June 5, ]Ss9. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
in a frame. I dug out a trench 4 feet wide, piling the soil on the 
north side, in the form of a flattish slope to the south. This I 
sowed with Radish in February, and covered the sloping bed with 
Sitter. When the plants appeared the litter was drawn olf them 
with a few light jerks of a wooden rake to the top of the ridge on 
fine daj's, and cast over them again at night. That is the London 
market garden system, as I had learned in my youth, and it puts 
hundreds of pounds into the pockets of the growers. 
The soil of my bank was not so rich as it ought to have been, 
but the crop, with Vegetable Marrows following, brought me £1. 
In the meantime I made some slight straw shelters for bridging 
the trench, and eventually Celery plants were dibbled in it 2 inches 
apart, in rows twice that distance asunder. There were 180 rows, 
of a little more than as many scores, sold for as many fourpences, 
or a total of £3. Strong Vegetable Marrow plants were ready for 
the trench as soon as the Celery plants were out, and these bore 
well in the autumn ; but, not counting the value of what was not 
sold, I had £4 off a plot 20 yards long and 3 yards wide, and was 
very well satisfied. Everybody could not do that, because obvi¬ 
ously if fifty persons had raised the plants as I did the market 
would have been overstocked, and the price have fallen accordingly, 
perhaps almost to nothing, hence the necessity for a little foresight 
in deciding on methods of cropping. 
I found also raising such plants as Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, 
•Cottagers’ Kale, and Winter Greens generally, and selling them for 
a penny a score, paid well, many being raised on a comparatively 
small extent of ground, which they do not occupy long, and are all 
off in time for Celery, and this well grown will give a profit of 
£30 an acre after paying rent, rates, manure, labour, and cost of 
marketing. Again I say, if everybody in the district had done the 
same in raising winter plants they could not have been sold, for the 
supply would have been in excess of the demand. It is true such 
plants might be wanted elsewhere, but in my experience it is of 
very little use sending very small quantities of anything grown in 
■gardens long distances for sale. For that purpose they must go by 
the truckload, or there will be nothing at the end of them. 
I will now mention a fact illustrative of the power of bulk 
which has not hitherto been published. It comes in appropriately 
here, as it pertains to plants of winter vegetables. I visited a friend 
last September who has grown from a small to a large cultivator, 
“sometimes selling 10 tons of Gooseberries a year. There is nothing, 
however, very startling in that, when 10 tons of Strawberries are 
gathered in one morning before breakfast, made into jam on the 
spot, cooled, potted, labelled, and delivered in London the same 
night. But to the plants. I was admiring two or three acres of 
Mangold Wurtzel—the finest crop I had seen, and valuable, but 
was startled on being told it was the second crop, and that he had 
drawn £200 out of the land the same spring. This was by the sale 
of the plants above named—Savoys, Cabbages, and others, from 
150,000 to 200,000 being pulled daily for a month, and sold for 
Is. fid. to 3s. a thousand, sent off in truckloads to his salesmen in 
large markets, and it is likely some of them came to Nottingham, 
though I think the amateur gardeners of Nottingham can grow 
their own plants. 
On this subject of raising plants of the nature indicated I 
would further observe that I send seed yearly to a hardworking 
cottager in the country, and the plants he raises and sells from less 
than a tenth part of his rood of land more than pays the rent for 
the whole of it, while his many customers who only require three 
or four score of plants find it cheaper to purchase them ready for 
planting than to buy seed and perhaps fail in raising what they 
want. The plants so raised and sold pay the cottager better 
than any crop that he grows to maturity. He estimates the demand 
with tolerable accuracy, and provides the supply accordingly. The 
seeds are sown thinly an inch or so deep in drills 9 inches asunder, 
so that a Dutch hoe can be run freely between the rows for pre¬ 
venting weeds, stimulating the growth of the plants, and checking 
the movements of slugs, which sometimes attack them. When 
their attacks are virulent clear lime water sprinkled on the plants 
an hour after dark through a rosed can, as if giving them a good 
watering, is the quickest and best method of extermination. Place 
some lumps of fresh lime in water, stir well, then allow it to get 
clear. If a little lime settles at the bottom of the vessel the lime 
water will be as strong as it can be made. If there are no 
■“ settlings ” it will not be strong enough to kill the slugs, 
while if of full strength it will not hurt the plants. 
Double Cropping. 
