THE 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEES. 



§ 1. — SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 

 CULINARY VEGETABLES. 



The culinary or kitchen garden, {jardin 

 potager of the French,) with all its varied 

 productions, if not the most ornamental, 

 will be admitted to be the most useful of 

 all the departments of gardening. Many 

 of the crops cultivated in those of the 

 present day were raised, and we have no 

 great right to suppose otherwise than 

 that they were so to a very creditable 

 extent, although upon much less scienti- 

 fic principles, soon after the Deluge, if 

 not prior to that epoch. They are early 

 mentioned in the histories of the nations 

 of the greatest antiquity. The onion, the 

 leek, the cucumber, and the garlic, were 

 in extensive cultivation in Egypt long 

 before the exodus of the children of Israel ; 

 and herbs for seasoning cooked dishes 

 were also well known at an equally early 

 period. Of the means employed in their 

 production we have no records left earlier 

 than the date of the foundation of Eome. 

 Soon after that period we find the envi- 

 rons of that city in a state of cultivation 

 much like what exists around large towns 

 and cities of our own time — namely, as 

 market-gardens, in which were cultivated 

 many of the culinary vegetables such gar- 

 dens at present produce. One important 

 difference, however, may be remarked — 

 the culinary gardens around ancient Eome 

 were cultivated by the chief men, who 

 were also the proprietors, and they them- 

 selves, wrought the ground with their 



own hands; and hence several of the 

 most celebrated families — the Pisones, the 

 Cicerones, the Fabii, the Lentuh, &c. — 

 derived their patronymics from ancestors 

 who had distinguished themselves in the 

 cultivation of culinary vegetables. Thus, 

 Pisum, a Pea ; Cicer, a Chick-pea ; Faha, a 

 Bean ; Lentulus, a Lentil, (fee. 



Nor did some of their greatest histo- 

 rians consider it beneath their literary 

 dignity to record many interesting hints 

 regarding the modes of culture employed. 

 Cato, Varro, Columella, Palladius, Pliny, 

 Virgil, Martial, ifec, have left us quite 

 enough, in those portions of their writings 

 which have been handed down to us, to 

 satisfy us that the culture of culinary 

 vegetables was well understood and fully 

 appreciated in their days. The former 

 of these has left us in detail the Eoman 

 mode of cultivating asparagus, which was 

 the last vegetable written upon by him, 

 and may serve as a pretty good example 

 of ancient Eoman gardening. " You 

 must work a spot that is moist, or which 

 has richness and depth of soil. Make the 

 beds so that you may be able to clean 

 and weed them on each sidej let there be 

 a distance of half a foot between the 

 plants. Set in the seed, two or three in a 

 place, in a straight line, cover with mould, 

 then scatter some compost over the beds. 

 At the vernal equinox, when the plants 

 come up, weed often, and take care that 

 the asparagus is not plucked up with the 

 weeds. The year you plant them, cover 

 them with straw during the winter, that 



