THE 



CULTURE OF VEGETABLES 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



WE are passing through an era of great activity in gardening. 

 Every horticulturist of experience can count up a number 

 of important events that have occurred in his own time, and can see 

 foreshadowings of events of greater importance that appear to be near 

 at hand. And there can be no question that the progress effected in 

 the Vegetable Garden has resulted in a substantial improvement in 

 the quality and variety of its produce. 



A comparison of the state of things in any department of the 

 Vegetable Garden with that which prevailed fifty years ago will show 

 that the general growth of knowledge and the improvement of the 

 public taste are most strikingly and pleasingly reflected there. All 

 our esculents, and more especially Melons, Peas, and Potatoes, have 

 undergone very great improvement. As a matter of fact, the past 

 half-century has witnessed as great changes in the Vegetable Garden 

 as it has witnessed in the arts of locomotion, lighting, and sanitation. 

 When Parkinson directed his readers to prepare Melons for eating by 

 mixing with the pulp ' salt and pepper and good store of wine,' he 

 must have been familiar with fruit differing widely from the varieties 

 which are now in favour. Peas have ceased to be ' what they were ' 

 because they are so immensely better. While the powers of the plant 

 have been, as it were, concentrated, with the result that it occupies 

 less room and occasions less trouble, its productiveness has been 

 augmented and the quality improved. Formerly it appeared impos- 

 sible that any Pea of first-class quality should ever be gathered with- 

 out the aid of a ladder. All the pulse tribe have shared in the 

 advance ; and if we compare any dozen or score of the favourite sorts 

 of Peas or Beans to-day with the same number of favourites of half 

 or even a quarter of a century since, we soon discover that the boasted 



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