87 
and the soil should be continued under such crops for as long a 
period as it remained under a permanent crop. Hence, in ju- 
diciously cropped gardens, the strawberry compartment is chan- 
ged every three or four years, till it has gone the circuit of all 
the compartments ; and asparagus beds, sea-kale, &c., are re- 
newed on the same principles. Plants, the produce of which 
is collected during summer, should be succeeded by those of 
which the produce is chiefly gathered in winter or spring. The 
object of this rule is, to prevent too active and exhausting crops 
from following each other in succession. Other rules or prin- 
ciples may be drawn from the nature of the plants themselves; 
such as some requiring an extraordinary proportion of air, light, 
shade, moisture, &c.: or from the nature of the changes intended 
to be made on them by cultivation, such as blanching, succu- 
lency, magnitude, &c. In a good soil it is highly advanta- 
geous to pursue the mixed or simultaneous mode of cropping, 
which is founded on the principles, that most plants, when ger- 
minating, and for some time afterwards, thrive best in the shade ; 
and that tall-growing plants, which require to receive the light 
on each side, should be sown or planted, at some distance from 
each other. Hence, tall-growing peas are sown in rows, 10 ft. 
or 12 ft. apart; and between them are planted rows of the cab- 
bage tribe; and, again, between these are sown rows of spinach, 
lettuce, or radishes, &c. Hence, also, beans are planted in the 
same rows with potatoes or with cabbages (an old practice in the 
cottage-gardens of Scotland); and so on. The great object in 
this kind of cropping, is, to have crops on the ground, in differ- 
ent stages of grow th ; so that, the moment the soil and the sur- 
face are released from one crop, another may be in an advanced 
state, and ready, as it were, to supply its place. For this pur- 
pose, whenever one crop is removed, its place ought to be in- 
stantly supplied by plants adapted for producing another croj) 
of the proper nature to succeed it. For example, where rows 
of tall marrow-fat peas have rows of broccoli between them, 
then, the moment the peas are removed, a trench for celery may 
be formed where each row of peas stood ; and between the rows 
of brocoli, in the places where lettuces were produced early in 
the season, may be sown drills of w inter spinach. 
126 Hydra.\ge.\, blue-floweking. A value has been attached 
to the blue flowering variety of the Hydrangea hortensis, from 
I'M ADCTAEI0M. 
