752 = 486 
Vegetables. 
Salad and 
sweet herbs 
specially 
grown at 
Mitcham. 
Asparagus 
culture. 
Sea-ka)e. 
lowed by celery, with radishes thickly sown between the ro^ 
This goes on for years ; the position of the rows of cele 
being changed every other year. Nearly 100 tons of far 
yard-manure per acre are required for this exhaustive systt 
of cropping. 
Upon larger gardens, or market-farms, a usual course 
cropping is : potatoes followed by greens ; then parsnips, 
carrots, or mangolds are put in, followed by winter onions, w 
cabbages taken after these. Brocoli, French beans, broad bea 
and cabbages are taken instead of some of the crops of t 
rotation. 
Lettuces, radishes, endive, and salad herbs of all kinds ; 
chiefly grown in the market-gardens nearest London and otl 
towns. At ^Mitcham, in Surrey, there is a large extent of garde 
ground devoted to the growth of sweet herbs, as peppermi 
thyme, basil, and lavender. Liquorice is also largely cultival 
at this place, whose summer-air is fraught with " odours 
Araby." 
It is convenient to give in this place a short description 
the details of cultivation of some of the vegetables most CO 
monly grown : beginning with — 
Asparagus, which is extensively produced near Islewo 
Fulham, and Mortlake, in the valley of the Thames, and 
other places near London, as well as at Colchester in Ess 
and near Gravesend in Kent. This vegetable is now grown 
the most part in rows, from 5 to 6 feet apart ; the system 
planting in beds being relinquished by those who cultivate 
upon a large scale. 30 or 40 loads of farmyard-manure are | 
on the land, which is deeply trenched. A crop of radishes 
taken before the plants are put in. Beets, or onions, or lettuc 
are grown between the rows. Asparagus plants come to f 
bearing in the fourth year. When the plants are well establish 
they are earthed over in March : the heads are tied neatly 
bundles containing 105, and make from 3s. &d. to 7*. 6d. ] 
bundle in the early part, and about 2s. 4fZ. in the latter part 
the season. 
Sea-kale is one of the most profitable vegetables, and is cu) 
vated mainly by market-gardeners within the metropolitan ar 
particularly near Deptford in Kent, and in the Thames Val 
in Surrey. It is generally propagated from short lengths of • 
roots, sometimes from seed, planted in rows about 14 incl 
apart. Every third row is taken up early in November, and ; 
plants are put into pits heated to a temperature of 70^ Fat 
being fit for cutting about 20 days after planting. The pla 
left in the garden are covered with earth, and come to cut 
March. 
