PART V. CULINARY GARDENING. 261 



low each other, they never fail to degenerate both in quantity 

 and quality. 



The destruction of weeds is performed upon the same 

 principles as in agriculture; the only difference is in the appli- 

 cation of labour, which here is always manual, and is either by 

 the spade, hoe, rake, weeding-iron, or by the hand. But in 

 gardening, if attention be paid to the fermenting of putrescent 

 manure, and spreading and exposing other composts before they 

 are used, and never letting any weeds perfect their seeds, there 

 will be comparatively little occasion for the operation. These 

 things, however, and particularly the preventing of weeds from 

 flowering, are too little attended to by most gardeners. It is 

 true that, after all, the birds and the wind will continue to dis- 

 tribute these enemies to cultivation; but their effects are as 

 nothing when compared with those of ill-fermented stable ma- 

 nure, and the seeds of such weeds as are produced in the 

 garden. 



The destruction of vermin is an important branch 

 of cultivation, that in gardening, as in agriculture, is not well 

 understood. Some are, after all that has been tried, best de- 

 stroyed by gathering with the hand as soon as they begin to 

 appear, as the caterpillar tribe ; others by plentiful steaming, 

 dew, or watering, as the aphis; others by tobacco smoke, as 



