PLANNING THE GROUND 25 



rule, it is unwise to plant any particular vegetable on 

 the same piece of ground more often than once in three 

 years. Now as potatoes are a valuable crop, mark off 

 a third of your ground, less the strip for rhubarb and 

 another strip of equal dimensions for a seed bed, and 

 reserve it for this year's tubers. The second third will 

 do for next year, and the last third for the year after 

 next. After that, you will go back to the first third and 

 so continue the rotation. The whole of this year's potato 

 patch may be devoted to main-crops or main-crops and 

 earlies, but, before deciding on this point, you will do well 

 to read the chapter devoted to them later on. Take your 

 plan of the allotment and mark off two yards down 

 one side of the path for rhubarb and twelve yards for 

 potatoes. 



Now turn to the strip on the opposite side of the path. 

 Mark off twelve yards and reserve this space for cabbages, 

 cauliflowers, broccoli, and turnips. You have left a 

 strip of six yards by the potatoes and eight yards close 

 to the cabbage patch. Put twelve yards of this down 

 for parsnips, carrots, beetroots and onions, reserving 

 the remaining two yards for a seed bed. 



The plot being carefully divided, call the potato 

 section, A ; the long-rooted vegetable section, B ; and 

 the cabbage family section, C. Let us now consider A, 

 B, and C in more detail. A is to be sown with potatoes, 

 but between the rows of main-crops sow also spinach and 

 lettuces. They will be gathered before the potato 

 haulms have grown to any size. B must be shared 

 between parsnips, carrots, beetroots and onions. Give 

 parsnips four yards, carrots three yards, onions three 

 yards, and beetroots two yards. If Jerusalem artichokes 



