140 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April, 
€§t Inrtintlttratl SrpnrtniEnt. 
CONDUCTED BY J. J. THOMAS, MACEDON, N. Y. 
The Kitchen Garden* 
As often as any one visits our horticultural exhibi- 
bitions, he cannot fail to be as often struck with the fine 
appearance of the vegetables, their large size, and suc¬ 
culent growth. Here, with the thoughtless, the inter¬ 
est ends; while others naturally ask themselves,- “ why 
do not the products of my garden—now small, tough, 
and stringy,—grow like these?” This is a very profita¬ 
ble inquiry, and we shall endeavor to answer it in some 
of its particulars. 
To have good vegetables, the first, and usually by far 
the most important requisite,, is a good soil. To keep a 
free and succulent growth during our hot summers, it 
must be deep, so as to form a magazine of moisture,, by 
absorbing like a sponge all the rains that fall, and re¬ 
taining. them till wanted in time of drouth. This a 
shallow soil cannot do, neither can it allow that full and 
free extension of roots so essential to large and vigorous 
growth. 
Whenever a garden soil is deficient in these two great 
qualities, as most are naturally, it must be improved by 
artificial means. Whatever may be its character, the 
first thing is to have it thoroughly drained, unless it 
should happen to possess the very unusual merit of 
needing no draining. Ditches are best laid with tile 
manufactured for the purpose; but where small surface- 
stones are plentiful, they are quite as economical,- and 
at the same time it is useful to the land, to use them in¬ 
stead. But here great caution is needed to prevent the 
soil from settling or washing in among them,—a very 
common evil. It is prevented by covering the surface 
of the stones with pebbles, or small flat stones, or more 
easily with slabs if they can be cheaply obtained. Being 
excluded from the air, they will last a long time, espe¬ 
cially if the wood be of any durable kind. We have 
never found them to fail in preserving ditches, even 
where the soil partook strongly of the character of quick¬ 
sand. They are covered well with straw or inverted sods 
before the earth is shovelled in. 
To deepen the soil, first use a subsoil plow to mellow 
its texture to a depth of a foot and a half, or if possible 
two feet. This will admit the trench-plow, (that is, a 
large common'plow in a fuevious furrow,) to a depth 
which could not possibly be attained without subsoiling, 
and will serve to mix the parts together and to work in the 
manure, to such a depth as to manufacture a deep bed 
of rich garden earth. The depth could not be reached 
without the subsoil plow, and the manure could not be 
worked down without the trenching; and it may be use¬ 
ful to alternate them, two or three times before the work 
is done in the best manner. Where the garden is so 
situated that a team cannot be introduced, the improve¬ 
ment effected will well pay for the cost of trenching by 
hand. 
Soils are very often either too heavy or too light. 
When too heavy, they may be rendered lighter by work¬ 
ing in coarse manure, chip-dirt, and straw, in connexion 
with carting on sand. The latter may seem a slow and 
costly operation; but as the sand thus api>lied always 
remains, it only requires a few annual dressings to effect 
a great and permanent improvement. We have seen 
heavy soils, which were always either hard and cloddy, 
or else unfit to work from their plastic adhesiveness, 
made fine, rich, crumbling, and fitted exactly for garden- 
, ing, by burning the earth. This was done by first making 
a fire of such coarse knotty wood and vegetable rubbish 
as could not well be used as fuel within doors, and then 
. as soon as it began to burn well, to throw on earth 
gradually, so as to keep it half smothered, till the wood 
was consumed. This was done at the dry season, and 
when a large portion of old turf was thrown on the fire, 
with some brush or' vegetable rubbish, a great deal of 
earth wasburned with very little fuel. This burnt earth, 
scattered over the ground, had a great and very perma¬ 
nent effect; and there is- probably no cheaper or more 
effectual way of mellowing as well as enriching heavy 
soils. 
When the soil is too light, it may often be made just 
right by mixing up with it the subsoil. I-f the under 
soil is not clayey, carting on an annual dressing of clay 
will in a few years effect a great improvement. 
It sometimes happens, that old, long-worn garden 
soils, may be strikingly benefitted by subsoiling and 
trenching;; the surface above and the marly stratum im¬ 
mediately beneath,, constituting a mixture of precisely 
.the kind wanted. In other cases, the application of 
lime and ashes will prove excellent on old gardens. 
A great saving may be effected- in the cost of cultiva¬ 
ting kitchen gardens by the use of the plow and cultiva¬ 
tor, wherever they can he so laid out as to admit the 
labor of a horse. 
Fig-. 1—Kitchen Garden 
for horse culture. 
Fig. 2—Kitchen Garden, laid! 
out into quarters. 
In the above figure, (Fig. 1,) we have endeavored t© 
show an arrangement for this purpose, where dwarf 
fruit trees, currant and gooseberry bushes, &c. are 
planted in continuous rows across the garden; the crops 
of vegetables being planted between, and the whole cul¬ 
tivated by a horse, which turns about at the ends on the 
spaces or alleys, a a. The flower garden and ornamen¬ 
tal part occupies a strip at the centre, on each side of 
the alley b b. If desired, this part may he wholly omit¬ 
ted. Fig. 2, shows the more common way of laying out 
kitchen gardens into quarters, where, it will he observed, 
horse labor cannot be introduced. 
There are a few of the smaller vegetables, ais radishes, 
lettuce, &e., which cannot well he worked with plow 
and cultivator. For such, it is best io have one single 
narrow bed extending across the garden. For many of 
the larger vegetables, the space allotted to the improved 
mode will give a better growth than the common way 
of planting them in thick beds. For example. asparagus^ 
