J anuary 30.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
275 
disdain not to take a “ leaf out of the book ’’ of the little 
Cottage Gardener, and can turn with pleasure and with 
profit from an estimate of the make and qualities of a tulip 
or a pansy to the culture of potatoes, Swedes, mangold, or 
cabbage. 
Potatoes. —Everybody now knows that early planting is, 
at least, one of the steps by which we must endeavour to 
restore our lost position with regard to this invaluable root. 
Some years since, at the commencement of the disease, we 
wrote much, in various periodicals, to show the country that 
this visitation was induced through man’s neglect; and we 
now And that these remedial measures have been pursued 
by most good cultivators, and every one knows that, in pro¬ 
portion as such have been followed up with a steady perse¬ 
verance, the disease has receded or disappeared altogether. 
Before suggesting certain mixed crops, let us advise those 
who care about the purity and strength of their crops, to 
take all their potatoes for planting, out of pits or bogs imme¬ 
diately, if not already done—not a day must be lost. To 
proceed with our matter, we must commence with the potato 
as an associated crop, and one, under a proper management, 
together with a judicious solution of kinds for the purpose, 
highly eligible. In using potatoes for this purpose, a 
careful distinction must be made between the early and the 
late kinds. We do not merely mean as concerns the earli¬ 
ness of the tuber alone, but the condition of the haulm ; for 
we know of kinds that, although ripe with the fruit, or 
nearly so, continue green in the haulm for weeks longer, 
and, consequently, produce a heavier crop. Of this charac¬ 
ter are some of the kinds commonly termed “ second-for¬ 
ward a list of which would be given, but that the many 
are, for the most part, local, and may therefore mislead. 
Early Potatoes with Mangold. — This has been so 
useful a mixed crop, that we have grown it on the same 
plot for some fifteen years at least. Our potatoes, of the 
very early class, are planted about fifty inches apart in 
double drills, that is to say, a pair of drills side by side, and 
only nine inches asunder. The potatoes are, of course, 
angled thus— " , “ , * , and they are placed 
about ten inches apart up the rows. We plant in the middle 
of February; the potatoes having been carefully preserved 
on dry doors, and possessing sprouts, very sturdy in cha¬ 
racter, about two inches in length. The mangold is intro¬ 
duced in small drills formed immediately on the heels of 
the last course of culture which the potato receives, say the 
end of April. It need only be observed here; that the ground 
is manured altogether with coarse or half-decomposed 
manure previous to planting; and in addition, a little soily- 
looking manure and soot has been used with excellent 
effect in the drills at seeding time. A sprinkling of salt is 
applied over the ordinary manure at the original digging. 
Mangold is known to be partial to saline, matters in mode¬ 
ration. We must leave the subsequent culture to a more 
advanced season, and pass on to other associative crops. 
Early Potatoes with Swedes.—T he proceedings are so 
similar, both as to culture and distance, to the mangold, 
that few observations will suffice. In this case, however, 
we prefer transplanting the turnips from a seed-bed. 
Early Potatoes with Drumhead Cabbage. —In this part 
of the kingdom, Cheshire, the potatoes are altogether grown 
in what are termed bouts,—in the vernacular, “ buts.” This 
is neither less nor more than the “ lazy bed ” of our more 
northern neighbours. Whatever may be the merits or de¬ 
merits of this plan, we have certainly witnessed, during the 
last twenty years, some very profitable crops thus produced. 
However, there is no necessity to adopt the “ but” system in 
combining cabbage with potatoes. One thing we would 
advise in this combination, viz., that the cabbage should be 
from a very early spring sowing, made in the second week of 
February, on good light soil. Such would be ready to trans¬ 
plant by the time the potatoes had received their last cul¬ 
ture, about the second week of May. We should put the 
potatoes in double drills, as before suggested, each pair of 
drills nine inches apart in themselves, and at least three 
feet from the next pair of drills. By the time the potatoes 
are removed, the cabbage will bear a heavy earthing-up. 
