48 On the Advantage of 



The fittest articles for cultivation in a cottager's garden, are summer 

 cabbage, winter kail, potatoes*, carrots, peas, beans, leeks and 

 onions f. French beans are recommended as being very "productive 

 and profitable ; and the imperial cabbage, as being early, of a good 

 size, and fine flavoured. At Wytham near Oxford, the culture of 

 strawberries, ia cottage gardens, has been found productive J. In 

 other districts, the gardens of cottagers contain gooseberries and cur- 

 rant bushes, by which they frequently make some profit among their 

 more opulent neighbours . Useful herbs, as balm, mint, parsley, 

 chamomile, &c. ought not to be neglected. In Cumberland, cottagers 

 often pay their rent from the produce of two or three trees of the 

 Carlisle codlin ||. Other fruit-trees may also be planted with profit; 

 but unless a cottager or his family, have a turn for horticulture, and 

 the soil and climate are favourable to the production of fruit, it is more 

 advisable to restrict his attention to the common vegetables. 



The benefit of a garden to cottagers, must greatly depend on its 

 being well inclosed^ ; on its having no forest trees planted in it**; 

 and on the ground being well trenched, for if shallow, moisture is not 

 retained in the soil, and its fertility is soon exhausted. 



Mr Blaikie observes, that the Horticultural Societies, now happily 

 established throughout the kingdom, are likely, in many respects, to 

 become of great national benefit, and more especially by the patronage 

 they extend to industrious labourers, in awarding liberal premiums to 

 them, for the best cultivated gardens, and for the most improved gar- 

 den produce. 



The farmers also, frequently encourage their most deserving la- 

 bourers when they have large gardens, by giving them selected turnip 

 and mangell wurzell roots to plant in their gardens, and buying from 

 them, at a fair market price, the seed which those roots produce. 

 That is a profitable practice to the labourers, as the seed is ripened, 

 and removed from their gardens, in good time for planting winter 

 greens. It also suits the farmer's purpose, as they are certain the 



* Cottagers should cultivate both early potatoes, as the champion or bread- 

 fruit ; and the red apple, or the red Cheshire, for late use. 



f Plain directions for the culture of these plants in cottage gardens, by the 

 late Mr Nicol, are inserted in the General Report of Scotland, A pp. vol. iv. 

 p. 426. It has been remarked, that the gardens of labourers are frequently seen 

 better cultivated than those of farmers, as the labourer occupies no other land to 

 distract his attention from the culture of his garden. North Riding Repot t, 

 p. 180. 



f Berks Report, p. 306, note. Bedfordshire Report, p. 458. 



[| See a description of this species of apple, General Report of Scotland, 

 Appendix, vol. iv. p. 460. 



f A good fence is necessary, as labourers are obliged to be from home a 

 great part of the day, and sometimes take their families with them into the 

 field. Gloucestershire Report, p. J97. 



* * In some cottage gardens, forest trees are to be met with, though injurious 

 to the produce, and in particular the ash, which on no account ought to be to- 

 lerated in that situation. The ash is frequent in such situations in Scotland, 

 in consequence of an old Scotch statute, which required the planting of a cer- 

 tain number of ash trees, for every house that was built. See General Report 

 of Scotland, vol. iv. p, 432. 



