Notes and Gleanings. 249 



farmer or gardener divides his ground into many lots, and plants nearly every 

 variety of truck known to the market. The French gardener gives himself up 

 to the cultivation of a special class or succession of fruits or vegetables, and 

 by long study and practice, by experimenting with various manures, soils, and 

 modes of culture, arrives at the production of a perfect crop of his specialty, 

 season after season, with unerring certainty. He is also much more economical 

 of space and more prodigal of labor than we are ; more so than we need to be. 

 He seldom suffers his ground to lie fallow. Crop succeeds crop in endless rota- 

 tion. The cauliliower is set among the melon-hills, ready to spread as soon as 

 the melons are gathered. Between the rows of asparagus are planted early pota- 

 toes and lettuce, in such a manner as to keep the ground constantly fruitful ; and 

 when the weather becomes frosty, and the sun loses a goodly share of its forcing 

 power, large bell-glasses are employed, one of which is placed over each plant, 

 — especially in the case of the salads, — and heat is thus concentrated upon it 

 until its full growth is fairly attained. The enormous size of the French aspara- 

 gus is chiefly due to the manner of planting. Instead of setting the plants 

 closely together, as we do, a space of at least six inches square is allowed to each 

 stool, which enables it to suck a large amount of nutriment from the soil, and 

 become a strong and solid plant. Each stool is also manured repeatedly every 

 season ; the soil being carefully scraped away down to the roots, the compost 

 placed around them, and the earth put back again." 



But "notoriously special fruit-growers are disappointed ; and we have yet to 

 see a dozen who have got rich at the business." Now, there are owners of vast 

 orchards in the State of New York whose annual clear income from the apple- 

 crop alone amounts to many thousand dollars. No general farming can com- 

 pete with them. So rehable is the return from this crop in various sections 

 of that State, that new orchards of thousand of trees are annually planted. The 

 people of the Middle States rely upon the crop of New York for their supply of 

 apples, just as New England looks to New Jersey for the sweet-potato. 



Who has not heard of the enormous peach-orchards of Delaware, a single 

 one embracing five hundred to a thousand acres, and clearing an independent 

 fortune in a single season 1 These " notoriously special fruit-growers " employed 

 their own steamboats to convey their gold-bearing freight to Philadelphia, and 

 there chartered successive trains of cars for New York, exclusively for their own 

 productions. Yet, after paying the cost of this expensive machinery of transpor- 

 tation, it is well known that the residuum of profit was such as to make them 

 entirely satisfied with the result. The man who in Delaware is "getting land, 

 and going to work with one idea," if it be that of raising peaches, may safely 

 run in debt for land, provided he begins with planting trees. He may freely 

 give bond and mortgage of his farm ; and the seller will consider himself safe in 

 thus disposing of it, being well aware that the new peach-orchard will prove to 

 be a responsible guaranty for payment of the mortgage. All this is well under- 

 stood and constantly acted on in Delaware. But as facilities for reaching dis- 

 tant markets are being constantly multiplied, so the peach-grower is able to 

 supply them at less cost of transportation ; while the superior condition in which 

 his fruit is delivered there by these quicker lines of travel secures for him a 



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