86 
GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
to accepted laws, and to explain why only a poor sort of 
manager could make so absurd a mistake as to keep planting 
cauliflower after cabbage, or cabbage after lettuce ; for any 
thinking person can see at half a glance that rotation is not 
only the best policy, but the only policy. 
Still another advantage , of living near a truck farm is that 
one can watch the working out of clever devices in planting, 
by no means all of which 
are described in books. 
A neat scheme, for ex- 
ample, is to put into one 
furrow at the same sow- 
ing two kinds of seeds, 
one quick and the other 
slow growing. Radishes 
and parsnips, or radishes 
and carrots, according to 
this plan, start life as boon 
companions. While the 
parsnips are slowly creep- 
ing up, the three-weeks- 
old radishes are ready to 
eat. Again, between rows 
of onion seeds one may 
put early relishes, like let- 
tuce, radishes, and spin- 
ach, all of which will have appeared at dinner before the 
onions need space. After the onions are well along, turnips 
can be sown midway between the rows. Such a combination 
is spoken of as double or companion cropping. 
Certain seeds are planted for the express purpose of help- 
ing others along. If, for instance, the two are sown together, 
the radish will hurry forward the carrot seeds. This is because 
