iS 
 
 Ci 
 Thi 
 
 Glass c 
 
 Book__:iii 
 
 Sm5 <-' 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
A TREATISE 
 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 A CONCISE HISTORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS ; THE 
 
 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ART ABROAD AND 
 
 AT HOME, AND THE THEORY AND 
 
 PRACTICE OF HUSBANDRY. 
 
 ^-^»e-"WHTClt -IS ADDED, 
 A DISSERTATION ON THE KITCHEN AND FRUIT GARDEN. 
 
 RY JOHN ARMSTRONG. 
 
 WITH NOTES BY J. BUEL. 
 
 NE^ Yj6rK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 
 1864. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, l>y 
 
 Harper & Brothers, 
 In tlie Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York 
 
 Ay tt&aaiec n.oi» 
 
 Ih&t. Omce Llto, 
 
 4|MriJ 1014 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 After Gen. Armstrong had retired from public to 
 private life, and turned his attention particularly to 
 rural pursuits, he wrote the following treatise on 
 agriculture for the Albany Argus, then conducted 
 by the subscriber. To give it to the public in a less 
 perishable shape than the columns of a newspaper, 
 it was afterward published in book form. The ob- 
 ject of General Armstrong was " to contribute his 
 aid," to use his language, '* in giving to the study 
 and practice of agriculture a new and increased 
 impulse throughout the state ; and he supposed 
 this could be best done by exhibiting concisely the 
 origin and progress of the art, its present condition 
 abroad and at home, and, lastly, the theory and 
 practice in relation to it which have arisen out of 
 the present philosophical attainments in Europe." 
 
 At a subsequent period, at our request, the gen- 
 eral wrote two essays, one upon the kitchen, 
 and the other upon the fruit garden, which were 
 published in the second and third volumes of the 
 Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture. As there 
 were but few copies of either the treatise or the 
 memoirs printed, the circulation was, of course, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 limited, and the supply inadequate to the demand. 
 Now that a taste for agricultural information and 
 agricultural improvement has become more gen- 
 eral, and that these writings are not to be found 
 in the market, the subscriber has been induced to 
 unite them in one volume, and to subjoin such 
 notes as a lapse of twenty years has, in a meas- 
 ure, rendered expedient, on account of the im- 
 provements which have, during that time, been 
 made in rural economy ; and, in preparing this 
 new edition, he is persuaded that he is rendering 
 an acceptable service to the agriculturist and to 
 the community at large. 
 
 J. BUEL. 
 Albany, June, 1839. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Of the Rise and Progress of Agriculture . , . Page 9 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 Of the actual State of Agriculture in Europe ... 13 
 
 CHAPTER nr. 
 
 Theory of Vegetation . 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of the Analysis of Soils, and the agricultural relations between 
 Soils and Plants 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of practical Agriculture and its necessary Implements . 52 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Of Manures ; their management and application . . 58 
 
 CHAPTER Vir.» 
 Of Tillage, and the Principles on which it is founded . 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of a Rotation of Crops, and the Principles on which it is found- 
 ed 72 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the Plants recommendecl for a course of Crops in the prece- 
 ding chapter, and their culture 77 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of other Plants useful in a Rotation of Crops, and adapted to our 
 Climate 105 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Of Meadows Page 113 
 
 CHAPTER Xll. 
 Of Farm Cattle 122 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Of the Dairy 133 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Of Orchards 141 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Of the Kitchen Garden .150 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Of the Fruit Garden . »17 
 
A TREATISE 
 
 ON 
 
 A G^R I C U L T U R E 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 The origin of this art is lost among the fables of 
 antiquity, and we have to regret that, in the present 
 stale of knowledge, we are even ignorant of the 
 time when the plough was invented, and of the 
 name and condition of the inventor.* When, there- 
 fore, we speak of the beginning of the art, we but al- 
 lude to certain appearances which indicate its exist- 
 ence, and the employment given by it to the minds, 
 as well as to the hands of mankind. Such were 
 the artificial canals and lakes of Egypt. Menaced 
 at one time by a redundancy of water, and at an- 
 other by its scarcity or want, the genius of that 
 very extraordinary people could not but employ it- 
 self, promptly and strenuously, in remedying these 
 evils, and eventually in converting them into bene- 
 fits ; and hence it was, that, when other parts of the 
 world exhibited little more of agricultural knowl- 
 edge than appertains to the state of nature ima- 
 gined by philosophers, the Egyptians thoroughly un- 
 derstood and skilfully practised irrigation, that most 
 
 * This invention has been attributed to Osiris. See Millot's 
 Gen. Hist. 
 
10 AGRICULTURE : 
 
 scientific and profitable branch of the art.* Like 
 their own Nile, their populalion had its overflow, 
 which colonized Carthage and Greece,! and carried 
 with it the talent and intelligence of the mother 
 country. The former of these states, though es- 
 sentially commercial, had its plantations; and so 
 highly prized were the agricultural works of Mago, 
 that, when Carthage was captured, they alone, of 
 the many books found in it, were retained and trans- 
 lated by the Romans. A similar inference may be 
 drawn from the history of Greece ; for assuredly 
 that art could not have been either unknown or 
 neglected which so long employed the pen and the 
 tongue of the great Xenophon.J It must, however, 
 be admitted that, of the ancient nations, it is only 
 among the Romans that we find real and multiplied 
 evidences of the progress of the art ; facts substi- 
 tuted for conjectures and inferences, Cato, Varro, 
 Columella, Virgil, and Pliny, wrote on the subject, 
 and it is from their works we derive the following 
 brief exposition of Roman husbandry. 
 
 The plough, the great instrument of agricultural 
 labour, was well known and generally used among 
 the Romans, and was drawn exclusively by horned 
 cattle. Of fossil manures we know that they used 
 lime, and probably marl,^ and that those of animal 
 and vegetable basis were carefully collected. At- 
 tention to this subject made part of the national re- 
 
 * The best practical illustration of this opinion is found in 
 the Valley of the Po, where " every rood of earth maintains its 
 man." 
 
 t The Egyptians might have sent some colonies into those 
 countries ; but the commonly received opinion is, that the Pe- 
 lasgi first settled Greece, and that Carthage was founded by a 
 company of Phoenicians under Queen Dido. 
 
 t Xenophon wrote several treatises on husbandry, and gave 
 public lectures on it at Scillonte, whither a weak and wicked 
 government had banished him. 
 
 ^ For the first part of this assertion we have the authority of 
 Pliny ; for the latter, the practice of their colonies both in Gaul 
 and Britain. 
 
ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 11 
 
 ligion ; the dunghill had its god, and Stercutus his 
 temple and worshippers. Their corn-crops were 
 abundant ; besides barley and far* they had three 
 species of wheats the robus or red, the siligo or 
 white, and the triticum trirnestre^ three months or 
 summer wheat; they had, besides, millet, panis, 
 zea, and rye, all of which, producing a flour conver 
 tible into bread, were known by the common name 
 of frumentum, corn or grain. Leguminous crops 
 were frequent ; the lupine, in particular, was raised 
 in abundance, and, besides being employed as a 
 manure,! entered extensively into the subsistence 
 of men, cattle, and poultry. Thfi— cultivation of 
 garden vegetables was well understood, and employ- 
 ed many hands ; and meadows, natural and artifi- 
 cial, were brought to great perfection. Lucerne and 
 fenu-gree were the basis of the latter; and pease, 
 rye, and a mixture of barley, beans and pease, called 
 farrago, were occasionally used in the stables as 
 green food. Their flocks were abundant, and formed 
 their first representative of wealth, as is sufficiently 
 indicated by their word pecunia. Vines and olives, 
 and their products, wine and oil, had a full share 
 of attention and use. The rearing of poultry made 
 an important part of domestic economy ; nor were 
 apiaries and fishponds forgotten or neglected. 
 
 Such was the husbandry of Rome when Rome 
 was mistress of the world ; and it was to this illus- 
 trious period that Pliny alluded, when, speaking of 
 the ancient fertility of the soil, he remarked, " that 
 the earth took pleasure in being cultivated by the 
 hands of men crowned with laurels and decorated 
 with triumphal honours." 
 
 * Of this last there were three kinds, neither of which is now 
 cultivated. 
 
 i The lupinus albus of Linnaeus : " many other vegetables 
 are used for this purpose, particularly the 6mn, but they do not 
 answer as well as the lupine ; when this is heated in an oven, 
 and then buried, it forn\s the most powerful of all manures." — 
 T. C. L. Simonde. Tableau de V Agriculture Toscane. 
 
 2 
 
12 AGRICULTURE : 
 
 If we pause for a moment to glance at the civil 
 institutions of this wonderful people, we discover 
 how soon and how deeply it entered into their poli- 
 cy, not merely to promote, but to dignify agricul- 
 ture and its professors.* When Cicero said that 
 "nothing in this world was better, more useful, 
 more agreeable, more worthy of a free man than 
 agriculture,"! he pronounced not only his own opin- 
 ion, but the public judgment of his age and nation. 
 Were troops to be raised for the defence of the re- 
 public, the iribus rusticus— the country or farming 
 class— was the privileged nursery of the legion.J 
 Did exigencies of state require a general or dictator, 
 he was taken from the plough. Were his services 
 to be rewarded, this was done, not with ribands or 
 gold, but by a donation of land.^ 
 
 With such support from public opinion, it was 
 not to be supposed that the laws would be either 
 adverse or indifferent to this branch of industry ; we 
 accordingly find the utmost security given to the 
 labours of the husbandman ;I| no legislative inter- 
 position between the seller and buyer; neither 
 forced sales nor limitation of prices, and a sacred- 
 ness of boundaries never disturbed ;^ fairs and mar- 
 kets multiplied and protected against invasion oi 
 interruption,** and highways leading to these every- 
 where established, and of a character to call forth 
 the highest praise and admiration. ff 
 
 * Tanus and Numa were deified for services rendered to ag- 
 riculture. 
 
 t Cicero do Officiis, 1. ii. 
 
 X This continued till the time of Marius. 
 
 ij As much as he could plough in a day. 
 
 II To cut or destroy in the night the crop of his neighbour, sub- 
 iected the Roman to death. 
 
 ^ Terminus was among their gods. 
 
 ** Assemblies of the people on days designated for fairs, and 
 on subjects other than tho.se of trade, were not lawful. 
 
 •ft The Appian Way yet remains the wonder and reproach of 
 modern times. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 13 
 
 Nor were these regulations confined to the proper 
 territory of Rome ; what of her own policy was 
 good, she communicated to her neighbours ; what 
 of theirs was better, she adopted and practised her- 
 self. Her arts and arms were therefore constant 
 companions : wherever her legions marched, her 
 knowledge, practices, and implements followed ; 
 and it is to these we are to look for the foundation 
 of modern agriculture in Italy, France, Spain, &c. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 OF THE ACTUAL STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 
 
 This is very different in different states, and even 
 in different parts of the same state : its greater or 
 less degree of perfection depending on causes phys- 
 ical or political, or both. Where a state, or part 
 of a state, from soil^ climate^ manners, or geographi- 
 cal position, draws its principal subsistence from the 
 fishery or the chase, as in the more northern parts 
 of Europe,* agriculture will not succeed ; when a 
 ' state is from any cause both essentially maritime 
 or manufacturing, as in England,! or principally 
 
 * Is not the author somewhat at fault here ? Norway is the 
 onljr country in the north of Europe where the business of fish- 
 ing is extensively followed, and it is only in the portions of that 
 continent, so far north as to be unfitted by climate for agricul- 
 ture, that wild animals abound. 
 
 t The agricultural condition of Great Britain, and particularly 
 of Scotland and of Prussia, has been greatly changed and im- 
 proved within the last 20 years ; and even Prussia has apparently 
 commenced in earnest in enlightening her agriculture, by estab- 
 lishing schools of scientific and practical instruction. The great 
 Prussian school of Moegelier, under the direction of Von Thaer, 
 
14 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 manufacturing, as in Prussia ;* where public opin- 
 ion has degraded manual labor, as in Spain, Portu- 
 gal, and the Papal territory ; or where laws villa- 
 nize it, as in Russia, Prussia, Poland, Hungary, &c., 
 &c., it is in vain to expect pre-eminent agriculture. 
 These principles will receive illustration as we go 
 along. 
 
 I. In the Campania of Rome, where, in the time 
 of Pliny, were counted twenty-three cities, the trav- 
 eller is now astonished and depressed at the silence 
 and desolation that surround him. Even from Rome 
 to Tres^ti [four leagues of road the most frequent- 
 ed], we lind only an arid plain, without trees, with- 
 out meadows natural or artificial, and without villa- 
 ges or other habitation of man ! Yet is this wretch- 
 edness not the fault of soil or climate, which, with 
 little alteration,! continue to be what they ^vere in 
 the days of Augustus. " Man is the only growth that 
 dwindles here,''"' and to his deficient or ill-directed in- 
 dustry are owing all the calamities of the scene. f 
 
 one of the most enlightened agriculturists of the age, aided by 
 the instruction in agriculture which is now given in the normal 
 and primary schools of that kingdom, has already produced a 
 wonderful improvement in Prussian agriculture. The march of 
 improvement in Scotch husbandry, m the present century, has 
 probably not been surpassed in any country ; while in England, 
 at no time has there been greater or more wisely directed efforts 
 for improvement than within the last few years. Instead of 
 manufactures depressing, it would seem that they now operate 
 as the strongest stimulant to agricultural improvement, by of 
 fering a ready home-market for the surplus products of the soil, 
 both of raw materials and provisions. This also appears to be 
 true with regard to our country. — J. B. 
 
 * Although great attention has been given to manufactures in 
 Prussia within the last half century, still it is too much to say 
 that she is "principally manufacturing." Agriculture is un 
 doubtedly, by far, the most important interest. 
 
 I The climate of Italy is now warmer than it was in the Au- 
 gustan age, which Buffon ascribesto the draining of great tracts 
 of swampy land in Germany. 
 
 X " Un Romain meme le plus indigent rougiroitde cultiver la 
 terra." — Bosc. The poorest Roman would blush to cultivate the 
 earth 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 15 
 
 Instead of devoting themselves to the hardy and 
 masculine labours of the field, the successors of Cato 
 and of Pliny are employed in fabricating sacred vases, 
 hair-powder and pomatums, artificial pearls, fiddle- 
 strings, embroidei'ed gloves, and religious relics ! They 
 are also great collectors of pictures, statues, and 
 medals — " dirty gods and coins" — and find an ample 
 reward in the ignorance and credulity of those who 
 buy them. • 
 
 II. How different from this picture is that of Tus- 
 cany ! where the soil, though less fertile,* is covered 
 with grain, with vines, and with cattle ; and where 
 a surface of 1200 square leagues subsists a popula- 
 tion of 950,000 inhabitants, of which 80,000 are ag- 
 riculturists. f It may amuse, if it does not instruct, 
 the reader, to offer a few details of a husbandry 
 among the most distinguished of the present age. 
 The plough of northern Europe, like that of this 
 country, has the power of a wedge, and acts hori- 
 zontally ; that of Tuscany has the same direction, 
 but a very different form. With the outline of a 
 shovel, it consists of two inclined planes sloping 
 from the centre, and forming a gutter and two ridg- 
 es. This instrument is particularly adapted to the 
 loose and friable texture of the soil. A second 
 plough of the same shape, but of smaller size, fol- 
 lows that already described, and, with the aid of the 
 hoe and the spade,| throws the earth, already bro- 
 
 * " Two thirds of Tuscany consists of mountains." Vol. viii., 
 p. 232, Geographique Mathematique et physique. See also Forsyth's 
 remarks, p. 80, where are detailed the principal causes of her 
 prosperity. " Leopold," says he, "m selling the crown lands, 
 studiously divided large tracts of rich but neglected land into 
 iinall properties. His favourite plan of encouragmg agriculture 
 consisted, not in boards, societies, and premiums, but in giving the 
 labourer a security and interest in the soil, in multiplying small free- 
 holds, in extending the livelli or life leases," &c., &c. 
 
 t Tuscany, including the islands belonging to it, is stated to 
 have a superficial area of about 8000 square miles, and, by the 
 last census, somewhat more than 1,. 300,000 inhabitants. 
 
 X It is among the most important covenants of a Tuscan .ease, 
 
16 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ken and pulverized, into four- feet ridges or beds, 
 on which the crop is sown. The furrows answer a 
 threefold purpose ; they drain the beds of excessive 
 moisture, ventilate the growing crops, and supply 
 paths for the weeders. 
 
 The rotation of crops employs two periods of dif- 
 ferent lengtli ; the one of three, the other of five 
 years. In the rotation of three years the ground 
 is sown five times, and in that of four years seven 
 times, as follows : 
 
 1st year, wheat, and, after wheat, lupines : 
 2d do. wheat, and, after wheat, turnips : 
 3d do. Indian corn or millet. 
 1st year, wheat, and, after wheat, beans : 
 2d do. wheat, and, after wheat, lupines : 
 3d do. wheat, and, after wheat, lupinella : [an- 
 nual clover]. 
 4th do. Indian corn or millet. 
 
