APRIL. 



53 



to assert that form is as much, entitled to regard as colour. Vegetables may not possess the 

 one, but they do possess the other, if well grown, to an extent that entitles them to a place 

 in the exhibition. Their appearance may not be so striking to the mass of visitors ; but, as 

 examples of the really useful part of garden produce, it is time a turn was taken in their 

 favour. 



To effect this there are certain points which ought to be taken cognisance of; and 

 certainly the mode in which vegetables are packed for exhibition is no indication of the good 

 taste of the exhibitors, nor are the baskets in which they are exhibited, either in form or 

 material, perfect specimens of artistic design or skilful manufacture, neither are the vegetables 

 packed in them in the most scientific manner. These are joints which might be easily 

 remedied by offering prizes for not only the best packages, but those packed in the best 

 manner and those in the best form of case or basket, and those stipulated to bo of a suitable 

 material ; and then, again, something ought to be said about the arrangement in packing 

 them 1 — bedding them neatly in moss or other material, giving each lot a suitable space, and 

 grouping them in some natural order, as edible-rooted vegetables by themselves, leguminous 

 crops in another group, cruciferous in another, and so on. These are merely suggestions 

 that those who know more about exhibiting than myself will know how to deal with. My 

 present purpose is more to advocate the growing than the showing of vegetables, feeling 

 assured as I do that there is abundant room for improvement in the kitchen garden, and that 

 some reform is wanted there, in order to keep pace with the times, and not let the more 

 showy department of gardening absorb all public and nearly all private attention. 



My own practice has been very much on the north side of London, in gardens of two 

 or tbree acres in extent, all of which have a part appropriated as a kitchen garden, and I 

 must say that the system generally pursued does no great credit cither to the gardeners, the 

 masters, or the age. The same routine followed now as was followed fifty years ago. 

 The same trees and hedges that were planted then to screen and hide the kitchen 

 garden are still there, closing round it and overshadowing it until the available space is 

 grown small indeed, and that unable to produce a good serviceable crop of anything. The 

 same method of surrounding the quarters with Gooseberry and Currant bushes, the same 

 routine of using stable-dung for hotbeds, and then, again, as dressing for the ground year 

 after yeav ; and though roots club, canker, and rot, and very little is produced, still the 

 ground is cropped and re-cropped every year on the principle that a bad crop is better than 

 no crop. How far this condition of affairs exists in other parts of the country I am not 

 aware ; but where it exists at all something ought to be said or done to alter it, if only for 

 the credit of gardeners, their profession, and the owners who can tolerate such a state 

 of tilings. 



Now, I happen to think that not only a certain amount of talent, sound judgment, and 

 mechanical skill may be fully exercised in the kitchen garden, but that science itself may 

 find ample scope for exercise in the departments of chemistry, botany, entomology, &c., and 

 that no other department in gardening offers a wider, a better, or a more useful field for 

 observation and experiment than is offered in the kitchen garden. True it is that new and 

 improved sorts of vegetables are produced from time to time ; but to produce an annual crop 

 of them as they are represented at first is another question. True, better vegetables as to 

 flavour and other qualities can be grown now than could be grown fifty years ago ; but there 

 are counteracting influences at work now that were not in operation then, at least not to tho 

 same extent. Soil that has been heavily worked, cropped, and stimulated for fifty years 

 must and does give indications that a change is necessary. When crops fail from club, 

 canker, mildew, &c, and the soil shows a sheer inability to withstand the heavy drain upon 

 its resources, then does not common sense show not only the policy but necessity of making 

 some alteration, and prove that a change of purpose, like a change of employment in man, 

 may restore an equilibrium ? 



I have noticed this in many and believe it exists in thousands of gardens that are not 

 the largest, where a corner has been divided from the rest of the ground, and, enclosed and 

 hidden out of sight and smell for the purpose of growing all that is required for the table, 

 the said corner, though limited in extent to the smallest possible compass, is required to do 

 duty as orchard, fruit, and vegetable garden, from the time of laying out the grounds, be 

 it fifty years or a century ago, or even more ; and though at the present day trees are worn 

 out and diseased and the soil exhausted, yet no radical change can be accomplished, for the 

 owner will not, cannot, or does not see that any other portion of his ground is applicable to 

 the site of a kitchen garden. No, there the kitchen garden was first made, there it has been, 

 there it ought to be, and there it must be. To change its position is out of the question. 

 Bad kitchen-gardening proceeds, things that are grown there are barely fit for the table, 

 and far less so for the exhibition ; and here may be one of the principal causes why more 

 baskets do not find their way there. But, for all that, I believe the production of good 

 vegetables, even in suburban gardens, in cottage gardens and allotments, is possible, and it is 

 desirable that a stimulus be used, or at least that some inducement be given for people to 



