8 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1902. 
10TH Lesson. 
SECOND STAGE. 
In the First Book and in the preceding nine lessons of this Second Book, I 
have, I hope, given you sufficient elementary instruction to enable you to 
comprehend what is to follow. 
Let us now suppose that you have a small garden, on which you intend to 
put into practice Ste you have so far learned. The first thing to do is to 
decide what you intend to produce in the shape of vegetables. I say nothing 
about flower gardening ; that branch of horticulture is a very different business 
to that of vegetable-growing, and requires considerable care and attention, 
besides a special knowledge of flowering plants and of the operations of 
budding, grafting, pruning, hybridising, which are not required in producing 
the ordinary market vegetables. 
Having, then, decided to grow what the Americans call “garden truck”— 
that is, peas, beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, radishes, and even potatoes— 
your first business will be to break up the soil. You will, of course, have taken 
care that you have a fair water supply, either from a freshwater creek, water- 
hole, dam, or tank. The object of breaking up the soil, as you have learned, is 
to get a deep bed for the roots of the plants, and the object of riiaGE is to 
reduce the soil to a fine state of rrurm. Ina small garden this is best done 
with a spade or digging fork. Start by digging to a depth of, say, 8 inches. 
Throw the soil forward, and dig on from one side of the garden to the other, 
throwing the soil forward. You will then have a trench, which you fill in as 
you start on the next “sprr,’ throwing the sods in so as to bury the grass, 
which, as you know, will act as a manure by and by. When the whole garden 
has been thus roughly dug up, leave it in the rough state, so that it may get 
the benefit of the sun, air, rain, or frost to pulverise, sweeten, and mellow it. 
You will soon begin to see the effect of ie agents acting on the rough 
surface—in the crumbling of the surfaces of the rough clods. Then is your 
time to set to work and thoroughly till the soil, turning it over and over and 
stirring it till you have so completely broken it up that it forms a deep, soft 
seed bed. Now you may lay out your beds. Long, narrow beds are preferable 
to large square or oblong ones, because you can work at the former without 
treading down and hardening the soft soil, which you would do in the case of 
large beds. If you look at a Chinaman’s garden you will see that all the 
vegetable beds are narrow. Watch him at work, cultivating or watering: he 
never walks on the beds, because they are narrow enough to allow of being 
worked and watered from the pathways. 
If you intend to grow cabbages and cauliflowers, and other vegetables 
which require planting out, make small seed beds, and sow the seeds thinly in 
rows about 6 inches apart. Some market gardeners sow the seed Broavcast, 
but by sowing in rows you are able to work the soil between the plants, keep- 
ing down the weeds and preserving the fine tilth, and hence preventing the 
evaporation of moisture at the same time. Remember that seeds should not be 
covered deeply. Usually a covering of fine soil equalin depth to the size of 
the seed is sufficient. It is also well, before sowing, to give the bed a thorough 
good drenching with water—not just a surface sprinkling. On the following 
morning give it another good watering, and in the evening sow the seed, pro- 
tecting it from the heat of the sun by sticking in some small branches here and 
there, till the young plants have sprung up and gained strength. In this way 
you sow cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, beetroot, celery, endive, leeks, onions, 
and other vegetables which require planting out. It is best to make small 
sowings at different times, so that you may have a constant succession of 
vegetables coming on as the older ones are removed. Carrots, turnips, peas, 
beans, parsnips, radishes, vegetable marrow, cucumbers, melons, &c., are sown 
in beds, but are not transplanted. The important point in connection with 
these is thinning them out. You cannot sow their small seeds so evenly that 
