1860 ] 
1? 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
How about that Spring Seed ? 
Notwithstanding the fact that we think our 
neighbors a little better than can be found any 
where else, we now and then see some things 
even among them, worth telling of, just for illus¬ 
tration. Here is one, in which the actor was a 
Mr. :-, whom we will call James Careless 
(we don’t mean you Mr. Smith, nor you Mr. 
Brown, nor you Mr. Johnson, nor you Mr. A, D, 
M, nor Mr. P, but the other man). Last Spring 
Mr. C. prepared a piece of good ground for oats, 
and when all was ready he" went to the barn for 
the seed which had been put away in bin No. 3. 
On raising the lid there was only a quart or two 
of oats there. An investigation showed that his 
man Michael had fed them out early in the Win¬ 
ter to the horses, instead of those in bin No. 4, 
which were filled with thistle and other foul seeds, 
and were of inferior quality, weighing only 25 lbs. 
to the bushel. He hitched up a horse and drove 
to a dozen neighbors to try to buy some decent 
seed, but it was late, and none of them had a 
surplus. After losing half a day in fruitless 
search, he went back and sowed the poor oats in 
bin No. 4. The result was, a light yield of poor 
grain, eight or ten bushels less per acre than his 
neighbor’s crop just over the fence, and worth 
in market five cents per bushel less. 
Later in the Spring, neighbor C., got his corn 
land ready and went to bin No. 6, where the fall 
before he had stored five barrels of seed corn, 
selected at husking time. He found half of it 
gone—shelled out by Michael during the Winter, 
for a grist to the mill—and what remained was 
in part moldy, and a part had the chits eaten out 
by mice and rats. Failing again to get good seed 
from his neighbors, he picked out the ears the least 
moldy, and made up the balance from a poor lot 
of nubbins kept for grinding up with the cobs for 
horse feed. The result was that only about half 
of it came up, and after planting some of the 
ground twice and thrice over, he harvested about 
half a crop of unsound corn, part of it frost-bitten. 
His neighbor had a full yield of splendid corn on 
the same kind of ground, similarly manured, and 
treated every way like his own, except in the 
kind of seed planted. 
Mr. C. intended to raise his own beet, carrot, 
parsnep, cabbage, and onion seed, but when he 
went to the cellar for the roots to plant out last 
April, Bridget had already, contrary to order it is 
true, cooked all the best specimens. He put out 
a few of such as were left, but they made a sorry 
appearance, and next Spring he must buy seed or 
plant that of inferior quality. 
The above are facts we can vouch for, and not 
the worst ones we could tell. You, reader, have 
probably known similar instances. Of course 
you never had any such experience. But while 
you think of it, would it not be worth while to 
look over your oats, and your corn, and your 
barley, and your roots, and see if they are all 
right now ; and then keep an eye upon them from 
this time onward 1 Overhaul those barrels or bins 
of corn now and then, and see if there is not in 
the bottom a nest containing half a dozen young 
rats or mice. Look out for Michael, that he does 
not show partiality for the horses and give them 
the best oats—all by mistake. See if a few of 
the best roots in the cellar are put away in a box 
of earth by themselves where Bridget can’t get at 
them by mistake. 
To say nothing of the profits, there’s no pleas¬ 
ure in plowing and planting a field of corn, and 
nursing it all Summer, and then to get but half a 
crop, just for the lack of a little better seed. 
Well, now, not next week; to-day, not tomorrow, 
is just the time to look after the supply of seed 
you will want next Spring. 
-—-- 
The Kitchen Garden. 
A good garden for raising vegetables and small 
fruits, is one of the most important appendages 
to a house. Indeed, a house in the country is 
not a home without it. It greatly promotes the 
comfort and health of one’s family. Well says 
quaint Dr. Deane, “ I consider the kitchen gar¬ 
den of very considerable importance, as pot-herbs, 
salads, and roots of various kinds are useful in 
house-keeping. Having a plenty of them at hand, 
a family will not be so likely to run into the error 
which is too common in this country, of eating 
flesh in too great a proportion for health. Farm¬ 
ers as well as others, should have kitchen gar¬ 
dens ; and they need not grudge the labor of 
tending them, which may be done at odd inter¬ 
vals of time, that would otherwise chance to be 
consumed in needless loitering.” 
The position of such a garden is a matter of 
considerable consequence. Probably the best 
aspect is a southern inclination ; next to this a 
south-western, or south-eastern; and poorest of 
all a northern. It should, of course, be nigh the 
rear of the house, so as to be easy of access from 
the kitchen ; and as our old author writes, “not 
far away, lest being too much out of sight, it 
should be out of mind, and the necessary culture 
of it too much neglected.” 
