4 VEGECULTURE 



kitchen plot becomes the hidden receptacle for all kinds of 

 rubbish that is necessary to put out of sight, and is soon trans- 

 formed into a dust-heap. 



Is secrecy concerning vegetables necessary ? " They are so 

 unlovely! " may be the excuse put forward. Well, let me 

 point out that the kitchen-garden may be effectively screened 

 from view or, rather, the parts of it that may be unsightly 

 without recourse to the repressive measures I have indicated. 

 Vegetables require all the light and air they can get, therefore 

 the site should be an open one. The judicious planting of 

 fruit trees a wise procedure ! will afford whatever shade may 

 be required in summer ; and for a screen there is the Logan- 

 berry, the Blackberry, cordon fruit-trees, and not too rampant 

 climbing Roses, which may be profitably employed. Certainly, 

 screens are often required as a protection against wind, storms, 

 etc. ; but that is an entirely different matter. 



I have studied small vegetable-gardens attached to the 

 dwelling-house a good deal lately, and I find that much the 

 same state of things prevail in nearly every case 

 The the kitchen-garden is not only planned to exist as 



Household far from the house as possible with which no one 

 Kitchen- will quarrel but it is hemmed around and corn- 

 Garden pletely shut in by the inevitable screen which 

 divides it from the flower-garden, and contains far 

 more fruit trees and bushes than the small plot can accommodate. 

 These latter, it may be conceded, are planted when of small 

 stature and girth, and it probably never occurs to the planter 

 that, if not curtailed, those small twigs and slender stems will, 

 in five years' time, have become increased enormously in every 

 direction, and that those roots, which can at planting-time be 

 removed from the ground by a child, will in a surprisingly short 

 time defy the efforts of the strongest man. 



The householder should turn his eyes for a moment to the 

 allotment. Here is an excellent, practical example of what 

 the kitchen-garden should be, clothed in a more 

 The artistic garb. The allotment is rough and ready, 



Allotment but intensely productive ; its chief feature and 

 probable secret of prosperity is its open nature a 

 full exposure to sun and air, with free action of wind, rain, and 

 frost upon the soil there is nothing whatever to hinder the 

 beneficent work of every element in its season upon the plot 

 and the occupants thereof. Here, I contend, we have a model 

 for the kitchen-garden formation, rough, but productive. 



