JUNE. 
127 
Beetroot and Mangold Wurtzel, and there was not a walk in the garden. The 
part kept as a garden you could nowhere pass a spade into 6 inches deep 
without bringing up a lot of crude subsoil, and the produce was miserable. I 
found the soil to be a light gravelly loam, upon a bed of coarse gravelly soil a 
few inches thick, and then a bed of iron sand, or roach, as it is there called, 
of enormous thickness, going down to the lias where we got our water. The 
quarters of ground were all of them 1 foot 6 inches higher than they should 
be, and my only course was to wheel out the bottom gravel, throwing back 
the good soil, so as to make it, by ultimate addition, a yard in depth. Thus 
proceeding, I in time, by raising the ground with the old border, got my soil 
even to the depth of a yard. My next consideration was to drain it; and for 
this purpose I cut drains down the sides of each quarter 4 feet deep, intending, 
by degrees, to trench to that depth, by loosening up the bottom of each 
trench, and letting it lie till the next time, then bringing it to the surface, and 
thus renewing the inorganic constituents of the soil. It was my practice 
biennially to trench all my ground to the depth of 3 feet, making a slight 
addition to this depth by the addition of the bottom soil which had been 
previously picked up; and I could, before I left, run a stick down anywhere 
in the garden to the depth of 3 feet 4 inches. I should have continued this 
till it reached 3 feet 10 inches, when I should have discontinued the deepening, 
and merely trenched, sometimes one, sometimes two, and sometimes three 
spits deep, according to circumstances. 
It being a light friable soil, I found that I derived great advantages from 
its depth, particularly for summer crops of late Peas; the great depth of soil 
permitted them to flourish, when otherwise they would have been dried up. 
Strawberries, too, were magnificent, my preparation for them being trenching 
three spits, -with three coats of manure, and destroying them after the second 
crop of fruit. I acted on the same principle with my common fruits, such as 
Raspberries, Currants, and Gooseberries, never allowing them to stand too 
long in a place, and thus always having, as it were, fresh ground for everything 
I cultivated. 
In writing the above, I have merely detailed the principles which I think 
it important to adopt in managing a large kitchen garden. I will at the same 
time assure the amateur that he will do well to emulate them as far as lies in 
his power. The drainage, the depth of soil, and its porosity are ever objects 
of the first consideration. It must have been evident for many years to our 
friends that the productions of the market gardens round London are very 
superior, from the first-rate manner in which they are dug; and they have 
necessarily extended their influence to the farming interest, which has much 
improved in consequence, and is making returns, through the instrumentality 
of steam ploughs and improved machinery, which would to our ancestors have 
seemed incredible. 
But there seems to be (i a hitherto ” in farming matters from which gar¬ 
deners are exempt. A man may soon overgrow his corn, and have his crops 
spoiled by being laid. A farmer in Oxfordshire—a large and rich farmer— 
used to say that the great art in farming was “ To know when your crops were 
done just well enough.” In gardening it is not so, as far as vegetables 
go—you cannot produce anything too luxuriant, and you may rest assured 
that all the most vigorous productions will be the best, and most perfect in 
flavour. 
Let, then, amateurs think of these things, and bestir themselves with 
energy to the application of these principles, We sincerely wish them “ God 
speed.” 
Amersliam , Bucks* 
Henry Bailey, C.M.R.H.S. 
