HOW TO SECURE THREE SUCCESSIVE CROPS. 



13 



HOW AMATEURS MAY SECURE THREE SUCCESSIVE CROPS 

 OF VEGETABLES IN TWELVE MONTHS WITHOUT THE 

 AID OF GLASS HOUSES OR OF HEAT. 



By Arthur W. Sutton, J.P., F.L.S., V.M.H. 



[Read October 22, 1918 ; Lord Lambourne in the Chair.] 



In response to the invitation of the President and Council of the 

 R.H.S. I have endeavoured in the following paper to indicate not 

 merely the great benefit accruing from an additional crop of vegetables 

 within twelve months, but to explain the extremely simple methods 

 by which so desirable a result may be obtained. 



It might be thought strange for the Council to invite one who 

 is not a professional gardener, and one who, moreover, can make no 

 claim to be even an amateur gardener, to deal with a subject which 

 so directly concerns the cultivation of vegetables, but as mentioned 

 in the admirable pamphlet issued by the Society in 1916, entitled 

 " Autumn Vegetables," my firm made exhibits in the autumn of 

 both 1914 and 1915, which were considered of considerable educational 

 value, demonstrating the practical results which had followed the 

 adoption of the advice given by Dr. Keeble and the Secretary in 

 their letter to the Press at the first outbreak of the war — and some 

 account of the methods of cultivation which led to these interesting 

 exhibits may perhaps encourage others to adopt a similar - course, 

 and thus add greatly to the National Food Supply. 



That the raising of a third crop of vegetables in one year has not 

 become a general practice is unfortunately too true, and one may 

 naturally be met with the criticism that had there been a reasonable 

 prospect of success the methods advocated would have become the 

 general rule rather than the exception. But gardeners, whether pro- 

 fessional or amateur, are naturally disposed to follow the practice 

 in regard to cropping that has been adopted for generations past, 

 subject of course to such modifications as soil, climate, and locality 

 may suggest, and hesitate to embark upon any new methods of 

 which they have hitherto seen few, if any, examples in their own 

 neighbourhood. 



Besides this the results which have been obtained, and obtained 

 so easily, by the course recommended, when brought together in the 

 exhibits above referred to, have been so remarkable that doubt has 

 even been expressed as to the correctness of the statements made 

 in regard to the time of sowing, &c, and the opinion stated that the 

 vegetables shown could not have been produced within so short a 

 period. 



