i 
SUGGESTIONS FOR AN IMPROVED ROTATION IN VEGETABLE CULTURE. 
vegetables. Again, one remark on the " deteriorators." I do not wish it to be inferred, that no other 
class deteriorates the soil ; I merely point to these as the principal, and suggest that every scheme of 
rotation, to proceed on right principles, must take a thorough cognisance of this great fact. The mode 
of classification here adopted, will doubtless appear sufficiently arbitrary to some persons. It is, 
however, the most apt as to a practical application that I could conceive ; and any further multiplication 
of classes would, I fear, destroy the simplicity of the scheme ; for my object has been to keep the main 
features constantly before the eye of young or uninformed practitioners. 
Before generalizing further, I must take the liberty of making a few collateral observations, and 
giving a few details of the course of practice I have pursued here for years, with regard to certain crops ; 
and on which practices, or similar ones, I do think our general kitchen garden policy should be mainly 
based. This will prepare the inexperienced reader, for whom these remarks are intended, for an 
explanation of the reciprocity which should exist between the four divisions already enumerated. 
In the first place, then, I must point to Celery culture ; this is a well-known enricher, and with us 
the best " deepener " of the No. 1 section. We grow it entirely on the Scotch or bed system. I never 
plant any in single drills. Our circumstances are such, and our demand for vegetables so constant, 
and I may add considerable, that I am obliged to take one substantial crop from the ground intended 
for the Celery crops, in the spring and summer previous. The ground we select for the Celery beds, 
generally belongs to the No. 4 section, or deteriorated soil ; that is to say, land which has had rather 
too much of the Brassica tribes — both deteriorated in character and exhausted in point of quality. Wo 
manage to grow nearly all the summer Peas, previous to the introduction of the Celery, on the same 
plots ; and the Celery being planted in beds about six feet wide, very deep culture becomes necessary 
between the respective beds ; so deep, that we invariably bring up a portion of the subsoil. Now, this 
is accounted bad practice by some. I, however, desire to do so, feeling assured that it is in degree a 
renovating process, inasmuch as fresh inorganic matters are thereby brought to the surface. And it 
proves good practice, as shown by the results ; for the benefits to succeeding crops in the Brassica 
way has ever been sufficiently manifested. 
Next in course, may be named Asparagus: this again is a most capital agent as " deepener" and 
" renovator." In forcing Asparagus my practice is (using the old dung-bed plan,) to force some of the 
best in the garden. The old plan of depending on exhaustsd beds for winter Asparagus, I entirely 
repudiate. I never have exhausted beds. I do not suffer Asparagus to remain long enough on the 
ground. It becomes necessary, therefore, to plant at least as much annually as we force ; and this wc 
find a simple, economical, and most easy plan ; notwithstanding all the hubbub about loss hi the 
destruction of roots, &c, generally made by parties who sec things by halves, or by fractional parts. 
As forming part of a system — a whole which every gardener of extensive experience is bound to 
aim at — the practice is undeniable: let those, however, who will judge the practice in an isolated way, 
show forth at the same tunc a well digested scheme for a complete rotation of eroj>s hi our kitchen 
gardens ; for these tilings may not be disposed of but in connection. My practice is, to make a Celery 
bed or beds play jackal to the lion Asparagus. Wherever the future year's beds of Asparagus are to be 
planted, there we arc sure to have beds of Celery in the autumn preceding ; and, in preparing them, we 
trench much deeper than usual, and introduce a very considerable amount of weeds, leaves, and other 
refuse vegetable matter in the bottom of the trench, say below two feet. It will be seen, of course- 
that in this case, a No. 1 is made to prepare for another No. 1 — that is, the class " dccpcncrs." This, 
then, I feel hound to point to as one of those exceptions from which no rule is entirely free. 
In Sea-kale again — as part of a system — is another "deepener" of some importance. Many there 
be that force their Sea-kale by the old blauching-pot mode, on the spot where it is cultivated. 1 freely 
confess that I never pass by a plot of this kind, in these days, without feeling a secret pity for those 
who have to depend on so unsystematic, precarious, and expensive a process; considering how much 
more economical it is to take up the roots and to force them in a narrow compass, where one tithe of 
the labour and fermenting material would suffice. Even Mr. Barnes of Bicton, (who has doubtless 
proved himself a first-rate judge of such matters), until the last two or three years was wont to give 
very explicit directions for the pot-forcing of this root: of late, however, I perceive that he manifests a 
decided bias to the course here suggested. We sow a little Sea-kale annually in drills: we transplant 
an average amount annually, and in a similar ratio, which indeed dictates the extent of transplanting : 
wc force a bed or beds, grown up to the very highest perfection, which with us they do in the second 
year. Through all the stages of Sea-kale, then, we have a plant, the culture of which, rightly eon- 
., ducted, places it at once in the No. 1 section. 
b. Rhubarb we grow precisely on the same principle as the Sea-kale, and force it in n similar way. 
Rjj It is moreover sown, transplanted. &c, in like manner, and stands about the same time on the ground. }^ 
