270 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 5. 
with an old garden (a deep loam, with its surface black 
from long culture), which came into occupation as a con¬ 
ciliatory conclusion to letting some land; it was willingly 
given up by tho lessee as being a patch of ground compara¬ 
tively worthless,'and which, indeed, would scarcely grow 
turnips larger than hen’s eggs : we shall see. 
Firstly, the hedge was “plashed” around, and a dressing 
of road-scrapings hauled on, and spread at the rate of sixty 
loads to the acre. It was then bastard-trenched two feet 
deep, the crumbs between the spits only being shovelled 
upon the surface. This trenching affair caused a sensation 
rather, though little was said to me upon the subject, with 
the exception of one man, who evidently considered me as 
all in the wrong. Poor fellow 1 his build was Herculean; 
he was once “ I’ th’local,” and his bearing was upright as a 
ramrod. I believe he has never to this day forgiven me about 
that trenching ; the “ back aches,” the “ wet shirts,” and 
the “ right down hard work,” which he was sure to greet me 
with, and as surely to meet with my pity, was something to 
lament and laugh about at the same time. Once, though, 
a terrible row happened. James did not go about his work 
quite to my satisfaction, and upon my intimation of the 
same, it caused him to dash down his spade, and boldly 
confess that he “ knew how to trench before I was born.” 
I could only appease his offended dignity by assuring him, 
that the individual who taught me to trench was a person 
much younger than myself. What time the horse, the 
cows, and the pigs did not engage him, he employed during 
the winter about this process, and the hardship was more 
in the breach than tho endurance. A top-dressing of wood- 
ashes was applied, and seeds of the While Belgian Carrot, 
and of the Yellow Globe, and Lung Red Mangold Wurtzels, 
were sown in drills,—the first twenty-four, and the latter 
thirty inches apart, during the beginning of April; the 
Carrots becoming finally tbinned-out to nine inches, the 
AVurtzels to eighteen inches, and I shall never forget the 
splendid crops as a result. I could have run hard upon 
the heels of a prize with samples of each of those roots at 
any show in the kingdom. The Wurtzels were consumed 
by the cows and pigs, a part of the Carrots by the horse, 
and thirty cwt. were sold as “wonderments”—quite a new 
feature—in Ludlow market, at 5s. per cwt. 
My second experience refers to the garden now in occu¬ 
pation. It has been under cultivation for culinary vegetables 
upwards of two hundred years, and for a long time had lain 
under the bane of being a piece of ground occasioning more 
expense than it was worth. The miserable specimens of 
crops, with the altogether, that greeted me on my first in¬ 
troduction after what I had been led to expect, was some¬ 
thing lugubrious in the extreme, and would certainly have 
disheartened any person not accustomed to look beyond the 
surface of things. With me, to probe the subsoil was an 
object for instant operation. I found it all right, not pri¬ 
mitive, but it had never been disturbed since the garden 
was made ; below the depth of thirty inches a wet plastic 
clay presented itself, which made me decide at once for 
drains. It is now six winters since, reckoning with the 
present, that a re-arrangement of the whole thing took 
place,—a mere sow’s ear” affair; but the ground was 
drained, and sorted, plain trenching I cannot call it, for 
what with a new fruit border, shifting walks, and so on, 
the whole body of the soil became removed into a new posi¬ 
tion ; care was taken, however, to keep the subsoil down as 
much as possible. Several year’s collection of rotted debris 
—famous as a preserve for rats—was cleared out of a back 
yard, and added as the completion, a planting went on, and 
this was all the manure afforded. 
Just before sowing-time, soot and salt was applied as a 
top-dressing, and the greater part of the ground became 
i cropped with Potatoes ; the result gave over two hundred 
; sacks for the acre, and the bountiful produce the soil has 
since continued to yield, coupled with the vigorous health 
1 of the fruit-trees and ornamental shrubs, shows plainly the 
I principle upon which old gardens can be renovated; and, 
let me add, all holdings whatsoever, be they great or small, 
agricultural or horticultural. For my own part, rather than 
allow the excuse about a want of dung to distress me, I 
would break up the most uncongenial subsoil as a means 
for far more recompense. 