 In the Syanese Maremna, where the lands want 
 neither repose nor manure, the constant alternation 
 is hemp and wheat, and the produce of the latter is 
 often twenty-four bushels threshed for one sown. 
 
 It will be seen from this course of crops, that the 
 principal object of Tuscan agriculture is wheat; of 
 which they have two species, the one bald, the other 
 bearded ; both larger than the corresponding species 
 in other countries of Europe ; convertible into ex- 
 cellent bread and pastes, and probably but varieties 
 of that Sicilian family which Pliny describes as 
 yielding '^ most flour and least bran, and suffering no 
 degradation from time.'" It is harvested about the 
 middle of June, and, when the grain crop is secured, 
 the ploughing for the second or forage crop begins ; 
 which, besides lupines, lupinella, and beans, often 
 consists of a mixture of lupines, turnips, and flax. 
 The lupines ripen first, and are gathered in autumn ; 
 that one third of the ground shall be actually worked with a 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 17 
 
 the turnips are drawn in the winter, and the flax in 
 the spring. 
 
 Besides the apphcation of ordinary manures.^ the 
 lupine is ploughed down when in flower ; a practice 
 that began with the Romans : Columella says, "of 
 all leguminous vegetables, the lupine is that which 
 most merits attention, because it costs least, employs 
 least time, and furnishes an excellent manured The 
 culture of this vegetable is diflferent, according to 
 the purposes for which it is raised; if for grain, the 
 ground has two ploughings and twenty-five pounds 
 weight of seed to a square of a hundred toises [about 
 640 feet] : if for manure, one ploughing is sufficient. 
 Like our buckwheat, its vegetation is quick and its 
 growth rapid ; whence the farther advantage of sup- 
 pressing, and even of destroying, the weeds that 
 would have infested any other crop. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of Florence, they are in the practice of 
 burning the soil; which they do by digging holes, 
 filhng them with fagots, and raising the earth into 
 mounds over them. The fagots are then inflamed 
 and burned, and with them the incumbent earth, 
 which is afterward scattered, so as to give to the 
 whole field the same preparation. 
 
 III. " The countries," says Arthur Young, " the 
 most rich and flourishing of Europe, in proportion 
 to their extent, are probably Piedmont and the Mi- 
 lanese. We there meet all the signs of prosperity, 
 an active and well-conditioned population, great ex- 
 ertions, considerable interior consumption, superb 
 roads, many opulent towns, a ready and abundant 
 circulation, the interest of money low, the price of 
 labour high ; in one word, it is impossible to cite a 
 single fact that shows that Manchester, Birming- 
 ham, Rouen, and feyons, are in a condition equally 
 prosperous as the whole of tliese duchies." Their 
 population is stated at '* 1,114,000, and the territory 
 at little more than two millions of arpons (acres). 
 Wheat, rye, Indian corn, flax, and hemp, the vine 
 
18 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 and the olive, the caper and the cotton-tree, with 
 all kinds of garden fruits and vegetables, are culti- 
 vated here : the soil knows no repose, and much of 
 it yields annually and uniformty two crops of grain 
 or three of grass."* These are the miracles of ir- 
 rigation ; not a drop of water is lost. Besides the 
 permanent supplies furnished from lakes, ponds, 
 rivers, creeks, and springs, even the winter torrent 
 and summer shower are everywhere intercepted by 
 drains and led to reservoirs, whence they are dis- 
 tributed at will to the neighbouring grounds. 
 
 In 1770 an agricultural school was established at 
 Milan, consisting of 220 boys, who were instructed 
 in theoretical and practical husbandry. This insti- 
 tution has escaped the notice of travellers ; and we 
 are unable to say whether it has or has not fulfilled 
 the intentions of its projectors.! 
 
 IV. Switzerland has 1444 square leagues of sur- 
 face,J and presents an assemblage of mountains, 
 one rising above another, until the summits are lost 
 in masses of snow and ice, which never melt. This 
 short description sufficiently indicates the character 
 of both the soil and the climate ; yet, unpropitious as 
 these are, we find a population of 1242 inhabitants 
 to each square league ! " This is, perhaps, the 
 country of the world which presents the most hap- 
 py effects of an industry always active and per- 
 severing. The traveller who climbs her mountains 
 is struck with admiration when he beholds vine- 
 yards and rich pastures in those places which be- 
 fore appeared naked and barren rocks. The traces 
 
 * Geographique Mathematique, «fec., article Italie. 
 
 t Since this treatise was written, we have notice of the estab- 
 lisnment of agricultural schools in Prussia, France, Ireland, 
 Russia, and in most of the German Stales; and a school, upon 
 a very broad and liberal basis, is in contemplation in England. 
 —J. B. 
 
 t The superficial area of Switzerland, as its boundaries were 
 established by the Congress of Vienna, has been differently es- 
 timated from 14,000 to 18,000 square miles. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 19 
 
 of the plough are perceived on the border of pre- 
 cipices where the most savage animals do not pass 
 without danger ; in one word, the inhabitants appear 
 to have conquered all obstacles, whether arising 
 from soil, position, or climate, and to have drawn 
 abundance from a territory condemned by nature to 
 perpetual sterility."* 
 
 V. The classical reader will remember that Spain 
 was the garden of the Hesperides of the Roman 
 writers ; by which was meant the combinations of 
 a fine climate, a rich soil, and an active, intelligent* 
 agriculture. To this state of things even the em- 
 pire of the Goths was not fatal ;f and that of the 
 Moors rendered it still more distinguished. In their 
 hands the plains of Valentia were cultivated through- 
 out, with the utmost care and skill ; and where their 
 wheels, reservoirs, and drains of irrigation yet re- 
 main, the soil continues to yield the richest and 
 most abundant products. In Catalonia, Navarre, 
 Galitia, and the Asturias, many species of the an- 
 cient agriculture are yet in vigour, because " the 
 leases are long, and the landlord cannot capriciously 
 violate themy The same causes are followed by the 
 same effects in the three districts of Biscaya, Gui- 
 poscoa, and Alava. " In running over these, every- 
 thing one finds is animated by the presence of lib- 
 erty and industry; nothing can be more charming 
 than the coasts, nothing more attractive than the 
 culture of the valleys. Throughout the 30 leagues 
 that separate Bedassos from Vittoria, every quarter 
 of an hour, we discover some well-built village .or 
 comfortable cottage. "J ''' 
 
 * Geographique Mathematique, article Helvetia. 
 
 t It appears from Varro, De re rustica, and the letters of Cas- 
 siodoms, that the Goths introduced into Spain the subterranean 
 granaries called sillos, and the art of irrigation. The former are 
 now exclusively used in Tuscany ; and Cato's precept, " Prata 
 irrigua," &c., shows whence their knowledge of the latter was 
 derive(i. 
 
 t Burgoing's Modem Spain, vol. i. 
 
20 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 How different is the aspect of the other provinces! 
 In these not more than two thirds of the earth are 
 cultivated; and " it is not uncommon to travel eight 
 and ten leagues together without finding a trace of 
 human industry. In the district of Badejoz alone 
 is a desert twenty-six leagues in length and twelve 
 in breadth.* Ten of the fourteen leagues that trav- 
 erse the duchy of Medina Sidonia consist alto- 
 gether of pasturage. There is nowhere a vestige 
 of man ; not an orchard, not a garden, not a ditch, 
 not a cottage to be seen ! The great proprietor ap- 
 pears to reign, like the lion in the desert, repulsing 
 by his roaring all who would approach him. But, 
 instead of human colonies, we encounter troops of 
 horned cattle and of mares, wandering, self-directed, 
 over plains to which the eye can discover no bound- 
 ary or barrier, and which brings to one's recollec- 
 tion the days when the beasts shared with man the 
 empire of the earth. "f 
 
 " Even when the plough is used, it is little more 
 than a great knife fastened to a stick, that just 
 scratches the surface. The grain is threshed by 
 horses or mules driven over it, or by means of a 
 plank studded with nails or flint stones, and drawn 
 across it. J With even this miserable culture, the 
 land in Andalusia yields considerable crops ; yet are 
 the inhabitants too lazy or too few to gather them 
 together.^ This is done by Galiegos, who are the 
 
 * Borde's Itineraire de I'Espagne, vol. iv., p. 30. 
 
 I Burgoing. Spain has been long renowned for its horses. 
 Tlfc Romans, in settling their pedigree and illustrating their 
 swiftness, called them " the children of the winds.^' 
 
 t Swinburne's Travels, vol. i. A Spanish peasant, who has 
 earned or begged enough for the wants of the day, will refuse to 
 earn more, even by running an errand. Striking as this fact is, 
 ir. does not so well illustrate Spanish indolence as the following 
 anecdote from the same pen : In the great sedition in Madrid, 
 which ended in the defeat of the king and the disgrace of his 
 minister (the Marquis des Suillas), and in its most fervid mo- 
 ments, both parties retired about dinner-time to take their nap 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 21 
 
 labourers of Spain." We need scarcely remark, 
 that in a state of agriculture like this, the peasantry 
 cannot be either well fed or well clothed. " The 
 mountaineers live principally upon roasted acorns 
 and goat's milk, and those of the plain (from Barce- 
 lona to Malaga) on bread steeped in oil, and occa- 
 sionally seasoned with vinegar."* 
 
 It is wide of our subject to examine the causes 
 of the degradation which marks the agriculture of 
 Spain. Well-informed writers have ascribed it to 
 the expulsion of the Moors and Jews, to the weight 
 of taxes and imposts, to the mesta or common right 
 of pasturage, to the discovery of America and its 
 consequences, to the effect of climate, and the ill- 
 judged charity of bishops and convents, but princi- 
 pally to the great manorial grants and unequal divis- 
 ion of the soil which followed the conquest. " W^e 
 often find six, eight, ten, and even fifteen leagues of 
 extent belonging to one master. The nobility and 
 clergy possess nearly the whole country. One 
 third of Spain belongs to the families of Medina 
 Celi, D'Alba, De I'lnfantado, D'Aceda, and to the 
 archbishops, bishops, and chapters of Toledo, Com- 
 postella,Valentia, Seville, and Murcia. A great pro- 
 portion of these lands remain untilled and untenant- 
 ed, and those which are let in cortijo or farms are 
 double or treble the quantity that can be occupied 
 in tillage."! 
 
 VI. The agriculture of Portugal has been sub- 
 jected to the same evils as that of Spain, to which 
 may be superadded her connexion with Great Brit- 
 ain, under whose policy she has become a raiser 
 oi fruit instead oi grain. 
 
 VII. France is probably the country of Europe 
 
 or miridiana, after which they returned to the combat with new 
 vigour and enraged fury. U habits can thus control the passions, 
 to what important uses might not a wise legislation t'lrn them? 
 
 * See preceding note. 
 
 t Le Borde's Itineraire de I'Espagne, vol, i. 
 
22 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 which most unites the great desiderata of an ex- 
 tended and profitable agriculture, fertility of soil, 
 mildness of climate, a dense population, an en- 
 lightened government, and facility of exportation.* 
 Within her ancient hmits, she boasts a surface of 
 more than one hundred and fifteen millions of ar- 
 pens, and a population of twenty-two millions of 
 inhabitants.! The following tables will show, in a 
 compressed form, the nature of her soil and the 
 uses to which it is put :% 
 
 GEOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Arpens or Acres. 
 
 Alluvial and Other rich soil . . . 26,159,340 
 
 Chalky do 13,268,911 
 
 Gravelly do 3,261,826 
 
 Stony do 18,128,660 
 
 Sandy do 7,553,956 
 
 Stratum of clay, with a light covering of 
 
 sand, called landes .... 21,879,120 
 
 Granitic and other mountains . . . 25,261,946 
 
 AGRICULTURAL TABLE. 
 
 Arable land 
 
 Vineyards 
 
 Woods 
 
 Natural meadows 
 
 Artificial meadows . 
 
 Lakes, marshes, wastes 
 
 63,600,000 
 4,764,960 
 
 15,931.850 
 5,464 800 
 6,332,100 
 
 19,400,049 
 
 Total, .... 115,493,759 
 
 From the average of a number of statistical tables 
 
 * The natural advantages of France as to soil, climate, &c. 
 are doubtless great ; and her agriculture, and the condition of 
 her rural population, have been much improved since the revo- 
 lution ; still, as a whole, her soil is by no means as well culti- 
 vated as that of Belgium, Tuscany, England, Scotland, and, 
 probably, some parts of Germany. 
 
 t The population of France, by the last enumeration, was 
 about 32,000,000. 
 
 X See Geographique, &c., vol. vi., art. France, p. 13, and 
 Young's Tour through France. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 23 
 
 made by the Abbe D'Expillyt and others, it appears 
 that in 1777 the agriculture of France was not only 
 sufficient for the subsistence of its inhabitants, but 
 produced a surplus for exportation;* ahd though it 
 be universally admitted that her condition in this 
 respect is not less prosperous noiy than it was then,-\ 
 still it cannot be dissembled that her husbandry has 
 many defects ; 
 
 1. A supposed resemblance between the earth 
 and animals gave rise to fallows : because men and 
 horses required repose after labour, it was supposed 
 that, after cropping, the earth also required it. Faith- 
 ful to this absurd analogy, the French landlord binds 
 down his tenant by lease not to crop the soil more 
 than three years out oi four ; which, in effect, is to 
 consign to barrenness or weeds one fourth of fehe 
 whole arable land of France yearly ! 
 
 2. There is not a sufficiently fixed or steady pro- 
 portion between arable and pasture land. The pro- 
 duction of grain is the great object of culture, often 
 with too little regard to the nature of the soil, 
 and generally without any to its improvements. 
 "Where pasturage is scanty, where natural mead- 
 ows are bad, where artificial are rare, and root hus- 
 bandry little extended, cattle cannot be either nu- 
 merous or well-conditioned ; and as without these 
 
 * The products of agricultural labour were, in these tables, 
 stated at 1 14,552,000 L. T. Those of manufacturing labour at 
 128,015,000. 
 
 "t The effects of the revolution of 1789 on agriculture are no 
 longer doubtful. The suppression of tithes, of the exclusivi 
 "privilege, of the chase, of every species o( corvee (labour perform- 
 ed by tenants for landlords), of taxes or rents, and of rights of 
 commonage, was among these effects ; and if to these we add the 
 division of the great landed estates of the nobility and clergy, there 
 can no longer be any skepticism on this point. No truth is bet- 
 ter established than the advantage of small farms over great, so 
 far as the public is concerned. The Roman latifundia (military 
 grants) destroyed Roman agriculture. 
 
24 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 there can be no manure, so without manure there 
 can be no abundance."* 
 
 3. The land is generally worked by farmers 
 hired for that purpose, or by renters on short leases ;\ 
 which in neither case betters the condition of the 
 soil ; the one having no interest in improvements, 
 and the other too small a one to justify any ex- 
 pense in making them. 
 
 4. A good rotation system, adapted to the soil and 
 climate, is not absolutely unknown, and may be 
 found even in whole districts (as in- French Flan- 
 ders), but much too rarely. We have seen wheat 
 and fallows alternating for years, and wheat and rye, 
 hemp and rye, and many others equally ridiculous. 
 
 5. To the eye, more than one half of France is a 
 common, without fences of any kind, excepting gar- 
 den or park walls. Can there be order, economy, 
 or security under such circumstances? Can the 
 police and the gens d''armes be sufficient substitutes 1 
 
 VIII. Holland, though essentially commercial, 
 has, from causes rarely occurring, become also 
 highly agricultural. To the descendants of Dutch- 
 men, the following description of her industry, in 
 this respect, cannot but be acceptable. It is from 
 the pen of an excellent judge and faithful narrator.J 
 
 * French agriculture has undergone great changes since Her- 
 bin wrote. The large estates have been mostly cut up into 
 small ones by the events of the revolution, and are now farmed 
 by small proprietors : the culture of the sugar-beet, and the al- 
 ternation of crops, have succeeded the old system of culture : 
 cattle are consequently more numerous and better conditioned ; 
 a national central agricultural society, with numerous auxiliary 
 societies, has been established ; men of science have applied 
 their learning to the improvement of the soil, and the govern- 
 ment has been actively engaged in encouraging this great branch 
 of national industry, by giving liberal bounties to those who dis- 
 tinguish themselves in making improvements. — J. B. 
 
 t Herbin's Statistique general de la France, vol. i.. Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 X M. Yvart, Professor of Agriculture at Elfort. See his In- 
 trcductory Address to his Class in 1806. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 25 
 
 " Their rotation of crops always begins with the 
 culture either of some leguminous plant or profita- 
 ble root , and generally with the potato, as the best 
 preparative of the ground. Whatever may be the 
 grain which follows, whether w^heat, rye, &c., &c., 
 it is generally sown with red clover ; and, where it is 
 not, the stubble is ploughed in immediately after 
 harvest, and a crop of turnips taken, and either con- 
 sumed on the ground or housed for the winter. A 
 single department (that of Zealand) obtains, by the 
 culture of madder alone, an annual profit of six mill- 
 ions of florins, nearly three millions of dollars ; 
 while that of Brabant boasts its twenty thousand 
 beehives ; in a word, this commendable nation, 
 upon an extent of surface not exceeding seventeen 
 hundred square leagues (the greater part of which 
 has been redeemed from the ocean), counts two 
 hundred and forty-three thousand horses, seven 
 hundred and sixty thousand horn cattle, about a mill- 
 ion of sheep, from ten to twelve thousand goats, 
 four hundred and eighty-nine thousand hogs, and 
 about three millions of poultry of every species. 
 Their stock of manure is necessarily great, and is 
 both well understood and well managed." 
 
