246 



Kitchen Garden. 



Vol. IV. 



scaly seeds are not to be depended on the 

 second year. 



Beans, capsicum, carrot, cress, leek, nas- 

 turtium, okra, onion, salaafy, scorzonera, and 

 small herb seeds should not generally be 

 trusted tlie third year. 



Artichoke, asparagus, corn, egg-plant, en- 

 dive, fetticus, lettuce, mustard, parsley, peas, 

 skirret, and spinage, often tail after the third 

 year. 



Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, kale, 

 radish, and turnep will vegetate well four or 

 five years. 



Beet, cucumber, gourd, melon, pumpkin, 

 and squash — also, burnet, chervil, and sorrel, 

 have been known to vegetate freely five to 

 ten and more years. 



Some seeds should not be sown the same 

 season they ai-e grown. There is too mucli 

 of a tendency in biennials to go to seed; and 

 in annuals to vines and unfruitfulness. The 

 turnep, for instance, will not bottom well un- 

 less the seed is fully and thoroughly ripened. 



Plants that are nearly allied, melons and 

 cucumbers for instance, should be planted at 

 a distance from each other to prevent mix- 

 ture in the seed through the pollen. 



The ground for taprooted vegetables is 

 geaerally manured the previous year; or 

 with rotten dung well and deeply spaded 

 some weeks before putting in the seed. For 

 vegetables of spreading roots the manure may 

 be applied nearer the surface, and at the time 

 of putting in the seed. 



A rotation of crops should be observed in 

 garden as well as field culture. As a gene- 

 ral rule, taprooted crops should succeed those 

 of spreading roots; with large and luxuriant 

 leaves, those of less size — requiring much til- 

 lage, those needin? but little culture. Defi- 

 ciency in practical and scientific information 

 relative to the proper succession of crops, 

 renders it advisable to sow red clover on al- 

 ternate portions of the garden, even if it is 

 ploughed or spaded in the same season. The 

 sowing may be at the last hoeing of some 

 crops. 



All plants should be kept perfectly free 

 from weeds, any receive frequent hoeings. 

 The dryer the ground tlie more and deeper 

 it should be stirred. Deep hoeing is said to 

 be injiu-ious to taprooted vegetables. It is 

 advisable not to hoe tlie melon and cucumber 

 families when they are much w(;t witli dew. 

 In hoeinnf, the earth should be drawn up 

 around the plants but little. 



As many crops as possible, without injury 

 to each other, siiould, during the season, be 

 obtained from every bed. Manux-e and labour 

 are thus economised. 



Some kinds of vegetables, as soon as they 

 appear above ground, are very liable to be 



cut off" by insects. The best preventive is to 

 roll the ground immediately after sowing. 

 This should always be done, unless the 

 ground is too wet. The insects are thus de- 

 prived of shelter behind the lumps of earth — 

 are more exposed to winds, storms, and ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold. Small chickens, 

 turkies, and ducks, the mothers of which are 

 confined in coops, will destroy many insects 

 in a garden. A mixture of dry wood-ashes, 

 lime, and gypsum put into the hills or drills, 

 and covered with a little soil before dropping 

 the seed, aflbrd protection to the roots from 

 these insects that prey on these parts of 

 plants. Infusions of waste tobacco, lime- 

 ashes, soot, cow-dung, elder, and some other 

 leaves will, when moderately sprinkled over 

 the beds, oflen drive off insects. Grubs may 

 be destroyed by searching for them ; and 

 those insects that adhere to the leaves, may 

 be destroyed with the leaves. Slugs are said 

 to be enticed by slices of turneps on the beds, 

 and early in the morning may be killed. 

 Blazing fires in the garden will, early in the 

 evening, attract and destroy many insects in 

 the winged or butterfly state. 



Most of our culinary plants are of foreign 

 origin, and consequently require an adapta- 

 tion of soil and location. Many of them are 

 either natives of Great Britian, or have be- 

 come acclimated in that country, whence we 

 obtain the large portion of the seed sown. 

 These circumstances render a comparison of 

 the climates of this and that country of some 

 moment. The growing season of England 

 in particular is long, not subject to extremes 

 of heat and cold; moist and cloudy atmos- 

 phere predominating. In the Northern States 

 the vegetative season is shorter; the ther- 

 mometrical extremes gTcater ; dry scorching- 

 sun forcing out the moisture of the soil, and 

 producing exce.-^ive perspiration ; hence a 

 soil very retentive of moisture would seen? 

 congenial to most of our garden products. 

 When deficient in this respect recourse 

 should be to clay, cow-manure, and other ma- 

 nures having a strong affinity for water. A 

 north and north-west aspect also tends to ren- 

 der our climate more congenial to many vege- 

 tables, especially if the garden is enclosed by 

 a board fence, or on the north and east by 

 evergreens that render violent storms, and 

 cold and drying winds less injurious. — Rural 

 Library. 



As many more can discover that a man 

 is richer than themselves, superiority of uj\- 

 derstanding is not so readily acknowledged, 

 as that of fortune ; nor is that of hatighti- 

 ness, which the consciousness of great abili- 

 ties incites, borne with the same submissioa 

 as the tyraimy of afiluence. 



