THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
387. 
ISsupp in REGENT-STREET ON THE DAY OF EXHIBITION, 
21, Regent-street. 
a2lRegent-streete 5 basins weiss Weis iets 
T° LET, in Regent-street, Three Rooms on the Second 
Floor, unfurnished, with the use of a large Meeting Room. 
They are suited for the purposes of a Socrerv, and have forsome 
Years past been so occupied. Apply to the Porter, 21, Regent-st. 
The Gardeners’ Chrontele. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
5 London Floricultural, Surrey 
a 
Tuesday, June 13, Z 
nesday, June hi ae 
Wednesday, June 14, » Me oka + 8 PeMe 
Saturday, fune 17... Horticultural, (Chiswick Gardens). 
Linnean . + 
jeultural « . + 5 8 pm, 
5 + hm 
Bhr. M. 
Tuesday, June 20 
Microseopival 
‘Wedilendays dune su WRigrecionionl se. § 
Saturday, June 24 . » + Royal Botanic . . 
wiped 
Friday, 2 Liverpool 
Couxrry Snows, Friday, June 23, « cee iy oe 
Tuar salt is extremely beneficial to Ast i 
nearly over, the ground is stirred again to loosen the 
tramping made in gathering the crop. The hollow 
between the little ridges is then filled up with a pow- 
erful compost, consisting of equal portions of sandy 
soil, leaf-mould, and pigeons’-dung ; the whole is then 
drenched with liquid manure from the stables, cow- 
houses, or laundry, and the foreman of the kitchen- 
garden gets carte blanche to water the Asparagus 
any day through the growing season when he can best 
spare his men, or, at all events, every fortnight, and 
always with liquid manure, if possible; as to the 
quantity of water, the only instruction he gets is that 
he cannot drown them. ‘his is cultivating the Aspa- 
ragus in summer. The plan is not at all a new one. 
have seen it when a boy, 30 years ago, and I have 
never seen, heard, or read of a better plan since. In 
very dry seasons, like the last, itis of great advantage 
to mulch in between the rows with short grass, or 
any litter. Some have an idea that the frost should be 
kept from Asparagus, and go to some trouble to do 
so, but it is in reality as hardy as the Ouk, or any 
other of our native plants.” 
Wr have already expressed our decided opinion 
that the subdivision of farms into small occupations, 
although it may for a time give employment and 
i to agreater number of families, tends 
undoubted; that this plant will take a great deal of it, 
and be much the better for it, is equally certain. The 
same js true of Seakale. Both are shore plants, and 
are abundantly fed with salt at all seasons. How 
Much the largest quantity may be that they will 
endure is uncertain, but we have seen a pound of 
Nitrate of soda given to one Seakale-plant without the 
slightest injury, and it would no doubt have found no 
convenience from as much common salt ; never- 
theless, there are those who are unable to discover the 
Utility of salt asa manure for Asparagus. ‘The reason 
Of this is well pointed out by Mr. Beaton in a memo- 
tandum now before us. 
“Tt is)’ he says, “a general rule to cut off all weak 
Shoots while the Asparagus bedsare in bearing, or at least 
Up to the beginning of June. Under such treatment the 
Plants cannot be much benefited by whatever dressings 
the beds received through the last winter or spring, 
till after this time, because all plants—the Asparagus 
among the rest—can only collect and digest their food, 
and store away the product for the next growth, while 
they are ina growing state; and in all herbaceous 
Plants like the Asparagus this store is laid up in the 
ots. Now, whatever may have tended to improve 
Asparagus this season must have been stored before 
le end of last autumn ; and salt given to beds last 
March must go through a wonderful process, along 
With other agents, in the course of this summer before 
itcan be stored in the roots when the growing season 
’S over, or tell upon the crop next May. These are 
Simple facts, well known to the gardeners of the present 
day, but of which many of the last race of gardeners 
€htertained strange notions—judging from their mode 
of loading their Asparagus-beds in winter with dungs 
ie composts, a practice which is not yet got rid of, 
fe ‘which, compared with the improved system of 
eding plants in summer, while they are in active 
fee is a mere waste of time and materials ;—not 
alth Winter-dressing is lost on the plants altogether, 
hough the best part of it is, but that if the same 
th OUnt were given in summer in a liquid form, when 
Je plants could at once appropriate it, the benefit 
Thanniior, out of comparison in favour of summer 
i nuring, not only to Asparagus, but also to Seakale 
d Rhubarb.” ‘ 
m his is sound doctrine, and should never be heg- 
oursel, e havea good deal to say upon the subject 
beg One but for the present we can do no more than 
laid an Gardening friends to act upon the principles 
Mick; Own by Mr. Beaton, and not expect that a 
Ng of manure applied in winter is to produce 
a Instantaneous magical effect ; the processes of 
vias are slow, and cannot be hastened with 
com age. Plants are like animals—they do not 
but ¢ € fat the moment they swallow a good meal, 
the eff, Must haye a great many good meals before 
ct of their nutritious diet tells visibly upon them. 
