VOL. XV!I NO. 1 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



the advantages now, in possessing the best gener- 

 ally informed people of any country in the world. 

 And they have furnished most of the states with a 

 vast number of professional men, and teachers of 

 common schools. 



The state of New York has done something, 

 and common school education has been extended 

 to almost all the youth. Still the system is exceed- 

 ingly imperfect, and capable of immense improve- 

 ment. — Herkimer Journal. 



THE FARMER'S GARDEN. | 



Evert farmer should have a garden, for health, 

 for pleasure, and for profit. For health, as nothing 

 in the form of diet, contributes more to this bless- 

 inff, than a variety of choice fruits and vegetables 

 for his table ; while the exercise and recreation 

 which the cares and beauties of the garden excite, 

 are highly promotive of health. For pleasure — 

 and what can afford a more heart-felt pleasure to 

 to the eye, unalloyed with pain, than the various 

 and ever changing beauties of a well-kept garden ? 

 and -what a more rich and innocent enjoyment to 

 the palate, than a succession of fruits and vegeta- 

 bles tlie product of our own culture and of our 

 own soil. For pro/f— believing, as we verily do, 

 that the labor judiciously bestowed in garden cul- 

 ture is amply repaid, in the subsistence it iurnishes 

 for the family. * " It is incredible to those who 

 have not had occasion to observe the fact," says 

 Cobbett, " how large a part of the sustenance of a 

 country laborer's family, in England, comes out of 

 his little garden." And yet the culture of the 

 English laborer's garden costs him vu-tually noth- 

 ingT His occasional hours of leisure, with the 

 aid afforded by the otherwise unproductive inmates 

 of his family, suffices to complete the work. The 

 rural scenery of England derives much of its in- 

 terest from the beauty of the farmer's and cotta- 

 ger's gardens which every where abound ; and 

 many of the successful competitors for premiums, 

 on fruits and flowers, at the horticultural shows 

 which are there held in almost every town, are 

 weavers and manufacturers, who cultivate their lit- 

 tle patches of ground in the hours of exemption 

 from professional labor. Indeed so prevalent is the 

 taste for garden improvement and embellishment, 

 that a man is judged by the character of his gar- 

 den. " Poverty," says Cobbett, may " apologise 

 for a dirty dress, or an unshaven face ; men may be 

 negligent of their persons ; but the sentence of the 

 wirole nation is, that he who is a sloven in his gar- 

 den, is a sloven indeed. The inside of a laborer's 

 house, his habits, his qualities as a workman, and 

 almost his morality, may be judged of from the ap- 

 pearance of his garden. If that be neglected, he , 

 is, nine times out often, a sluggard, a drunkard, or j 

 both." The great strife every wliere is to get , 



wealtli and for what ? To increase the enjoy- 



ments of life. A great many of the most substan- 

 tial of these enjoyments are within the reach of 

 most men — they lie at our door — in the gar- | 



o^y but we too oflen reject or overlook them, 



because tliey are not "dear bought" and "far, 

 fetched." 



Under our impression of the great advantages 

 which are to be derived from the garden, to the 

 body and mind — as a source of health, of pleasure 

 and of profit, we intend, now that our sheet is en- 

 larged, to devote more room for its improvement 

 We will shortly give a plan of a garden ; and in 

 tlie mean time, the scientific principles of garden- 

 ing, of Prof. Rennie, which we are publishing, will 



be found no less applicable to the farm than to the 

 garden. Postponing to a future occasion, our re- 

 marks upon the soil, and laying out of a garden, 

 we proceed to give some instruction for the man- 

 agement of gardens already located, more particu- 

 larly adapted to the present season, barely remark- 

 ing, tliat every man wlio would have a good gar- 

 den, must, like the late Rev. Dr Dwight, be at least 

 his own head-gardener — he must make himself so 

 far acquainted with the principles and manipula- 

 tions of the art, with the qualities of his soil, and 

 the wants of his table, as to be able to .superintend 



lUe WIIIUS Ol Ilia t-aui.., uo ..^^ "r , , 



anddirect his principal operations. He maj/ obtain ten do we hear peopl 



a good substitute, but he may be assured there are — '^l^-s crnrdens ab, 



more than two blanks to a prize. And the task of 



qualifying one's self for this duty, is conducive 



alike to bodily healtli and mental gratification. It 



may become a passion, increasing with experience 



and with age ; but it is a passion which bodes no 



ill to any one, but, which, on the contrary, is fraught 



with the best feelings of our nature. 



The preparatory business in the garden, in the 



spring, is to rake together the haulm of last year's 



crop, and to burn it, as well for cleaning the sur- 

 face, as to destroy the seeds of weeds with 



which the litter more or less abounds ; to put the 



fences in good order ; to take the manure to those 



parts where it is likely to be wanted ; to procure 



and sharpen, if leisure permits, poles for beans, and 

 sticks and brush for peas ; to prune the fruit trees, 

 if they must be pruned in the spring; to put the 

 garden implements in order, and to procure a supply 

 of good seeds. If a hot bed is to be employed, 

 and we strongly recommend one, it should be pre- 

 pared, if not already done, in the manner recom- 

 mended in pages six, both in our second and third 

 volumes. In these may be sown early and head 

 lettuces, peppergrass, radishes, peppers, tomatoes, 

 early cabbages, cellery, and seeds of many annual 

 flowers. If cucumbers are designed to be raised 

 under glass, they should have a separate frame, or 

 be but little encumbered with other plants. ^ 



The seeds which should be first sown in the 

 open ground, and the warmest border or part of the 

 garden should be appropriated to them, are early 

 peas, potatoes, turnip beet, spinach, sallads, radish- 

 es, early cabbage, celery, &c. The second course 



the ground should be well dug, or ploughed, to the 

 depth of eight or ten inches, to which depth the 

 roots of most plants run, and for the tap rooted 

 plants, as beets, carrots, and parsnips, it were bet- 

 ter to have the tilth twelve to fourteen inches. 

