11 GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



up with a shovel to the staked line. If more earth is re- 

 quired, the plowing and shovelling must be repeated until 

 a sufficient bank is formed to retain the water. During 

 the first year, occasional breaks in the bank may happen 

 from violent storms, but if well repaired, after the banks 

 become settled, they will rarely be broken over by the ac- 

 cumulation of water, particularly if proper underdrains 

 or surface ditches are provided. 



Size. A garden should be proportioned to the size of 

 the family, and their partiality for its different products. 

 A small garden with a suitable rotation of crops, and well 

 manured and cultivated, will yield more pleasure and profit 

 than an ordinary one of three times its size. An active, 

 industrious hand can take care of an acre, provided with 

 necessary hot-beds, cold frames, etc., keeping it in perfect 

 neatness and condition ; or if the plow and cultivator be 

 brought into requisition, as they should be in large gar- 

 dens, four times that amount can be under his care, pro- 

 vided there is not much under glass. In market gardens 

 Henderson allows seven men to ten acres. 



If but little room can be allowed near the house, cab- 

 bages, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and the common crops, 

 can be grown in the field, if well enriched, and be culti- 

 vated mainly with the plow. The fruit garden should be 

 in a separate compartment, as the shade of the trees is 

 very injurious, and the exhaustion of the soil by their 

 roots still more so. Dwarf pars upon the quince stock 

 are the least hurtful, and may be admitted into the vege- 

 table department along the walks. 



Form. The form will often depend upon the situation 

 of the garden or the inclination of the ground. When a 

 matter of choice, a square or parallelogram is most con- 

 venient for laying out the walks and beds. A parallelo- 

 gram extending from east to west gives a long south wall 

 for shading plants in summer, and a long sheltered border 



