Mar.] 



THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



115 



deep, and if they partly exhaust the surface of one year, the 

 operation of digging deep brings up an entirely new surface for 

 the crops of the next. Take advantage of a fine day, when 

 the ground is diy, to point over or slightly dig the surface, 

 and in doing so, break the clods well with the spade, or rake 

 the surface with a large rake, as the operation of digging pro- 

 ceeds. Drill the ground an inch deep, and sow the seeds rea- 

 sonably thin ; but in this particular, be guided by the quality of 

 the seed, which can be ascertained by sowing one hundred, or 

 fifty, or twenty seeds in a pot or pan, which may be placed in 

 any of the forcing departments to vegetate quickly. Count 

 the number of plants which come up ; by this means, the qua- 

 lity of the seed can be correctly ascertained, and then sow 

 thickly or thinly, according to the result of the experiment 

 The drill system is to be preferred. 



One of the most intelligent writers, as a practical gardener, 

 in the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, adopts 

 the following method of preparing the ground for his onion 

 crops in light soils, and which has been attended with great 

 success, both as to the production of good crops and as a pre- 

 ventive for the maggot, which in old garden ground, if light, 

 is found to be very injurious to these crops : " In the end of 

 October," he says, " I dug over the ground, leaving as much 

 surface exposed as possible, by what is called winter digging. 

 It lay in that state till the end of December, by which time it 

 generally happened to be exposed to a severe frost. On a 

 frosty day, about the beginning of January, I wheeled on a 

 top dressing of cow's dung, and spread it all over the surface. 

 I let this lie to have its juices washed into the soil before the 

 time of sowing, at which time I raked oiT all the dung that 

 would come with the rake, which operation smoothed the sur- 

 face of the ground. Then, without digging, I lined off the 

 alleys, sowed the seeds, trod them in, covered them with earth 

 from the alleys, and raked the beds. From this mode of 

 treatment I always had excellent crops of onions. This method 

 gives a sort of consistence to old soft soils, such as are often 

 to be met with in old gardens on gTavelly or sandy bottoms ; 

 and th3 onions generally form their bulbs upon the surface, 

 which I take to be their natural position, and wlicre they are 



