186 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



" The London market-gardeners sow- 

 principally the early stone or Dutch, it 

 being in great demand in spring. Various 

 ways of producing it are practised, such as 

 growing it in frames ; but the best plan is 

 to raise it, like potatoes, in hooped beds — 

 i. e., in trenches, dug out and filled with 2 

 feet of hot dung. Sow in February; hoop 

 and cover with straw, and expose the plants 

 daily ; the quality of the turnip depends 

 much upon quick growth and plenty of 

 moisture."— Cuthill. This practice, how- 

 ever suitable it may be to the climate of 

 London, would be found of little avail in 

 most parts of Scotland, where, to insure 

 success, glass coverings day and night 

 must be had recourse to. We may, at the 

 same time, take this opportunity of stat- 

 ing that, high as the system of culinary 

 cropping is, as carried on by the London 

 market-gardeners, all this hooping and 

 covering with straw, mats, &c, is neither 

 profitable, nor up to the present state of 

 horticultural science. Let them have pits 

 miles in length if they will, 6 feet in width, 

 supported on 10-inch piers, and sunk or 

 elevated, below or above the surface, ac- 

 cording to the dryness of the subsoil; and 

 these not less than 4 feet in depth, with side 

 walls of 1 0-inch brick- work, for durability 

 and exclusion of cold, and covered with 

 cheap glass. In spring, they could forward 

 in these turnips, radishes, asparagus, let- 

 tuce, small salading, early cauliflower, 

 early dwarf pease> French beans, &c; while 

 tomatos, which come in altogether to the 

 market, could be spread over three or four 

 months. In summer, cucumbers, melons, 

 &c. could be produced ; and in autumn, 

 late cauliflower, full-grown lettuce, endive, 

 &c. could be protected, thus producing 

 three crops per annum, and at (after the 

 first cost of erection, which would last ten 

 or fifteen years) little more expense of 

 working than the present antiquated pro- 

 cess, and certainty substituted for uncer- 

 tainty, and constant success for frequent 

 failures. It is quite notorious that a let- 

 tuce salad cannot be procured in Covent 

 Garden market, after October, equal to 

 what is quite common in the Paris market 

 all the winter ; and asparagus, before New 

 Year's Day quite a novelty in London, is 

 a common affair in Paris and Vienna by 

 the 1st of December. Stable-manure, or 

 heat produced by vegetable fermentation, 

 must for long yet be the heating medium 



employed by the London growers, on ac- 

 count of its cheapness and abundance, and 

 the comparative scarcity and expense of 

 fuel. The Glasgow and Edinburgh growers 

 are differently circumstanced, where a load 

 of stable-manure costs nearly as much as 

 a load of coal. Were the demand equal, 

 and could the same prices be obtained in 

 the latter case as in the former, no doubt 

 heating by combustion would be adopted 

 by the northern growers. In these days 

 of cheap timber and cheap glass, there is 

 no reason why Mr Solomon of Covent 

 Garden market should exhibit in Regent 

 Street asparagus purchased in Paris on the 

 1st of December, better than is shown in 

 Covent Garden market on the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary ; and far less reason is there why 

 we should be supplied with early potatoes 

 and pease from Spain, Portugal, Holland, 

 or even Cornwall, when these could be 

 produced by every grower round London 

 quite as early, of much better quality, 

 being fresh, and as cheap, were they only 

 to cast aside their dependence on the 

 identical means employed a century and 

 a half ago, which a reference to the writers 

 of that period will evidently show. In 

 open-air productions they surpass all Bri- 

 tain ; in the production of forced vegetables 

 and fruit they are immeasurably behind. 



To insure a speedy germination of the 

 seed, care must be taken that it is not 

 buried too deep : 1 inch may be taken as 

 the maximum depth in garden soils ; if 

 placed deeper, vegetation is considerably 

 retarded ; and indeed, if too deeply buried, 

 it may not vegetate at all, until brought 

 nearer the surface by some future opera- 

 tion of digging, &c. Turnip-seed, if new, 

 will germinate, and appear above the sur- 

 face, in ordinary soils and situations, in 

 the month of July, in about eight days ; 

 but older seed, which should assuredly be 

 employed, will take from ten to twelve 

 days ; much of this, however, depends on 

 the state of the weather. 



The Swedish and Teltow turnips, as we 

 have stated above, may be transplanted with 

 every success. In gardens where the eco- 

 nomy of ground is an object, it is well to 

 sow both kinds in beds by themselves, in 

 the broadcast manner, and, when the 

 leaves are about from 3 to 4 inches in 

 height, to transplant them to where they 

 are to remain. By adopting this method, 

 ground may be got cleared and prepared 



