be a 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 
to which we have been largely indebted in the 
drawing up of the present article—“ There is one 
circumstance which every manager of a garden, 
especially those who are confined to a limited 
spot of ground, should ever be well aware of; 
| and that is the practicability of having a con- 
stantly recurring succession of crops on the same 
piece of ground. This is a practice which farm 
or rural labourers in general are but little ac- 
quainted with; though, when judiciously plan- 
ned and executed, it is of the greatest advantage. 
Mixed crops are allowable in cottage gardening ; 
for instance, a sprinkling of radish and coss-let- 
tuce may be sown with the onions; and when 
the radish and lettuce are drawn, being ready for 
use, the onions suffer no injury. Broad beans 
are sometimes planted at the same time and in 
the same drill with potatoes, and without any 
very visible damage to the latter crop. But in 
order to keep the ground in full employment, all 
the crops, that is the standing crops, must be 
sown or planted in drills or rows, with the inten- 
tion that, before the first crop is off, another shall 
be put in the intermediate spaces to follow in 
succession. This is quite practicable with all the 
cabbage tribe, or with any other kind of vege- 
table which may be used in any stage of their 
growth. Of this description are the cabbage, 
savoy, onion, lettuce, &c.; and when such are 
planted alternately with others, which must 
stand to acquire full perfection, the first may be 
used out of the way as soon as they press injuri- 
ously upon the second. In this way, many more 
useful vegetables may be raised on a given por- 
tion of land than by the old-fashioned custom of 
sowing broadcast, only one patch of each of the 
common sorts occupying the ground for the whole 
summer. Hven the onion ground may be planted 
with cabbages just before the former are fit to 
pull, which plants, whether savoys or common 
| cabbage, become fine useful stuff before Christ- 
mas. This constant routine of cropping and re- 
cropping may be considered as out of the power 
of a day-labourer to perform; but, whether he 
may have time or not, it is highly proper that he 
should be made acquainted with every practical 
matter which he may endeavour to turn to his 
| advantage.” 
Both the general principles of cultivation, and 
_ the special principles applicable to each parti- 
cular crop, are abundantly taught in other parts 
of our work; yet two or three rules, so modified 
as to have a.very special bearing upon the man- 
agement of the cottage garden, may here be 
stated. ‘The soil ought to be worked with either 
spade or hoe, only when in a dry or nearly dry 
condition, and never when drenched with rain, 
or otherwise full of moisture. The seeds of beans 
should be dibbled into the ground, and the seeds 
of onions made firm in the soil by treading with 
the feet after they are sown, for both beans and 
onions form the -most vigorous young roots in 
firm soil; but all other seeds should be sown in 
COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. 879 
thoroughly pulverized and pretty dry soil, and 
allowed to strike root in as loose and friable a 
texture of it as can be produced. Unless when 
the surface to be sown or planted is partly occu- 
pied with growing crops, every sowing or trans- 
planting should be made in recently-digged and 
quite freshly stirred soil; and even on pre-occu- 
pied ground, the portions to be sown or planted 
ought, immediately before sowing, to be stirred 
to the utmost extent compatible with the inter- 
ests of the growing crop. All perennial weeds 
ought to be carefully eradicated; and all annual. 
weeds destroyed before they come into flower. 
All coarse herbage of grasses or weeds collected 
into the compost heap ought to be hurried into 
fermentation by repeated turnings, and should not 
be spread upon the soil till they are in a suffi- 
ciently advanced state of decomposition to afford 
security against their seeds germinating, and 
producing a crop of weeds. Small seed-beds of 
different varieties of cabbage, and perhaps of let- 
tuce, or of any similar plant, should be kept up 
to afford a constant supply of seedlings for filling 
up every yard of ground as it becomes vacant. 
Any attempt to cultivate fruit-trees in a cottage 
garden is absurd; but a row of gooseberry bush- 
es, interspersed with two or three white or red 
currant bushes, and arranged along the foot of 
the garden, is not amiss.—Quarterly Journal of 
Agriculture—Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society — Sir John Sinclair's General Report of 
Scotland. Martin Doyle's Works.—Cobbett—Mawe. 
—Johnson.— Miller. 
COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. Hither the cottier 
cultivation of garden or allotment plots, vary- 
ing in size from two perches to two acres, but 
usually ranging between half a rood and two 
roods, or the agricultural cultivation of regularly 
appointed farms of very small extent, usually 
ranging between five and ten acres. The former 
is the kind of cottage husbandry which prevails 
in Britain, and will be found fully discussed in 
our articles Annorment System, Cottage GaR- 
DENING, and Spapr Huspanpry. ‘The latter pre- 
vails in Ireland, and, so far as it is sound in 
practice, or manageable on principles of true 
economy, is discussed concurrently with British 
husbandry throughout the numerous agricultural 
articles of our work. The defects and peculiari- 
ties of Irish husbandry exist rather in the low 
moral condition and comparative agricultural 
ignorance of the people, than in the smallness of 
their farms, and might easily be made to dis- 
appear without any reference whatever to sup- 
posed difference of either status or resource hbe- 
tween the peasant-farmer who occupies a cottage 
upon six acres and the gentleman-farmer who 
occupies a fine villa upon a thousand acres. The 
following report by Mr. Nicholl upon the condi- 
tion and practices of the peasant farmers of Bel- 
gium will throw more light upon the subject of 
Irish cottage husbandry than a whole volume of 
speculation and advice :— 
el 
