May 2ti. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
143 
! 
be as dark as possible, contrasting brightly with the 
scarlet, pink, and white. 
3rd. The Pod or Elower-cup. — This is green, and 
should be long and large, to enable the flower to burst 
equally on every side. Many varieties require a ligature 
to prevent the bursting unequally, but there are some 
that do not require this, and these are very desirable. 
Most kinds of Picotees open equally without being tied. 
T. Appleby, 
THINNING OF CROPS. 
In a season like the present, when we hear of so 
many disasters befalling various crops, a chapter on 
thinning may, perhaps, at first sight appear superfluous; 
but as seasons like the present have been followed at 
times by periods of extraordinary productiveness, it ] 
may be proper here to point out the evils which an ' 
omission of thinning sometimes occasions, as well as j 
the benefits arising from its performance at the right 
time, and in a proper manner. 
In this important practice I at once affirm, that extreme 
measures have never had my concurrence. We have 
all heard, over and over again, the advantages of “ thin 
sowing,” and some agricultural enthusiasts have gone 
the length of saying, that a man might carry sufficient 
corn in his pocket to sow half-an-acre of ground, and 
have, accordingly, set forth the folly (not to say sin) of 
wasting such valuable food, in merely throwing it away. 
Now, this reads well in a reported speech or paragraph, 
yet, somehow or other, that mighty personage, the 
“ Public at large,” does not seem to place much con¬ 
fidence in it; and the few who have tried it find it not 
to answer their expectations, otherwise it would he 
repeated. Though I am far from thinking that the 
same quantity of seed-corn per acre will be wanted 
when a better description of husbandry is adopted, 
still I am far from thinking that the time has yet 
arrived for its universal application to the extent its 
most ardent advocates insist upon; but, as this is the 
farmer’s business, I must beg pardon for the digression, 
which, however, was only for the purpose of showing 
that thin sowing, or a thin plant, was not altogether a 
horticultural affair, because our brethren of the whole¬ 
sale way had attempted the same thing on a larger 
scale, and with that varied success which leaves the : 
matter still undecided. 
Garden productions are usually held to be too im¬ 
portant and essential to be risked for the mere object of 
saving a little seed, the expense of which bears hut a 
small proportion to the anxiety and loss which attends 
the failure of a crop. On the other hand, we are fully 
alive to the necessity of thinning, or even “ thin seed¬ 
ing,” certain portions of the ground which are under a 
robust crop, and capable of enduring the attacks of 
vermin, and the other vicissitudes to which they arc 
liable. These considerations render it imperative on us 
to ascertain the nature of the plants under trial before 
too much reliance be put on the wholesale system of 
merely putting into the ground the number of seeds 
wanted to produce permanent plants. This will do with 
many things which are sufficiently robust to ensure 
their escaping the mishaps to which many little plants 
are subject. Of the class which may be deemed 
“ certain growers,” the common Broad Bean stands 
pre-eminent, coming up with a strength, and being 
so unpalatable to vermin, as at once to bid defiance to 
the “small fry” which attack the more diminutive 
Turnip and others. With that admirable providence 
which we see carried into detail everywhere, the Creator 
has presented us with innumerable seeds of the latter, 
compared with those of the former, no doubt, with 
the wise end of feeding the numerous family of the 
smaller animals which continually wage war against 
them, yet to furnish a sufficiency on which the future 
crop is to depend. The gist of the subject is, that when 
seeds form an expensive item in the crop, economy in 
their use must be enforced by all means ; but where they 
form only an insignificant portion of the value of the 
crop, then do not let a false economy induce you to 
endanger it for the sake of a pinch of seed. 
This brings us to the more important part of our 
subject, and on which we may, with perfect safety, give 
an unqualified opinion, i. e., the thinning of such crops 
in due time. This has been little dwelt upon by horti¬ 
cultural writers, probably from the fact, that they think 
that everybody must know that such and such crops 
require proper thinnings. Yet, there are often sad 
mistakes made in omitting to perform this necessary 
operation at the right time; plants that ought to be 
making to themselves an elongated root downward, 
exercise this power with the stem upwards, to the sacri¬ 
fice of the more legitimate object; while plants which are 
wanted to attain a certain amount of lateral growth are 
wedged up so as to render that development impossible. 
These evils, with many more, are the result of not 
attending in time to the proper thinning of plants 
intended to attain some degree of robust growth and 
perfection. But while we say “ Thin in time,” it is not 
necessary, in every case, to do so with severity, for, like 
the disbudding of fruit-trees, it is better to be done 
piece-meal, and in such a way as to reserve a sufficiency 
of plants from which to select the proper ones for per¬ 
manent purposes. 
All small crops had, therefore, better be sown toler¬ 
ably thick at first, and, as they progress, a judicious 
thinning must take place, followed by another thinning 
when the plants attain that size which denotes they are 
no longer in danger to fall a victim to the enemies of 
their more early days. This second thinning must be 
performed before anything like injury be rendered to the 
plant by their coming in contact with each other, or before 
they attain that size whereby they will derive injury at 
the hands of the operator by his rubbing through them in 
the course of his work; for although nature is very accom¬ 
modating in that respect, by quickly restoring plants to 
their wonted sturdy condition, yet we think the effort 
made to do that causes so much loss. For instance, 
when a plot of Turnips has been neglected thinning 
until the leaf-stalks have elongated to an extent as to be 
no longer capable of enduring their own weight alone, 
it is evident to all that a loss has been sustained, in the 
first place, by the plant itself attaining that improper 
growth ; and, secondly, by its having it all to remodel 
again; besides which, there is the serious loss which 
the ground has endured by the drain on its resources 
which the removed plants have occasioned ; and this 
is no light matter, for the plants destroyed have 
been withdrawing those very juices from the ground 
the proper crop is most in need of. This, therefore, 
affords one of the best of reasons for performing the 
duty as early as possible. In fact, there are very 
few cases in which thinning is likely to be done too 
'soon. On the contrary, it is too often delayed until 
a later period than it ought, and the consequence is 
the losses we have enumerated above; it is, therefore, 
not only necessary for the amateur to be vigilant in 
his attention, at the proper time, to the various root 
crops which require a considerable extent of space, but 
he must also, when needs be, give his French and 
common Beans a thinning, taking away, perhaps, one- 
half of them. Onions must be well thinned in time ; if 
they be in rows a foot apart, then about six inches 
in the row will do for them, unless the ground be 
very rich and good, when more room may be given. 
Even small plants intended for early transplanting are 
often injured by running too long unthinned. Lettuces 
