CHAPTER VIII. 



THE LAYING-OUT, CULTIVATING, AND CROPPING 

 OF A HOLDING OF FOUR ACRES. 



Ideal Arrangement for a Market Garden Holding Plan Rota- 

 tions of Cultivation and Manuring Intensive Culture Detailed 

 Explanation of Plans Plans of Intensive Cropping, with Rotations 

 for Three Consecutive Years. 



r "PHE market garden which is intended to produce a constant 

 1 succession of vegetables needs very careful planning, not 

 only to ensure a suitable rotation, with economy of labour and 

 manure, but also to utilize the best aspects and most protected 

 positions for the earliest crops. As every situation has its own 

 special features which must be dealt with on the spot, it is 

 impossible to do more here than give an indication of the points 

 it is necessary to observe. This is the purpose the following 

 suggestions are intended to serve. 



The Plan on the following page shows an oblong plot of four 

 acres, broad sides facing north and south. The shape of the 

 plot is important, a square or oblong being much more conve- 

 nient and taking less labour to cultivate and plant than one of 

 irregular shape, with numerous odd corners. The size is 

 quite immaterial, and the same arrangement would do equally 

 well for twenty or fifty acres, though four acres appears to be 

 a convenient size for a small holding worked intensively and 

 growing both vegetables and fruit. If worked as it ought to be 

 to bring the greatest return for capital and labour expended, it 

 is certainly large enough to fully employ and ensure a comfort- 

 able living to a shrewd hard-working man with a helpful family, 

 assisted by a horse and occasional labour from outside. 



On the west, north, and -east sides fruit trees and bushes 

 occupy one-and-a-half acres. These will, after a few years, 

 afford an appreciable amount of shelter to the remaining por- 

 tion of the ground. The whole plot has a full exposure to the 

 south ; it is very important that nothing should be permitted 

 to obstruct full sunlight to the main crops. 