Single 
butig 
if roo) 
Wii 
Oa: merely clearing off the stalks and weeds in 
dee, with pointing over the surface about 2 in, 
Ear an ae fork, and leaving it as rough as possible. 
Taked aeatch, when the surface is quite dry, it is 
Crowns neat and about 2 in. of soil drawn over the 
8tound som an side of the rows, which gives the 
€arthed uy; 3 ing of the appearance of a plot of Peas 
P for the first time ; when the gathering is 
in the end to impoverish a nation; and we would 
therefore not encourage to too great an extent the let- 
ting of small portions of land, together with a cottage 
and necessary outbuildings for the purpose of being 
cultivated entirely by manual labour, like the small 
farms in Flanders. No doubt it may be the means, 
in many instances, of raising poor, industrious men to 
a comparative state of comfort and independence ; and 
if every circumstance were not taken into considera- 
tion, this would offer a very simple means of dimi- 
nishing poverty and diffusing comfort through the 
class of Agricultural labourers, many of whom are 
distressed for want of employment. Nothing would 
be easier than to build cottages, with small barns and 
cow-stalls, to be let to industrious labourers, with four 
or five acres of land; and there is no doubt but the 
rent would pay a good interest for the outlay. The 
plan has been tried by the same lady who established 
the Willington self-supporting school, and a most 
interesting account has been published of a man, 
once a pauper, who, with a small advance of money 
to purchase a cow, and a few acres of land let to him 
at a full rent, has raised himself to a comparative 
independence. Such an example must have a most 
beneficial effect on all those who have the opportunity 
of following it, and, by stimulating industry, must 
reduce the number of those who are now dependent 
on private or public charity. 
There is a great difference between a general sub- 
division of large farms and the introduction of afew 
of all intermediate sizes. We are inclined to think 
that the most natural and beneficial division of land is 
that which includes farms of all dimensions, from 50 
to 1,000 acres. Less than 50 acres of arable land can- 
not well be profitably cultivated, according to the 
most improved system of husbandry, including the 
rearing and fatting of stock, and the raising of food 
for man. Great improvements cannot well be intro- 
duced where the capital is not large, and experiments 
cannot be made except where they form but a small 
proportion of the whole of the operations on a farm ; 
but small farms produce many articles of consump- 
tion, such as poultry and dairy produce, which are 
below the attention of the large farmer. In them are 
brought up honest and industrious bailiffs and confi- 
dential servants—a class ‘of men which is not nume- 
rous in our days, and which should be encouraged by 
every means in our power. In a small farm more 
attention is paid to details and economy, and a farmer 
who has successfully cultivated a farm of moderate 
dimensions and increased his capital may safely be 
promoted, as it were, to a larger. Be this as it may, 
the introduction of garden cultivation on a small scale 
may have its advantages, provided such occupations 
be Jet with caution and judgment, and the tenants be 
selected from the steadiest and most industrious 
labourers, as a reward for good conduct, and a solace 
in old age. The sight of a family consisting of a 
patriarchal father, who can no longer do much with his 
hands, but still directs his children by his experience, 
while in return they gratefully work for his support, 
is truly edifying ; and we would such pictures were as 
common in Britain as they are in some other coun- 
tries less rich and powerful, but-not less happy. 
It Was once proposed in Parliament (by the late Mr. 
Whitbread, we believe) to provide cottages and gar- 
dens, aS a reward in old age, for those who had never 
applied for parochial assistance, and who had brought 
up their families in industrious habits. As a public 
measure the thing was evidently impracticable, but 
the principle was good, and might be: acted on by 
individuals in their own small circle. A few small 
occupations of four or five acres in extent, on which a 
family might live comfortably, let to men of known 
character, with a small advance of money, if required, 
to be repaid by instalments, to purchase acow, pigs, 
ora few sheep, would not only be a provision for a 
family, but have a salutary moral effect on the whole 
populati We will end to develop this idea 
in a future article—MW. 
