22 FRUIT AND KITCHEN GARDEN. 



The productiveness of such an establishment will depend 

 chiefly upon the natural fertility of the soil, and the favor- 

 able kind of situation, but also in a considerable degree 

 upon the labor bestowed upon the culture. Where a gar- 

 den is underworked (to use a gardener's phrase), the finer 

 products must necessarily be scanty, for whatever requires 

 care requires time ; and it not unfrequently happens that a 

 gardener fails in some crop, not from defect of method or skill, 

 but because he had not been able to overtake it, or has been 

 obliged to make his preparations in a hurried and insuffi- 

 cient manner. All circumstances being favorable, a British 

 garden is perhaps unrivaled in fertility by any cultivated 

 spot in the world. A copious supply of esculents flows 

 into the kitchen at all seasons ; and after a rich abundance 

 of fruit has been afforded during summer and autumn, the 

 winter stores may be easily prolonged till the early forced 

 fruits come again to the table. 



"We shall first treat of the general properties and append- 

 ages of the Fruit and Kitchen Garden. 



Situation. — The position of the garden in relation to 

 the mansion-house properly belongs to the province of 

 Landscape-Gardening, as it obviously should be in keeping 

 with the general features of the park scenery. There 

 should intervene a lawn, or piece of green sward, of larger 

 or less dimensions; and great- attention should be paid to 

 the original formation of such lawn. After the surface of the 

 ground has been leveled and made fine, some such selection 

 of grass-seeds as the following (calculated for half an acre) 

 should be adopted : Lolium perenne tenue, {Slender Rya- 

 Grass } ) 8 lbs. ; Trifolium repens, (ivhite Dutch Clover,) 

 3 lbs. ; T. minus, 1 lb. ; Cynosurus cristatus, ( Orchard 

 Grass,) 3 lbs. ; Festuca duriuscula, (Hard or Smooth Fes-. 



