THI KITOHEN-GAEDEN. 37 



ened back the spring after they have borne, in order to produce new 

 spurs at the same ])oint. 



PROFITS OP GARDENING.— Dr. Bigham, the late physician of the 

 Utica Insane Asyhim, gives the following, as the produce in a single 

 season of one and one fourth acre of land connected with that institu- 

 tion. The land was good and annually manured. The produce was as 

 follows: 1100 heads lettuce, large ; 1400 heads cabbage, large ; 700 

 bunches radishes ; 250 bunches asparagus; 300 bunches Aubarb ; 14, 

 bushels pods marrowfat pease ; 40 bushels beans ; sweet corn, 3 plant- 

 ings, 419 dozen; summer squash, 715 dozen; squash peppers, 45 

 dozen; cucumbers, 756 dozen; cucumber pickles, 7 barrels; beets, 147 

 bushels; carrots, 29 bushels; parsnips, 26 bushels; onions, 120 bushels; 

 turnips, 80 bushels; early potatoes, 35 bushels; tomatoes, 40 bushels; 

 winter squash, 7 wagon loads; celery, 500 heads — all worth 621 dollars 

 in TJtica market, but supplied one hundred and thirty persons with all 

 they could consume. Only one man was required to do all the neces- 

 sary labor. 



GARDEN IRRIGATION. — ^The extraordinary increase of produce which 

 may be obtained by the practice about to be explained here, ought to 

 excite many who have favorable opportunities for so doing, to prepare a 

 plot of ground on the same plan. 



The admirable economy of the Chinese in their management of 

 manure, and the nearly equal thriftiness of the Belgians in the same 

 respect, are much surpassed by the method which may be seen at 

 Caversham, in a small garden within a few yards of the lower Reading 

 railway station. 



Mr, Wilkins's Model Garden at CaTersliam,'Berks, England. — The system 

 has been pursued there by Mr. Wilkins during some years with perfect 

 success. The practice of giving manure to the roots of plants by pipes 

 under the surface, had been in some instances practiced by ingenious 

 gardeners, in the growing of celery more particularly, but the carrying 

 out of the principle in the general and complete manner shown at 

 Caversham, is considered by Mr. Wilkins to have been his own dis- 

 covery; and he has obtained a patent for it, 



Mr. Wilkins prepares the manure in a covered tank, similar to a tan- 

 ner's bark liquid-pit, of a size proportioned to the quantity required for 

 the garden. This tank has a false bottom, placed at from one to two feet 

 from the bottom of the tank, and pierced with numerous small holes. 



Into this tank are thrown solid manures, such as dung from stables 

 and cow-houses, pigstys, street-sweepings, and various animal and vege- 

 table refuse substances. It is then filled with water, which, in passing 

 through the manuring matter, becomes impregnated with its elements ; 

 it trickles through the perforated bottom, and thus strained, is pumped 

 up into a tank on a higher level, to give it a fall into a pipe which con- 

 veys it to the beds in which the crops to be irrigated by it are growing. 



The ground is laid out in beds three feet in width, and divided into 

 equal lengths by a walk, on one side of which the beds are watered on 

 Mr. Wilkins's principle, while on the other they are not. 



Thus crops under both modes of treatment may be compared. 



Description of the Mechanical Arrangements.— The beds, under this 



