604 CATALOGUE OF CULINARY VEGETABLES. 



is sometimes transplanted in a prepared border for an early crop ; and 

 transplanting may be performed with tolerable success with the 

 other sorts mentioned, if done when the plants are very young, and 

 with proper care ; but it should not be attempted unless in cases of 

 emergency. All the cabbage tribe, and lettuce, endive, &c. transplant 

 freely, and there is a great saving of ground by sowing them in seed- 

 beds, instead of sowing them where they are finally to remain. For 

 example, if the lettuce or endive plants which occupy a few square 

 yards of seed-bed for a month, were at once sown where they 

 are finally to remain, they would occupy, perhaps, several rods of 

 ground one month longer than they otherwise would do. Thus 

 a crop of peas may be coming into flower, at the time when the 

 endive or lettuce was sown on the seed-bed, and when the lettuce 

 or endive plants are ready to transplant, the crop of peas will 

 have been gathered, and the crop of endive will follow it ; but had 

 the crop of endive been sown where it was finally to remain, an 

 additional piece of ground, equal to that occupied by the peas, would 

 have been required. As a proof of the economy of this system 

 generally, it may be observed that it is the one followed by all the 

 market-gardeners in the neighbourhood of London. Another advantage 

 attendant on the transplanting system more especially in the case of 

 esculents, the leaves of which are the parts used is, that the plants 

 being deprived of a part of their tap-root, throw out a greater number 

 of lateral roots, in consequence of which the production of radical leaves 

 is encouraged, and the tendency to run to flower is retarded, while a 

 more succulent growth is induced, owing to the plants being placed 

 in newly prepared soil. 



Soils. Though garden plants grow naturally in soils very different 

 both in their chemical constituents and mechanical properties, yet in 

 a state of cultivation there are few or none of them that will not thrive 

 in the soil of a garden, which is neither extremely sandy, gravelly, 

 clayey, chalky, nor peaty, provided it has been well pulverized 

 and drained, and manured with stable- dung. Practically, almost the 

 only changes that can be made in garden-soil are, to render it richer 

 by stable-dung, or other animal manure ; lighter, by the addition of 

 leaf-mould ; more compact, by the addition of clay in a natural state ; 

 more open, by the addition of burnt clay or sand ; more calcareous, by 

 the addition of lime ; and more sandy on the surface, for the purpose 

 of raising seedlings to transplant, by working in a top-dressing of sand. 

 Of these different ingredients, animal manure, sand, and leaf-mould 

 are alone universally in request in kitchen gardens, for adding to their 

 soils, whatever these may be. 



For the proportion of each crop which under ordinary circumstances 

 requires to be cultivated, the quantity of seed, plants, or sets, necessary 

 for this purpose, the place of the crop in the rotation, the advantage of 

 sowing or planting in rows, and various other points of general appli- 

 cation, we must refer the reader back to the chapter on the Cropping 

 and General Management of a Kitchen Garden, p. 383. 



