284 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



vegetables; observing, however, that only the 

 earlier sowings of these several crops should be 

 made on these ridges, that they may be removed 

 in due course before the ground is required for 

 earthing up the principal crop. As a matter of 

 course, this arrangement must not interfere with 

 the very earliest crops of pease, &c, which are 

 generally allowed a place on the side borders 

 near the walls. For the latest crops of pease, 

 &c., a portion of ground must be allotted which, 

 with that occupied by the celery and cardoon 

 ridges, will generally amount to about one-third 

 of the ground occupied with annual vegetables. 

 The extensive turning over which the celery and 

 cardoon soil undergoes, acts admirably in pre- 

 paring the ground for deep-rooting plants, such 

 as turnips, carrots, onions, &c, and in the fol- 

 lowing year may be devoted to the cultivation 

 of the cabbage family, whose roots are confined 

 more nearly to the surface. If the vegetable 

 garden is so large as to allow of the cultivation 

 of a portion of the general potato-crop within 

 the walls, it will form a fourth course in the 

 rotation, and will come in after the Brassica 

 tribe. Working upon this system, cabbages have 

 been planted during the autumn on ground 

 which had been occupied by late summer tur- 

 nips ; and the ground which now requires trench- 

 ing is that from whence the later turnips, onions, 

 carrots, beet, &c, have been removed, and which 

 will next spring be planted with cauliflower, 

 broccoli, &c. Preparation for these should be 

 made by trenching in a very heavy dressing of 

 manure, which shall serve for that and the suc- 

 ceeding crop." To effect this with certainty 

 and satisfaction, a plan of the ground should be 

 made, and the system accurately marked upon 

 it; indeed, without such a plan nothing like 

 correctness of system can be carried out. Such 

 is the preparation of the ground for future crops, 

 as practised in private gardens. The routine of 

 culture and preparing the ground in a market- 

 garden is widely different. " If we take a five- 

 acre piece of ground," says Mr Cuthill, in " Market- 

 Gardening around London," — Ct say in November, 

 we find it full of cabbages, which, being planted 

 out about the 25th of October, will be strong 

 healthy plants. The moment these are off, the 

 land is again trenched and cropped with early 

 celery, in well-dunged trenches 6 feet apart, 

 with two or three rows of lettuce or coleworts be- 

 tween them ; for market-gardeners do not mould 

 up their celery unless it is very large (often 18 

 inches high), so there is plenty of time for a 

 crop of coleworts or lettuces to come to matu- 

 rity. In November, Mr Fitch of Fulham (a very 

 successful grower in a garden of 150 acres) has 

 often upwards of 20 acres of cabbages, every 

 hole and corner, under trees, and all spare places, 

 being full. In March it is again dunged and 

 trenched, and sown with onions ; and very often 

 lettuces are planted in the beds, as well as in the 

 alleys. "When the onions are off, the ground is 

 trenched and planted with cabbages and cole- 

 worts, &c. Next spring a crop of cauliflower, 

 gherkin cucumbers, French beans, or scarlet 

 runners is taken off ; but the grand point in the 

 course of rotation is to be continually sowing, 

 and, whatever plants are ready when the ground 



is empty, to plant these. The land can well sus- 

 tain so much cropping on account of the heavy 

 dungings, trenchings, and hoeings which it re- 

 ceives. If you ask a market-gardener what is 

 to succeed this or that crop, the answer is, 

 ' Don't know ; it depends on what is ready for 

 planting.' Continued trenching, two spades 

 deep, for any crop, seems expensive; but a 

 strong Irish labourer will turn over from 12 to 

 I 4 rods a-day with comparative ease. Market- 

 gardeners know that, after an active crop, the 

 top soil for several inches deep is entirely 

 exhausted, and hence the reason for continual 

 trenching, in order to bring up the top soil 

 that but a few months before had been turned 

 down, with a large proportion of dung to enrich 

 it and fit it for active use, along with the half- 

 decayed manure." Here we have two excellent 

 modes of preparing the ground, but the order 

 of rotation is different. The private gardener 

 has to calculate almost to a day when this or 

 that crop is required to come into use, and must 

 be guided accordingly. The market-gardener is 

 not so tied down ; his only care is to see that 

 not a bit of his ground remains empty for a day: 

 he crops it with something, well knowing that 

 the day the crop is fit for use he has a demand 

 for it in the market. By preparing the ground 

 in either way, the maximum of produce may be 

 expected. 



§ 4. — WATERING. 



Watering is an important operation in garden- 

 ing, and often very inefficiently performed. 

 Were it always as convenient as it is practicable, 

 we would say that water should not be applied 

 to any plant at a lower temperature than that 

 of the earth that surrounds the roots, because 

 in such cases the roots sustain a sudden chill, 

 and the soil is reduced in temperature to the 

 extent often of suspending growth until it has 

 again become restored to its former heat. This 

 is the case more especially in spring, when the 

 first energies of the plant are being called into 

 action, and when it requires most the aid of 

 heat to increase its excitability. Cold water 

 poured on the roots of plants, even during 

 summer, has a most paralysing effect for the 

 time, but this is of shorter duration, as the in- 

 creased heat in the soil counteracts the effects. 

 In autumn it is equally injurious as in spring, 

 because it lowers the temperature at a season 

 when every particle of heat should be allowed 

 to accumulate to maintain the roots in a proper 

 condition during the winter. The application 

 of cold water to plants growing in a high arti- 

 ficial atmosphere is equally injurious ; but no 

 excuse can be made why it should not be applied 

 at even several degrees of temperature above 

 that of the atmosphere of the house, and water 

 applied to the foliage under such circumstances 

 should be equal at least to the air in the house. 

 Wall trees suffer much from want of watering 

 over their branches and leaves, and it is pro- 

 bable that one-half at least of all the disasters 

 they suffer arise from a total neglect of this. 

 Evaporation or perspiration must go on more 



