THE GENESEE FARMER. 



WHAT CAN BE EAISED FROM A SMALL GARDEN 



We know a gentleman in this city who has a small 

 garden which, after business hours, he takes special 

 pleasure in cultivating with his own hands. A part of 

 the garden near the house is devoted to flowers. The 

 remainder is cultivated as a vegetable garden. The latter, 

 by actual admeasurement, contains 231 square yards- 

 equal to a little over 15 yards square, or about the twen- 

 tieth part of au acre. 



This is a very small garden, and it would seem impos- 

 sible to obtain much from it But the faet is few people 

 bare any idea how much a small plot of ground can be 

 made to produce in a single season by good cultivation 

 and a judicious succession of crops. 



We can uot undertake to enumerate everything which 

 our friend raised from his little garden. Suffice it to say 

 he had enough to supply his own table during the season 

 with the choicest vegetables, • and to present an extra 

 well-grown specimen occasionally to his friends; and he 

 has now in the cellar a good supply of celery, and some 

 cabbage, carrots, beets, etc 



As soon as the weather would permit in the spring, he 

 sowed, on a warm southern border, seeds of cauliflower, 

 cabbage, lettuce, radish, red pepper, mustard and cress! 

 Later in the season he sowed on this same border cucum- 

 bers, melons, etc., to occupy the ground after the other 

 crops had been eaten or transplanted. Along the whole 

 length of the border, which is 35 yards long, he planted 

 a row of early Kent peas. From this he had several meals 

 by the 20th of June, and the peas were then removed to 

 make way for the cucumbers and melons, which by this 

 time were beginning to run. He also trained some tomato 

 plants against the tight board fence. 



Five rows of dwarf peas, each 10 yards long, were also 

 eet out on another plot, and between the rows cauliflowers 

 and cabbages were planted. The peas produced well, and as 

 soon as they were removed, trenches were dug and celery 

 plants set out between the rows of cabbages, in the place 

 previously occupied by the peas. Some of the cabbages 

 wore cut early, and the stalks produced a second crop°of 

 small heads, two, three and four on each stalk. Late cab- 

 bage plants were also set out in the places occupied by 

 the early Paris cauliflowers, and thus a few good heads 

 were obtained from between the rows of celery. 



Let us enumerate. There were on this "little plot, 

 which would ordinarily have been devoted exclusively to 

 the peas, first, a full crop ot peas ; second, a full crop of 

 early cabbages and cauliflowers; third, a full crop of 

 celery; fourth, a good crop of second heads of cabbage, 



and fifth, a few large heads of late cabbage between th« 

 rows of celery. Five crops in one season, and all weh 

 grown ! 



On another plots, 10 yards wide, he bad two rows of 

 early Short-horn carrots, two rows of onions, one row 

 of parsneps, two rows of beets, and one row of vegeta- 

 ble oysters. Then a row of early Paris cauliflowers, and 

 next a trench of celery, and the remainder of the plot 

 was occupied with melons and cucumbers. The latter, on 

 the one side of the celery trench and the cauliflowers on 

 the other, were off in time to allow the celery to be 

 earthed up. 



There was not a poorly grown vegetable in the garden. 

 The carrots were sown quite thick, and thinned out as 

 they got large enough for the table. In this way the 

 family, consisting of six persons, had a full supply during 

 the summer, and there were over two bushels to put in 

 the cellar in the autumn. So of the beets and onions. 

 They were thinned out as wanted for the table and there 

 were enough beets left for winter use and plenty of small 

 onions for pickling. 



He had over 100 head of cauliflowers, and cabbages 

 "too numerous to mention." Cucumbers enough to eat, 

 to pickle and to give away. He had at least a hundred 

 good, ripe, delicious melons, and a few for mangoes. He 

 had a hundred and twenty large, fine, well-blanched sticks 

 of celery, and as many more, planted later, that may be 

 classed as "fair to good." 



We have not mentioned all that our friend had in his 

 little garden, but enough to show how much can be ob- 

 tained from a few square rods of earth. He used no 

 barn-yard manure at all, but gave the plants a liberal 

 dressing of superphosphate of lime and sulphate of am- 

 monia. He attributes his success, however, more to thor- 

 ough cultivation than to these artificial fertilizers. The 

 ground was well spaded in the spring and constantly 

 hoed during the summer— hoeing being our friend's re- 

 creation and his delio-ht. 



GREAT HORTICULTURAL SHOW IN ENGLAND. 



The last number of the Gardeners" Chronicle describes 

 in glowing terms the show at the great November meet- 

 ing of the Royal .Horticultural Society. It says "the 

 chrysanthemums were superb as a whole, and suited the 

 fine conservatory in which they were shown. We must, 

 indeed, except some specimens trained and pruned to 

 imitate trees, for which the plant is quite unsuitable; 

 this, however, was an example of bad taste, not of bad 

 gardening. Some pyramids were cleverly managed, but 

 the hero of the day was an enormous bush of the lilac 

 Christine. From top to bottom it was of faultless beauty. 

 Of the fruit we shall only say that it did honor to English 

 skill, especially the grapes, which for color, size, and 

 thoroughly good management were in general unsurpass- 

 able. If the French, under their brighter sun and 

 warmer soil, could beat us with Chasselas de Fontaine- 

 bleau, we might claim the victory with Muscats and 

 Black Hamburghs. In other words, in grapes we do 

 with skill alone what our clever neighbors achieve with 

 climate and skill combined. What their climate does 

 for them was unmistakably shown by a most remarkable 

 exhibition of French apples and pears. Under no con- 



