420 
FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
in well managed garden soil, but as some 
kinds have a preference for different kinds of 
soil, it may be useful to indicate these pre- 
dilections, for they often admit of being to 
some degree accommodated. 
Carrots, potatoes, beet-root, onions, leeks, 
&c. prefer a light soil, rather dry and deep. 
Peas and beans prefer a well -enriched 
loamy soil. 
The cabbage tribe throughout prefers a 
strong rich loamy soil. 
Celery and the spinaceous plants prefer a 
light, rich, and moist soil. 
Asparagus, sea-kale, and rhubarb prefer a 
light rich soil, and a warm situation. 
A proper rotation of crops involves as a 
necessity, if any benefit is to be derived, that 
the succeeding crops should be dissimilar, not 
only in their actual constitution, but also in 
the mode of their root-growth. For this 
reason a classification of crops is desirable, so 
that one class may follow another over the 
ground. The peas, beans, and kidney-beans 
form one group ; the cabbage tribe, as brocoli, 
cauliflower, savoys, and cabbage, another ; 
fusiform roots, as carrots, parsnips, and beet- 
root, another ; turnips, early potatoes, onions, 
leeks, garlic, shallots, &(J. another ; salading, 
as celery, lettuce, endive, cress, &c. another ; 
potatoes, another. Two or more classes of 
crops may often be distributed with advantage 
over the ground at one time, and alternating 
in a more or less regular way ; this often 
facilitates the very desirable practice of plant- 
ing tall growing crops at extra distances, the 
•intervening spaces being occupied with such 
smaller things as are rather benefited than 
otherwise by the shelter or shade afforded by 
the others. It is a safe rule, that none of the 
principal garden crops be suffered immediately 
to follow another of the same kind on the 
same ground ; and safe also to lengthen the 
intervening space of time, between the occu- 
pation of the same ground by two crops of the 
same kind, as much as possible, even to two, 
three, or more years. These rules, in fact, 
form the practical basis of all proper rotations ; 
but the actual details maybe, and are, allowed 
to vary indifferently according to the wants 
or the influencing circumstances of each case. 
To carry out this practice in a proper way, 
it is desirable that a rough outline plan of the 
garden be formed, and the whole surface 
thrown into beds or quarters, which should 
be numbered. A journal should also be kept, 
in which, by the aid of these numbers, a 
registry may be kept of all the crops planted 
on the ground, together with memoranda of 
such of the principal operations, as manuring, 
trenching, &e. The unaided memory, especi- 
ally if the mind be much occupied by other 
matters, is liable to fail, but a permanent record 
of this kind is invaluable in carrying out a 
rotation of crops, its evidence being always 
accessible and indisputable. No one need be 
frightened by extravagant notions of planning 
and book-keeping : the rudest possible sketch 
of the ground, made so that a certain space 
can be identified with a certain mark or num- 
ber, and the plainest possible record of the 
crops planted on those spaces, is sufficient for 
the purpose ; and so that this is provided 
and understood, each one may go to work bis 
own way in doing it. 
Celery is an excellent preparation for cauli- 
flowers, or onions, or carrots, or turnips, or 
parsnips ; or for peas, with potatoes and win- 
ter greens and brocoli between. 
Turnips and potatoes are found to be a 
good preparation for the cabbage tribe, includ- 
ing brocoli, cabbages, savoys, &c. 
Cabbages and brocoli, &c. are a good pre- 
paration for beans or for peas. 
Cauliflowers are an excellent preparation 
for onions, leeks, or turnips. 
Old asparagus beds afford excellent accom- 
modation for the cabbage tribe, for potatoes, 
or for carrots and parsnips ; as also does 
ground from which any of the small fruits are 
cleared. 
Peas are a good companion crop for spinach, 
the latter being sown between the distant 
rows of the former. 
We shall add a few memoranda respecting 
the quantity of seeds required for a given 
space, and their duration in a vegetative con- 
dition. It is always better to have several 
succession crops of one kind, than fewer and 
heavier crops. 
Beans. — Early and late crops : one pint for 
a row of eighty feet. Principal crops : one 
pint for a row of one hundred feet. The 
seeds will keep good one year. 
Beans, kidney.- — Half-a-pint for a row of 
eighty feet. The seeds keep good one year. 
Beet, or Mangold Wurtzel. — One ounce 
for a row of 150 feet. The seeds keep for 
several years. 
Cabbage, Borecole, Savoy, Brocoli, ^c. — 
Half-an-ounce for a seed-bed of forty square 
feet, to be transplanted from. The seeds keep 
about four years. 
Carrot. — One ounce for a row of 150 feet, 
well thinned. The seeds keep one year. 
Cauliflotver. — Half-an-ounce for a seed-bed 
of forty square feet. The seeds keep about 
four years. 
Celery. — A quarter of an ounce for a seed- 
bed of twenty square feet. The seeds keep 
several years. 
Gourds and Cucumbers. — Half-a-dozen 
seeds sown in pots. The seeds keep several 
years. 
Leeh. 
Half-an-ounce for a seed-bed of 
