KITCHEN GARDEN. 151 



profits), it will not be thought extraordinary that 

 gardening, considered both as a science and an art, 

 should have engaged the attention of able and learn- 

 ed men, who, at different times and in various lan- 

 guages, have written upon it. To collect and 

 methodize their remarks and experiments, to illus- 

 trate their different doctrines, and to adapt the whole 

 to our own climate, soil, and social condition, form 

 the leading objects of the present work. 



Another important, though a secondary object, is 

 to bring what is known and necessary on so copious 

 a subject into the smallest compass, persuaded, as 

 we are, that the highest service that can now be 

 rendered to science is to shorten and illustrate its 

 processes, and thus render attainable by many what 

 otherwise would be known only to few. 



Gardens are technically classed under five heads : 

 the Kitchen Garden, the Fruit Garden, the Flower 

 Garden, the Botanic Garden, and the Landscape, 

 commonly, but improperly, called the English Gar- 

 den. These have many principles in common, but 

 some which are peculiar, and they consequently 

 call for different kinds of culture, and different sorts 

 and degrees of knowledge in the cultivator. We 

 shall treat here only of the two first named ; and 

 begin with the Kitchen Garden. 



This is the description of garden most important 

 to man, because employed in the production of ar- 

 ticles of the first necessity, and common to every 

 class of society. Several conditions are, however, 

 necessary to enable it to fulfil this intention. Such 

 are, sufficient fences, a good soil, a favourable ex- 

 position, and abundant water. The first, to be suffi- 

 cient, ought to have the property not only of ex- 

 cluding the depredations of man and beast, but that 

 also of shutting out vermin, and even some of the 

 tribes of larger insects. The second should be 

 deep, rich, friable, and moist (not wet), because this 

 description of soil is best adapted to the mass of 



