Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farmivg. 9 



suited for vegetables, if well and properly cultivated. It is a 

 mistake to suppose that land for this purpose must naturally be 

 of exceptional quality. Much of the land in Essex and other 

 market-garden districts, is by no means fertile by nature ; nor 

 is the sandy soil round Biggleswade in Bedfordshire especially 

 rich. Land that will grow turnips and mangolds well will grow 

 cabbages and other plants of the Brassica order. For onions, 

 French beans, carrots, parsnips, and lettuces, fairly good soil is 

 necessary, and soil that works well and does not bind. Peas 

 for podding and broad beans flourish in those soils where 

 field-peas and beans thrive. The loams and clayey loams of 

 the Lower Greensand, of the Upper Greensand, of the Lower 

 London Tertiaries, answer well for vegetables. Also the lighter 

 marls of the Chalk, and the more friable clays of the Old and 

 New Red Sandstone, and the Lias, and the peaty lands in parts 

 of Lancashire and other counties, also much of the alluvial and 

 drift soil, would answer admirably for their growth. It would 

 perhaps not be too much to say that upon all soils where pota- 

 toes are successfully grown, the more common kinds of vegetables 

 would do well. Except in the extreme north of England, the 

 general climatic conditions of most of the counties would be 

 propitious, if judgment were exercised in the selection of favour- 

 able situations, sheltered from prevalent winds in the bleaker 

 districts. On almost all farms there are slopes and bottoms 

 where protection of this kind is afforded, and fields near the 

 farmhouse comparatively sheltered, where the best of the land is 

 generally to be found, upon which vegetables would flourish. 



Vegetable Growing. 



In giving a list of the crops suitable for market-garden farming, 

 and a short account of the modes of cultivating them, it will be 

 well to commence with CABBAGES, as they are easily cultivated, 

 and are the crop upon which farmers usually try their 'prentice 

 hands. These may take the place of mangolds or turnips in the 

 routine of farm crops, and, as has been suggested, they form mar- 

 vellously good food for ewes and lambs if they cannot be sold for 

 vegetables. There really is no more expense in the cultivation 

 of cabbages fit for human food than in that of cabbages for cattle, 

 and the profit from them in some seasons is highly satisfactory. 

 Supposing the plants were put out at the end of September upon 

 land well manured, they might be cut for market upon the first 

 approach of spring, or even in the winter if it were mild, they 

 might be sold as greens, known as Coleworts, or "Collards;" 

 or in May and June as perfect full -hearted cabbages. Some- 

 times coleworts make very high prices when green stuff is scarce, 



B 8 



