310 
ON THE EOTATION MANAGEMENT OF CROPS 
ON THE ROTATION MANAGEMENT OF CROPS IN VEGETABLE 
FORCING STRUCTURES, &c. 
By G. T. 
" Every department of gardening has objects or final results peculiar to itself, and the main 
heauty of each of these departments will consist in the perfection v/ith which these results 
are obtained." Thus truthfully wrote one of the most philanthropic friends of gardening 
and gardeners — the immortal Loudon — we say truthfully wrote, because every gardener 
imbued with a love of order and economy in the exercise of his profession will so appreciate 
it, whereas, those who "care for none of these things," and consequently deny any 
pretension to such qualifications, will unflinchingly treat as a chimera the quotation we have 
selected. Be this as it may, however, it is a palpable fact that the luxurious requirements 
of our employers have increased to a multitudinous extent, and, of consequence, the duties 
of the gardeners themselves in a corresponding ratio during the first half of the current 
century. 
Time was, and the period not a remote one, when the winter acceleration of vegetables 
was looked upon as a luxury and a delicacy, in lieu of being regarded as it has now become 
the case, a common-place necessity. 
Forced Asparagus, New Potatoes, Early Rhubarb, French Beans, Young Carrots and 
Radishes, Mushrooms, Forced Sea Kale, Pot-herbs and Sweet-herbs, &c., in a green state, 
were, in times gone by, considered as luxurious delicacies of the hyemal season^ whilst a 
handsome young cucumber produced at table, or seen depending from the hothouse roof on 
Christmas Day, when nought save a transparent barrier of glass intervened between its ver- 
dure and the snow, was deemed a downright prodigy at one time ; but, in these latter times, 
all those enumerated, and much more in addition, must be "supplied on demand ; " they 
are indispensable requisites now, and the ingenuity and energies of gardeners must alike be 
unceasingly directed to their attainment, in order to comply with the demands of fastidious 
affluence and fashionable expectation. 
It would not be altogether irrelevant to the present subject to attempt a discussion of 
the important question, as to whether the means generally placed at the gardener's command 
for the artificial production of vegetables on an extensive scale, are so extensively adequate 
to the requirements of such cases as they ought to be ; we believe they are not, but, never- 
theless, do not now contemplate entering into this part of the subject, rather intending to 
observe, now that the opportune season for doing so has arrived, on the general routine of 
practice to be adopted under existing circumstances ; and, notwithstanding, that much, very 
much, remains to be done for the more advantageous forcing of delicate vegetables in 
winter, it will not be controverted that much more than is usually performed, also remains 
to be accomplished by the measures even now at our dispos^al. 
How frequently, for example, may we not observe long ranges of forcing pits and 
structures of the kind, (whether heated by the agency of fermented substances, or by that 
of hot-water tanks and pipes, it is immaterial for the moment to consider,) remaining 
unemployed for months together, at the precise season when they should be stored with 
suitable winter vegetables in abundance ; the crops that are more immediately to be 
deemed the productions of summer suns, as Melons, Cucumbers, &c., no longer occupying 
them, the work of these structures in too many instances is for the season accomplished, 
until revivified by the busy rendering influence of returning spring. 
Nor let it be supposed that this descriptive state of things is applicable to, or known to 
occur, but in establishments where the non-residence or non-requirements of the family in 
the winter season would render such productions superfluous ; for if such were the case, 
the bestowal of extra labour, expense, and care upon them would be uncalled for, but, on 
the contrary, no inconsiderable plurality of instances might be adduced, where ways and 
means such as we have alread}^ alluded to, exist extensively, and yet the various " delicacies 
of the season," though they be much in demand, are not always found forthcoming in 
sufficient plenty. 
