344 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. [APRIL 



GARDEN ORACHE. 



The Atriplex hortensis, or garden orache, is cultivated for culinary 

 purposes, being used as spinage, and is by some persons preferred to 

 it. The French particularly are very partial to this plant. There 

 are three or four varieties of it, differing only in color ; one is of a 

 deep green, another of a dark purple, and a third with green leaves 

 and purple borders. The green-leaved variety, however, is that cul- 

 tivated as an esculent herb, and is sown at the same time and treated 

 in every respect like spinage. 



CARAWAY. 



The Carum carui, or common caraway, is a biennial plant : it pro- 

 duces its seed, which is highly aromatic and grateful to the stomach, 

 the second year after sowing, and then generally dies. It may now 

 be sown on a bed, either broadcast and raked in, or in drills, and 

 covered half an inch deep ; when up, thin the plants to six inches 

 distance, and in the June twelve months following, it will produce 

 its seed. Some of the plants that have not seeded abundantly will 

 continue to bear the second season. Young plants rise in abundance 

 where the seeds fall when ripe, and these will shoot and produce seed 

 the following summer. 



DESTROY WEEDS. 



Weeds will now begin to appear plentifully from seed in every part 

 of the garden. The utmost diligence should be used to destroy them 

 while they are young, before they get the start of the crops, espe- 

 cially towards the middle and latter end of the month, when, if a 

 forward season, they will be advancing in a rapid growth. 



Pay particular regard, at this time, to your small crops, as onions, 

 carrots, parsneps, and the like ; weeds grow much quicker than they 

 do ; and if they are not weeded in time, either by small hoeing or hand- 

 weeding, such will occasion much labor and trouble to clear them, 

 and sometimes totally destroy the crops. 



Take the opportunity of dry weather, and hoe the ground between 

 the rows of beans, peas, cabbages, cauliflowers, and other crops that 

 stand wide, to destroy the weeds. 



A large piece of ground may soon be gone over with a hoe when 

 the weeds are small; but when they are permitted to grow large, it 

 requires double labor to destroy them. 



IMPORTANCE OF WATER IN GARDENING. 



The importance of water in gardening is too well understood to 

 require anything to be said to enforce it. The proper mode of in- 

 troducing it will depend upon the resources at hand and the means 



