135 THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES 



old garden, the anbury, or * fingers and toes,' is the most to be 

 feared. When this happens, the cultivator may rest satisfied that 

 the soil is in fault, and this may be owing to a bad routine of cropping. 

 Wherever anbury appears, whether on Cabbages or Turnips or any 

 other cruciferous plant, there should be worked out a complete change 

 in the order of cropping, taking care not to put any brassicaceous 

 plants on the plots where the disease has occurred for two or three 

 seasons, and allowing at least one whole year to pass without growing 

 any of the cruciferous order upon them. In the meantime, for other 

 crops the land should be well trenched and limed, and generously 

 cultivated. The result will be profitable crops of other kinds of 

 vegetables, and a refreshing of the soil that will enable it to carry 

 brassicaceous plants again, with but little risk of the recurrence of 

 anbury. Good cultivation is the only panacea known against the 

 plagues that assail our crops. This does not surely secure them, for 

 the elements are capricious and beyond our control ; but where good 

 cultivation prevails the failures are few, and even unfavourable seasons 

 do not utterly obliterate the results of our labours. 



VEGETABLE MARROW 



(Cucurbita Pepo oviferd] 



THE VEGETABLE MARROW does not, in a general way, obtain the 

 right kind of attention in gardens. It is much valued as a summer 

 vegetable ; and it is very generally grown, but too often the aim of 

 the cultivator is to obtain large Marrows, that at the very best are 

 coarse and troublesome to the cook, and are always wanting in sub- 

 stance and flavour, instead of smallish Marrows, which are easily 

 dressed, elegant on the table, and combine with a substantial and 

 somewhat glutinous pulp a most delicious flavour. Two fears beset 

 the average gardener: he is afraid to grow small sorts, and he is afraid 

 to cut them when quite young. When he can overcome these fears 

 he will appreciate the smaller Marrows that have of late years been 

 secured by patient labour in cross-breeding, for while they are of the 

 highest quality, they are also early and productive, far surpassing all 

 the larger Marrows in quickness and usefulness. The market grower 

 we do not pretend to advise, for he must grow what he can sell ; and 

 if the smaller Marrows are insufficiently appreciated in gardens, we 

 cannot hope to see them on sale in shops. The big watery Marrows 