Practice and science will, it is to bo hoped, soon join 
hand in hand never more to be parted, and then prejudice 
and ignorance must give way, for, of all that has been 
done and written, from Columella down to Mr. Mechi, we 
still really appear but just stepping upon the threshold of 
a thorough Igiowledge of the capabilities of the soil. Com¬ 
paring notes with what has been achieved for its sister 
sciences, we need only consider tho advancements effected 
in the breeds of animals, and the steady improvements 
from good to better in the floral, fruit, vegetable, and cereal 
products, to become aware that a laxity—and this is the 
more surprising, the land being a great first cause—prevails 
towards an equal consideration for its merits. "When a soil 
neglected, capable only of yielding a beggarly produce one 
year, can, by merely breaking-up the subsoil, and with a 
trifling extraneous aid be made to yield enormous crops 
the next year, the question naturally intrudes, How is it 
that this process is so little entered upon or thought of ? 
There is nothing abstruse about the matter practically, 
although, abstractedly, it points to the laboratory of the 
chemist and the way of science. The answer appears to 
resolve itself—The man who breeds an improved Short¬ 
horn, or introduces a Sebright Bantam, raises a superior 
description of fruit, and improves the properties of grain, 
ifcc., seldom achieved these things by chance; a vast amount 
of study and perseverance have been required to form the 
animal, and bring the produce to wliat we now find them, 
and generations have been required to do it in ; yet still 
the work goes on, and the inquiry at last arises—What 
their original parents ? and whence the wheat and barley ? 
An experiment with Barley, by-the-by, just forces itself 
upon my recollection. At page 208 of the last volume, I 
related the circumstance, perhaps some of my readers may 
feel interested if I explain the result. Personally curious, 
and when the scythe was in full operation upon its name¬ 
sake, I again took train, and the 22nd of August found me 
once more, note-book in hand, at the Oxford Botanic 
Gardens; it would have been as well had I deferred my 
visit until somewhat later, for the Barley, being shaded by 
the trees from the morning sun, was not so ripe as I 
thought to find it. According to my judgment this was 
the state of the boxes—No. 1, red chalk; No. 4, common 
earth; and No. 7, Herefordshire iron and stone; showed 
their crops very nearly equal in straw and grain. No. 1 
(possibly attributable to its situation) was the ripest, and 
its corn the finest. No. 2, oolite; No. 3, Brighton chalk; 
and No. 5, sand ; claimed the second degree—a very mode¬ 
rate result. No. fi, Skiddaw slate, and No. 8, a slate, were 
failures—plucked decidedly. Probably many other persons 
took an equal interest in this experiment with myself. It is 
a step in the right direction ; and the more public trials we 
meet with of this sort, the quicker shall we be enabled to 
form our ideas for practical purposes. It would be well if 
such experiments were carried out plurally in different 
parts of the country at tho same time, and conclusions 
compared. Upwards and Onwards. 
LETTER FROM AN EMIGRANT GARDENER 
IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
Two or three years since, the writer of the following letter 
lived as gardener with a gentleman in Ipswich. He left his 
situation with his wife, and, I believe, two children, to settle 
in Australia. Subsequently, his father, who was a working 
gardener, also joined him, taking over tho rest of the family. 
The letter was sent to a cottager of his acquaintance residing 
in my parish, and on its being shown to me, I obtained his 
permission to copy it forinsertion in the “Cottage Gardener,” 
thinking that it would interest not only other gardeners but 
your readers in general. P. S., Rushmere. 
“ Pastures Farm, South Australia, 
“ April, 1853. 
“ Dear Friend.—An opportunity now offers itself for me to 
send a few lines as you wished me to do so in a letter I 
received from you a short time since, and for which I am 
obliged. I have been living as gardener to Captain Sturt, 
up to November, 1851, when I left him, and had a liberal 
offer made me to take a piece of land, which I accepted, and 
