FRUIT AND KITCHEN GARDEN. 



IN this compartment are cultivated the articles which 

 are necessary for the supply of the kitchen and the dessert- 

 table. In England, it is usually enclosed with walls, not 

 only for the sake of security and general shelter, but to 

 afford the means of cultivating in that climate the finer 

 fruits by training the trees close to the walls. In the 

 United States, little or no protection against cold is neces- 

 sary, unless it be in the more northern sections. But the 

 English garden must be furnished with hot-houses, melon- 

 frames, and similar contrivances, by which the fruits of 

 warmer climates are subjected to an artificially increased 

 temperature, and thus brought to maturity. The size of a 

 walled garden ought evidently to bear some proportion to 

 the splendor of the mansion-house of which it is an append- 

 age, to the extent of the park, and the means of the family. 

 Where the demand is large, such a garden should not com- 

 prehend less than from four to six acres. In many places, 

 this extent will not afford an adequate supply of culinary 

 vegetables, but some of the bulkier crops, such as peas, po- 

 tatoes and turnips, may be raised in the orchard, or on the 

 home farm. From an acre and a half to three acres may 

 be regarded as forming a respectable middle-sized garden ; 

 but, within the limits already mentioned, it is better, in the 

 first formation of a garden, to inclose too large than too 

 small a space. 



