FEB.] 



THE GARDENER. 



99 



rated and labelled. When you have arranged a sufS- 

 cient number, and rubbed off the buds, stick the thick- 

 est ends into moist clay, closely pressed round them, 

 and then put them thus clotted into a pot of earth, in 

 which they may remain under some shed until wanted. 

 At the close of this or the commencement of the next 

 month, time, which will be more precious then than 

 now, may be saved by this timely preparation of scions, 

 where much of this nursery work is to be performed, 

 and you will thus have the scions in the best order for 

 grafting, for this treatment will test their vigour : 

 those that shrink and become feeble, you will reject 

 out of the number prepared, which should considerably 

 exceed the number actually required. Provide stocks, 

 if you have not already done so, for grafting and bud- 

 ding during the ensuing season. 



In the Kitchen garden^ pursue the works of digging, 

 trenching, turning composts, Sec, in open weather; 

 and in allotting portions of ground for particular seeds 

 or plants, endeavour to change the crops as much as 

 possible, because, by the frequent recurrence of the 

 same in any given spot, they degenerate (generally 

 speaking), and by depriving the soil of peculiar ali- 

 mentary substances, or by making frequent deposits of 

 the same kind of excretion, they render that soil in- 

 disposed to their individual support,^ though fertile 

 for other families of plants. Another cause why the 

 culture of a particular tribe without variation should 

 be discontinued in the same ground is, the mechanical 

 effect which it may produce on its soil, by rendering 

 it, for instance, excessively friable, or the contrary. 

 No annual vegetables ought, prudently, to succeed 

 each other ; vary them therefore as much as you can* 



• Causing, of course, a necessity for more manure than would 

 be otherwise necessary : and this consideration alone is sufficient 

 lo render the gardener, who finds such unceasing want of it* 

 economical in its distribution. 



