TIIE KirCHEN- GARDEN. 15 



grovyth, and even the life of the plant, depend on great care as to this 

 particular. 



Cultivation. — The ground being good, and the sowing or planting 

 having been properly performed, the next thing is the after-manage- 

 ment, which is usually called the cultivation. 



If the subject be from seed, the first thing is, to see that'the plants 

 stand at a proper distance from each other ; because, if left too close, they 

 cannot come to good. Let them also be thinned early ; for, even while 

 in seed-leaf, they injure each other. Carrots, parsnips, lettuces, every 

 thing, ought to be thinned in the seed-leaf. 



Hoe or weed immediately ; and, let me observe here, once for all, that 

 weeds never ought to be suffered to get to any size either in field or 

 garden, and especially in the latter. In England, where it rains or drips 

 sometimes for a month together, it is impossible to prevent weeds from 

 growing. But in this fine climate, under this blessed sun, who never 

 absents himself for more than about forty-eight hours at a time, and 

 who will scorch a dock-root or a dandelion-root to death in a day, and 

 lengthen a water-melon shoot twenty-four inches in as many hours ; in 

 this climate, scandalous indeed it is to see the garden or the field in- 

 fested with weeds. 



But beside the act of killing weeds, cultivation means moving the 

 earth between the plants while growing. This assists them in their 

 growth. Mere surface-hoeing only keeps down the weeds. The hoeing 

 when the plants have become large should be deep. If any body will 

 have a piece of cabbages, and will dig between the rows of one half of 

 them twice during their growth, and let the other half of the piece have 

 nothing but a flat-hoeing, that person will find that the half which has 

 been digged between, will, when the crop is ripe, weigh nearly, if not 

 quite, twice as much as the other half. But why need this be said in an 

 Indian-corn country, where it is so well known, that without being plow- 

 ed between, the corn will produce next to nothing. 



Garden Rotation. — The same species of plants should never be grown 

 in successive crops upon the same ground. The most beneficial plan is 

 where exhausting and non-exhausting crops alternate with each other, 

 as after manure, viz. : 



Onions, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, manure ; or, 



Turnips, celery, peas, potatoes, manure. 



The following is also a very go;od rotation : 



1. The cabbage tribe to be followed by 



2. Aliaceous plants, as onions, leeks, etc., to be followed by legumes, 

 as beans or peas. Peas may be followed the same year with celery. 



3. Tap-rooted plants, as carrots, beets, parsnips. 



4. Surface-roots, as onions, potatoes, turnips. 



5. Celery, endive," lettuce, spinach, etc. 



Celery is excellent to precede asparagus, onions, cauliflowers, or tur- 

 nips ; old asparagus-beds for carrots, potatoes, etc. ; strawberries and 

 raspberries for the cabbage tribe ; cabbage for the tap-rooted plants ; 

 potatoes for the cabbage tribe. 



In these rotations it is not necessary to apply manure to every crop. 

 For the bulbous roots, as the onion, plants cultivated for their leaves, as 