Amone the questions that naturally arise in the 
minds of the friends of the poor is, whether articles 
now rejected or neglected as food may not be suffi- 
ciently nutritious and palatable, to be suited for ordi- 
nary consumption. We know how largely 
prejudice is mixed up with our feelings on the subject 
of food, and that even the Potato was at one time 
proscribed by the Puritans; a Middlesex peasant 
would not dream of cooking Nettles,and yet in York- 
shire and Lancashire, they are, when young, a common, 
and as we can testify, 2 good ingredient of broths ; 
we also find that the French cottager will succeed 
in preparing good and whol food from sub 
which in this country are not thought of. Now, 
although we do not anticipate an English eottager’s 
taking to frogs and snails, and “such small deer” for 
the supply of his table, yet we see no reason why he 
should not imitate the people of the Continent in the 
consumption of certain kinds of vegetable food unem~- 
ployed among us. 
Of these it is the Kidney Bean which promises 
best. We use it only in the young and tender state. 
The French employ the ripe seed, and when properly 
dressed, an excellent and agreeable food it proves to be. 
If instead of cutting the young pods, and thus wasting 
the produce of such plants, they were allowed to ripen 
their Beans, a saving of some importance would be 
effected in the economy of a cottager. Wee are led to 
these remarks by a letter from our correspondent Mr. 
Billington, who mentions the following case :— 
“A very poor family in Shropshire being hardly 
pressed for food, the husband being unable to get 
employment, the wife bethought herself of some 
Kidney Beans she had by her, and put some in an 
earthen vessel containing a sufficient quantity of water, 
a few lumps of bacon, with a little seasoning of pepper 
and salt, and placed them in an oven to stew, two or 
three hours, till they became as tender as the best 
boiling Peas.” 
The peasants were agreeably surprised to find that 
the Beans, which they had fancied unfit even for the 
food of pigs, would thus furnish them with a nice 
mess; for they did not know that such seeds are 
served up at the tables of the wealthy in this country 
under the name of haricots, and are generally a 
favourite vegetable with continental nations. Hitherto 
it has been. the universal custom in this country to 
throw away the dried beans of the Scarlet Runner, if 
not wanted: for seed. We trust it will henceforth be 
remembered that excellent food may be had from one 
of those plants which nowis made to scramble over the 
hedges and walls of a cottage garden, chiefly for the 
sake of ornament. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that, although 
the Beans of the Scarlet Runner are good, the roots, 
which are fleshy and perennialjand look tempting 
enough to be eaten, are really poisonous, as was unfor- 
tunately proved last winter at Chelsea, 
While we are upon this subject we may as well add, 
that, according to Mr. Daniell, the preparer of the 
manure of that name, horses, cows, sheep, and pigs, 
may be advantageously kept in part upon pulverised 
wood. Ina pamphlet published a few months since* 
there is the following passage :—‘¢ About three years 
since I had occasion to send my cart-horses frequently 
through a piece of coppice-wood, and whenever it 
happened that they stopped within reach of the rods, 
they would greedily devour every bough they could 
come at. This I noticed many times. At last I was 
led to examine the rods on which I had seen them 
feeding, and found them completely stripped of their 
ranches, some of which were of a very considerable 
thickness, . This first led me to suppose that there 
must be some good qualities in the wood, and this 
consideration induced me to get some pulverized, and 
given to my ,cart-horses, which experiment was 
repeated at several different times, until J was fully 
satisfied that it had no injurious effect on them. After 
this I was led to give it to my gig-horses with their 
corn, and having ascertained that it did them no 
injury, I had machinery prepared for reducing the 
wood, for the purpose of food, and began to feed both 
cart and gig-horses, as also my cows and pigs, mixing 
a portion with all the food which was given them. This 
practice I have continued for the last ten months. 
Previously to feeding my horses in this way, they had 
each three-quarters of a peck of Oats and Beans given 
them per day, for which is now substituted ee 
pints of Barley per day. They are ime 
condition as when fed in the usual way, an 
playful and free in their work. Soon -aft 
was mixed with the fodder given to the ¢ 
milk, as well as their condition, was mu 
For several weeks past I have been feédiny 
4 Kinga 
onl 
* Address to the Agriculturists of the Uni 
Carrington, 
Vo 