In order to make the most of small plots what is known as 
■double cropping must be practised. Early dwarf-growing Potatoes 
are more suitable than tall late sorts, because between and after 
the earlies another crop can be taken, whereas the lat° sorts occupy 
the land the whole of the season. Potatoes of the Ashleaf and 
455 
Beauty of Hebron type in rows 2)■ to 3 feet apart can be inter¬ 
cropped with Savoys, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, and Broccoli planted 
when large enough from seed sown in spring, as these crops do not 
require the whole of the ground till the Potatoes are cleared 
away. 
Very late spring Broccoli and Kale should not be extensively 
planted, as they occupy the ground too long for spring cropping. 
The bulk of winter crops should be over soon after the middle of 
March, and one of the most serviceable in London market gardens 
is the Purple Sprouting Broccoli. More of this has been sold 
lately (in May) than of any other spring vegetable. It is not so 
much grown in the north, though the plants are hardy and the 
produce delicious. 
This and the true Buda Kale form a connecting link with 
spring Cabbage. They are useful because late, and are called 
“ blue greens ” by Londoners. Late spring crops should never 
occupy the best and warmest positions, as these may be wanted 
early in the year for occupation with the first summer vegetables. 
That is a hint worthy of being kept in remembrance, not by 
allotment holders only, but by young gardeners who are apt to do 
what I have done—make mistakes of the nature indicated ; and it 
is not the most pleasurable experience to dig up one crop before 
it is ready, to make room for another that must go in. 
Vegetable Marrow plants are often put in at intervals of 3 or 
4 yards between Potatoes, and spread over the ground, bearing 
good crops of fruit if the season is fine, after the Potatoes are 
removed. All that is necessary is to start the plants with a spadeful 
or two of manure, and the Potato tops will afford them shelter after 
planting at the end of May or early in June. I have seen 
profitable crops of Scarlet Runners after dwarf early Potatoes, 
three or four Beans being dibbled at intervals of a yard between 
the Potatoes in May. When the Runners produce twiners they 
are chopped off with a sharp knife, and by continuing the practice 
from time to time the plants are converted into bushes, and bear 
abundantly. Scores of acres of Scarlet Runners are made dwarf 
in that way (not between Potatoes), and grown without sticks for 
affording tons of pods for market. 
The time-honoured plan of dibbling a Broad Bean in here aEd 
there with Potatoes, say at intervals of 4 or 5 yards, gives useful 
crops, stolen, so to say, from the ground, without the Potatoes being 
appreciably injured; indeed in wet seasons they are benefited 
rather than otherwise, the Beans abstracting moisture which in 
excess is injurious to the tubers. When that is done a plot .of 
ground need not be set apart for these Beans by persons who desire 
to grow them. 
Peas grown and staked in small gardens are not, as a rule, 
profitable for sale, but they afford dishes for home use, which are 
always enjoyed. It is better to sow a row at a time at intervals of 
a fortnight or so, and also some yards apart from each other, and 
have other crops between them, than to have several rows of Peas 
side by side, each preventing the other bearing. Isolated rows are 
by far the most productive. 
Dwarf Kidney Be.ins, well grown, pay well. This is one of 
the staple crops in some of the London market gardens ; but two 
additional crops are taken from the same piece of ground the same 
season, and often another, that is a fourth, planted. This is the 
routine : White Cos Lettuce is sown in October in rough frames and 
protected, the plants standing about an inch apart, so that a good 
number do not take up much room. In March, or as soon as the weather 
permits, these are put out a foot from each other in rows 2 feet 
asunder. They are dusted with soot to keep off slugs, and this, with 
the hoe, makes them grow rapidly. Towards the end of April rows of 
Beans are placed exactly between those of Lettuces which are ready 
for pulling, for they are not cut, just when the French Beans want 
more room. Mark the result. If the Lettuces are fine and early 
in the market they sell readily for Id. each ; this is equal to £90 
an acre. If later they may only realise half the amount, and if 
very late and the market glutted only a quarter of it, but that is 
more than £20 an acre for only one crop. The Beans quickly 
follow, and if regularly gathered, never letting pods get old, the 
crop is worth as much as the Lettuce ; and if both are averaged at 
£50, that is £100. But there is another crop. Colewort seed, a 
kind of small Cabbage, sown early in April affords plants for 
inserting after the Lettuces are drawn in May and early June, and 
they grow between the Beans, which are over and cleared away 
just when the Colewmrts need more space. These are sold in 
bunches. It is entirely a stolen crop, and has often made £20 an 
acre, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the supply 
and demand. Three clear crops are thus secured ; then Cabbage 
plants raised at the end of July are occasionally plantc-d between 
the Coleworts, which are drawn early, the Cabbages hearting in 
spring, early crops being often sold at from £50 to £70 an acre, 
I and are off in time for Celery or early Peas, with intercrops of 