 IX. Physical and moral causes operate against 
 the existence of a productive agriculture in Den- 
 mark and Sweden; and these are, severity of cli- 
 mate, poverty of soil, and vassalage of tenants.* 
 Their resources are also alike, and exist principally 
 in manufactures and commerce, and in mines, for- 
 ests, and fisheries.! The former boasts fine pas- 
 turage and cattle in Holstein. 
 
 * To give to despotism the air of freedom, the serfs of the 
 crown in Denmark were liberated at the revolution, but the ex 
 ample was neither approved nor followed. 
 
 t These remarks as to climate, soil, and productions, are ap- 
 plicable to Sweden, but not to Denmark. The climate of the 
 latter country, in consequence of the insular situation of a large 
 part of it, is by no means as severe as its latitude might seem to 
 indicate. The writer of this passed the winter of 1812 at Co 
 
26 AGRICULTURE. ' 
 
 X. Under the common name of Germany we in- 
 clude Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Wurtemburg, and 
 Bavaria, and shall say a few words of each calcu- 
 lated to give a general idea of their husbandry. It 
 was not to be expected that the great Frederic of 
 Prussia (so devoted to national glory and strength) 
 would disregard the interests of agriculture ; and 
 the less so, as in theory he considered it " Les ma- 
 melles de Vetat^'' the paps of the state. We accord- 
 ingly find him employed in draining marshes of 
 great extent,* in filling them with iitdustrious colo- 
 nists, and in converting barren sands into fertile 
 fields, by placing his capital in the midst of them. 
 But, among these good works, he forgot that the 
 hands of the labourer, to be efficient, must be free ; he 
 found the peasants slaves, and left them such. 
 
 The Saxon peasant, on the other hand, is free, 
 and protected by the laws ; he holds his farm on 
 lease, which he sells or transmits to his children at 
 will : and this is the principal cause of the flourish- 
 ing state of Saxon agriculture. In Lusalia, a differ- 
 ent legislation produces differei;it effects; but, for 
 some years past, the government and great proprie- 
 tors have concurred in changing W\e vassalage of the 
 peasants into a mild and salutary dependance. Sax- 
 ony is remarkable for its grain products, and Lusa- 
 tia for its stock ; the latter counts four hundred 
 thousand head of sheep of the Merino race. 
 
 Geographers give to Austria and her dependan- 
 cies 1065 leagues in circumference. In a surface 
 of this extent there is necessarily a great variety, 
 as well of climate as of soil; but, in general, both 
 
 penhagen, and did not at any time see sufficient snow on the 
 ground to make good sleighing. Much of the soil of Denmark 
 is highly productive in wheat, rye, pasturage, &c. She has 
 few manufactures, or mines, or forests, and, since her separation 
 from Norway, no extensive fisheries. 
 
 * In the Dollart, what was lost by the sea was regained, and 
 the marshes on the Netz and the Warth, at Friedberg and in 
 Pomerania, were drained, and the country rendered habitable. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 27 
 
 are favourable to agriculture. " In the districts of 
 the Inn, of Lower Stiria, of Istria, and of Carniola, 
 the land is of good quality, well cultivated, and very 
 productive. In the last they have two crops in the 
 year ; sowing buckwheat on wheat or rye stub- 
 ble, and millet on that of hemp and flax. They 
 everywhere cultivate Indian corn, and in Stiria (as 
 in Virginia) it forms the ordinary bread of the coun- 
 try." In Bohemia, Moravia, and Galitia,* the soil is 
 uncommonly rich, and, under proper management, 
 would be very productive. Austrian Silesia is less 
 fitted for the production of grain, but excels in for- 
 age and cattle. Hungary, Transylvania, and Croa- 
 tia abound in every species of agricultural produce. 
 Their flocks and pasturage are not inferior to those 
 of the Ukraine ; and wheat, buckwheat, Indian corn, 
 millet, rice, hemp, flax, and tobacco, yield immense 
 harvests to very small degrees of labour. Yet is 
 agriculture far from being m a flourishing condi- 
 tion! Writers on political economy ascribe this 
 fact principally to two causes. 
 
 1st. The degradation and oppression of the la- 
 bouring part of the community ; and, 
 
 2d. The want of convenient commercial outlets 
 for the produce of the soil. 
 
 We shall find in Hungary a striking illustration 
 of the correctness of this opinion. " The Populus 
 Hungaricus''' — Hungarian population — is divided into 
 four estates, the magnats, the nobles, and the cler- 
 gy, who possess all the lands, and the " misera con- 
 tribuens plebs" — the wretched contributing people — 
 who, besides tithes, rents, and corvees, pay all the 
 taxes. This miserable populace is composed of the 
 burghers and the peasantry, of which there are 
 three kinds, slaves for life, temporary slaves, and a 
 third sort called liberce emigraiionis, who, as their 
 name indicates, have locomotive powers and rights 
 
 * Geographiqiie Math, 
 8 
 
28 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Of the condition of this people since the year 1764 
 (and before that period it was much worse), we 
 may form an idea from the edict of Maria Theresa, 
 called the urbarium, or law of contracts betweer. 
 landlord and tenant, by which it is declared that 
 corporeal punishment, inflicted by the master for in- 
 solent words or conduct, shall not exceed twenty- 
 four strokes with a cane for a man, and the same 
 number with a switch for a woman. Nor is the 
 commercial condition of this people better than the 
 civil ; they are not only obliged to take from Aus- 
 tria many things which they could obtain in other 
 places of a better quality and at a lower price, but 
 they are also compelled to carry to Vienna the pro- 
 ducts of their own soil and labour, where their sale 
 is embarrassed and their value lessened by heavy 
 and oppressive taxes. The same remark applies 
 to Galitia, whose natural outlet is the Vistula or 
 the Nieper ; but of these she is not permitted to 
 avail herself, and, like her sister kingdoms, is com- 
 pelled to seek the markets furnished by the Dan- 
 ube and Trieste. " The consequences are obvious ; 
 the tenant works only to satisfy hunger, and the 
 landlord is satisfied with little more than ^viciumet 
 vestitum,' "* food and clothing. 
 
 The amount of lands annually cultivated in Ba- 
 varia is one million one hundred and sixty-five 
 thousand acres, which produce about six millions 
 of bushels of grain, of which two millions are sur- 
 plus. The Palatinate (one of the dependancies of 
 Bavaria) is also very productive. The route between 
 Heidelberg and D'Armstadt, called the Bergstrass^ 
 traverses one of the finest districts of Germany, and, 
 perhaps, of Europe ; where are seen extensive vine- 
 yards, vast meadows, and fertile fields, producing 
 wheat, barley, tobacco, madder, rhubarb, turnips, 
 &c., &c. In the year 1799, all the electoral pos- 
 
 *Geog. Math., vol. iv., article Hungary. 
 
STi»TE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 29 
 
 sessions within the circle of Bavaria, contained 
 199,000 horses, 160,000 oxen, 465,000 cows, 961,000 
 sheep, 320,000 hogs, and 378,000 goats. Yet are the 
 Bavarians, compared with the inhabitants of the 
 north of Germany, half a century in the rear. The 
 people are extremely ignorant and fanatical : like 
 the people of Rome and Lisbon, they sacrifice much 
 time to processions and fetes, and, like them also, are 
 slaves of the vilest appetites. Debauchery is no- 
 where more flagrant than in Munich.* 
 
 Wurtemhurg is ranked among the most fertile and 
 well-cultivated countries of Germany. The mount- 
 ainous parts produce potatoes, oats, hemp, and flax ; 
 the less hilly abound in wheat, spelts, rye, buck- 
 wheat, Indian corn, and barley ; and in the valleys 
 we find tobacco, and madder, and vineyards in which 
 the grapes of France, Cyprus, and Persia succeed 
 perfectly. Apples, pears, &c., are of common pro- 
 duct and of excellent quality.} 
 
 XL It has been justly remarked, that, to know the 
 state of husbandry in any country, you have but to 
 examine the instruments employed, the succession of 
 crops, and the condition of labourers. Tried by these 
 tests, the agriculture of Russia will be found to be 
 in a state of great degradation. The plough (called 
 soka) which is commonly used is very light, of sim- 
 ple construction, and only calculated to enter the 
 ground one inch and a half ; the harrow consists of 
 one or more young pine-trees (whose branches are 
 cut off about eight inches from the stem), steeped in 
 water to add to their weight, and tied together. With 
 such miserable instruments, each drawn by a single 
 horse, the farmer scratches the ground without al- 
 ways covering the seed, which is no doubt the rea- 
 son that in dry seasons their harvests are very bad.| 
 
 ^ Geog. Math., &c., art. Bavaria. Compare the productive- 
 ness of Bavaria with England ; the comparison is in favour of 
 the former. 
 
 t Idem. % Pallas, pages 3 and 4, vol. i. 
 
30 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 In the best soil, their succession of crops is of eight 
 years; two in barley, two in oats, two in winter rye, 
 and two in spring rye. Lands of less fertility are 
 sown two years out of three, and mountainous tracts 
 one year in three, when they are abandoned to 
 weeds until rest shall have reinstated them. "To 
 manure them would, in the opinion of a Russian 
 peasant, make them poorer;* and therefore he suf- 
 fers his dunghill to accumulate into a nuisance, 
 while he goes on to clear and exhaust new fields." 
 " The grains raised are rye, spelts, barley, millet, and 
 oats, which, from want of sufficient roads and mar- 
 kets, are often low priced, as are also horned cattle 
 and horses : an ox selling for a rouble and a half, a 
 cow for one rouble, and a horse for three roubles."! 
 To this wretchedness we must add (what, perhaps, 
 occasions much of it), that, throughout the civilized 
 part of Russia, the labours of agriculture are per-' 
 formed by slaves confounded with the soil, and 
 bought and sold with it. In a great portion of the 
 northern section of this vast empire, agriculture is 
 unknown, and the chase, the fisheries, cattle, and 
 reindeer, furnish the only means of subsistence. 
 
 XII. The climate and soil of the United King- 
 doms of Great Britain and Ireland are particularly 
 favourable to husbandry ; nor is her geographical 
 position less auspicious ; placed, as she is, on the 
 longest hne, and amid the most important markets 
 of the Continent of Europe. If to these advantages 
 be added the laborious, enlightened, and enterpri- 
 sing character of the nation, we cannot but expect 
 results the most favourable to agriculture ; yet is 
 the fact notoriously otherwise. To show that this 
 opinion is neither hasty nor unfounded, we must en- 
 ter into details which may not be unprofitable. 
 
 * Pallas, vol. v., p. 60. 
 
 t A silver rouble is equal to five livres French, or nearly one 
 dollar Spanish, and this is the rouble here meant. The paper 
 rouble is one fifth the value of the silver. 
 
STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 31 
 
 The surface of England is estimated at 37,265,853 
 acres, which are distributed as follows : 
 
 In pasturage . . . . . . . 18,796.458 
 
 In tillage 11,350,501 
 
 In cities, towns, villages, &c., and roads and canals 3,454,740 
 Lands fit for pasturage or tillage not cultivated 3,515,238 
 Lands unfit for cultivation .... 2,148,921 
 
 Of the arable land, the following annual disposi- 
 tion is made : 
 
 In wheat and rye 2,000,000 
 
 In pease, beans, and buckwheat . . . 2,000,000 
 
 In barley and oats 4,000,000 
 
 In fallow, or in turnips or cabbages . . 3,400,000 
 
 The lands in wheat and rye yield, on an average 
 of ten years, three quarters* per acre, or 6,000,000 
 quarters ; yet is there an annual deficit in England 
 of 1,820,000 quarters, which must be drawn from 
 foreign markets.f 
 
 There is certainly nothing very flattering in this 
 view of English agriculture ; but it may be said to 
 be one of statists and politicians, and probably un- 
 derrated. Let us see, then, what their most eminent 
 agriculturists, as Young, and St. Clair, and Dick- 
 son, and Marshal, say on this subject: "A very 
 small portion of the cultivated parts of Great Britain 
 is, to this day, submitted to a judicious and well-con- 
 ducted system of husbandry, not, in fact, more than 
 four counties (Norfolk, Sussex, Essex, and Kent) ; 
 while many large tracts of excellent soil are managed 
 in a way the most imperfect and disadvantageous."^ 
 
 * Twenty-four bushels. — J. B. 
 
 t The suflnciency of the harvests in England to supply the 
 wants of her population depends on the character of the seasons. 
 When these are favourable, she imports very little foreign grain ; 
 and, in proportion as they are unfavourable, she is obliged to 
 resort to supplies from abroad. For the last twenty years her 
 average annual importation of breadstuffs has been much less 
 than the deficit here given. 
 
 t See the Introduction to Dickson's Practical Agriculture, 
 2d vol., quarto. 
 
32 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Nor is her management of cattle better. " Con- 
 sidering the domestic animals in a general way, 
 we find each species, and almost every race, capa- 
 ble of great improvement, and, with few exceptions, 
 the sheep much neglected. In some districts are 
 whole races of cattle capable of improvement, with- 
 in a reasonable time, in the three great objects which 
 they are expected to yield, viz., milk, flesh, and la- 
 bour."* We now add some of the causes to which 
 this defective husbandry has been ascribed : " to 
 enumerate all would be impossible, from their num- 
 ber and complication."! 
 
 " 1st. The commons, or unenclosed grounds, which 
 in many places amount to near one half of the whole 
 arable land, and which are submitted to the most ab- 
 surd and ruinous system of culture."! 
 
 " 2d. The terms, amounting to personal servitude, 
 under which many of the lands are held." 
 
 " 3d. The shortness of leases given by corpora- 
 tions, civil and religious, and by individuals, and 
 which seldom exceed three, five, or seven years, ex- 
 cepting in the counties of Norfolk, Sussex, Essex, 
 and Kent, where, with great advantage to both land- 
 lord and tenant, they are frequently extended to 
 twenty-one years." 
 
 " 4th. The tithes in kind, paid by the farmers to 
 the church ; a tax highly vexatious in its character 
 and oppressive in its effects : and, 
 
 " 5th. The poor tax, which has become enormous, 
 and of which the yeomanry pay three fourths. Of 
 this tax it has been truly said, that it is a powerful 
 instrument of depopulation; a barbarous contri- 
 vance for checking all national industry."^ 
 
 * Marshal, vol. iv., p. 575.* 
 
 t Dickson's Practical Agriculture. 
 
 j Idem. 
 
 ^ Young's Tour through Ireland, vol. ii., p. 302. 
 
 * Since Marshal, Dickson, and Young wrote, England has 
 done more to improve the breeds of cattle and sheep, except the 
 fine woolled, than any other nation or country.— J. B. 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 33 
 
 To these causes, assigned by British writers, may- 
 be added the increase o{ population common to every 
 nation of Europe, and vvhich, in Great Britain, is be- 
 yond all proportion greater than the progress of 
 agriculture ; the augmentation of cattle^ which occa- 
 sions that of pasturage, and the diminution of til- 
 lage ;* the establishment of great farms at the ex- 
 pense of small ones, and the multiplication of parks 
 and pleasure grounds ; and, lastly, attractions of great 
 cities, and the continual draughts made upon the agri- 
 cultural population for the army and navy, and for 
 commerce and manufactures.! 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THEORY OF VEGETATION. 
 
 Vegetables may be regarded as the intermediate 
 link in the great chain of creation between animals 
 and minerals. The latter grow by mere chymical 
 affinity, and by additions, sometimes analogous to 
 and sometimes foreign from their own nature ; 
 while plants, like animals, have an organization that 
 
 * Mr. Hume quotes with approbation an author who com 
 plains of the decay of tillage in the reign of Elizabeth, and whe 
 ascribes it to the increase of pasturage, in consequence of the 
 restraints imposed on the exportation of grain, while that of 
 butter, cheese, &c., was free. The history of Europe, if read 
 with an eye to public economy, furnishes abundant proof that 
 the greatest obstructions to agriculture have arisen from the in- 
 terference of governmerit. 
 
 t Our author's account of the agriculture of England evi- 
 dentiy relates to the state of things in that country some fifty 
 years ago ; and, with this understanding, it is mteresting as 
 showing more strikingly the extent of the improvements of every 
 kind which have been made since. 
 
34 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 enables them to receive their food, digest and as- 
 similate it to their own substance, reproduce their 
 species, and maintain an existence of longer or 
 shorter duration. Thus far the learned are agreed, 
 but at the next step they differ. 
 
