THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



61 



to their regret, for a plant is often found in abundance for 

 years, in one field or wood, and in course of time wholly dis- 

 appears. 



A change of crops is founded on an acknowledged fact, that 

 each sort of plant draws a nourishment peculiar to itself. On 

 this principle, after a piece of ground has nourished one crop, 

 another of a different description may succeed. Nothing can 

 relieve the soil more than a rotation of crops judiciously ar- 

 ranged, according to which plants of different habits and con- 

 stitutions succeed each other. To reduce this to practice, we 

 will suppose a quarter of sea-kale or asparagus, the roots of 

 which are large, and have penetrated to a considerable depth, 

 and which have remained in the ground for several years ; and 

 further, that they have exhausted the soil, in which they grew, 

 of those parts which constituted their principal food, and in 

 consequence, that they have ceased to thrive; then instead 

 of re-planting the same piece of ground with young plants of the 

 same kinds, let them be entirely cleared away, and the ground 

 dug, and cropped with peas, beans, or any of the leguminous 

 kinds, whose roots do not penetrate to any great depth, and 

 they will derive sufficient nourishment, either different to the 

 former kind, or such as the root of the preceding crop was too 

 deep to absorb. In like manner, let the new crop of sea-kale, 

 or asparagus, succeed some crop of a light description, such 

 as any of the common annual culinary vegetables. It is a rule, 

 from which only extraordinary circumstances can warrant a 

 departure, never to plant a new set of perennial stock on 

 the ground from which has just been removed a plantation of 

 the same or a similar species, which has worn itself out. On 

 the conti'ary, crops which strike deep should be succeeded by 

 such as pierce but a little way into the ground; and crops 

 which have occupied the ground for any length of time should 

 be succeeded by such as are either biennial, or indeed annual. 



From the general richness of garden-ground, and much ma- 

 nure being constantly employed in the raising of garden-crops, 

 much less attention has perhaps been paid to the courses of 

 cropping in the garden, than in the field. It is, however, 

 equally necessary in one case as in the other, and the same 

 principles are applicable to both. 



