GENERAL REMARKS UPON CROPPING 1 9 



but a prepared scheme is needful. By having a 

 plan of the kitchen garden, one can decide upon the 

 principal crops to grow upon each plot before the 

 planting time arrives. Knowing exactly how the land 

 is at present occupied this will not be difficult. To a 

 certain extent the cultivator has to be guided by his 

 own circumstances after the principal outlines of crop- 

 ping the garden have been decided upon. What a book 

 can do, however, and what every book should do, is 

 to lay down the principles upon which a man ought 

 to we -k ; the man himself must of necessity fill in a 

 certain amount of detail. As a guide therefore we will 

 enumerate one or two of the first principles of successful 

 kitchen gardening. The first and most important of 

 these is the 



Rotation of Crops. It is folly to endeavour to cul- 

 tivate the same crop year after year upon the same piece 

 of ground ; a change is absolutely necessary and the 

 reason is this. Each vegetable (or those closely allied), 

 takes from the land certain elements of plant food in 

 a larger proportion than another vegetable would do, 

 therefore if one crop is grown upon the same land year 

 after year the result must inevitably be that the latter 

 loses a valuable constituent. By changing the order 

 of the crops, which is exactly what is implied by " ro- 

 tation of crops," such a result is averted, for the next 

 vegetable grown upon the land would absorb other plant 

 food in quantity, thus allowing the soil to recover its 

 lost vitality. By rotating the crops the soil is al- 

 lowed every opportunity of replenishing the food the 



