On Cottage Gardening. 



329 



ground, yields a bulky return, which when stored in dry earth 

 or sand remains long useful. The drills may be 14 inches apart, 

 the seed sown thinly on shallow furrows opened by line with the 

 corner of a turnip-hoe and lightly covered with the same. When 

 the seedlings have risen 2 inches high, they should be thinned to 

 5-inch distances, and the ground always kept well hoed between 

 the rows to kill weeds and benefit the plants. The seed is very 

 light and cheap, 1 ounce being as much as a cottager will require. 

 There are two sorts ; the common long one suitable for deep 

 soils, and the short hollow- crowned sort, which is of superior 

 quality, and best fitted for shallow soils. Parsnips may be sown 

 either in March or April, and they will be fit to take up in 

 October. When dry and freed from earth and remains of the 

 leaves, they may be stored among dry earth in any corner of a 

 shed or other place safe from air and damp. 



Of the Carrot. — This well-known vegetable is in every respect^ 

 except in qualities, very much like the parsnip, requiring the same 

 treatment as to sowing in drills, thinning, hoeing among during 

 the summer, and taking up and storing in October or November. 

 In thinning the seedlings, they should be left 2 inches apart, and 

 when they have gained a useful size, every other one may be 

 drawn for the pot, leaving the main crop at 4 or 5 inches asunder. 

 There are several sorts of carrots, but the orange and Altringham 

 are the best for the cottager. A clayey soil is unsuitable for 

 carrots ; but we have known ingenious labourers, whose gardens 

 were a stiff clay, grow very fine carrots notwithstanding. Their 

 method was this : the ground was prepared by deep digging, and 

 at seed-time ranks of deep holes were made by line along the bed 

 with a crutch-headed, taper-pointed dibber ; the holes were filled 

 with rich, mellow^ compost, and on the surface of each 2 or 3 

 single seeds were dropped and slightly covered with a little more 

 of the compost. When the seedlings appear, one only (the 

 strongest) is left, which grows rapidly, and gains a perfect natural 

 form and good size. 



The ground intended for carrots had better be sown at twice, 

 one half in jVIarch and the other half in April, because it is found 

 that if the worm (a pest we know not how^ to banish) attacks the 

 crop, the earliest sown suffer most. Carrots may be sown at 

 other times than in spring, but these sowings are never a profitable 

 crop. The seed requires to be well rubbed between the hands 

 over a cloth before it is sown, otherwise it cannot be distributed 

 equally, the seeds being apt to cling together if not well rubbed. 



Of the Onion. — This is one of the most useful of all vegetables 

 to a cottager ; it gives an agreeable relish to almost everything 

 else, and therefore requires the especial attention of the labourer. 

 The ground should be well prepared by manuring (if possible) 



