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CULINARY GARDENING. 



BOOK I. 



between the objects in view. All the operations of this mode of 

 cultivating the earth being manual, on a limited scale, and more 

 interesting to individuals, it is thence calculated to effect the 

 highest degree of vegetable produce from a given surface. Cu- 

 linary productions being more or less requisite for every state 

 of society, as well as for every family, are peculiarly so for the 

 wealthy and independent; and thus, in ages of general igno- 

 rance and barbarism, gardening might exist in considerable 

 perfection from the encouragement given to it by the chiefs or 

 nobles. Hence it has been generally better understood than 

 agriculture, and hence also agriculture has derived many of its 

 greatest improvements from gardening. The theory of garden- 

 ing, like every other branch of husbandry, is derived from the 

 study of nature; either simply, as from the observation of the 

 three kingdoms ; or abstractedly, from chemical or mechanical 

 experiments. Having made some remarks on these subjects in 

 the general introduction to husbandry, I shall, without farther 

 preamble, proceed to glance over some of the principal topics 

 in this branch of it:— without a full and practical knowledge 

 of which, I am well convinced, it is impossible for a de- 

 signer to understand the art of laying out a kitchen garden *. 



f It may be observed here, that from the short remarks offered in this division of 

 the work, the practical and scientific reader will discern much better whether 

 the author understands husbandry, than if he had made a more copious treatise 

 on the subject. Here his business is to seize on the prominent features, and such 

 as chiefly refer to the design of a garden or farm. This is both easily done and 



