24 Southern Gardener^ s Practical Manual 



While rotation cannot be so thoroughly practiced in 

 the garden as in the field, it should never be entirely 

 overlooked in the allotment of the different crops. 



No gardener should be content to grow only one 

 crop a year, except those which necessarily occupy the 

 soil throughout the growing season, such as okra, sal- 

 sify, parsnips, etc. Succession and intercultural crops 

 add to both the pleasure and profit of gardening. The 

 garden is not now divided into squares with walks 

 between as formerly, when labor was cheap and plen- 

 tiful, but the different vegetables are planted in rows 

 extending across the garden, using as many rows as 

 necessary to supply the family. Under this system, 

 rotation with succession crops is easy. 



The writer has grown as many as four crops on the 

 same laud in one season, as follows: Irish potatoes 

 planted in January, corn in alternate rows at the last 

 cultivation of the potatoes. Digging the potatoes or, 

 rather, plowing them up, partly cultivated the corn. As 

 soon as roasting-ears were gathered from the corn, the 

 stalks were removed, the land, thoroughly broken, pul- 

 verized and manured, was set in cabbage. While cul- 

 tivating the cabbage, an abundant stand of volunteer 

 potatoes came. Soil was drawn up around these during 

 the cultivation of the cabbage. The soil being very 

 heavily fertilized — 105 two -ox cart-loads of cow manure 

 per acre — the cabbage leaves literally covered the sur- 

 face of the soil by the first of November, thus protect- 

 ing the little hillocks containing the potatoes, which 

 were gathered as needed during the winter. The pota- 

 toes and cabbages were of extraordinary size and quality. 



