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February 24, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 145 
24th 
TH 
Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
25th 
F 
Qnekett Club at 8 r.M. 
26th 
S 
Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. 
27th 
SUN 
Quinqdagesima. 
28th 
M 
Royal Geographical Society at 8.30 r.M. 
1st 
Tu 
2nd 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 P.M. 
LOOKING AHEAD. 
HERE is often a great waste of time, money, 
&T3B57 s an( ^ ma f cr i a ^ i n gardens as elsewhere owing to 
j!the neglect of a timely systematic arrange¬ 
ment of plans. No one is worthy of the name 
of gardener unless he can look twelvemonths 
ahead, and, indeed, in some respects he must 
be able to see much further than that. It is true 
that “ the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft 
aglee,” and that some of us need the head of a Von 
Moltke to be ready for all emergencies ; but there is 
little doubt that the actual committing of plans to paper is a 
very great help to a student of any kind, for even when such 
plans end in failure there is generally an opportunity of 
tracing the cause of the misfortune, and that often brings 
knowledge for future use which is not easily picked up in any 
other way. A very busy time both for heads and ha nds is 
fast approaching, and anything which can be done now to 
lessen the coming strain on the nervous system should be 
grappled with manfully ; for although the imagination has to 
do more now than when the actual contingencies are before 
us, and it is consequently much harder work, yet there are 
fewer calls for brain work than there will be in two or three 
months time, and it will do us good to get rid of a little of the 
rust which has accumulated during the dull season. 
Plans of flower-garden arrangements if not made at the 
proper time— i.e ., during last August, should be completed im¬ 
mediately, with an estimate of the number of plants required 
of each sort, and these plans and estimates should be accessible 
to whoever has the responsibility of providing the stock of 
plants. For the kitchen garden, too, a rough plan should be 
drawn out every season, showing the proposed site for every 
spring crop, and when a second crop has to follow in the same 
year that should be shown too. There are many things to be 
considered when arranging vegetable crops, some of which are 
change of crop, suitable position for some important crops 
which will not do everywhere, condition of the soil as to rich¬ 
ness, texture, and friability, convenience of certain positions 
for making additions to the soil, which are essential to some 
crops. 
&c. 
Although gardeners generally acknowledge that the rotation 
of crops is sound in theory, we are often to a great extent 
obliged to ignore it in practice, and as failures in vegetable 
crops, excepting in such seasons as 1879, are almost unknown, 
we are not likely to alter much in this respect. Personally I 
believe the rules by which theorists would regulate rotations of 
crops are much too severe, and that when land is well cul¬ 
tivated in all other respects there is no great harm in growing 
plants of the same natural order year after year on the same 
plot, excepting such plants as are allowed to produce seed, and 
those which are subject to some disease or insects likely to be 
preserved in the ground. I do not wish to underrate the 
good services chemists and physiologists have rendered in 
teaching us how plants are built up, and of what they consist ; 
but as we find their facts of one day have sometimes almost 
turned to fables the next day, we may be excused for not 
relying too exclusively on theory. I hold that change of crop, 
excepting in the cases I have mentioned, is not so great a 
matter as finding a suitable position for certain important 
vegetables which are a little fastidious in their likings. For 
instance, I can show one corner which has had early Cauli¬ 
flowers succeeded by late salading annually for the last dozen 
years, and possibly Cauliflowers may have been grown there 
for half a century before I saw it; still it always produced my 
best and earliest Cauliflowers, and no amount of theory will 
induce me to change it. Another plot generally has early 
Peas followed by Snow’s Broccoli, thus going against even the 
remnant of the rotation theory, which Ihold to be sound, but I 
cannot find a better position for either crop, and they generally 
succeed admirably, especially the Broccoli. 
Many other instances could be brought forward where the 
ground produces the same sort of crop year after year in a 
most satisfactory manner, which would go far to prove that 
nothing is taken from the ground by the quick-growing green 
vegetables which cannot be restored immediately by the liberal 
application of good dung and an occasional dose of lime or 
charred refuse, and that when this is done Cabbages will do as 
well after Cabbages as they would after any other crop. But 
sufficient has been said to call attention to this part of the 
subject. 
On the other hand, the act of producing and maturing seeds 
makes a very great call on the fertilising ingredients of a soil, 
possibly more so on some soils than others. When I have 
saved a little seed of any kind hitherto, I have afterwards 
been able to point out the place of its production to a foot 
either way for two or three years, but lime and burned clay 
have been liberally applied of late, and that may possibly 
make a difference in this respect. I am confident our farmers 
do not fully appreciate how much the production of seed takes 
out of the land ; and were I to start farming, one of my first 
experiments would be to top the flower shoots some time 
during spring of the grass which was intended for hay, for 
which simple operation I should expect to be rewarded in the 
shape of a double crop. This might possibly be done by 
setting the ordinary long grass mowing machine up about 
6 inches from the ground. Just compare the weight of grass 
we take off our lawns in the course of a year with that the 
farmer gets off a piece of ground the same size, and this, too, 
while he gives heavy dressings of manure, and we give little 
or nothing. I am aware that grass for haymaking must have 
more substance in it than the grass on our lawns possesses, 
and this I maintain it would have were it topped at the right 
time and right distance from the ground, and then be allowed 
to grow again till the flowerstems reached a certain stage. 
During the last two seasons hay has taken more than usual 
out of the ground, because both hay seasons were wet and 
much of the grass was unavoidably left standing till the seed 
was quite ripe. I know of one patch which was left for hay 
in both these seasons. In 1879 it was cut very late, after 
No. 35 .—Yol. II., Third series. 
No. 1691—Yol. LXY., Old Series. 