 What is this food that gives to plants their devel- 
 opment, and maturity, and powers of reproduc- 
 tion 1 Lord Bacon believed that water was the 
 source of vegetable life, and that the earth was 
 merely its habitation, serving to keep plants up- 
 right, and to guard them against the extremes of 
 heat and cold. Tull, on the other hand (and, after 
 him, Du Hamel) pronounced pulverized earth the 
 only pabulum of plants, and on this opinion built his 
 system of husbandry. Van Helmont and Boyle op- 
 posed this doctrine by experiments : the former 
 planted and reared a cutting of willow in a bed of 
 dry earth, carefully weighed, and protected against 
 accretion by a tin plate, so perforated as to admit 
 only rain and distilled water, with which it was oc- 
 casionally moistened. At the end of five years the 
 plant was found to have increased one hundred and 
 sixty-four pounds, and the bed of earth to have lost, 
 of its or4ginal weight, only two ounces. Boyle pur- 
 sued a similar process with gourds, and with a sim- 
 ilar result. Notwithstanding the apparent conclu- 
 siveness of these experiments, their authority was 
 shaken, if not subverted, by others made by Mar- 
 graff, Bergman, Hales, Kirwan, &c., &c. The first 
 of these showed that the rain water employed by Van 
 Helmont was itself charged with saline and other 
 earthy matter ; Bergman demonstrated this by anal- 
 ysis, while Kirwan and Hales proved that the earth, 
 in which the willow cutting was planted, could ab- 
 sorb these matters through the pores of the wooden 
 box which contained it, and that a glass case could 
 alone have prevented such absorption. Hunter, 
 finding that oil and salt entered into the composi- 
 tion of plants, concluded that these formed their 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 35 
 
 principal food, awd accordingly recommended, as 
 the great desideratum in agriculture, an oil compost. 
 Lord Kaimes attempted to revive the expiring creed 
 of Lord Bacon ; but finding, from Hale's statics, that 
 one third of the weight of a green pea was made up 
 of carbonic acid, he added air to the watery aliment 
 of the Enghsh philosopher, but entirely rejected 
 oil and earth, as too gross to enter the mouths of 
 plants, and salt as too acrid to afford them nourish- 
 ment. Quackery, which at one time or other has 
 made its way into all arts and sciences, could not 
 easily be excluded from agriculture. Hence it was 
 that the Abbe de Valemont's prolific liquor, and De 
 Hare's and De Vallier's powders, &c., &c., were be- 
 lieved to be all that was necessary to vegetation, 
 and found the more advocates as they promised 
 much and cost little. But before the march of 
 modern chymistry quackery could not long main- 
 tain itself; and from the labours of Bennet, Priest- 
 ly, Saussure, Ingenhouz, Sennebier, Schaeder, Chap- 
 tal, Davy, &c., &c., few doubts remain on this im- 
 portant subject. These will be presented in the 
 course of the following inquiry. 
 
 L Of earths, and their relation to vegetation. 
 
 Of six or eight substances which chymists have 
 denominated earths, four are widely and abundantly 
 diffused, and form the crust of ottr globe. These 
 are silica, alumina, lime, and magnesia. The first is 
 the basis of quartz, sand, and gravel ; the second of 
 clay ; the third of bones, river and marine shells, 
 alabaster, marble, limestone, and chalk ; and the 
 fourth of that medicinal article known by the name 
 of calcined magnesia. In a pure or insulated state,* 
 these earths are wholly unproductive ; but, when de- 
 composed and mixed,! and to this mixture is added 
 
 * See Gisbert's experiments on pure earths and their mixtures. 
 See also Davy's Elements, p. 156. 
 
 t In this respect nature has been neither negligent nor nig- 
 gardly, if (as Fourcroy asserts) the purest sand be a mixture of 
 
36 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 the residuum of dead animal or vegetable matter,* 
 they become fertile, take the general name of soils, 
 and are again specially denominated after the earth 
 that most abounds in their compositions respective- 
 ly. If this be siUca, they are called sandy ; if alu- 
 mina, argillaceous ; if lime, calcareous ; and if mag- 
 nesia, magnesian. Their properties are w^ell known : 
 a sandy soil is loose, easily moved, little retentive 
 of moisture, and subject to extreme dryness ; an ar- 
 gillaceous soil is hard and compact when dry, tough 
 and paste-like when vv^et, greedy and tenacious of 
 moisture ; turns up, when ploughed, into massive 
 clods, and admits the entrance of roots w^ith great 
 difficulty. A calcareous soil is dry, friable, and po- 
 rous; water enters and leaves it w^ith facility ; roots 
 penetrate it without difficulty, and [being already 
 greatly divided] less labour is necessary for it than 
 for clay. Magnesian, like calcareous earth, is light, 
 porous, and friable, but, like clay, when wet, takes 
 the consistency of paste, and is very tenacious of 
 water. It refuses to combine with oxygen or with 
 the alkalies : is generally found associated with 
 granite, gneiss, and schist, and is probably among 
 the causes of their comparative barrenness.] 
 
 quartz, alumina, and sometimes of calcareous matter. Specu- 
 lative geology is romance, and does not merit the name of sci- 
 ence ; yet is science^bliged to borrow her theory of soils. The 
 alternation of heat and cold, moisture and dryness, decomposed 
 the mountains of primitive, secondary, and tertiary formation ; 
 rains, and the laws of gravity, brought these broken parts from 
 places of more to those of less elevation ; where, by mechani 
 cal mixture and chymical combination, the present substrata 
 were formed. But these were yet naked and unproductive, 
 when the Cryptogamia family (mosses and lichens) took pos 
 session of them, and in due time produced that vegetable matter 
 which made the earth productive and the globe habitable ! 
 
 * Dead animal and vegetable matter, in the last stage of de- 
 composition, give a black or brown powder, which the French 
 chymists call terreau or humus, and which Mr. Davy calls an ex 
 tractive matter ; this is the fertilizing principle of soils and ma- 
 nures. 
 
 t The opinion is general among the chymists of Europe, that 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 37 
 
 In these qualities are found the mechanical relations 
 between earths and vegetables. To the divisibility 
 of the former it is owing that the latter are enabled 
 to push their roots into the earth ; to their density, 
 that plants maintain themselves in an erect posture, 
 rise into the air, and resist the action of winds and 
 rains ; and to their power of absorbing and holding 
 water, they owe the advantage of a prolonged ap 
 plication of moisture, necessary or useful to vege 
 table life. But, besides performing these important 
 offices, there is reason to believe that the earths con 
 tribute to the food of vegetables. This opinion rests 
 on the following considerations and experiments : 
 
 1. If earths do not contribute directly to the food 
 of plants, then would all soils be alike productive ; 
 or, in other words, if air and water exclusively sup- 
 ply this food, then would a soil of pure sand be as 
 productive as one of the richest alluvion. 
 
 2. Though plants may be made to grow in pound- 
 ed glass or in metallic oxydes, yet is their growth 
 in these neither healthy nor vigorous : and, 
 
 3. All plants, on analysis, yield an earthy pro- 
 duct ;* and this product is found to partake of the 
 earth that predominates in the soil producing the 
 analyzed plant. This important fact is proved by 
 De Saussure. 
 
 FIRST EXPERIMENT. 
 
 Two plants (the pinus abies) were selected, the 
 one from a calcareous, the other from a granitic 
 soil, the ashes of which gave the following pro- 
 ducts : 
 
 Granitic soil. Calcareous soil. 
 
 Potash .... 3.60 ... 15 
 Aik. and mu. sulphates 4.24 . . 15 
 
 magnesian earth is not only barren itself, but the cause of barren- 
 ness in other soils in which it may abound, unless saturated with 
 carbonic acid. See Bosc, Tenant, and Davy. 
 
 * Davy says this never exceeds one fiftieth of the whole pro- 
 iluct. 
 
38 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Carbonate of lime . 46.34 . . . 63 
 
 Carbonate of magnesia 6.77 ... 00 
 
 Silica .... 13.49 ... 00 
 
 Alumina . . . 14.86 ... 16 
 
 Metallic oxydes . . 10.52 ... 00 
 
 SECOND EXPERIMENT. 
 
 Two rhododendrons were taken, one from the 
 calcareous soil of Mont de la Salle, the other from 
 the granitic soil of Mont Bevern. Of a hundred 
 parts, the former gave fifty seven of carbonate of 
 lime and five of silica; the latter, tliirty of carbon- 
 ate of lime and fourteen of silica. 
 
 THIRD EXPERIMENT. 
 
 This was made to determine whether vegetables, 
 the product of a soil having in it no silica, would, 
 notwithstanding, partake of that earth. Plants were 
 accordingly taken from Reculey de Thoiry (a soil 
 altogether calcareous), and the result was a very 
 small portion of silica. 
 
 These experiments, says Chaptal, leave little, if 
 any doubt, that vegetables derive the earthy matter 
 they contain from the soil in which they grow.* 
 
 II. Of water, as an agent- in vegetation. 
 
 Seeds placed in the earth at a temperature above 
 the freezing point, and watered, will develop ; that 
 is, their lobesf will swell, their roots descend into 
 the earth, and their stems rise into the air. But 
 vi^ithout humidity they will not germinate ; or, if de- 
 prived of humidity after germination, they will per- 
 ish. When germination is complete and the plant 
 formed, its roots and leaves are so organized as to 
 
 * Schseder maintains the doctrine, that the earths found in 
 plants are created there by the process of vegetation. His essay 
 on this subject was crowned by the academy of Berlin in 1801. 
 His experiments were the first to determine the di fife rent quan- 
 tities of siUca found in diflferent kinds of grain. 
 
 t Moisten a bean in warm water, and detach the skin that 
 covers it, and it readily divides into two parts ; these are called 
 lobes. 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 39 
 
 absorb water. The experiments of Hales prove, that 
 the weight of plants is increased in -wet and dimin- 
 ished in dry weather; and that, in the latter, they 
 draw from the atmosphere, by means of their 
 leaves,* the moisture necessary for their well-being. 
 Du Hamel, and, after him, Sennebier, has shown, 
 that the filaments that surround the roots of plants, 
 and which have been called their hair, perform for 
 them in the earth the office which leaves perform in 
 the atmosphere ; and that, if deprived of these fila- 
 ments, the plants die. 
 
 It would be easy, but useless, to multiply facts 
 of this kind, tending to establish a doctrine not con- 
 tested, but which, after all, does not assert that water 
 makes any part of the food of plants. On this point 
 two opinions exist ; the one, that this liquid is a 
 solvent and conductor of alimentary juices; the 
 other, that it is itself an aliment, and, at the same 
 time, a purveyor of vegetable food. The first opin- 
 ion is abundantly established. Water, when char- 
 ged with oxygen, supplies to germinating seeds the 
 want of atmospheric air ; and, saturated with animal 
 or vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, or 
 slightly impregnated with carbonic acid, very per- 
 ceptibly quickens and invigorates vegetation. The 
 second opinion is favoured by some of De Saussure's 
 experiments. On these Chaptal makes the follow- 
 ing remark, which expresses very distinctly an ap- 
 probation of the doctrine they suggest : " The enor- 
 mous quantity of hydrogen, which makes so large a 
 part of vegetable matter, cannot be accounted for 
 but by admitting, in the process of vegetation, the 
 decomposition of water, of which hydrogen is the 
 principal constituent ; and that, though there is no- 
 thing in the present state of our experience that di- 
 rectly establishes this doctrine, yet that its truth 
 
 * Bonnet's experiments show, that it is the under surface of 
 the leaf that performs this function. The upper surface has a 
 different office. 
 
40 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ought to be presumed from the analysis of plants 
 and the necessary and well-known action of water 
 on vegetation." 
 
 III. Of air, and its agency in vegetation. 
 
 A seed deprived of air will not germinate ; and a 
 plant placed under an exhausted receiver will soon 
 perish. Even in a close and badly ventilated gar- 
 den, vegetables indicate their situation; they are 
 sickly in appearance and vapid in taste. These 
 facts sufficiently show the general utility of air to 
 vegetation : but air is not now the simple and ele- 
 mentary body that the ancient chymists described 
 it to be. Priestley first,* and Lavoisier after him, 
 analyzed it, and found that, when pure, it consisted 
 of about 70 parts of azote, 27 of oxygen, and 2 of 
 carbonic acid. In its ordinary or impure state, it 
 is loaded with foreign and light bodies; such as 
 mineral, animal, and vegetable vapours, the seeds of 
 plants, the eggs of insects, &c. Is it to this aggre- 
 gate that vegetation owes the services rendered to 
 it by air? And, if not, to how many and to xohich of 
 its regular constituents are we to ascribe theml 
 This inquiry will form the subject of the present 
 article. 
 
 All vegetables in a state of decomposition give 
 azote; and some of them, as cabbages, radishes, 
 &c., in great quantity. This abundance, combined 
 with the fact that vegetation is always vigorous in 
 the neighbourhood of dead animal matter, led to the 
 opinion that azote contributed largely to the growth 
 of plants ; but experiments, more exactly made and 
 often repeated, disprove this opinion, and show that 
 in any quantity it is unnecessary, and that, in a cer- 
 tain proportion, it is fatal to vegetation. 
 
 In hydrogen gas plants are found to be variously 
 affected, according to their local situation ; if in- 
 
 * See Priestley's Experiments and Observations on different 
 kinds of Ait bngun in 1767. 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 41 
 
 habitants of mountains, they soon perish; if of 
 plains, they show a constant debihty ; but if of 
 marshy grounds, their growth is not impeded. 
 
 Carbonic acid is formed and given out during the 
 process of fermentation, putrefaction, respiration, 
 &c., and makes 28 parts out of 100 of atmospheric 
 air. It is composed, according to Davy, of oxygen 
 and carbon, in the proportion of 34 of the former 
 to 13 of the latter. It combines freely with many 
 different bodies ; animals and vegetables are almost 
 entirely composed of it ; for the coal which they 
 give, on combustion, is but carbon united to a little 
 oxygen, &c. Priestley was the first to discover that 
 plants absorb carbonic acid; and Ingenhouse, Senne- 
 bier, and De Saussure have proved that it is their 
 principal aliment. Indeed, the great consumption 
 made of it cannot be explained by any natural pro- 
 cess excepting that of vegetation. On this head 
 we cannot do better than digest the experiments of 
 the last of these chymists into a few distinct pro- 
 portions :* 
 
 1. In pure carbonic acid gas, seeds will swell, but 
 not germinate. 2. United with water, this gas has- 
 tens vegetation. 3. Air, containing more than one 
 twelfth part of its volume of carboi^ic acid, is most 
 favourable to vegetation. 4. Turf, or other carbona- 
 ceous earth, which contains much carbonic acid, is 
 unfavourable to vegetation until it has been exposed 
 to the action of atmospheric air, or of lime, &c. 
 5. If slackened lime be applied to a plant, its growth 
 will be impaired until the lime shall have recovered 
 the carbonic acid which it lost by calcination. 6. 
 Plants kept in an artificial atmosphere, and charged 
 with carbonic acid, yield, on combustion, more of 
 that acid than plants of the same kind and weight 
 growing in atmospheric air. 7. When plants are 
 exposed to air and sunshine, the carbonic acid of 
 
 * Recherches chymiques sur la vegetation, chap. ii. 
 
43 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 the atmosphere is consumed, and a portion of oxy- 
 gen left in its place. If new supplies of carbonic 
 acid be given to the air, the same result follows; 
 whence it has been concluded, that air furnishes 
 carbonic acid to the plant, and that the plant fur- 
 nishes oxygen to the air. This double function of 
 absorption and respiration is performed by the green 
 leaves of plants.* 8. Carbon is to vegetation what 
 oxygen is to animal life : it gives support by puri- 
 fying the liquids and rendering the solids more 
 compact. 
 
 IV. Of light, heat, and electricity, and their agen- 
 cy in vegetation. 
 
 When deprived of light, plants are pale, lax, and 
 dropsical ; restored to it, they recover their colour, 
 consistency, and odour. If a plant be placed in a 
 cellar, into which is admitted a small portion of 
 light through a window or cranny, thither the 
 plant directs its growth, and even acquires an un- 
 natural length in its attempt to reach it.f These 
 facts admitted, no one can doubt the agency of 
 light in vegetation ; but, in relation to this agency, 
 various opinions exist ; one, that light enters vege- 
 table matter and combines with it ; another, that it 
 makes no part either of the vegetable or of its ali- 
 ment, but direct]3r influences substances which are 
 alimentary ;% and a third, that, besides the last ef- 
 fect, it stimulates the organs of plants to the exer- 
 cise of their natural functions.^ 
 
 Without doing more than state these opinions, 
 we proceed to offer the results of many experi- 
 ments on this subject. 1st. That in the dark no ox- 
 ygen is produced, nor any carbonic acid observed ; 
 on the contrary, oxygen is absorbed and carbonic 
 acid produced. 2d. That plants exposed to light 
 
 * This was a discovery of Sennebier. 
 t It is by a knowledge of this fact that gardeners bleach chic 
 >ry, cellery, &c. 
 t See Fourcroy, vol. viii. ^ See Chaptal on Vegetation. 
 
THEORY OP VEGETATION. 43 
 
 produce oxygen gas in water. 3d. That light is es- 
 sential to vegetable transpiration ; as this process 
 never takes place during the night, but is copious 
 through the day ; and, 4th. That pl^ts raised in the 
 dark abound in watery and saccharine juices, but 
 are deficient in woody fibre, oil, and resins ; whence 
 it is concluded that saccharine compof^nds are 
 formed in the night, and oil, resins, &c., in the day. 
 
