1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
59 
—but taking care always to cut off H a side 
branch, so as not to make a dead stump. 
Buying and selling Fruit Trees.-—Purchasers 
sometimes get good trees from irresponsible itine¬ 
rant dealers, who purchase good-looking trees 
where they can get them cheapest, the quality of 
the fruit they shall bear, although highly recom¬ 
mended, being rather uncertain for some years to 
come. The Agricult or gives a sample of the mode 
in which this kind of business is sometimes con¬ 
ducted. A lot of trees was purchased by a spe¬ 
culator, who bought at the same time a quantity 
of fruit, for the purpose of showing the quality, 
certificates being in readiness to convince those 
who never read agricultural papers, that the fruit 
grew on those identical trees! 
The Kitchen Garden. 
We think we cannot do better than to com¬ 
mence this department of gardening, by acceding 
to the request of several of our correspondents, 
who ask us for some hints on the mode of laying 
out a Kitchen Garden. 
The first considerations in a kitchen garden, are 
its soil, situation, and aspect. Soil, too frequent¬ 
ly, cannot be selected, but if it can, an open loam 
free from clay on the one hand, and too much 
sand on the other, is most desirable; so situated 
that water passes from it readily. If deficient in 
that point it must be well drained. A level sur¬ 
face, or very moderate slope towards the south, or 
as near that as possible, is the best. A good fence 
should surround it, and on the north side it will 
be better if it can be sheltered by trees, provided 
they are not near enough to overhang or shade the 
garden ground. Trench the ground at least two 
spades deep all over. Most people, in trenching, 
throw up the subsoil of the second trench on the 
top of the first, and provided the subsoil is open 
in textnre, there is not much objection to this,* but 
if the subsoil is stiff, it is decidedly a bad plan. In 
the latter case open two trenches, side by side, so 
as to have room to work, then dig up the subsoil 
and leave It at the bottom of the trench and throw 
the top spit of the third trench on the subsoil of 
the first; then there will always be two trenches 
open to work in through the piece of ground. 
This trenching is indispensable to good gardening. 
All the parts of the garden that have no winter 
crop standing in them, should, before winter sets 
in, be thrown up in ridges and be left so until 
spring. This, by allowing free access of the frost 
and atmosphere to the ground, improves it in 
many ways. 
Upon the breaking up of winter, the ridges 
should be levelled down, and the ground laid out 
in beds for receiving the principal crops of the 
year. Before proceding to do this, the gardener 
will do well to lay down upon paper a plan of 
his ground; determine upon how much he will 
devote to each crop, and what crops will be cleared 
off in time to take another in autumn. A plan on 
paper will save an infinity of time and trouble all 
through the year, and if well arranged as to the 
crops to succeed each other, will enable the gar¬ 
dener to get a much larger quantity from his 
ground. The mode of cropping a garden to ad¬ 
vantage will be found as the proper season ap¬ 
proaches, in our pages. 
In laying out the kitchen garden, a bed from six 
to ten feet wide, according to the size of the 
ground.,) should be left next the fence all round. 
Then a walk next it all round wide enough for all 
purposes of ready access to all parts of the gar¬ 
den, for carrying in manure, See. If the garden 
is large, another walk of the same width should 
be made up the middle. These walks should be 
made solid by throwing all stones and hard rubbish 
in them, with gravel on the top, and well rolled 
down. All other walks may be merely temporary 
ones to divide the beds of vegetables, if it is wish¬ 
ed to economise the ground; or permanent narrow 
walks maybe made to divide the garden into com¬ 
partments. The subject of manures will, from its 
importance, require a separate notice hereafter. 
But as connected indirectly with it, it should con¬ 
stantly he remembered that the same spot of 
ground should never be cropped twice successive- 
ly with the same crop. A root crop, such as tur- 
neps or parsnips, should be succeeded by one of 
an opposite kind, such as beans or peas. Vegeta¬ 
ble physiology shows that this gives each crop the 
greatest share of nourishment. 
No standard trees of any kind are admissible 
in a kitchen garden, on account of their shading 
the ground; but dwarf fruit trees, as gooseber¬ 
ries, currants, raspberries, and if desired, dwarf 
pear trees, may be grown along the principal 
walks, which is a good place for them. " They 
should be put about three feet from the edge, 
and it is best to plant these on the center com¬ 
partments only, and not on the beds next the fence, 
some of which are wanted for early crops. B. M. 
Hot Beds. 
We can state briefly, in answer to the inquiry of 
Heman C. Orcutt, of Taftsville, Yt., for the 
cheapest and best mode, and the time, of making 
hot-beds for forwarding plants for the garden, that 
the mode must varysomewhatwith the proposed ob¬ 
jects. If it is intended to forward plants quite early, 
so as to have them far in advance of ordinary crops, 
a different mode must be adopted from merely 
giving them a start of two or three weeks. In the 
