INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 17 



Carrots, for instance, if the ground does not contain the right 

 sort of nutriment to successfully produce and sustain the 

 Potatoes ; or attempting to grow Cauliflowers after the essential 

 nutriment has been abstracted by Parnsips or Peas. It is plain, 

 then, that the gardener must, in arranging for the succession 

 of certain crops, also ascertain by observation and calculatioa 

 whether the ground is in fit condition to maintain such succession 

 or not. It is often advised, in a casual manner, to allow surface- 

 rooting crops to follow deep-rooting ones, and vice versa ; 

 but there is this to remember the presence of the deep-rooting 

 vegetables prohibited the incorporation of manure in the surface 

 soil during the year of their occupancy, therefore this portion 

 of the ground must be in an almost starved condition by the 

 time the shallow-rooting plants are to take their turn ; which 

 makes it quite evident that the latter are in for a very 

 bad time should it not occur to the cultivator to renovate that 

 surface soil with a manurial application suited to the crop that 

 is to succeed the long roots. This is very obvious, one may 

 point out, and is easily left to the intelligence and initiative 

 of the gardener. Quite correct ; but the most intelligent man 

 makes ridiculous mistakes sometimes ; memory will fail ; 

 distractions will occur ; and forgetfulness, lack of forethought 

 and too little time to spare in these rushing days are common 

 to us all. It is therefore best to face the fact that, where the 

 cropping of ground with vegetables is concerned, the formula, 

 " rotation of crops " must be amended, in order to read " Rota- 

 tion of crops with manurial adjustment." 



It is certainly true that manurial adjustment often accom- 

 panies rotation of crops as a natural result ; but is it not acci- 

 dental rather than designed in a great many cases, 

 Manurial owing to the geniality or adaptability of the soil ; 

 Adjustment and is not the crop selected for succession also 

 often a happy accident in following a theoretical 

 course of operation rather than a well-thought-out choice ? 

 It is also true that rotation of crops assists manurial adjustment 

 in theory, but not always or necessarily in practice ; it depends 

 on local conditions, as a rule. And it must be admitted that 

 the balance of nutriment can always be corrected by a scientific 

 application of artificial chemical manures during the growing 

 season. Still, after these facts are conceded, there yet remains 

 the glaring need of bringing the soil up to the mark by the 

 judicious application of organic manures to replace the nutri- 

 ment which has been extracted or not been given previously. 



3 



