105'J STATISTICS OF GARDENING. Part IV. 



Sect. II. Commercial Gardens. 



7453. Of commercial gardens, the lowest species are what are called ploughed or far- 

 mers' gardens. One or two are to be found near all large towns, and a number round 

 London. They extend from fifty to a hundred and fifty acres or upwards, and are almost 

 entirely cultivated by the plough and other agricultural implements. Their possessors 

 are small farmers, and the chief difference between this farm-gardening, and common 

 farming is, that the green crops that intervene between the corn crops are more highly 

 cultivated, and instead of being consumed on the farm, are sent to market as culinary ve- 

 getables, or food for stall-fed cows. The crops of every kind, but especially the green 

 crops, are cultivated in drills, two close together, with a wide interval, by which means 

 abundance of room is left to plough and horse-hoe the broad interval, and to sow a suc- 

 ceeding crop there before the other is removed. In this way two crops are obtained most 

 years, as a specimen of which we shall mention one of the common rotations, viz. 1. Peas, 

 with dung, two rows near each other, and a wide interval ; 2. Turnips in the intervals ; 

 3. Drilled wheat between the turnips ; 4. Turnips, with dung, in drills after the wheat. 

 These four crops are put in, and removed within two years, the ground being in good 

 heart. 



7454. The seed-garden Is the next species, and forms one of the points of union between 

 horticulture and agriculture. These gardens or small farms are not numerous, and con- 

 fined chiefly to two or three counties near the metropolis. They consist of from five to 

 twenty acres or upwards, in part cultivated by the plough ; the occupier is not generally 

 a bred gardener, but sometimes is so, and unites with the business of seed-grower that of 

 market or nursery gardener. The seeds he cultivates are generally limited to a few 

 kinds ; thus chervil, radish, and cress seeds are grown chiefly in the neighborhood of 

 Saffron- Walden in Essex ; cabbage-seeds at Battersea ; onions at Deptford ; peas in Kent, 

 turnips in Norfolk; rape in Lincolnshire; mustard in the county of Durham, &c. The 

 great art is to grow the seeds true to their kind, for which purpose one grower must not 

 attempt too many varieties of the same species, but he may grow a number of different 

 species, and of varieties of the same species, provided they do not come into flower at the 

 same time. Such seeds as are raised in large quantities, as turnip, mustard, cress, maw or 

 poppy-seed, peas, &c. are either sold privately by samples, to the London or other seeds- 

 men, or exposed publicly in the seed-market in Mark-lane, London, or in local country 

 markets. But for the greater number of seeds, the practice is for the nurserymen abou; 

 London to grow a sample of it in their own grounds as pure and perfect as possible, and 

 then to send it to the seed-farmer to be sown and cultivated by him, and the seed ripened, 

 cleaned, and sent to the nurserymen, at a fixed rate, by the cwt. or bushel. Flower-seeds 

 are generally grown by nurserymen themselves ; many of the other sorts by market-gar- 

 deners, and many kinds are received from the head gardeners of private gentlemen. 



7455. Grass-orchards ( Vergers agrestes, Fr.) form the next point of union between farm- 

 ing and gardening. There are a number of them in the cider counties, and in the Vale 

 of Clyde, and Carse of Gowrie. A suitable soil and site are chosen, the surface, if not 

 in pasture, is sown with grass-seed, and standard fruit-trees, chiefly apples and pears, and 

 sometimes, as in Shropshire, plums and walnuts are planted in rows, and properly fenced. 

 They receive little pruning, and generally receive no other care but that of gathering the 

 fruit, which is either made into cider ; stored in cellars ; or sent immediately to market. 

 As the trees get old and covered with moss or mistletoe, or infected with canker, shakes, 

 or rottenness, they are scarified, headed down, and sometimes regrafted or rooted out and 

 renewed, according to circumstances. (See The Orchardist, by JBucknal, and Hints to 

 Proprietors of Orchards, by W. Salisbury.) 



7456. Ploughed orchards differ in nothing from the grass-orchards but in being con- 

 stantly or occasionally under aration. The trees stand in quincunx, and every year the 

 direction of the furrows is changed : thus, the first year it may be ploughed east and 

 west ; the second, south-east and north-west ; the third, south and north ; and the 

 fourth, south-west and north-east. The stem of each tree is thus left in the centre of a 

 square or rhomboid of turf of four feet on the side. The ground is cropped as in com- 

 mon farming, or farm-gardening. 



7457. Market-gardens. (7358. ) The number of these is considerable ; their situation 

 is near large towns or seaports, and their extent from one to fifty acres or upwards ; 

 some near London extend to upwards of a hundred acres. The object of all is to pro- 

 duce culinary vegetables and fruit for public sale, either as called for at the garden or 

 garden-shop ; as wanted by the green-grocer ; or exposed in the public market. Some 

 of these gardens are general, producing every description of culinary fruit and vegetable, 

 hardy, exotic, and forced, in demand ; of which, as examples, may be mentioned the 

 Earls Court garden, of upwards of sixty acres, and with extensive hot-houses, by Gunter ; 

 the Hoxton garden, nearly equally extensive, by Grange ; and the Isleworth gardens, by 

 Wilmot and Keens. Other gardens near the metropolis are devoted chiefly to particular 