Early Potatoes with Broad Beans.—A very useful mixed 
crop for people in a small way, for they may thus “ snatch," 
as it is termed, the beans requisite for culinary purposes, 
at least, without occupying a special plot. Manuring and dig¬ 
ging as for other crops, the potatoes planted early, and the 
beans any time from the end of February to the middle of 
April. We may now say something about late potatoes, 
both of later kinds for the main crops, and also, if combined 
with other crops, planted somewhat later. For such, what¬ 
ever is combined with them, must be supposed to be with¬ 
drawn first from the soil, leaving the late potatoes sole occu¬ 
piers, in order that the crop may be ample, and that they 
may acquire a perfectly sound and keeping character with 
the greatest amount of quality. Our readers will see that, 
in the case of early potatoes, we have taken it as a necessary 
condition that the potatoes be first removed, and the reverse 
with the late ones. 
Late Potatoes with Cabbage. —It was supposed neces¬ 
sary, in former days, for cabbage to stand a long while on 
the ground. It was common, in many gardens, to plant 
the large kinds in October, and to let them remain until 
April of the second spring, thus making eighteen months. 
Now, although cabbage stumps in highly manured ground 
will produce abundance of sprouts after the heads are cut, 
yet, such a corn'se involves but a short-sighted policy at best, 
inasmuch as it impedes the course of a proper rotation, and 
tends to clog the principle of associative or mixed crops; 
moreover, in these days, we have such excellent varieties 
of cabbage, producing much bulk of nutritious food in 
a very small compass, such as the Matchless, the Nonpa¬ 
reil, Shilling’s, Ac. Thus, good Matchless cabbage sown 
in the first week of August, and “pricked out” betimes, 
will he a very stout plant by the time some of the root- 
crops are removed in October, when the ground may be 
manured and deep dug immediately, and planted with the 
cabbage preparatory to the introduction of late potatoes in 
spring. Now, if the allotment holder fully understands 
the utility of always having a few plants at hand, he will sow 
cabbage every month from the beginning of February to the 
end of August. Thus provided, we would plant a couple of 
rows of very strong plants of the July sowing just where the 
row of potatoes w'ere to be, and those of a month’s later 
sowing in all the intervening spaces. Thus the July solving 
might be drawn up straight a-head in the beginning of 
April, bunched, and sent to market, thus making way for a 
single or double drill of potatoes. The remaining portion 
would stand until the middle of May, at which period they 
will have nice hearts, and may be bunched as before, and 
hurried into market. We can now fancy the cottier saying 
that he wants to grow cabbages for his family’s use, and a 
laudable object too. We will, however, show him how to do 
this, and put an extra pound or two in his pocket besides. 
Let him,then, plant all the cabbages required for his family 
on portions of the ground where they are not compelled to 
be hurried off; we grow some thousands every year in four 
feet beds on mere borders. One bed of ten feet long by 
four feet in length produces, at least, eighty nice “Match¬ 
less” cabbages. To return to the late potatoes, the drills 
must be nearly four feet apart; that is our practice. But a 
drill is drawn on each side of this four feet line, thus re¬ 
ducing that distance; in fact, the potatoes are planted in 
double drills, as before described. The potatoes may be 
cleared and thoroughly cultivated after the cabbages are 
gone, and the “ breathing-room ” between the double drills 
will be found not bj any means waste ground, for the po¬ 
tatoes will stretch freely out, and we will engage that, each 
drill in that amount produces thirty per cent, more produce 
than continuous drills. 
Late Potatoes and Broad Beans. —In this case we must 
turn the tables awhile. With the early potatoes as an 
associative, we talked of planting the Broad beans in March 
or April. We have now to support the bean planting as 
early as possible, for they are naturally a late article. In¬ 
deed, plant as early as we will, the beans cannot ho cleared 
away before the end of July, therefore we assuredly see 
little gain in alternate rows of beans and potatoes. We ] 
have, however, known this combination a very useful and 
successful one, when the potatoes were planted in the “ bouts’’ 
before described. Our favourite plan, nevertheless, would 
be double drills, which, although at first sight apparently an 
unworthy compromise between the drill and the “ bout,” is 
assuredly in several cases a very profitable course of culture. 
In such a course, the ground should he prepared in the 
autumn or early in the spring, with the necessary amount 
