Marhet-Gardening. 
423 
as green as a leek I" This jeai- I am afraid lie had to "eat 
the leek," in consef]ucnce of the general abundance. It will 
give some idea of speed in gardens if I mention that cabbages 
planted in the second week in April afforded a first cutting this 
year on the 28th June. Another example of double crops is 
in the case of early cabbages, which are sent to market in April 
and May. A month before cutting them, the land being in 
good tilth, holes are made in the rows with a spade, one hole 
between each cabbage ; a boy follows and plants potatoes, which 
are covered with the earth taken from the next row. This plan 
obviates the treading which occurs when the sets are planted 
between the rows. 
On the 19th June a large farm was shown to me Avhere all 
the cabbages had been marketed, and a considerable breadth 
was in potatoes, planted in the manner described, and looking 
well. The cabbages had been planted 2 feet apart, and the 
potatoes were of course at the same distance. Thej were regents, 
to be followed by some spring-sown crop. Other examples of 
two and even three crops in a year occur in the gardens near 
London, where certain vegetables of limited consumption are 
produced under spade cultivation, when there is no room for a 
plough. 
Peculiar virtues have been attributed to the spade as an 
instrument of cultivation, but the secret of the great fertility 
which follows the spade lies in the heavy dressings usually 
applied to the gardens. As an example of this kind of cultiva- 
tion, I visited a large garden of 40 or 50 acres, in the parish of 
Bermondsey, flourishing in the midst of smoke and vile smells. 
The larger part of the garden is planted with radishes, cauli- 
flowers, and celery, taken from the same ground every year ; and 
the rotation is repeated every year, with the precaution of 
moving the site of the rows of celerj'. These are planted 5 feet 
apart, with two rows of cauliflowers between them. The ground 
is dug in the ordinary way, once a year, in winter, as soon as 
the celery is removed. One hundred tons of dung per acre are 
sometimes applied, at a cost of between 30?. and 40?. The 
radishes are sown in March ; the cauliflowers, having been 
sown in October in frames, and protected from frost during the 
winter, are pricked out among the radishes ; and the celery 
follows. 
Eight acres of rhubarb are cultivated with the five-tine steel 
fork. I was told, " the more manure the more rhubarb." 
Asparagus is forced by frames and hot dung. Plants of three 
years' growth afford three weeks' cutting, and are then destroyed ; 
and a less price than 7s. Qd. for a bundle of 105 does not pay the 
grower. 
