244 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE KITCHEN OR FARMER's GARDEN. 



Importance of a Good Garden. — Proper Soil. — Preparation. — 

 Sowing Seed — Depredators. — Qualities and Germination of 

 Seed. — Degrees of Hardiness. -' 



There is very little danger of the importance of 

 the garden to the farmer being overrated, or of the 

 directions for forming and cultivating one being too 

 ample and minute. The farmer who manages his 

 garden well not only finds it a source of great per- 

 sonal comfort and emolument, but it proves to him 

 an experimental farm in miniature, in which the va- 

 rious modes of cultivation ; the effect of the several 

 kinds of manures ; the changes which continued 

 cropping with one kind of plant, or a rotation of 

 plants produces on the soil, and their respective qual- 

 ity, productiveness, and consequent value can be 

 determined with accuracy. A neat and well-arran- 

 ged garden may be generally considered a very good 

 index to the slate of the farm ; for rarely, indeed, is 

 a man found who manages and cultivates his garden 

 thoroughly, that will be inattentive and slovenly in 

 the culture of his field-crops. On the contrary, in 

 most cases where the garden is neglected, the farm 

 will be found in a corresponding condition, with more 

 weeds than valuable plants, and indicating that the 

 labour expended will receive a very inadequate re- 

 ward. 



There is among farmers generally a too prevalent 

 idea that the work done in the garden is lost to the 

 farm. Such is not the fact; and it would not be 

 difficult to s'^ow that the acre in garden, well culti- 

 vated, and stocked with a proper variety of vegeta- 