A garden should be well fenced. For protec¬ 
tion against thieves, nothing is better than a 
good thorn hedge, the thorn-locust being the 
most formidable. But for shelter from cold 
north-west winds, a high board fence or wall is 
better. This protection is very important where 
one wishes to raise early vegetables and tender 
fruits. It breaks off severe blasts, and gives a 
warm and summery air to the garden quite early 
in the Spring. Some persons white-wash their 
fences or walls, supposing that this makes them 
warmer. It may cause them to reflect the sun¬ 
light more powerfully, but it also makes them 
part with their heat faster. 
The selection of a suitable soil is also a matter 
of great importance. By all means, avoid a low, 
wet piece of ground ; for though the brightest 
sun may shine upon it, and though you may heap 
the richest manures upon its surface, it will yet 
be unsuitable for a garden. Draining may help it, 
but can scarcely make it as warm and generous 
as one that is naturally dry. Alight, mellow, turfy 
loam, neither very sandy, nor yet of a stiff clayey 
texture, is the quality most to be desired. It 
should be said, however, that skillful cultivation 
can modify an unfavorable soil much, making it 
lighter or heavier as it may need. 
To prepare the ground for planting, it should 
be sub-soiled or trenched. If trenched, let it 
not be done in the thoughtless way sometimes 
practiced of throwing up the bottom earth, and 
burying the rich surface soil beneath it. In old 
and over-cropped gardens, it may answer to bring 
up a little of the lower soil annually, but as a gen¬ 
eral rule, it should be left at the bottom. The 
right way of trenching is this : Begin on one side 
of your patch by digging a trench two feet wide 
and one spade deep, carrying off the dirt to the 
further side of the patch. Then go through this 
trench again, simply breaking up the subsoil to 
the depth of the spade, but not throwing it out. 
Now, fill up this trench with the good surface 
soil taken from the next portion to be trenched, 
then dig the bottom of the second trench 
and go on as before. When the whole plot is 
trenched over in this way, the soil taken off from 
the first trench will fill up the last, and the work 
is then done. If the soil is poor, a coat of manure 
should be worked in as the trenching proceeds. 
If it is stiff and cold, give it a dressing of old 
leaves, sand, lime, or peat, or anything calculated 
to render it porous and friable. If too light, add 
a coating of ashes, clay, etc., to be thoroughly 
mixed with it. 
The shape of a garden is not a matter of great 
importance, though the nearer it approaches to a 
square or parallelogram, the better. The inter¬ 
nal arrangement is of more consequence. Tho 
quite common plan in most good gardens, is sub¬ 
stantially this: Lay off a border from four to 
six feet wide, all around the outer side of the 
plot. Devote this principally to vines and low 
shrubs. On the north side plant grapes, that they 
may have the full benefit of the sun. On the west 
set raspberries and blackberries. On the east 
put quinces and a few dwarf pears.. On the south 
set currants and gooseberries of the various kinds 
which being of low growth will not materially 
shade the garden. A walk in front of this whole 
border may be from two to five feet wide, accord¬ 
ing to the size of the garden. So too, if spaoe 
permit, a walk may be laid off through the mid 
die of the garden, with a border on each side for 
dwarf pears or other small fruits. Grapes trained 
to poles may occupy a part of this border, if they 
are so managed as not to shade the other por¬ 
tions of the garden. If, for example, this middle 
walk runs east and west, the south border might 
contain grapes, because they would cast their 
shadow only across the walk ; but the north bor¬ 
der should not. 
The remainder of the space may be laid off in 
squares for melons, squashes, cucumbers, cab¬ 
bages, peas, and the like ; or into beds for beets 
onions, and other vegetables. 
-- *—-»®«—-—> - 
Tomatoes in Pots. 
A correspondent of the Gardeners’ Chronicle 
(Eng.), strongly recommends the growing of to¬ 
matoes wholly in pots, especially by those who 
raise only a limited supply of a dozen or two 
plants for home use. He also thinks market gar¬ 
deners, and those living in cities would find this 
mode valuable. The pot plants are entirely un¬ 
der control, and require almost no attention. He 
says : I have not planted out tomatoes for the 
last five years, but have had instead good crops 
from plants in pots, with no trouble in training, 
or stopping, and no failure as to production or 
ripening. I sow the seed in a No. 60 pot at the 
end of February. The planis are kept starving 
under glass till the middle of April, then shifted 
into thumbs, and put on the potting bench for a 
week. They are then packed together under a 
warm fence, and when they want it are shifted 
into 60’s and allowed to get quite pot-bound. 
Another shift into 6-inch pots starts them into 
bloom at less than a foot high, and their further 
growth entirely depends on their amount of root- 
room. If left alone and allowed to root through their 
pots, they swell the fruit well and make no more 
growth, and every plant bears from half-a-dozen 
to nine good fruit which are ripe by the end of 
September. To swell them off, give liquid manuro 
once a week and allow no succession of blooms. 
Any that are not quite ripe when sun heat begins 
to fail may be put under glass for a week ; or if 
of good size, cut off the fruit with a good length 
of stem and hang them in a warm room and the} 
soon ripen. 
Remark. —The above plan may frequently be 
practiced here, but is better adapted to England 
as a general thing. In most places here we have 