 When the weather is at or below the freezing 
 point, the sap of plants remain suspended and hard- 
 ened in the alburnum ;* but, on the application of 
 heat, whether naturally or artificially excited, this 
 sap is rendered fluid, is put into motion, and the buds 
 begin to swell. Under the same impulse, through 
 the medium of the earth, the roots open their pores, 
 receive nutritive juices, and carry them to the heart 
 of the plant. The leaves being now developed, 
 begin and continue the exercise of their functions, 
 till winter again, in the economy of nature, sus- 
 pends the operation of the machine. Nor is the ac- 
 tion of heat confined to the circulation of vegeta- 
 ble juices; without vapour (its legitimate offspring), 
 the fountain and the shower would be unknown ; 
 nor would the great processes of animal and vege- 
 table fermentation and decomposition go on. With- 
 out rain or other means of amehorating the soil, 
 what would be the aspect of the globe '\ what the 
 sta>te of vegetation] what the situation of man] 
 
 The universal diffusion of electrical matter, found 
 in the air and in all other substances, furnishes a 
 presumption that it is an efficient agent in vegeta- 
 tion. Nollet and others have thought that, artifi- 
 cially employed, it favoured the germination of 
 seeds and the growth of plants ; and Davy '• found 
 that corn sprouted more rapidly in water positively 
 electrified by the voltaic battery than in water neg- 
 atively electrified."! These opinions have not es- 
 
 * Knight's Observations, &c. f Davy's Elements. 
 
 4 
 
44 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 caped contradiction, and we do not profess to decide 
 where philosophers disagree. 
 
 V. Of stable manures, and of lim^, marl, and gyp- 
 sum, and their agency in vegetation. 
 
 We have already said that vegetables in the last 
 stage of decomposition yield a black or brown pow- 
 der, which Davy calls " a peculiar extractive matter 
 of fertilizing quality,'''' and which the chy mists of 
 France have denominated terreau* This vegetable 
 residuum is the simple mean employed by nature to 
 re-establish that principle of fertility in the soil 
 which the wants of man and other animals are con- 
 stantly drawing from it. It was analyzed by Hes- 
 senfratz, who found it to contain an oily, extractive, 
 and carbonaceous matter, charged with hydrogen ; 
 the acetates and benzoates of potash, lime, and am- 
 moniac ; the sulphates and muriates of potash, and 
 a soapy substance, previously noticed by Bergman. 
 Among other properties (and which shows its com- 
 bustible character) is that of absorbing from atmo- 
 spheric air its oxygen, and leaving it only azote. 
 This was discovered by Ingenhouse, who, with De 
 Saussure and Braconnet, pursued the subject by 
 many new and interesting experiments, the result of 
 which is, 
 
 1. That the oxygen thus absorbed deprives the 
 terreau or extractive matter of part of its carbon, 
 which it renders soluble and converts into muci- 
 lage; and, 
 
 2. That the carbonic acid formed in the process 
 combines with this mucilage, and with it is absorb- 
 ed by the roots of plants. 
 
 If we put a plant and a quantity of slackened 
 lime under the same receiver, the plant will perish, 
 because the lime will take from the atmospheric air 
 all the carbonic acid it contains, and thus starve the 
 plant. Vegetables placed near heaps of lime in the 
 
 * De Candolle and Macaire call it humus, and Dance and 
 others geine.—i. B. 
 
THEORY OF VEGETATION. 45 
 
 open air suffer from the same cause and in the 
 same way ; but though lime in large quantities de- 
 stroys vegetation, in small quantities it renders it 
 more vigorous. Its action is of two kinds, me- 
 chanical and chymical ; the first is the mere divis- 
 ion of the soil by an interposition between its parts , 
 the second, the faculty of rendering soluble vegeta- 
 ble matter, and reducing it to the condition of ter- 
 reau. 
 
 The mechanical agency ascribed to lime belongs 
 also to marl and to ashes, and in an equal degree ; 
 but their chymical operation, though similar, is less.* 
 
 Gypsum is composed of lime and sulphuric acid. 
 Mayer was the first to present to the pubhc a series 
 of experiments upon it in its relation to agriculture. 
 Many chymists have followed him, and a great va- 
 riety of opinion yet exists with regard to its mode 
 of operation. Yvart thinks that the action of gyp- 
 sum is exclusively the effect of the sulphuric acid, 
 which enters into its composition ; and founds this 
 opinion upon the fact that the ashes of turf, which 
 contain sulphate of iron and sulphate of alumina, 
 have the same action upon vegetation as gypsum. 
 Laysterie, observing that plants whose roots were 
 nearest the surface of the soil were most acted 
 upon by plaster, concludes that gypsum takes from 
 the atmosphere the elements of vegetable life, and 
 transmits them directly to plants. Bosc intimates 
 that the septic quality of gypsum (which he takes 
 for granted) best explains its action on vegetation ; 
 but this opinion is subverted by the experiments 
 of Davy, who found that, of two parcels of minced 
 veal, the one mixed with gypsum, the other left 
 by itself, and both exposed to the action of the sun, 
 the latter was the first to exhibit symptoms of pu- 
 trefaction. Davy's own belief on this subject is, 
 
 * Vegetable ashes are lime combined with an earthy saline 
 matter. 
 
46 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 that it makes part of the food of vegetables, is re- 
 ceived into the plant, and combined with it. The 
 last opinion we shall offer on this head is that of 
 the celebrated Chaptal. " Of all substances," he 
 says, " gypsum is that of whose action we know 
 the least. The prodigious effect it has on the whole 
 race of trefoils (clover), &e., cannot be explained by 
 any mechanical agency, the quantity applied being so 
 small ; nor by any stimulating Ytower^ since gypsum, 
 raw or roasted, has nearly the same effect ; nor by 
 any absorbent quality, as it only acts when applied to 
 the leaves. If permitted to conjecture its mode of 
 operation, we should say that its effects being great- 
 est when applied to the wet leaves of vegetables, it 
 may have the faculty of absorbing and giving out 
 water and carbonic acid, little by little, to the grow- 
 ing plant. It may also be considered as an aliment 
 in itself; an idea much supported by Mr. Davy's ex- 
 periments, which show that the ashes of clover yield 
 gypsum, though the clover be raised on soils not nat- 
 urally containing that substance." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE ANALYSIS OF SOILS, AND OF THE AGRICULTU- 
 RAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SOILS AND PLANTS. 
 
 We have seen that the earths have a threefold 
 capacity; that they receive and lodge the roots of 
 plants, and support their stems ; that they absorb 
 and hold air, water, and mucilage, ahments neces- 
 sary to vegetable life ; and that they even contrib- 
 ute a portion of themselves to these aliments. 
 But we have also seen that they are not equally 
 adapted to these offices ; that their parts, texture, 
 
ANALYSIS OF SOILS 47 
 
 and qualities are different; that they are cold or 
 warm, wet or dry, porous or compact, barren or 
 productive, in proportion as one or tlie other may 
 predominate in the soil ; and that, to fit them for dis- 
 charging the various functions to which they are 
 destined, each must contribute its share, and all be 
 minutely divided and intimately mixed. In this great 
 work nature has performed her part ; but, as is usual 
 with her, she has wisely and benevolently left some- 
 thing for man to do. 
 
 This necessary interposition of human industry 
 should obviously begin by ascertaining the nature 
 of the soil. But neither the touch nor the eye, how- 
 ever practised or acute, can in all cases determine 
 this. Clay, when wet, is cold and tenacious ; a de- 
 scription that belongs also to magnesian earths : 
 sand and gravel are hard and granular ; but so also 
 are some of the modifications of lime : vegetable 
 mould is black and friable, but not exclusively so : 
 for schistous and carbonaceous earths have the same 
 properties. 
 
 It is here, then, that chymistry oflfers herself to ob- 
 viate difficulties and remove doubts ; but neither the 
 apparatus nor processes of this science are within 
 the reach of all who are interested in the inquiry, 
 and we accordingly subjoin a method less compre- 
 hensive, but more simple, and sufficiently exact for 
 agricultural purposes, and which calls only for two 
 vases, a pair of scales, clean water, and a little sul- 
 phuric acid. 
 
 " 1st. Take a small quantity of earth from diflfer- 
 ent parts of the field, the soil of which you wish to 
 ascertain ; mix them well together, and weigh them ; 
 put them in an oven heated for baking bread, and, 
 after they are dried, weigh them again ; the differ- 
 ence will show the absorbent power of the earth, or 
 the quantity of water which it contained. When 
 the loss of weight in 400 grains amounts to 50, this 
 power is great, and indicates the presence of much 
 
48 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 animal or vegetable matter ; but when it does not 
 exceed twenty, the absorbent power is small, and 
 the vegetable matter deficient.* 
 
 " 2d. Put the dried mass into a vase, with one 
 fourth of its own weight of clear water; mix them 
 well together ; pour off the dirty water into a second 
 vase, and pour on to the residuum in the first vase as 
 much clean water as before ; stir the contents, and 
 continue this process until the water poured off is 
 as clear as that poured on the earth. What remains 
 in the first employed vase is sand, silicious or cal- 
 careous. \ 
 
 " 3d. The dirty water collected in the second vase 
 will form a deposite, which, after pouring off the 
 water, must be dried, weighed, and calcined. On 
 weighing it after this process, the quantity lost will 
 show the portion of animal and vegetable mould con- 
 tained in the soil : and, 
 
 " 4th. This calcined matter must then be carefully 
 pulverized and weighed, as also the first deposite of 
 sand, but without mixing them. To these apply, 
 separately, sulphuric acid, and what they respect- 
 ively lose in weight is the portion of calcareous or 
 aluminous earths contained in them. These last, 
 again, may be separated by soap ley, which dis- 
 solves them."t 
 
 Here, then, is the light we wanted. By knowing 
 the disease, we find the cure. Clay and sand qual- 
 ify each other ; either of these will correct an ex- 
 cess of lime ; and magnesian earth, when saturated 
 with carbonic acid, becomes fertile. 
 
 But entirely to alter the constitution of a soil, 
 whether by mechanical or other means, is a work 
 of time, labour, and expense, and little adapted to 
 the pecuniary circumstances of farmers in general. 
 
 » See Davy's Elements. 
 
 t This method of analyzing soils is that described by M. 
 Bosc, member of the Institute of France, &c., and recommend- 
 ed to French agriculturists. 
 
ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 49 
 
 Fortunately, a remedy cheaper, more accessible, 
 and less difficult, is found in that great diversity of 
 habits and character which mark the vegetable 
 races. We shall, therefore, in what remains of this 
 chapter, indicate the principal of these, as furnish 
 ing the basis of all rational agriculture. 
 
 1st. Plants have different systems of roots, stems, 
 and leaves, and adopt themselves, accordingly, to dif- 
 ferent kinds of soils : the tussilago prefer clay, the 
 spergula sand ; asparagus will not flourish on a bed 
 of granite, nor muscus Islandicus on one of allu- 
 vion. It is obvious that fbrous-rooted plants, which 
 occupy only the surface of the earth, can subsist on 
 comparatively stiff and compact soils, in which 
 those of the leguminous and cruciform families 
 would perish, from inability to penetrate and divide. 
 
 2d. Plants of the same or of a similar kind do not 
 follow each other advantageously in the same soil. 
 Every careful observer must have seen how grasses 
 alternate in meadows or pastures where nature is 
 left to herself. At one time timothy, at another 
 clover, at a third redtop, and at a fourth blue grass 
 prevails. The same remark applies to forest trees ; 
 the original growth of wood is rarely succeeded by 
 a second of the same kind; pine is followed by- 
 oak, oak by chestnut, chestnut by hickory. A young 
 apple-tree will not live in the place where an old 
 one has died ; even the pear-tree does not thrive in 
 succession to an apple-tree, but stone fruit will 
 follow either with advantage. " In the Gautinois," 
 says Bosc, " saffron is not resumed but after a lapse 
 of twenty years ; and in the Netherlands, flax and 
 colzat require an interval of six years. Pease, when 
 they follow beans, give a lighter crop than when 
 they succeed plants of another family."* 
 
 * The ill effect of a succession of crops of the same kind was 
 not unknown to the Romans. We have proof of this in the fol- 
 lowing passage of Festus : " Restibilis ager fit qui continuo 
 
50 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 3d. Vegetables, lohether of the same family or not^ 
 having a similar structure of roots, should not succeed 
 each other. It has been observed that trees suffer 
 considerably by the neighbourhood of sainfoin and 
 lucerne, on account of the great depth to which the 
 roots of these plants penetrate ; whereas culraifer- 
 ous grasses do them no harm. 
 
 4th. Annual or biennial trefoils prevent the escape 
 of moisture from sandy and arid soils, and should 
 constantly cover them in the absence of other 
 plants ;* while drying and dividing crops, as beans, 
 cabbages, chicory, &c., &c,, are best fitted to correct 
 the faults of stiff and wet clays. 
 
 5th. When plants are cultivated in rows or hills, and 
 the ground between them is thoroughly worked, the 
 earth is kept open, divided, and permeable to air, heat, 
 and water, and, accordingly, receives from the atmo- 
 sphere nearly as much alimentary provision as it gives 
 to the plant. This principle is the basis of drill hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 6th. All plants permitted to go through the phases 
 of vegetation (and, of course, to give their seeds), ex- 
 haust the ground in a greater or less degree ; but, if 
 cut green and before seeding, they take little from the 
 principle of fertility. 
 
 7th. Plants are exhausters in proportion to the length 
 of the time they occupy the soil. Those of the cul- 
 miferous kinds (wheat, rye, &c.) do not ripen, if 
 sown in the fall, under ten months, and during this 
 period forbid the earth from being stirred; while, 
 on the other hand, leguminous plants occupy it but 
 from three to four months, and permit frequent 
 ploughings. This is one reason why culmiferous 
 
 biennio seritur farreo spico, id est aristato, quod, ne fiat solent, 
 qui pradia locant, excipere." 
 
 * The "sterilis tellos medio versatur in jestu"— the bare 
 earth turned up in midsummer — of Virgil, shows the opinion 
 he entertained of a husbandry that left the fields without vege- 
 tation. 
 
ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 51 
 
 crops are greater exhausters than leguminous ; an- 
 other is, that the stems of culmiferous plants be- 
 come hard and flinty, and their leaves dry and yel- 
 low, from the time of flowering till the ripening of 
 the seed, losing their inhaling or absorbing facul- 
 ties, circulating no juices, and hving altogether- in 
 their roots, and on ahments exclusively derived 
 from the earth ; whereas leguminous or cruciferous 
 plants, as cabbages, turnips, &c., &c., have succu- 
 lent stems, and broad and porous leaves, and draw 
 their principal nourishment from the atmosphere. 
 The remains of culmiferous crops also are fewer 
 and less easily decomposed than those of the legu- 
 minous family. 
 
 8th. Meadows^ natural and artificial^ yield the food 
 necessary to cattle^ and, in proportion as these are mul- 
 tiplied, manures are increased and the soil made better. 
 Another circumstance which recommends meadows 
 is, that, so long as they last, they exact but little 
 labour, and leave the whole force of the farmer to 
 be directed to his arable grounds. 
 
 9th. Grasses are either fibrous or tap-rooted, or both 
 The remarks already made in articles 1, 2, and 3, ap- 
 ply also to them. Timothy, redtop, oat-grass, and 
 rye-grass, succeed best in stiff", wet soils. Sainfoin 
 does well on soils the most bare, mountainous, and 
 arid ; lucerne and the trefoils (or clovers) only at- 
 tain the perfection of which they are susceptible in 
 warm, dry, calcareous earth. 
 
 10th. The ameliorating quality of tap-rocted plants 
 is supposed to be in proportion to their natural duration ; 
 annual clover (lupinella) has less of this property 
 than biennial (Dutch clover), biennial less than sain- 
 foin, and sainfoin less than lucerne. 
 
 11th. Any green crop ploughed into the soil has 
 an effect highly improving ; but for this purpose lu- 
 pines and buckwheat (cut when in flower) are most 
 proper. 
 
 12th. Mixed crops (as Indian corn and pumpkins, 
 5 
 
52 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 and pease and oats) are much and profitably employed, 
 and with less injury to the soil than either corn or oats 
 alone.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE, AND ITS NECESSARY IN- 
 STRUMENTS. 
 
 We begin this part of our subject with a few re- 
 marks on the instruments necessary to agriculture, 
 which may be comprised under the well-known 
 names of the plough, the harrow, the roller, the 
 threshing-machine, and the fanning-mill. 
 
 I. Of the Plough. 
 
 It is among the inscrutable dispensations of Prov- 
 idence, that the arts most useful to man have been 
 of later discovery, of slower growth, and of less 
 marked improvement than those that aimed only 
 at his destruction. At a time when the phalanx 
 and the legion were invented and perfected, and 
 when the instruments they employed were various 
 and powerful, those of agriculture continued to be 
 few, simple, and inefficient. 
 
