January 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
335 
future day, dispute the palm of excellence; hut now, j 
the Larch, considering every point, including usefulness 
and cheapness, claims the first rank as a national tree. 
T. Appleby. 
(To he continued.) 
AMATEUR FARMING. 
“ A Subscriber to The Cottage Gardener from the 
beginning,” having complained of being overcharged in 
some work he has had done in cultivating a piece of 
ground, and as his case may not altogether be a solitary 
one, I will make it the subject of the present chapter: 
and although I am in possession of certain facts bearing 
on the case above, yet it will be necessary to make 
certain suppositions, to supply the remainder of evidence; 
at the same time, nothing will be added but what is 
likely to be sustained by the generality of cases. 
In the first place, we will suppose a gentleman 
retiring from town or commercial pursuits to some 
pleasant abode in the country, and, probably, in a 
village. To bis dwelling he is anxious to add the 
luxuries of a garden; and, looking further away, is also 
ambitious to have a small plot of land on which to 
exercise his agricultural notions, which, in all proba¬ 
bility, are then only in embryo ; or, at best, his ideas on 
such matters are supposed not to be of greater age than 
his abode in the place he then occupies; but having 
relinquished active business pursuits, he wants a some¬ 
thing to do—a something in which to occupy his 
morning walks; and, probably, a small field becoming 
at liberty, he secures it, regardless of cost, with some¬ 
thing like a hope of exultation at the brilliant example 
he will be able to show bis neighbours. This, perhaps, 
may be an overstrained picture, yet such occurs more 
often than many are aware. So mark the result. 
Our worthy friend having obtained possession of the 
field, sets about its cultivation in earnest, and after 
looking at it dozens of times, and probably asking the 
advice of all the parish, at length finds out that horses 
are a necessary part of field labour, and working horses 
not being any portion of his establishment, he feels he 
must have recourse to hire. This, alas, is sadly against 
the hope of making such an undertaking a profitable 
one; for farming, like manufacturing,must be done on a 
scale of certain extent to pay, and those who have to 
hire horse labour can hardly ever make it do so. 
This, however, brings us on to another stage of the 
proceedings. 
Leaving our worthy friend to settle with a neighbour¬ 
ing farmer the precise time when his little holding has 
to be ploughed, as well as the terms on which it is to 
be done, we will suppose him to have another small 
field, as well as this tillage one, in which he keeps a 
cow, and, perhaps, a pony. Now, in the plans he 
has in view, it is likely he wishes to work the two 
together in such a way as to derive the most benefit 
from both. His cow wants food in winter as well as 
in summer, and if, in his arrangements, he can so con¬ 
trive the cropping as to effect that object, his purpose 
is served; besides which, the wants of his table have also 
to be consulted, and if the district be a favourable one, 
a more than usual proportion of Potatoes may not be 
altogether an unprofitable speculation. All these con¬ 
siderations must be borne in mind when the cropping 
of the ai-able field takes place, or rather when it is pre¬ 
paring to be cropped, for the plans which decide its 
cropping ought to he well considered and decided upon 
some time beforehand. 
It will usually be most prudent to have two or more 
crops in the field at once, for the quantities wanted of 
each not being large, a greater variety may be ob¬ 
tained. Thus, for instance, if the spring be far spent 
when the tillage of the field is complete, it would not be 
prudent to plant many Potatoes, because these ought to 
be put in early, but there is plenty of time for the other 
root-crops—as Mangold Wurzel, Carrots, Swedes, &c., 
and as these are all valuable as root-crops, a fair pro¬ 
portion ot each ought to be sown, aud duly attended to, 
in order to have that supply in winter which is so much 
wanted. It would be superfluous giving directions here 
which of these to sow most of, because local circum¬ 
stances usually determine that, for it is not every piece 
of ground that will grow them all equally well. The 
long Belgian Carrot, for instance, requiring a much 
deeper soil than will often produce a fair crop of Swedes. 
Mangold Wurzel is a root that grows more above ground, 
yet the long kinds of it require a generous soil; never¬ 
theless. it will grow on all kinds middling well, only it 
need hardly be repeated, that when the long Carrots, or 
long Mangold Wurzel are grown, the manure that is put 
in, if of a bulky kind, ought to be buried pretty deep ; 
but if it be of such kinds as guano, or other manures 
which take up but little room, its being worked in near 
the top will do no harm, as its presence there is not so 
likely to entice the roots to remain near the surface, as 
a patch of unctuous dung at the same place would do, 
occasioning what is called “ forked root3,” i.e., a sub¬ 
division of the main leaders into two or three useless 
short tubers, and a coarse, useless, head or top. To 
avoid this, the manure for a root-crop had better be 
worked into the bottom of the trench than remain near 
the top, except as above, when it is in a consolidated 
shape, or when it is of a soluble kind; in the latter 
case, natural causes will send it down. However, as 
the description of manure often depends on local cir¬ 
cumstances, it is right to mention, that for very stiff, 
heavy land, lime or chalk, in a liberal quantity, ought to 
be given in preference to guano and other chemical 
manures, which can only be administered in small 
quantities. It is also advisable to give light, sandy, or 
gravelly soils only such manures as serve the purposes 
of the current season, for such soils do not retain for 
the use of another year the unexhausted powers of manure 
so well as a stiff or more retentive one. A soil, resting 
on chalk, is usually more stiff than one having a sand, 
gravel, or strong subsoil, and the pale colour which 
chalk gives it prevents the sun heating it so much as it 
does one of another description. But all these pecu¬ 
liarities do not render good cultivation, in the shape of 
ploughing or digging, one whit less necessary; on the 
contrary, the only advantage to be derived in that way 
is from a propitious season, say like the spring of 1854, 
which favoured the working of soils very much. The 
other features must be left to local circumstances. 
Having determined on the description of crop, and 
the proportion of each, let the ground be well worked 
over several times in dry weather, and all weeds and 
other rubbish be taken out, and the seed ought to be 
sown at proper times, which for White Carrots ought to 
be about the middle of April; while Mangold Wurzel 
and Swedes need not be sown until the first or second 
week in May ; but much depends on the character of 
the spring; if cold and wet there is no immediate hurry; 
but if it be dry, and the prospect of remaining so, lose no 
time in sowing the seed whenever a shower occurs after 
the third week in April; for it sometimes happens that the 
season sets in dry, and there is great difficulty in getting 
small seeds to vegetate. Turnips are worse in this 
respect than Mangold Wurzel, but both are bad, es¬ 
pecially if the land on which they are sown be rough ; 
for the rough knobs or lumps of earth, allowing so 
much of the drying air to circulate between them, the 
seed withers rather than vegetates; while in a finer, 
or more mellow medium, there is always moisture 
below capable of rising, by capillary attraction, sufficient 
to meet the purposes of germination; at all events, 