 The ground should be fresh turned or stirred when 

 the seeds are put in, and either trod, on the lines 

 where the seeds are to be deposited, before planting, 

 or pressed upon them after they are covered with 

 earth. Seeds should be planted no deeper than is 

 required to B|ep them moist. 



This is the season for transplanting. How of- 



regret, on seeing their 

 neighbor's gardens abound with choice fruit, that 

 they too had not planted in times past. Tlie sea- 

 son for transplanting fruit trees is unavoidably lim- 

 ited to the season of defoliation, when the growth 

 is dormant ; and the excuse of men generally is, 

 that they eitlier liad not time, or forgot, to put out 

 trees when alone the work could be done. This is 

 very much like the man who suffered his family to 

 be drenched by every rain, because he could not 

 patch his roof when it stormed, and because there 

 was no need of doing it when the weather was 

 fair. What short-sighted mortals, to undergo a 

 life of privation, of many of the richest gifts of 

 Providence, rather than incur the trifling outlay of 

 expense and labor — of a few cents and a few 

 hours — to secure those blessings for themselves 

 and families ? Mercenary considerations alone — 

 the ruling passion — should prompt to the planting 

 of fruit trees. 



But in our zeal to commend the practice of 

 planting, we must not forget to give some hints as 

 to the method of doing it. A tree is like a plant 

 of corn, or of any other fann crop; it will prosper 

 and repay for labor, according to the soil in which 

 it is placed, and the attention bestowed upon its 

 culture. The soil must be good, to aff"ord the ne- 

 cessary food for its sustenance and growth ; it must 

 be loose, that the roots may penetrate readily in 

 search of food ; it should be free from habitual 

 wetness, as an excess of water will injure, if not 

 destroy it. Like farm crops, too, it depends, for its 

 development, and the maturation of iti fruits, 

 upon the unobstructed agency of light and au-. 



Hence it should not be planted below its natural 

 es, early cabbage, celery, &c rne secona course j Henco ^t ^ou p ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ 



of sowing may embrace onions, beets, carrots, early , J^P^"^ J ^j'^ ^ ,^„^, ,,,,3 „,\,u g,,,,. Wa- 

 com and beans, sweet herbs and flower ^^^^f ~7;:^„3L,„ fay' .-hich food is^ransmitted 

 The third course will consist of the tenderer kinds, j J^ '^f^^" ^„ ^,,^ ^, ,„d j^ required, there- 

 as Lima and other beans, sweet corn cucumbers fro- he V J ,^^ ^^^ ^^.^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ 



melons, squashes, pumpkins &c. The plants of:fo>-e, o be j p ^^,^^ 



the garden possess different degrees of hardiness, I »™ ^ deep and broad, not as the roots require 

 and require diff-erent temperatures to bring them , '^Zull/.nieAM as they are likely to extend 



forward. Some ;""|f:— ^^^f J J^^^^ J„" ; 1 tie S season aft^r being traLplanted, and fill this 

 peraturcof 45= to .55 , and wil not suHer i^^m ^^.^^ ^.^|^ ^^^^^^^ 



slight frost ; while others will not grow unles he hole y P ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^^.^^^_^^^ ^,_^, ^,^ 



temperature IS higher, and are liable to be in ured ^ mo ^^^^^^^^ , ^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ . 



by the slightest frost, or by cold damp --^^^ he^ ook ^^^^ ^ 1^^^^^^^^ 



When corn put in the ground very early, shoots to ^r^J Jh y ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^.^^ 



the surface. It is deemed early enough to V^^^%l^ZZ to vre^■e^Lhe evaporation of moisture, 

 melons, cucumbers and other vines for a main crop 1 he-^,-"^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ,^^ by 



All roots, to be planted for seed as turnip, beet j jh-h J*^^^^ ^^^^^^ ,,,,, ,p„„ ,,3 ,„rf,ee about 

 carrot, parsnip, onion, tec , should be put ou as P « ^^ ^,^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^y 



early as the con ition of «- g-und -U adm t : he ^toc^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ 

 where the soil has been well prepared. They; ^^^^^^^ ^^ water, thrown in when the 



should be put at sufficient distance from each othe | , ^^.^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^.^^ ^^^ .^^j^ 



to permit their seed stocks to spread, and to enjoy | \° ^ ,f , ' ^„^ , , „ceded mois- 

 the full benefit of light and air. No two kinds , -^^"^trans, anting of evergreens should be 

 tlie same family of plants should be put ^nt for .^^^^- ^^^ ^^^^,^^^^^^ 



seedneareachother, not even the turnip and cab-: ae^y g M^y.- Many Cultivator 



bage, as the seed will thereby become adulterated. M'^""^^" '''^ '^'^ ot ii y :> 



J It is important in planting, for most crops, that /"'' -'/"■' • 