 Of the Greek plough we know nothing ;• and the 
 general disuse of that described by Virgil and Pliny 
 furnishes a degree of evidence that experience has 
 found it incompetent to its objects. With even the 
 boasted lights of modern knowledge, scientific men 
 
 * The good effect of these mixtures was known to the an- 
 cients, from whom the practice has descended to us. What a 
 picture of fertility and abundance have we in the 22d chap., 18th 
 book, of Pliny's Natural History : " Sub vita seritur frumentum, 
 mox legumen, decinde olus, omnia, eodem anno, omuiaque ali- 
 ena umbra aluntur." Under the vine is sowed grain, shortly af- 
 terward pulse, then garden vegetables, all in the same year, and 
 sheltered and cherished by each other's shade. 
 
PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 53 
 
 are not agreed upon the form and proportions most 
 proper for this instrument. As in other cases, so in 
 this, there may be no abstract perfection; what is 
 best in one description of soil may not be so in an- 
 other; yet, as in all soils the office of the plough is 
 the same, viz., to cleave and turn over the earth, there 
 cannot but be some definite shape and proportions 
 better fitted for these purposes, and, at the same 
 time, less susceptible of resistance, than any other. 
 
 This beau ideal, this supposititious excellence, in 
 the mechanism of a plough, has been the object of 
 great national as well as individual research. In 
 Great Britain, high prizes have been established for 
 its attainment ; and in France, under the ministry of 
 Chaptal, 10,000 francs, or $3000, were offered for 
 this object by the agricultural society of the Seine. 
 In both countries the subject has employed many- 
 able pens ; those of Lord Kaimes, of Mr. Young, of 
 Mr. Arbuthnot, of Lord Somerville, and of Mes* 
 sieurs Duhamel, Chateauvieux, Bosc, Guillaume, 
 &c. It is not for us, therefore, to do more than 
 assemble and present such rules for the construc- 
 tion of this instrument as have most attained the 
 authority of maxims. 
 
 1st. The beam, or that part of the plough which 
 carries the coulter, and furnishes the point of draught, 
 should be as near that of resistance as possible ; be- 
 cause the more these are approached, the less is the 
 moving power required. Even the shape of the 
 beam is not a matter of indifference. In the old 
 ploughs it was generally straight, but a small 
 curve is now preferred; because it has the effect 
 of strengthening the coulter by shortening it. 
 
 2d. The head of the plough is the plane on which 
 it moves. This should be concave, because tha": 
 form off*ers fewer points of friction, and, of course^ 
 less resistance. Between the beam and the head is 
 an angle, on which depends the orincipal office of 
 the plough ; the making, at will, a -iecp or a shal 
 
54 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 low furrow. If you wish a deep furrow, diminish 
 the angle, and vice versa: but this angle should in 
 no case exceed from 18 to 24 degrees. 
 
 The resistance made to the plough being produ- 
 ced less by the weight of the earth than by the co- 
 hesion of its parts, it is evident that the head should 
 be shod with iron, and rendered as smooth as pos- 
 sible. This remark applies equally to the soc and 
 to the mouldboard. 
 
 3d. The soc^ in its widest part, should be larger 
 than the head. It has different shapes in different 
 countries. In some is given to it that of an isosce- 
 les triangle ; in others, that of the head of a lance ; 
 in Biscay, that of a crescent ; and in Poland; of a 
 two pronged fork. But, whatever be its shape, it 
 should be well pointed and pohshed, enter the earth 
 with facility, and cut it easily. 
 
 4th. To the mouldboard some workmen give the 
 shape of a prismatic wedge ; others make the up- 
 per part convex and the lower concave : while 
 many make it entirely flat. In stiff soils, the semi- 
 cycloid'isiYiG form to be preferred; and in loose, fri- 
 able soils, the semi- ellipsis* The iron mouldboard 
 has great advantages over the wooden, particularly 
 when it, the shear, and the soc, form one piece, as 
 in the ploughs of Mr. Cook. 
 
 It is a general opinion, that a heavy plough is 
 more disadvantageous than a light one ; because 
 the draught of the former, being greater, will be more 
 fatiguing to the cattle ; but the experiments of the 
 agricultural society of London estabhsh a contrary 
 doctrine, and show that, in light grounds, the labour 
 is more easily and better performed with a heavy 
 than with a light plough. 
 
 5th. The coulter is a species of knife inserted in the 
 beam, and so placed before the soc as to cut the sod. 
 It is susceptible of being raised or depressed at will, 
 
 6th. The handles of the plough ought to be made 
 * See Arbuthnot on Ploughs. 
 
PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 
 
 55 
 
 of some kind of heavy wood, that they may operate 
 as a counter weight to the head, the soc, and the 
 mouldboard. 
 
 To these remarks we subjoin two sets of experi- 
 ments, made with the most approved French and 
 EngUsh ploughs, that of Guiilaume and Small's 
 Rotheram plough improved,, which furnish a means of 
 comparison between the best ploughs of Europe and 
 those of this country. 
 
 The resistance (stated in these tables) was meas- 
 ured and ascertained by a dynonometer^ a machine 
 indispensable to those who would make correct ob- 
 servations on the relative advantages of different 
 ploughs. 
 
 THE FRENCH PLOUGH. 
 
 
 THE ENGLISH 
 
 PLOUGH. 
 
 Resistance in pounds. 
 
 
 Resistance in 
 
 pounds. 
 
 1st experiment . . 200 
 
 1st experiment 
 
 
 360 
 
 2d "... 240 
 
 2d 
 
 tt 
 
 
 
 380 
 
 3d "... 200 
 
 3d 
 
 (( 
 
 
 
 
 480 
 
 4th "... 220 
 
 4th 
 
 
 
 
 
 460 
 
 5th " ." . . 220 
 
 5th 
 
 
 
 
 
 400 
 
 
 6th 
 
 
 
 
 
 400 
 
 Divided by 5)1080 
 
 7th 
 
 
 
 
 
 420 
 
 
 8th 
 
 
 
 
 
 386 
 
 Average . . 216 
 
 9th 
 
 
 
 
 
 440 
 
 
 
 Divided by 9)3720 
 
 
 
 Average 
 
 
 
 
 413 
 
 IL The Harrow. — This is of different kinds ; the 
 triangular and the square, the single and the double. 
 But, of whatever form, its uses are the same ; to 
 smooth the field after ploughing, to break and pul- 
 verize the clods, and to cover the seed. These 
 uses sufficiently indicate the propriety of employ- 
 ing two in succession ; one of heavy frame, with 
 few and long teeth, like the Scotch break ; the 
 other of lighter construction, with more and short- 
 er teeth. Our own experience leads us to believe 
 that the common harrow covers the seed too much, 
 
56 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 because small seeds will not vegetate at a depth 
 greater than three inches. 
 
 III. The Roller is a cyhnder of heavy wood, turn- 
 ing on gudgeons or on an axle, and placed in a 
 frame, to which is attached a shaft , it is of differ- 
 ent dimensions, but need not exceed that which 
 may be drawn by one, or, at most, by two horses or 
 oxen. This instrument is indispensable in good 
 husbandry, yet it is rarely used in ours. Its offi- 
 ces are threefold ; to render loose soil more com- 
 pact, to break the clods on stiff ones, and, on both, 
 to compress the earth after seeding, so that it be 
 everywhere brought in contact with the grain. It is 
 also usefully employed in reinstating the roots of 
 meadow grasses, loosened and raised by the alter- 
 nate freezing and thawing of the ground, "and, with 
 a similar view, may be passed over winter crops 
 early in the spring. 
 
 Its clod-breaking and pulverizing property is 
 much increased by surrounding the roller with nar- 
 row bands of iron, two inches broad, three inches 
 thick, and six inches apart ; or by studding it with 
 iron pomts resembling harrow teeth, and projecting 
 Ihree or four inches. 
 
 IV. The Threshing-machine is of English inven- 
 =-:ion, and may be well enough adapted to the taste 
 and circumstances of rich amateurs, but not at all 
 to those of farmers in general. Our objections to 
 it are three: the first cost, which is great; the 
 quantum of moving power employed, which is equal 
 to that of six horses ; and the number of hands re- 
 quired to attend it, which is not less than four.* 
 We have seen, in France, a machine for the same 
 purpose, but of much simpler structure, called the 
 '' Rouleau de depiquer^'' which is only a fluted cylin- 
 der ; yet, simple and cheap as this was, it could not 
 
 * This opinion of the value of the threshing-machine will, 
 we presump, meet with but little favour among our wheat 
 farmers. 
 
PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 57 
 
 maintain itself against the more ancient instru' 
 ments, the flail and the horse. Still it is to be 
 hoped that new experiments may succeed better, 
 and abridge the manual labour usually given to this 
 branch of husbandry, and that the mechanical genius 
 of our own country, which is not inferior to that of 
 any other, may be the first to combine power and 
 cheapness in this machine. 
 
 This hope is probably suggested by the descrip- 
 tion of a new invented threshing machine now be- 
 fore me, and which I may be permitted to trans- 
 cribe from the letter of the inventor. " The ma- 
 chine I have built is three feet wide. One horse 
 will thresh, with much ease, as much wheat as can 
 be laid on it by one man (the straw to be taken 
 away by another), say from ffty to one hundred 
 bushels in a day, and the saving of grain will pay for 
 the labour ; for I think that, with good attendance, 
 not a particle of grain can escape with the straw. 
 The expense of the machine will be from fifty to 
 seventy dollars, exclusive of the moving power, 
 which is awheel about ten feet diameter on an up- 
 right shaft, to which a lever is fixed to hitch the 
 horse. Within this main wheel a small one should 
 be made to work, about two feet diameter, on a 
 shaft carrying a drum four feet wide. With this 
 simple gearing, and drawn by a horse that walks 
 well, the machine will give about eighteen hundred 
 strokes in a minute, and, if fully attended, will, with- 
 out hard labour for the horse, thresh a bushel every 
 three or four minutest 
 
 V. The Fanning-mill. Other things being equal, 
 the cleanest wheat is most easily preserved, and, on 
 manufacture, gives the best flour and in the largest 
 quantity. These considerations off'er inducement 
 enough for the employment of this machine, which, 
 besides doing its business well, saves a great deal 
 of time. It is too well known to lequire descrip- 
 tion. 
 
58 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF MANURES ; THEIR MANAGEMENT AND APPLICATION. 
 
 The principle of fertility (the result of animal and 
 vegetable decomposition) is, as we have seen, sus- 
 ceptible of solution, and in this form becomes the 
 aliment of that artificial vegetation which is the 
 work of man, and which leaves so little on the 
 earth to compensate for the great deal which it 
 takes from it. In a course of years, therefore, 
 there will be an actual loss or subtraction of mat- 
 ter, useful or necessary to the growth of plants, 
 and which can only be re-established by manures of 
 vegetable or animal origin. The most approved 
 methods of preserving and applying these must 
 therefore be among the objects most important to 
 the agriculturist ; and that the reader may better 
 understand the reasons of the practice we mean to 
 recommend, we begin the discussion with Kirwan's 
 analysis of stable manures.* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■°1 
 
 •a 
 
 
 
 „. 
 
 
 
 
 
 •s-^ 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 g- 
 
 i 
 
 S 
 1 
 
 In 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 J 
 
 o 
 
 ■Si 
 2. 4 
 
 0. 6 
 
 u 
 92.80 
 
 ,s 
 
 (Cow dung J ^ 
 
 3.75 
 
 1.20 
 
 0.15 
 
 Tn'^ 
 
 < Horse dung > .> 
 
 10. 2 
 
 1.50 
 
 0.50 
 
 3. 
 
 0.21 
 
 89.77 
 
 o 
 
 ^ Sheep dung > '^ 
 
 25. 
 
 10.28 
 
 29. 
 
 29. 
 
 0.72 
 
 68.00 
 
 * TuU and Du Hamel's doctrine, that frequent ploughings 
 and sowings superseded the necessity of manure, is no longer 
 held by any well-instructed agriculturist. The maxim of Oliver 
 de Serris is much better founded. " Le bien labourer, le bien 
 fumer, est tout le secret de I'agriculture." Till well and manure 
 well is the whole secret of agriculture. 
 
MANURES. 59 
 
 The elementary parts of these manures, as ex- 
 hibited in this table, sufficiently indicate the mode 
 of preserving them. .When dropped in the fields and 
 in small parcels by cattle, they exhibit no signs of 
 fermentation, nor undergo, in that state, any degree 
 of chymical decomposition ; but, when brought to- 
 gether, and frequently wetted and subjected to the 
 action of atmospheric air, they are speedily dis- 
 solved and give out much gaseous matter. To pre- 
 vent the escape of these soluble and volatile parts, 
 two things are necessary : 1st, that the dung be col- 
 lected in a reservoir of convenient size, and walled 
 and paved with stones ; and, 2d, that a layer of sand 
 or earth be occasionally spread over the surface of 
 the dung. The former will prevent filtration, and 
 the latter retain the gaseous matter so useful in 
 vegetation, and, at the same time, augment the quan- 
 tity of manure. To prevent an excess of moisture, 
 which always retards, and sometimes prevents de- 
 composition altogether, the reservoir should be 
 covered. 
 
 The application of manures is a subject of more 
 difliculty, and has given occasion to some dispute. 
 The controverted points are, 
 
 1st. Whether short or long dung, or, in other 
 words, whether dung thoroughly rotted, or that 
 which has but begun to rot, is most advantageous. 
 
 2d. Whether dung used superficially, or ploughed 
 deep into the ground, is most profitable. 
 
 3d. Whether extraneous matters admitted into 
 the dungheap are useful or otherwise. 
 
 4th. Whether stable manures are best applied di- 
 rectly or indirectly to wheat crops. 
 
 5th. At what time manures are best applied ; and, 
 
 6th. In what quantity. 
 
 We shall discuss these points separately and 
 briefly; and, 
 
 1st. Which is to be preferred, long or short dung ? 
 
 The discordance in practice, as well as in opinion, 
 
60 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 prevailing on this question, induced some scientific 
 men to institute a series of experiments, having for 
 their object a full and regular solution of it. With 
 this view, parcels of dung (lorig and short) were 
 taken from the same stables on the same day, and 
 applied to crops of the same kind growing on the 
 same fields. The result perfectly conformed to the- 
 ory, and was similar in all the experiments. Those 
 parts of the field to which the short dung was ap- 
 plied gave the best crops the first year ; but those 
 on which the long dung had been laid gave the best 
 crops the second and third years ; a fact which au- 
 thorizes the conclusion, that, if we wish to obtain 
 one great crop, the rotted dung is best ; but when 
 we look to more permanent improvement, the long 
 dung is to be preferred. 
 
 2d. Which is the better practice, to spread ma- 
 nure on the surface, or lay it deeply under the 
 ground 1 
 
 In favour of the former practice it has been con- 
 tended, that the distribution of the dung could be 
 more equally made on the surface with a spade than 
 under ground with a plough ;* and for the latter, 
 that all tap-rooted plants, entering far into the 
 earth, require it to be laid deep ; while those with 
 fibrous roots will be sufficiently benefited by its 
 exhalations. Both modes, however, are obviously 
 bad. We have seen in the preceding article that 
 dung, to become the aliment of plants, must under- 
 go a decomposition ; and that, to the production of 
 this, the combined action of air and water is indis- 
 pensable. But, if the manure be buried deeply, this 
 action cannot reach it, and the dung remains a ca- 
 put mortuum. On the other hand, if spread super- 
 
 * The English are said to have a machine attached to the 
 drill that goes before and distributes the manure at the neces- 
 sary depth. In planting potatoes we make a bed of dung foi 
 the plant. Why not apply the same reasoning and the same 
 practice to all seeding of the ground ? 
 
MANURES. 61 
 
 ficially, the rains dissolve and carry away many of 
 its juices, while the sun and the wind evaporate the 
 rest. These considerations lead to the true rule on 
 this head, which is to lay it three or four inches be- 
 low the surface of the soil. At this depth, if short 
 dung, its action will be most vigorous in all direc- 
 tions ; and if long dung, a greater depth will, as al- 
 ready suggested, completely destroy all action. 
 
 3d. Are extraneous matters, as horns, hoofs, 
 bones, shells, feathers, leaves, weeds, &c., &c., to 
 be admitted into the dung*-heap ? 
 
 There is, perhaps, nothing in either theory or 
 practice so obviously right, that it may not be dis- 
 puted. The principal objection made to these mat- 
 ters is, that they do not decompose equally ; and 
 that those ingredients of the heap which are slow- 
 est in decomposition, retard others, which, if left to 
 themselves, would be more forward in this process. 
 This objection is without weight ; for we have seen 
 that long or unrotted manure, though its effect be 
 prompt, is, upon the whole, more favourable to cul- 
 ture than that which is rotted. The difference of 
 time in decomposition is therefore no evil, and the 
 augmentation of the mass is a great good; besides 
 that, some of these offals are the most powerful 
 manures. Horns and hoofs are compounded of al- 
 bumen and gelatine ; bones, of the phosphate and 
 carbonate of lime and gelatine; shells, of carbonate 
 of lime and animal matter ; and feathers and hair, 
 of albumen, oil, &c., &c. Applied to the roots, they 
 forward the growth of fruit-trees more than any 
 other species of manure. 
 
