CHAPTER XLIV 



CROPPING BY ROTATION 



THE methods that may be adopted in the planning and lay- 

 ing out of the vegetable plot in a garden of small dimen- 

 sions were suggested in Chapter II., and there is therefore 

 little need to dilate further on the subject. Whether in the case of 

 a diminutive town garden it is worth while for the amateur to 

 attempt to grow any vegetables at all is a matter that is best 

 left for him to decide. He will, of necessity, consider the problem 

 from the economic standpoint, and if he face the dilemma fairly 

 and squarely he will probably arrive at the conclusion that in 

 view of the cheapness of vegetables, especially those that are 

 commonly used for culinary purposes in the small household, 

 there is nothing to be saved and very little to be gained by 

 devoting a portion of his small plot exclusively to their cultivation. 

 On the other hand there is much personal satisfaction of a 

 sentimental character to be derived from the knowledge that the 

 peas, the cabbages, the potatoes and the beans that are served 

 at the household dinner-table have been cultivated and brought 

 to maturity in one's own kitchen garden. To the enthusiastic 

 amateur who is prepared to sacrifice a certain small proportion of 

 his income upon his garden the economics of the subject present 

 no difficulties. It is enough for him that his vegetable plot has 

 yielded its produce at his behest, and he troubles himself not at 

 all on the score of expense. Probably it would have paid him 

 better in the long run to depend for his domestic supply of vege- 

 tables upon the local greengrocer ; but he has his reward in the 

 assurance that his efforts at vegetable-growing have not been 

 altogether unsatisfactory and that he is an object of envy to his 

 less enterprising neighbours: 



