14 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have thought it well to make these introductory remarks, and 

 need perhaps only add that no gardener, professional or amateur, 

 can have opportunities at all equal to those at the disposal of a large 

 seed house for experimenting on an extensive scale or for studying the 

 habits of the newer varieties of vegetables and their readiness to 

 respond to exceptional treatment. An ordinary kitchen garden 

 may be half an acre, or one or more acres in extent, a great portion 

 being occupied with more or less permanent beds such as asparagus, 

 bush fruits, and strawberries, as well as fruit trees. A seedsman's 

 trial grounds may, on the other hand, extend up to fifty or one hundred 

 acres, where every kind and variety of vegetables and flowers are 

 tested every year for their relative usefulness, and as the crops are 

 not cleared as soon as ready for consumption, endless experiments 

 can be conducted in order to obtain increased knowledge as to the 

 economic value of the plants under examination. Seeds often arrive 

 from growers in foreign countries when the usual season for sowing 

 is past, but they are sown on the chance that some interesting result 

 may follow — and in this way it often happens that fresh knowledge 

 is gained both as to the suitability of certain plants for sowing 

 at other than the generally accepted time of year and as to their 

 usefulness for cultivation in English gardens. 



I may tell you that the date of every sowing in our experimental 

 grounds is entered up in the trial books at the time of sowing, and 

 can be referred to by visitors interested in any particular subject. 

 Some idea of the possibilities for useful study may be gathered from 

 the fact that in one season we have made sowings of 1,158 trials of 

 Peas, 1,351 trials of Brassicas, such as Cauliflowers, Cabbage, Broccoli, 

 Savoy, &c, 350 of Lettuce and Endive, 360 of Onions, and when I 

 mention that some varieties of the same kind of vegetable come to 

 maturity in less than half — sometimes in one-third — the time which 

 others take, it will be evident that great possibilities exist for varying 

 the usual routine of vegetable cultivation. 



I have referred in the heading of this paper to a third crop of 

 vegetables in one year, to make it quite clear that the course I am 

 recommending will provide a crop which is entirely additional to the 

 one or two crops usually grown. 



Starting the year with January, in the early months we are 

 utilizing first of all the later crops grown from the sowings made the 

 previous spring — such as Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, Kales, Broccolis, 

 &c. — and these are followed by crops grown from what have usually 

 been called " autumn sowings," such as July and August sown 

 Cabbages, transplanted in October and November, and coming into 

 use from March to May or June according to locality and the varieties 

 sown. Also July and August sown Lettuces, Winter Spinach, either 

 the common prickly spinach or the much more useful Spinach-beet, 

 sometimes called ' Perpetual Spinach,' a beet which produces an end- 

 less quantity of green foliage but with a fibrous root. The hardier 

 varieties of Broccolis come into use from Christmas to May, and possibly 