 4th. Whether stable manures are best applied, 
 directly or indirectly, to wheat crops ? 
 
 The practice, on this head, is different in different 
 places. In France, as in all other countries where 
 fallows are in use, the dung is applied directly to 
 the wheat crop ; while in England, where the rota- 
 tion system is established, it is applied to the sum- 
 
62 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 mer crop, which immediately precedes that of the 
 wheat. 
 
 The objection to the French practice is, that the 
 weeds brought into the field by the manure start 
 with the grain, and do as much harm as the dung 
 does good. Nor is there any sufficient answer, that 
 I know of, to this objection. The English practice 
 is, therefore, much to be preferred ; because, besides 
 the advantage of exchanging d. fallow for a summer 
 crop, it permits -you, while that crop is growing, to 
 destroy the weeds that otherwise would have infest- 
 ed your fields. 
 
 5th. At what time of the year are manures best 
 applied ] 
 
 The most approved rule on this head is to apply 
 the winter dung wholly to potatoes, flax, and corn ; 
 that of the spring, to cabbages and beans ; and what 
 may be afterward collected, to turnips ; and, 
 
 6th. In what quantity ought we to apply them 1 
 
 The quantum of manure to be applied to the acre 
 must necessarily depend on the staple of the soil. 
 If entirely exhausted of vegetable mould, a great 
 deal will not be too much ; but there is a possibility 
 of erring in this respect, even with regard to poor 
 soils. Where an excess of manure exists, the crop, 
 whatever it be, runs into stalk and leaf, and the 
 eff'ect on the flavour of the vegetable is bad ; a fact 
 which the experience of all who have tasted the 
 cabbages and turnips raised in the poudrette of Paris 
 and London can abundantly establish. Even mead- 
 ows, which are least liable to injuries in this way, 
 may be too much dunged. What cultivator of ob- 
 servation has not seen his cattle turn with disgust 
 from herbage the most luxuriant in appearance, but 
 growing out of masses of manure 1 This circum- 
 stance suggests the advantage of going over our 
 meadows in the fall, and breaking up and distribu- 
 ting such lumps of dung as may be found in them. 
 
 The preceding remarks were confined to stable 
 
MANURES. 63 
 
 manures. What remains to be said applies to lime, 
 marl, vegetable ashes, ashes of earth, and green 
 crops ploughed into the ground. 
 
 It will be remembered that the action of lime, as 
 a manure, is owing to its causticity, or power of 
 dissolving animal and vegetable substances ; and to 
 its quality of absorbing enUonic acid from the at- 
 mosphere. These properties render it peculiarly- 
 useful in composts, or mixtures of dung, peat, and 
 earth; a mass of which, disposed in alternate lay- 
 ers, is no doubt the perfection of this branch of 
 husbandry.* It is also applied without any acces- 
 sary, and with great advantage, to marshy grounds ;t 
 to those having in them the remains of shellfish ;| 
 to natural meadows, and to all soils abounding in 
 vegetable mould. On those of a different character 
 it must be cautiously used as to quantity, and, in- 
 deed, on any soil, an excess of it will completely 
 destroy the fertihzing principle ; an effect constant- 
 ly observed near mortar beds. 
 
 The time of using it is liable to less uncertainty. 
 On wheat it should be sown as soon as the grain 
 shows itself, and on meadows late in the fall, and 
 after the cattle have been turned off, *" 
 
 Marl, being a compound of clay and lime, has the 
 properties of the latter, and produces similar effects, 
 but in a smaller degree. Hence it is that the quan- 
 tity of it given to the acre is much greater than 
 that of lime. The English practice is to spread it 
 over a field to the depth of three or four inches. 
 This is done late in the fall, to the end that frost 
 and rain may break down and pulverize it. 
 
 The properties of rt^/^e^, whether derived from the 
 combustion of animals, of vegetables, or of fossil 
 
 * These might be formed in narrow lintals, inclining from 
 the stable. 
 
 t After they have been drained. 
 
 j There is much of this description oJ land on the bays and 
 creeks of the Chesapeake. 
 
64 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 coal, are nearly the same, and r^^omble those of 
 lime and marl. They powerfully attract and hold 
 moisture and carbonic acid, and they hasten the de- 
 composition of stable manures, or other vegetable 
 or animal product. Their action is most favourable 
 on wet and cold soils, and as a top-dressing to nat- 
 ural meadows and turnip crops. 
 
 The practice of paring and burning the surface of 
 the earth has been much used, and warmly recom- 
 mended by the Irish ; and in their land of bogs, as 
 in the marshes of Holland, where infertility arises 
 from excess of vegetable matter, it may be useful ; 
 but to burn the surfaces of sandy, gravelly, or even 
 of dry clay soils, would be to lose sight of all sound 
 theory. 
 
 Soils in general may be divided into two kinds, 
 sand and clay. The defect of the one is want of 
 cohesion between its parts ; that of the other, an 
 excessive or superabundant cohesion. But vegeta- 
 ble matter is, as we have seen, a remedy for both ; 
 and to accumulate this is the constant endeavour of 
 every enhghtened agriculturist. Yet are we advi- 
 sed to destroy this vegetable matter by fire, and to 
 substitute for it a small portion of ashes, as more 
 favourable to vegetation than the soil itself! But 
 in what will these ashes differ from those found in 
 our chimneys, and of which enough may be had T 
 In nothing, excepting that they may possess some- 
 what more alkaline salt;* a circumstance which, if 
 the subsoil be not charged with oily and animal mat- 
 ter, will be more injurious than useful. 
 
 * De Saussure's experiments prove, that the stems of trees 
 (other things being equal) produce less of this salt than the 
 branches, the branches less than the twigs, and the twigs less 
 than the leaves. M. Perthuys has formed a table of the relative 
 alkaline products of plants and trees. By this table it appears 
 that the leaves and stems of Indian corn give to the quintal eight 
 pounds thirteen ounces, those of oak one pound five ounces, and 
 those of pine five ounces. 
 
MANURES. 65 
 
 But, besides the consideration of getting so lit- 
 tle, and that little of such equivocal character and 
 use, what do we lose by the process ? If we ap- 
 proach these little kilns, we find them emitting a 
 black smoke, which cannot be entirely consumed ; 
 and our eyes and noses are assailed by some stim- 
 ulating and ammoniacal matter, M^hich is fast es- 
 caping, and which so far alters the atmospheric 
 air in the neighbourhood as to render it difficult of 
 respiration. Need we add that this is the animal, 
 oily, and gaseous matter essential to the vegetable, 
 and highly important to vegetation? It may be 
 that the ashes obtained may give one or two good 
 crops of turnips; but even the advocates of this 
 practice admit that, " it ruins the land for an age ; 
 and hence it is that in England, tenants are restrain- 
 ed from paring and burning, especially/ towards the 
 close of their lease.''''* 
 
 Clay burning is a different operation, and made 
 with different views ; not for the production of ash- 
 es or salts, which may operate chymically, but 
 merely (by the application of heat) to alter the tex- 
 ture of the soil ; to give to it an artificial division 
 and porosity ; to render what was cold warm, what 
 was wet dry, and what was compact granular. 
 But a small degree of heat will not produce these 
 effects ; for, unlike the stems and roots of plants, 
 clay is not itself combustible ; and, to bring it to the 
 brick state, the heat applied must be long, contin- 
 ued, and great : hence it follows, that the practice 
 becomes objectionable on the score of expense, and 
 the more so as burned clay has no possible advan- 
 tage over the much cheaper substances of sand, 
 gravel, and pounded limestone. The operation of 
 all is merely mechanical, and exactly in proportion 
 to the quantity used. 
 
 Our partiaHty for green crops ploughed into the 
 
 * See Cobbett, part second, p. 168, " Year's Residence in the 
 United States.'' 
 
66 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ground as manure has been sufficiently indicated, 
 and it is now only necessary that we mention the 
 plants best calculated for this purpose. At the head 
 of these we place buckwheat, as well on account of 
 cheapness as effect : cheapness, because the price of 
 the seed, which is the only additional expense, is 
 below consideration ; and effect, because this plant, 
 while growing, is, from its umbrageous form, a 
 great improver of the soil, both by stifling weeds 
 and preventing evaporation ; and, when ploughed 
 into the ground, none decomposes more rapidly, 
 nor has any a more powerful effect in keeping the 
 earth loose and open to the action of light, heat, 
 air, and moisture, all of which are indispensable to 
 vegetation. " I know no plant," says Rozier, the 
 great French agriculturist, " that furnishes a better 
 manure, or which is sooner reduced to vegetable 
 mould, than buckwheat." When cultivated with 
 this view, the usual quantity of seed ought to be in- 
 creased, and the time of sowing hastened, so as to 
 enable you to have two crops of manure the same 
 season, and before the sowing of wheat. 
 
 The lupine (one of the leguminous family) has 
 been long and profitably employed as a manure in 
 Spain, Italy, and the southern province of France. 
 Columella directs that " it be sown in September, 
 about the equinox, so that it may attain, before 
 winter, a growth that will enable it to resist wet and 
 frosty weather, which it particularly dreads." I 
 need not remark that these directions are not cal- 
 culated for this climate, and that the seed-time foi 
 the lupine here is the 20th of May. The properties 
 which recommend it as a manure are nearly the 
 same as those which belong to buckwheat. It is a 
 quick grower, and has numerous, large, and succu- 
 lent leaves. While growing it subsists principally 
 upon the air, and, when buried, decomposes entirely 
 and rapidly. 
 The pea tribe has the next place in this list ; but. 
 
TILLAGE. fi7 
 
 though not better adapted to the end than buck- 
 wheat or lupine, it is more capricious than they, and 
 requires a soil of better staple and more prepara- 
 tion. The seed is also more expensive. Of this 
 tribe the yellow vetching (lathyrus pratensis) is the 
 species to be preferred. 
 
 Turnips have been cultivated in England with the 
 same view, but the practice has yielded to another 
 and better (which, however, is not suited to our 
 climate), feeding them off in the winter and on, tht 
 field. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OP TILLAGE, AND THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH IT IS 
 FOUNDED. 
 
 Tillage has three objects : 1st, the raising of 
 plants, whose seeds, stems, or roots may be neces- 
 sary or useful to man and the animals he employs ; 
 2d, the improvement of the soil, by laying it open 
 to those atmospheric influences which increase its 
 fertility ; and, 3d, its destruction of weeds or plants 
 which rise spontaneously, and are either altogether 
 unfit, or fit only in a small degree, for the nutrition 
 of men and cattle, and which, if left to themselves, 
 would stifle or starve the intended crop. 
 
 In fulfilling either or all of these objects, it is evi- 
 dent that the surface of the earth must be broken 
 and divided into small parts, so that it may furnish 
 a bed and covering for the seeds sown, enable the 
 plants to push their roots into the soil, and draw 
 from it a portion of their subsistence. 
 
 To accomplish this leading intention, the division 
 of the soil, various means have been employed. Fos- 
 
68 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 sil, animal, and vegetable manures, as well by their 
 mechanical action as by their chymical properties, 
 promote it; as do sand, pounded limestone, and 
 water, as in the culture of the rice ; but it is to the 
 spade and the plough we must look for that degree 
 of efficiency, without which the earth would have 
 remained a desert, or would become one. Of these, 
 where the scale of labour is small, as in garden cul- 
 ture, the former is to be preferred ; but, in farm- 
 ing, the greater expedition of the latter gives it a 
 decided advantage. Our remarks, therefore, will be 
 confined to the operations of this instrument ; and 
 particularly to such as have given occasion to dif- 
 ferences in opinion among practical farmers. 
 
 1st. At what season of the year, spring, summer, or 
 fall, is ploughing best performed, in relation to division 
 and improvement of the soil, and the destruction of 
 weeds ? 
 
 The more scientific opinion is in favour o( fall 
 ploughing ; because to the action of air alid moist- 
 ure it adds that of frost, whose septic or dividing 
 quality is second only to that of the plough itself. 
 In clay soils this preparation should never be omit- 
 ted ; because on those the action of frost is great- 
 est, and because one ploughing of this kind may 
 save two in the spring, when time is everything.* 
 In this operation, however, we must not forget to 
 ridge as well as plough; and care must be taken 
 that our furrows have sufficient declination to car- 
 ry off surplus water. With these precautions, clay 
 ground will be ready early in the spring for another 
 ploughing ; and the decomposition of the sod and 
 weeds turned down in the fall will be nearly, if 
 not altogether, complete.! 
 
 * The marsh bean grows best on a fall ploughing ; and oats, 
 well harrowed, will, on such ploughing, give a good crop with- 
 out other culture. 
 
 t Without water there is no decomposition, and much watei 
 checks and prevents it. 
 
TILLAGE. 69 
 
 In dry and warm soils these advantages are less ; 
 but still the time gained for spring work is a suffi- 
 cient inducement to a practice that economizes, not 
 merely labour, but the productive powers of the 
 earth also, by soonest enabling us to shade the soil 
 with a growing crop.* 
 
 2d. What number of ploughings, preparatory to a 
 crop, is necessary or proper ? 
 
 The Romans were in the practice of multiplied 
 ploughings. This appears as well from the precepts 
 of Cato as from the opinion of Columella, that " til- 
 lage, which does not leave the earth in a state of 
 dust and render the use of harrows unnecessary, 
 has not been well performed." Tull and his disci- 
 ples carry the doctrine still farther, and believe that 
 frequent ploughings enable us to dispense with even 
 the use of manures. This, however, is extravagant : 
 it is certain that the plough can do much, but it is 
 equally certain that there is much it cannot do. 
 
 Agriculture, like other business having profit for 
 it^ object, is a subject of calculation ; its labour must 
 be regulated by its end ; and the moment the expense 
 of this transcends the profit, it may be improvement, 
 but it ceases to be farming. When, therefore, we 
 hear of six ploughings preparatory to a wheat crop, 
 we conclude either that the plough will soon stop, 
 or that it belongs to one of the dilettanti, who thinks 
 it beneath him to count the cost. In our own prac- 
 tice, we find that spring crops of the cereal gramina 
 succeed best on one fall ploughing, well ridged and 
 furrowed, and with one cross-ploughing in the 
 spring; and that spring and summer crops of the 
 
 * Those who have any doubts about the importance of shade, 
 have but to look at the effects of a brush-heap, or other collec- 
 tion of small bodies admitting air, heat, and moisture, during 
 the spring or summer months. Under such collections he will 
 find a much more vigorous vegetation than in the uncovered 
 parts of the field : the cause of this effect is that the brush pre 
 vents evaporation. 
 
70 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 leguminous and cruciform families form the best 
 possible preparation for winter crops, and render 
 unnecessary more than one additional ploughing. 
 After all, any proper answer to this question must 
 necessarily be qualified by considerations of soil, 
 weather, season, crop, and culture ; influences which 
 cannot but exist in all cases, and over which we 
 have no control. Wheat, for instance, requires 
 more preparatory ploughing than rye, and rye more 
 than oats. Clay ground demands more tillage than 
 calcareous earth, and calcareous earth more than 
 sand. Wet or dry weather makes frequent plough- 
 ings, according to circumstances, either useful, in- 
 jurious, or impracticable ; and the shade of a horse- 
 hoed crop is, perhaps, in itself, of more importance 
 to that which succeeds, than would be the fallowing 
 of a whole summer. 
 
 3d. What depth of ploughing is most to be recom- 
 mended ? 
 
 This question, though less complicated than the 
 last, requires, like it, an answer qualified by circum- 
 stances. Tap-rooted plants require deeper tillage 
 than others : fall ploughings may be deeper than 
 those of spring, and spring than those of summer. 
 If the vegetable soil be deep, deep ploughings will 
 not injure it; but if it be shallow, such ploughings 
 will bring up part of the subsoil, which is always 
 infertile, until it receive new principles from the atmo- 
 sphere. " They who pretend," says Arthur Young, 
 " that the underlayer of earth is as proper for ve- 
 getation as the upper, maintain a paradox, refuted 
 both by reason and' experience." 
 
 Where, however, it becomes part of your object 
 to increase the depth of the surface soil, deep 
 ploughing is indispensable ; and in this, as in many 
 other cases, we must submit to present inconve- 
 nience for the advantage of future benefit. But even 
 here it is laid down as a rule, that, " in proportion as 
 
TILLAGE. 71 
 
 you deepen your ploughings, you increase the necessity 
 for manures y* 
 
 " From six to eight inches may be taken as the 
 ordinary depth of sufficient ploughing,"! And, 
 
 4th. Of the different modes of ploughing {level 01 
 ridge ploughing)^ which is to be preferred? 
 
 This question admits no absolute answer. We 
 have already suggested the use of the latter mode ' 
 in stiff, heavy, wet clays ; and, in our opinion, all 
 ground in v/hich clay predominates, whatever be 
 the culture, should be made to take this form: be- 
 cause it powerfully tends to drain the soil, and car- 
 ry off from the roots of the growing plants that su- 
 perfluous water, which, left to itself, would seri- 
 ously affect both the quality and the quantity of 
 their products. | In sandy, porous, and dry soils, 
 on the other hand, level ploughing is to be prefer- 
 red ; because ridging such soils would but increase 
 that want of cohesion which is their natural defect. 
 
