No. 10. 



The extended Field Cultivation of Vegetables. 



301 



The Extended Field Cultiration of Ve- 

 getables. 



BV COTKBERT W. 40HNS0N, KSl^., F.R.S, 



It is certain that within th6 present cen- 

 tury the farmer has very materially increased 

 the list of his cultivated crops; and that this 

 variety in his rotations will be yet more ex- 

 tended, there is, I think, little reason to 

 doubt. This extension, too, will perhaps not 

 be entirely confined to the cultivation of 

 green crops raised for the consumption of 

 live stock, or of the cereal grasses, but may, 

 in favourable situations, include vvith advan- 

 tage, the more valuable varieties of fruit and 

 vegetables. 



VVe are all aware to what a profitable ex- 

 tent, in particular districts, such cultivation 

 has long since extended. The immense and 

 valuable apple and pear orchards of Here- 

 fordshire and Devonshire, the cherry or- 

 chards of Kent, the plums of the latter 

 county and of Surrey, are well known in^ 

 stances of the profitable and extensive culti 

 vation of common fruit. And to a considerable, , 

 although a minor extent, is the cultivation of| 

 even the pine-apple carried on in the south 

 of Sussex and other places. Of culinary 

 vegetables, the cultivation of the superior 

 varieties has not only arrived at a very large 

 amount, but I cannot but feel that this might 

 be still more advantageously extended in 

 many localities by the farmer. Few per- 

 sons, in fact, are aware of the extent to 

 which the demand for many vegetables ex- 

 tends. Take, for instance, the asparagus: 

 " This," remarks Mr. George Johnson, " is 

 especially cultivated extensively for the 

 London market ; and it is estimated that in 

 the Surrey parish of Mortlake alone, there 

 are generally about 80 acres under this crop. 

 One grower there (Mr. Biggs) has some- 

 tunes had 40 acres under asparagus at one 

 time. A great deal is also grown near Dept- 

 ford : one grower there (Mr. Edmonds) has 

 had 80 acres entirely under this crop — a 

 statement which must appear almost incre- 

 dible to those who have not witnessed the 

 loads of this article daily heaped on the 

 green stalls of the metropolis for the space 

 of nearly three months." This root delights 

 in those soils which contain common salt. It 

 is, in fact, a marine plant, and is found wild 

 on our coasts about Harwich, Weymouth, 

 &c., and always grows with increased luxu- 

 riance in our gardens, in soils dressed with 

 salt. These facts explain the subsequent 

 observations of the author of the Monthly 

 Volume, when he remarks : " In a garden 

 formed at Dunbar, in the very beginning of 

 the 18th century, by Provost Fall — a name 

 well known in the mercantile world — aspa- 



ragus was for many years cultivated with 

 uncommon success. The variety used was 

 the red-topped, brought from Holland. The 

 soil of the garden is little better than sea- 

 satid. This was trenched two feet deep, 

 and a thick layer of sea-weed was put in the 

 bottom of the trench, well pressed together 

 and beaten down. This was the only ma- 

 nure used, either at the first planting, or at 

 subsequent dressings. There was, in this 

 instance, an inexhaustible supply of the arti- 

 cle generally at hand, as the back door of 

 the garden opened to the sea-shore." 



I think it not improbable, that in many of 

 the warm valleys of the south of England, 

 in sites where the beds could be occasionally 

 irrigated, and the crop not annually cut so 

 close as at present, this root might be culti- 

 vated to a much larger and more profitable 

 extent than at present. Of the irrigation 

 of this crop, Mr. G. Johnson remarks: "The 

 cultivation of this vegetable is introduced 

 by our countrymen even into the hottest 

 latitudes of the tropics. Mr. J. Newman 

 has published the successful mode he has 

 adopted for obtaining it good, in the island 

 of Mauritius, and we have eaten of it — ex- 

 cellent in quality, and nearly of an average 

 size in Bengal. Daily irrigation is there 

 the chief essential." 



In the county of Kent, there are also, as 

 Mr. Main remarks, extensive and profitable 

 fields of filbert trees; and there the farm la- 

 bourers are adepts at the proper method of 

 rearing and pruning the trees. These plant- 

 ations, in fact, extend to an extent of several 

 hundred acres, and I have little doubt but 

 that their cultivation might be very pro- 

 fitably extended in other portions of the 

 kingdom with equal success. We find also 

 that in many districts the cultivation of cer- 

 tain fragrant plants is carried to a remark- 

 able extent. Thus, in the county of Surrey 

 are found many considerable fields devoted 

 to the growth of lavender, peppermint, &c. 

 The parish of Mitcham has a good many of 

 such plantations; and it is remarkable, in 

 the case of some of these, such as lavender 

 for instance, that a very poor and light gra- 

 velly soil is best suited to this plant; being, 

 when grown on such lands, more fragrant, 

 longer lived, and more capable of enduring 

 severe weather, than in a rich soil. In rich 

 or moist soils, it grows, it is true, luxuriant- 

 ly; but then it is commonly destroyed in the 

 winter. As this plant delights in a dry, 

 open situation, the cultivation of it on many 

 soils might surely be extended; for there is 

 always a considerable demand, not only for 

 the green lavender flowers, but for the high 

 priced oil extracted from it by a very easy 

 distillatory process. 



