth the ground they occupy : one row, sowed in February, of Knight's 

 Marrowfat, placed very thinly (two inches apart in the row), is all the cot- 

 tager should attempt to raise. 



Savoy cabbage and Scotch kale are fine greens, hardy and particularly 

 useful in winter. A thimbleful of seed of each should be sown in April, 

 and planted out in rows during summer ; dibbling them in the alleys, or 

 between the rows of other crops which come off early in autumn. 



There are but few cottagers who do not try to have a bed of early short- 

 top radish; for a bunch of these, with another of winter onions, are pleasant 

 additions to bread and cheese throughout the spring. A warm dry border, 

 laid sloping to the sun, should be got ready about Christmas, and divided into 

 four-feet beds; on these the seed is sown pretty thick, covered with loose 

 earth from the alleys, and patted smoothly down with the back of the spade. 

 The beds must be immediately covered with dry fern, or any short litter, 

 which keeps off frost and brings the plants up sooner. On every mild day 

 the covering is moved off the beds into the alleys, and carefully drawn on 

 again at night ; and thus continued until all fear of hard frost is over. The 

 radish will be fit to draw about the end of March, and then will be most 

 acceptable, as well as perhaps profitable, to the owner. 



A few seeds of lettuce may be sprinkled among onions, or sown on a 

 small bed alone, whence they may be transplanted into any vacant spot, 

 round the edges of beds, or along those of borders, where they may grow 

 to maturity without injury to other crops. The white, and spotted coss 



* It has been stated by Mr. Falkland, in the Gardener's and Forester's Record, that 

 he uniformly bends down his first crop of mazagan and early long-pod beans, when they 

 are in full blossom, so as to break the stalk near the root ; yet they produce abundantly. 

 They then, in about three weeks afterwards, push forth from near the root one or more, 

 and m some instances four to six stems, which bloom freely, and afterwards produce a 

 second crop ; by which means he obtains two successive crops, furnishing a continued 

 supply from July to the end of October. No, iii. 



VOL, II. "^ O 



