KILN. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



rary properties, whence the specific name. 

 (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. iii. p. 269.) 



KILN (Sax. cyln). A kind of furnace or 

 stove for admitting heat, in order to dry sub- 

 stances of various kinds, as corn, malt, hops, 

 &c. It also signifies a fabric or building con- 

 structed for the purpose of burning limestone, 

 chalk, and other calcareous stones, into lime. 

 Kilns are of various kinds, and formed in dif- 

 ferent ways, according to the purposes for 

 which they are designed. See HOPS, MALT, 

 LIMK, CLAY, Kri.x, &c. 



KILN ASHES. The ashes made in kilns 

 where wood, straw, furze, &c. are burnt. These 

 ashes are useful as manure for almost any 

 kind of soil. They are found to succeed best 

 when spread just before rain. See ASHES. 



KIT. In some places a name given to a 

 milking-pail or vessel in the form of a churn, 

 with two ears and a cover, used to convey 

 milk in. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. A piece of ground 

 laid out for the cultivation of fruit, herbs, 

 pulses, and other culinary vegetables. 



The kitchen garden is the most important 

 object of the horticulturist's care, inasmuch as 

 its productions, next to those of agriculture, 

 tend most to the support of mankind. 



It often affords the chief support of the cot- 

 tager, and ought to be the constarft attendant 

 of his dwelling. Of more exalted mansions it 

 is always an accompaniment, but it is much 

 to be regretted that a more plentiful use of its 

 products is not adopted in preference to grosser 

 aliment. 



The kitchen garden also has for its inmates 

 many plants chiefly valuable as rendering 

 other kinds of food more palatable, or as pos- 

 sessing sanative qualities. These last formerly 

 far exceeded in number the edible plants. The 

 subsequent more general employment of mine- 

 ral medicines has reversed this state of our 

 kitchen garden. The culture of aromatic herbs 

 is also much less attended to since the intro- 

 duction of spices. In selecting the site, and in 

 erecting the enclosures, as well as in the after- 

 preparation of the soil, the ingenuity and sci- 

 ence of the horticulturist are essentially requi- 

 site. He will be called upon to rectify the 

 defects, and to improve the advantages which 

 nature affords; for it is very seldom that the 

 natural situation of a mansion, or the plan of 

 its grounds, allows him to construct it in the 

 most appropriate spot. 



The garden is best situated at a moderate 

 elevation ; the summit of a hill, or the bottom 

 of a valley, is equally to be avoided. It is a 

 fact, not very difficult of explanation, that low- 

 lying ones are the most liable to suffer from 

 blights and severe frosts ; those much above 

 the level of the sea are obviously most ex- 

 posed to inclement winds. To determine the 

 appropriate size of a kitchen garden is impos- 

 sible. It ought to be proportionate to the num- 

 ber of the family, their partiality for vegeta- 

 bles, and the fertility of the soil. It may serve 

 as some criterion to state, that the manage- 

 ment of a kitchen garden occupying the space 

 of an acre affords ample employment for a 

 gardener, who will also require an assistant at 

 the busiest periods of the year. In general, a 



family of four persons, exclusive of servants, 

 requires a full rood of open kitchen garden. 

 It ought not to be larger than can be conve- 

 niently cultivated ; and it is too large if its pro- 

 prietor is induced to bring into it the culture 

 of the field, for that neatness and fertility 

 which is essential to the garden can be obtain- 

 ed by the use of the spade only. 



A wall of brick or stone is the best fence ; 

 one of paling may be placed next in order. It 

 ought to be set close, and kept in good repair, 

 and not lower than 6 feet, that poultry may be 

 effectually excluded. The form of the walks or 

 divisions must depend upon local circum- 

 stances, but to some extent the following re- 

 commendations of Bridgeman (Gardener's Jls- 

 sistunt, p. 7), may be carried out: "Form a 

 border round the whole garden, from 5 to 10 

 feet wide, according to the size of the piece of 

 land ; next to. this border, a walk may be made 

 from 3 to 6 feet wide ; the centre of the garden 

 may be divided into squares, on the sides of 

 which a border may be laid out 3 or 4 feet 

 wide, in which the various kinds of herbs may 

 be raised, and also gooseberries, currants, 

 raspberries, strawberries, &c. The centre 

 beds may be planted with all the various kinds 

 of vegetables. The outside borders facing the 

 east, south, and west, will be useful for raising 

 the earliest fruits and vegetables; and the 

 north border, being shady and cool, will serve 

 for raising and pricking out such young plants, 

 herbs, and cuttings, as require to be screened 

 from the intense heat of the sun." The walks 

 ought to be drained in some cases, and in all 

 well gravelled. The edging or border may be 

 of brick, which t for a kitchen garden is prefer- 

 able to all others, as it affords no shelter for 

 slugs and vermin, is durable, and requires lit- 

 tle labour to keep it in repair. 



The order in which successive crops are 

 grown on the same compartment has very con- 

 siderable influence in prolonging the continu- 

 ance of the soil in fertility. Some vegetables, 

 as onions and carrots, are extremely impover- 

 ishing to the soil, whilst lettuces are but in a 

 small degree prejudicial. It is, therefore, ob- 

 vious, that a succession of exhausting crops 

 should never be grown on the same bed, how- 

 ever plentiful manure may be, not merely be- 

 cause abundance is no excuse for a want of 

 economy, but that fresh applied dung is not so 

 immediately beneficial as those remains of or- 

 ganized matters, which, by long continuance 

 in the soil, have become impalpably divided 

 and diffused through its texture, and of which 

 each succeeding crop consumes a portion. 

 Those plants in general are the least exhaust- 

 ing which have the largest surface of leaves, 

 and vice versa, because the first are not only 

 possessed of a larger proportion of aqueous 

 than solid matter than the latter, but also are 

 enabled to obtain a greater quantity of their 

 food from the atmosphere. It may be objected 

 to many crops included by this rule, and espe- 

 cially to turnips, that they require a soil of 

 extreme fertility; but this is only an apparent 

 anomaly, for, although the turnip, for example, 

 requires a rich soil, it is only because it re- 

 quires a regular supply of moisture : neither 

 will a tenacious soil therefore be beneficial ; 

 3 M 685 



