86 



GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



to accepted laws, and to explain why only a poor sort of 

 manager could make so absurd a mistake as to keep planting 

 cauliflower after cabbage, or cabbage after lettuce ; for any 

 thinking person can see at half a glance that rotation is not 

 only the best policy, but the only policy. 



Still another advantage of living near a truck farm is that 

 one can watch the working out of clever devices in planting, 



by no means all of which 

 are described in books. 

 A neat scheme, for ex- 

 ample, is to put into one 

 furrow at the same sow- 

 ing two kinds of seeds, 

 one quick and the other 

 slow growing. Radishes 

 and parsnips, or radishes 

 and carrots, according to 

 this plan, start life as boon 

 companions. While the 

 parsnips are slowly creep- 

 ing up, the three-weeks- 

 old radishes are ready to 

 eat. Again, between rows 

 of onion seeds one may 

 put early relishes, like let- 

 tuce, radishes, and spin- 

 ach, all of which will have appeared at dinner before the 

 onions need space. After the onions are well along, turnips 

 can be sown midway between the rows. Such a combination 

 is spoken of as double or companion cropping. 



Certain seeds are planted for the express purpose of help- 

 ing others along. If, for instance, the two are sown together, 

 the radish will hurry forward the carrot seeds. This is because 



ROTATION PAYS 



