64 Design for a Garderw-'s House, 



the ground is cropped thickly, and seldom has a third part 

 vacant during the winter months. It is managed in this way : — 

 All the refuse of the garden, such as cabbage leaves and stalks, 

 bean and pea stalks, weeds (which are removed from the ground 

 before they seed), leaves, rubbish, and flower stalks from the 

 flower beds, mowings of grass plots, &c. &c., is carefully col- 

 lected in a heap ; and to this are added the soot from the 

 chimneys, lime rubbish should there be any, the contents of a 

 drain from the kitchen sink, and the scrapings of about 200 

 yards of a frequented road. Upon this heap the chamber slop 

 pail is emptied daily ; and the whole is repeatedly mixed and 

 turned over till it is thereby decomposed ; and it is then fit for 

 use. The garden I allude to has a good dressing of this com- 

 post once in the year ; some parts of it twice a year. The 

 ground is dug deeply, and the few vacant spaces are thrown up 

 into ridges during the winter. The result is an abundant crop 

 of everything. The vegetables are of a good size, and generally 

 free from canker, and as well, or, perhaps, better, flavoured than 

 those produced in gardens which are constantly dressed over 

 with stable manure. It may probably be imagined that this 

 sort of compost will increase the crop of weeds ; but this is not 

 found to be the case, as the weeds are generally hoed up before 

 the seed is formed. The mixture of flower stalks in the manure 

 causes a few flowers to grow among the crops as weeds ; but 

 most of the flower seeds perish during the process of decora- 

 position. Now, why should not every cottager thus make his 

 garden produce its own manure? I can speak confidently of 

 the success of the plan, having observed it, in the case alluded 

 to, for the last five years ; and I strongly recommend it to the 

 attention of those who have the management of cottage allot- 

 ments. Were this plan adopted for the garden, all the straw- 

 dung produced in the pigsty might be laid upon the allotment, 

 and there would probably be sufficient to give the whole a 

 tolerable dressing every alternate year. The land would thus 

 be kept in a productive state, and abundant crops would remu- 

 nerate the labour of the industrious occupier. I, of course, sup- 

 pose the cottager to be never without a pig ; that he does not 

 sow the same sort of crop on the same plot two years following ; 

 and that his ground annually produces some kind of grain, 

 besides a crop of potatoes. 

 Wiltshire, Nov. 1834, 



Art. III. Design for a Gardeners House, adapted for the South- 

 West Wall of a Kitchen- Garden. By Mr. Robertson. 



The materials for executing j%. 12., as observed with refer- 

 ence to preceding designs, may be either stone or brick. The 



