136 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



grass and a small sprinkling of barley. The grass, 

 besides proving a great convenience, is a valuable 

 crop, and raised at no expense of labour; and the 

 ground which it occupies will afterwards be far more 

 sensible to the stimulus of manure, showing in the 

 garden, as in the field, the benefit of rest from bear- 

 ing in too long succession the same sort of produce. 



Having offered these preliminary observations, with 

 a view to the general success of the vegetable de- 

 partment, it remains now to consider the best mode 

 of securing the needful attention, in due season, to 

 its individual productions. 



Season is the chief thing to be observed, as no 

 art of man can make up for the loss of time, and the 

 difficulty of redeeming it may be seen in a late sown 

 and worthless crop. But it is not easy to the inex- 

 perienced gardener to recollect what should be done 

 in the several months as they proceed. To meet 

 this difficulty, some have arranged their directions 

 for the garden by making the months of the year 

 the heads of their chapters, and setting down in each 

 the work appropriate to the time. But this, which 

 seems a simple and perfect method, happens in reality 

 to be the most confused and inconvenient that has 

 yet been devised. The preparation of the ground 

 for any crop is to be found in one month, the sowing 

 in another, and the future operations necessary to 

 its culture must be sought at a venture, under some 

 of the twelve heads, and most probably will not be 

 sought at all. How much easier is the process, if 

 you are interested about the production of an arti- 

 choke, to go to that article, and find all you want in 

 one page. Let the doing once follow the reading, 



