192 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



tions of the several vegetables and of the culture required bj 

 each, and of the several varieties at present most esteemed in 

 Canada, that he can, with a little practice, become a successful 

 grower of garden products. 



The soil which is best suited for the production of vegetables 

 is what is termed a rich loam, fully a foot in depth, with a sandy 

 or gravelly subsoil, through which the surplus water readily 

 filters. This is the character to be most desired, and the nearer 

 it approaches to this the better it will be. A poor, light, thin 

 son, and a heavy, tenacious clay soil, are alike to be avoided. 

 Sometimes a soil may be greatly improved by deep ploughing, 

 so as to bring up the subsoil and mingle it with the soil, but it 

 is oftener the case that the subsod. is sterile, and requires to be 

 gradually worked up and brought into contact with the amelio- 

 rating influences of the atmosphere. Hence, in selecting a place 

 for the garden, if there be none on the farm of the desired depth 

 of soil, . that should be preferred where the subsoU can be most 

 readily brought into a fertile condition. If the subsoil be so 

 tenacious or so compact that the water finds its way through it 

 slowly, it will be necessary to under-drain the garden. And 

 just here it is probable that many readers will stop, and say if 

 that be necessary, they must just give up the idea of a garden 

 altogether, for they cannot afford to imder-drain. Were nine- 

 tenths of our farmers to set themselves to work systematically 

 to under-drain their farms, taking one field a year until the 

 whole farm was under-drained, they would get back their entire 

 outlay in five years by the increased production of their farms. 

 But men are slow to believe this great truth. Yet what is true 

 of the farm is doubly true of the garden. Peter Henderson, 

 himself a most successful gardener, gives an account of a man 

 who had a ten years' leasehold of eight acres. For three years 

 he cultivated the land as a market garden, barely making both 

 ends meet. At this time he was persuaded by Mr. Henderson 

 to under-drain this land, of which he held only a lease having 

 now but seven years to run. At the expiration of his lease he 



