12 
A KITCHEN GARDEN 
plowed well under, where it would take the roots a 
long time to reach it, will burn the young plants 
up if the season should happen to be a dry one. 
The great value of compost in starting young plants 
is that it affords rich food in proper form for the 
tender young rootlets, enabling the young plants to 
make a quick, tender growth, which is very essential 
if vegetables of fine quality are desired. By fall 
manuring and plowing the whole garden is com¬ 
posted, while the action of the frost on the lumps and 
ridges pulverizes them, leaving the soil in a fine, 
friable condition. 
LAYING OUT THE GARDEN. 
It is most convenient to have the garden as nearly 
square as possible, which in our garden of one acre 
will be 208 x 208 feet. This makes the length of the 
rows a very good measure of the quantity to be 
grown, and affords as many rows to the ground as 
can be profitably worked, for it is desirable that the 
rows should be as nearly east and west as possible, 
and they should be the long way of the plot (if not 
a square), as it will result in great saving of time 
in planting and cultivating. Moving the line and 
drawing the cultivators out of one row and turning 
into the next, takes nearly as much time as the work¬ 
ing of the short row. 
In plowing, a good, wide headland should be left 
at each end of the garden; it should be wide enough 
to allow the horse and cultivator to come clear out 
from between the rows and to turn into the next 
