14 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



the family, and their partiality for its different products. 

 A small garden with a suitable rotation of crops, and well 

 manured and cultivated, will yield more pleasure and 

 profit than an ordinary one of three times its size. An 

 active industrious hand can take care of an acre, well pro- 

 vided with hot-beds, cold frames, &c., keeping it in perfect 

 neatness and condition ; or if the plough and cultivator be 

 brought into requisition, as they should be in large gar- 

 dens, four times that amount can be under his care. 



If but little room can be allowed near the house, cab- 

 bages, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and the ci)mmon crops 

 can be grown in the field, if well enriched and cul- 

 tivated solely with the plough. The fruit garden should 

 be in a separate compartment, as the shade of the trees is 

 very injurious, and the exhaustion of the soil by their 

 roots still more so. Dwarf pears upon the quince stock 

 are the least injurious, and may be admitted into the 

 vegetable department. 



Form. — The form will often depend upon the situation 

 of the garden or inclination of the ground. When a 

 matter of choice, a square or parallelogram is most con- 

 venient for laying out the walks and^ beds. A parallelo 

 gram extending from east to west gives a long south wall 

 for shading plants in summer, and a long sheltered border 

 for forwarding early crops. In plantation gardening an 

 oblong shape has the further advantage of giving longer 

 rows for the plough. 



Laying out. — Inlaying out, a broad walk wide enough 

 to admit a cart for manuring the plants, should run through 

 the centre from end to end, until you nearly reach the 

 border. Here may be a turning-place around an arbor or 

 tool-house. A border, eight to twelve feet wide, should 



