54 MARKET GARDENING. 



of the soil under a mulch renders ordinary cultivation 

 unnecessary. Every cultivator not familiar with the 

 merits of mulching should make some experiments, the 

 material always being cheap, indeed, often in the way, 

 and presenting a problem as to its disposition. 



CHAPTER IX. 



SUCCESSION, OR THE ROTATION OF CROPS. 



The gardener, whether an expert or amateur, must, 

 like a general in the field, have a plan of operations 

 upon which to conduct the campaign of the summer, 

 and, while the expert may not commit his plan to paper, 

 the amateur certainly should, otherwise he will more 

 than double the number of the errors which he is sure 

 to commit, plan he ever so well. 



Gardening, it is true, is often successfully pursued 

 by seemingly ignorant men, and they truly may be 

 ignorant of literature and polite accomplishments, but 

 they are, nevertheless, specialists, and if successful oper- 

 ators in the advanced system of gardening, may prove 

 themselves to have acquired a technical knowledge which 

 is as much a profession as any other occupation which 

 develops looked for results. 



The amateur has everything to learn, and must 

 commit his plans to paper, or he will be certain to run 

 everything into disorder, and, before the season is well 

 started be disposed to give up in despair of ever getting 

 things into order by strawberry time. With a clear, 

 systematically managed garden, his is the envy of all 

 neighbors, while with a weedy and clearly unprofitable 

 one he sets such a bad example that it would have been 

 better he had not attempted anything. The gardener 