 A loamy soil, which is a medium between these 
 two extremes, ought, in a dry climate, to be culti- 
 vated in the^a^ way, that it may the better retain 
 moisture ; and in a wet climate, in ridges, that it 
 may the sooner become dry. 
 
 * Young. t Idem. 
 
 t It has been objected to ridge ploughing that it accumulates 
 the good soil on the crowns of ridges, and impoverishes the 
 sides and furrows. These objections are obviated by narrow 
 and low ridges, which alternate every orop with the furrows. 
 
72 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OP A ROTATION OF CROPS, AND THE PRINCIPLIS OH 
 WHICH IT IS FOUNDED. 
 
 To this branch of our subject we invite particu- 
 lar attention; because, in our opinion, it forms the 
 basis of all successful agriculture. Whatever pains 
 we take, whatever expenses we incur, in collecting 
 instruments of husbandry, in accumulating and ap- 
 plying manures, and in tilling the earth, all is to 
 little purpose, unless to these we superadd a succes- 
 sion of [crops, adapted to the nature of the soil, to the 
 laws of the climate, and to the physical character and 
 commercial value of the article raised. Pease will 
 vegetate on wet cotton, and wheat in pure sand ; 
 Indian corn will grow in high northern latitudes, 
 and the apple may be found near the equator. We 
 have seen sainfoin struggling in wet clay, and aquat- 
 ic plants on the top of an arid mountain ; but all 
 indicated the violence done to nature, and present- 
 ed only specimens diminutive in bulk and deficient 
 in quality. The influence of markets on the value 
 of produce is as little to be denied as that of soil 
 and climate. In the neighbourhood of great cities 
 table vegetables are of much more value than wheat 
 or rye ; but, remote from markets, wheat and rye 
 have the advantage, because, being more valuable in 
 proportion to bulk and weight, they bear better the 
 expense of transportation. 
 
 With this general view of the subject, we pro- 
 ceed to examine, 1st, the practice of Europe ; and, 
 2d, the rotation best adapted to our own soil, merid- 
 ian, and markets. And, 
 
 1st. Of the practice of Europe. 
 
ROTATION OF CROPS. 73 
 
 It was long since discovered* that the soil, when 
 left to itself, was never either exhausted, or tired, 
 or idle ; but that, however stripped or denuded by 
 man and the animals he employs, it hastens to cover 
 Itself with a variety of plants, of different and even 
 opposite characters ; that some of these have a ten- 
 dency to render the earth more compact, while 
 others have the effect of opening and dividing it ; 
 that some, from peculiar structure of roots, stems, 
 and leaves, derive most of their nourishment from 
 the earth ; while others, differently formed, draw it 
 principally from the atmosphere ; and, lastly, that 
 in these voluntary products there is a continual 
 and nearly regular succession of plants differently 
 organized. These observations, carefully made and 
 no longer doubted, and others leading to the same 
 or similar conclusions, first suggested the useful- 
 ness of taking nature as our guide, and of conform- 
 ing our artificial crops to the rules which obviously 
 governed her spontaneous productions. The effect 
 was such as was expected, and for more than half 
 a century the rotation system has formed the true 
 test of agricultural improvement in every variety 
 of soil and climate. Whenever it has been adopt-* 
 ed, the art is found in a state of prosperous progres- 
 sion; whenever neglected or rejected, it is either 
 stationary or retrogade. Yet, in the face of a fact, 
 carrying with it such conclusive evidence, the bulk 
 of agriculturists continue to resist this cheap and 
 obvious means of improvement, and pertinaciously 
 adhere to a system (that of fallows) which con- 
 demns to annual sterility one fourth part of the 
 earth ; and which prefers four months' unproductive 
 labour to abundant harvests and nutritious crops ! 
 
 * Virgil, who was a philosopher as well as a poet, appears to 
 liave thoroughly understood this branch of natural history : 
 " mutatis quiescuni fcetibics arva." The true repose of the earth 
 is in a change of its productions. 
 
74 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 But from this display of folly let us iurn to one of 
 wisdom. 
 
 On the rotation system, the whole arable part of 
 a farm is divided into four, six, or eight fields, and 
 subjected to a course of crops denominated, accord- 
 ing to the number of these divisions, the short, the 
 medium, or the long course. In constructing these 
 courses, however, whether long, middling, or short, 
 the utmost attention is paid to the nature of the 
 soil, viz., in all soils more wet than dry, more com- 
 pact than porous, more hard than friable, the course^ 
 is made up of the following plants : Wheal, oats, 
 buckwheat, the graminal grasses, beans, vetchlings, 
 clover, cabbages, and chicory. In soils of an oppo- 
 site character, dry, porous, and friable, the plants 
 from which to choose are ri/e, spelts, barley, pota- 
 toes, turnips,* lupines, Indian corn, clover, sainfoin, and 
 many of the pasture grasses. In loams, which are 
 nearly an equal mixture of sand, clay, and decom- 
 posed vegetables, the choice of plants is much en- 
 larged ; embracing what is more pecuharly proper 
 for both sand and clay, and having, besides, the fol- 
 lowing plants from which to select : Rice, millet, 
 sorghum, or African millet, lucerne, indigo, cotton, 
 hops, tobacco, madder, hemp, jiax, &c., &c. The fol- 
 lowing cases will sufficiently illustrate the princi- 
 ples on which they rest, viz., Never to select for a 
 crop plants not adapted to the soil ; and never, in any 
 soil, to permit two crops of the same species or kinds to 
 follow each other. 
 
 2d. Of the rotation best adapted to our own soil, 
 meridian, and markets. 
 
 Previously to entering upon this subject, it may 
 not be amiss to glance at the practice hitherto prev- 
 
 * We here speak of the white turnip. The Ruta Baga, or 
 Swedish turnip, is classed by French agriculturists among the 
 products of strong, substantial clay soils. In the next chapter 
 we shall speak of the culture of some particular plants, and 
 among these, of the Swedish turnip. 
 
ROTATION OF CROPS. 75 
 
 aleiit among us. What this was in 1801 may be 
 seen in the answer of an English gentleman and 
 traveller (Mr. Strickland) to certain queries of the 
 British Board of Agriculture in relation to the state 
 of husbandry here. After remarking that New- 
 England was not a coim country^ and had little to do 
 with the plough, and that New- York was then, and 
 would continue to be, the granary of America, he 
 proceeds to divert his British readers with the fol- 
 lowing details : " The usual course of crops in this 
 state (New- York), is, first year, maize (Indian 
 corn) ; second, rye or wheat ; third, flax or oats ; and 
 then a repetition of the same as long as the land 
 will bear anything ; after which it is laid by to rest. 
 A Dutchman's course on the Mohawk is, first year, 
 wheat ; second, pease ; third, wheat ; fourth, oats or 
 flax ; and, fifth, Indian corn. In Dutchess county 
 the rotation is, first, wheat ; second and third, pas- 
 ture without seed; and, foureii, Indian corn, or flax, 
 or oats, or mixed crops." Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, andJMaryland may be classed together, 
 from a resemblance of climate, soil, and mode of 
 culture ; and here we have, " first year, Indian corn ; 
 second, wheat ; third and fourth, rubbish pasture. 
 Clover is, however, beginning to be introduced in. 
 some such course as the following: First, wheat- 
 second, Indian corn ; third, wheat ; fourth and fifth, 
 clover." 
 
 Two exceptions are noticed, however, to this 
 system : 1st. In the German settlements in Penn- 
 sylvania, where, from more attention or more skill, 
 " the wheat crop averages eighteen bushels to the 
 acre, where twenty-Jive bushels are frequent, and 
 instances of ^Afriy not wanting: and, 2d. In the pen- 
 insula of Maryland and Delaware, where the rota- 
 tion of Indian corn, wheat, and rubbish pasture has 
 reduced the average produce to six bushels per 
 acre ; in some instances not more than two bushels 
 are obtained, and much is so had as to he ploughed up 
 again.^^ 
 
76 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 " In Virginia the usual crops are Inciun corn and 
 wheat alternately, as long as the land will produce 
 them ; and, in parts where tobacco is cultivated, 
 several crops of it are taken in succession, before 
 any grain is sown. No one states the average of 
 that extensive flat country in Virginia, lying below 
 the head of tide- water, at more than five or six 
 bushels ; and in those fertile and beautiful valleys 
 among the mountains, in which ignorant cultivators 
 have not yet resided sufficiently long to have en- 
 tirely exhausted the soil, the produce may not be 
 less than twelve bushels the acre." 
 
 These specimens of agricultural skill will not be 
 adduced as proof of the favourite national position, 
 that " we are the most enlightened people on the face 
 of the globe ,-" and the less so, as a lapse of eighteen 
 years has not entirely weaned us from ancient 
 habits ; for neither on the Maryland peninsula, nor 
 in Eastern Virginia, is there any material alteration 
 in their mode of culture, excepting what may have 
 arisen from the fact that, having no more fresh land 
 to exhaust, they are now obliged to recur to old fields 
 and are, of course, annually suffering the new and 
 increased penalties of former improvidence. On 
 the western shore of Maryland, in the northern 
 parts of Delaware, and in Pennsylvania, New-Jer- 
 sey, and New-York, the state of things is better ; 
 clover has been substituted for (what Mr. Strickland 
 calls) rubbish pasture, and the root husbandry is 
 encroaching on summer fallows ; which we regard 
 as a decisive step towards a regular and judicious 
 rotation of crops. 
 
 After this brief statement of the past and present 
 state of home agriculture, let us anticipate the fu- 
 ture. We cannot believe that, favoured as we arc 
 with a temperate climate, a productive soil, an in- 
 quiring, reflecting, and independent yeomanry, and 
 civil institutions which favour and protect all the 
 developments of industry and genius, we shall long 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 77 
 
 teraain behind the serfs of Tuscany, the tenants of 
 England, or the peasants of Flanders. But, to rival 
 these, we must follow their example ; we must mul- 
 tiply the means of subsisting cattle ; because these 
 will, in their turn, give manures, and manures will 
 quicken and invigorate the soil for the production 
 of articles of the greatest value and the highest 
 price. It is on this simple basis that we offer the 
 following tables of rotation of crops, adapted to our 
 own circumstances : 
 
 Medium course in sandy soils : 1st year, potatoes 
 dunged; 2d, rye, with turnips after harvest consu- 
 med on the fields ; 3d, oats and clover, or barley 
 arid clover ; 4th, clover ; 5th, wheat, with turnips 
 after harvest consumed on the field ; and, 6th, pease, 
 or lupines, or lentils. We have, by this course, 
 eight crops in six years, and five of these ameliora- 
 ting crops. 
 
 Medium course in loamy soils : 1st year, pota- 
 toes dunged ; 2d, wheat, with turnips as in the pre- 
 ceding course ; 3d, Indian corn and pumpkins; 4th, 
 barley and clover ; 5th, clover ; 6th, wheat and tur- 
 nips as before. In this course we have nine crops 
 in six years, five of which are ameliorating crops. 
 
 Medium course in clay soils ; 1st year, oats with 
 clover ; 2d, clover ; 3d, wheat ; 4th, beans dunged ; 
 6th, wheat ; 6th, the yellow vetghling. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OF THE PLANTS RECOMMENDED FOR A COURSE OF CROPS 
 IN THE PRECEDING CHAPTER, AND THEIR CULTURE. 
 
 These are wheat, rye, barley, Indian corn, oats, 
 buckwheat, pease, beans, turnips, potatoes, cabba- 
 
78 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ges, clover, and chicory : but we shall take them in 
 the order in which they stand in the proposed rota- 
 tion of crops ; and, 
 
 I. Of the potato. 
 
 This plant is a native of America, and, like other 
 valuable things, has had violent enemies and zealous 
 friends. When first introduced into France, it was 
 subjected to the imperfect methods of analysis of 
 that day, and, being supposed to yield some delete- 
 rious matter, was even proscribed by the govern- 
 ment But time, which rarely fails to do justice to 
 the injured, has re-established the character of the 
 potato there ; and with the increased reputation 
 of being the " manna of the poor,''''* of standing as an 
 article of food next to bread,! ^^^ f^r before cab- 
 bages, carrots, or turnips ;J and yielding, by the 
 acre, a crop of greater profit and more nutritive 
 matter than either wheat or barley.^ Nor is this 
 its whole praise ; for, besides its value as food, it is 
 of all vegetables that which, from the number, 
 shape, and size of its roots, forms the best prepara- 
 tion for subsequent crops. || Of this valuable plant 
 botanists count more than sixty varieties and twelve 
 species, which, for agricultural purposes, may, how- 
 ever, be reduced to three; the red, the white, and 
 that called by the French the guarantaine, or forty 
 days' potato. The last is the least prolific; but 
 
 * Dictionnaire de I'Industrie, art. Pomme de terre. 
 
 t By the experiments of Vaugelin and Pefcy, 80 parts out of 
 100 of bread are nutritive ; of the potato, 25, or nearly one 
 fourth. 
 
 t " Six chilogrammes de pommes de terre equivaloient 50 
 chilogrammes de navet." — Yvart. Six kilograms [the kilo- 
 gram is 2 lbs. 3 oz. 5 dr. avoird.] of potatoes are equal to 50 kil 
 ograms of carrots. 
 
 ^ 200 bushels, a medium crop per acre of potatoes, are, at 3s 
 per bushel, equal to seventy five dollars ; and a medium crop* 
 of wheat, 15 bushels per acre, at even 16s. per bushel, is but 
 30 dollars ; difference per acre, $35. 
 
 II Parmentier of the French Institute. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 79 
 
 may, notwithstanding, deserve the preference with 
 cultivators near great cities, since, besides being the 
 first in the market, they may be made to give a 
 second crop. The other two are supposed to affect 
 different kinds of soil ; the red preferring clay, and 
 the white sand or loam. Of the former there is a 
 variety more productive than any other of either 
 species, and which is known, and, we think, de- 
 graded, by the name of the hog potato. Of this 
 variety, without any peculiar care, we have raised 
 one hundred and eight bushels on one quarter of 
 an acre. 
 
 Two ways are employed to propagate the pota- 
 to ; 1st, by sowing the seed ; and, 2d, by planting 
 the root. By the former method we obtain new 
 varieties or revive old ones ; but, as it requires three 
 years to bring these to perfection, it follows that the 
 other method, which continues the species you 
 plant, and in the perfection in which you plant them, 
 is alone resorted to for a crop. The product is 
 small, or great, or enormous, according to the fer- 
 tility of the soil and the labour bestowed upon its 
 cultivation. We have never seen a larger product 
 from the acre than four hundred bushels ; but there 
 are records of high authority which give much 
 larger crops ; and from which, in justice to our sub- 
 ject, we offer the following extracts : 
 
 " At Altingham, in England, a sandy soil gave 
 700 bushels per acre. At Kirklatham, a similar soil 
 gave 580 bushels ; and a blach rich loam, 11G6 
 bu>hels."* 
 
 We need hardly remark, that such immense pro- 
 ducts were procured only by the most careful and 
 well-timed cultivation, which we shall now proceed 
 
 * See vol. xiii., p. 114, of the British Annual Register. Some 
 persons have imagined that, by cutting the flowers of the potato, 
 the crop may be increased, and analogy forms the opinion. The 
 procreative powers of the plant are thus diverted from the ap- 
 ple and concentrated m the bulb. 
 
80 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 to indicate under three different heads : 1st, the 
 preparation of the soil ; 2d, the choice of plants and 
 mode of planting ; and, lastly, the treatment of the 
 growing crop. 
 
 1st. Of the preparation of the soil. 
 
 Give your field intended for potatoes a good fall 
 ploughing, and in ridges if the soil be clay. Leave 
 it rough and open to the influences of the frost du- 
 ring the winter, and as early in the spring as you 
 discover in it the marks of vegetation, harrow and 
 roll it. When the weeds show themselves a second 
 time, carry out your manure, cover the fields with 
 it, and plough it under. If the quantity of manure 
 be insufficient to cover the whole surface, apply it to 
 the furrows only ; and if, as may happen, it be even 
 insuflEicient for this purpose, then furrow both ways, 
 manure the angles of intersection, and set your po- 
 tatoes in them. 
 
 2d. Of the choice of plants and mode of plant- 
 ing. 
 
 Some economists begin by paring the potato, 
 and planting only the skins ; others, less saving, 
 cut the potatoes into slices, leaving a single eye to 
 each slice ; and a third class, almost as provident 
 as the other two, are careful to pick out the dwarfs, 
 and reasonable enough to expect from them a pro- 
 geny of giants. These practices cannot be too much 
 censured or too soon abandoned, because directly 
 opposed both by reason and experience. In other 
 cases we take great pains, and sometimes incur 
 great expense, to obtain the best seed. In the cul- 
 tivation of wheat we reject all small, premature, 
 worm-eaten, or otherwise imperfect grains ; in pre- 
 paring for a crop of Indian corn we select the best 
 cars, and even strip from these the small or ill- sha- 
 ped grains at the ends of the cob ; so also in plant- 
 ing beets, carrots, parsnips, and turnips, the largest 
 and finest are selected for seed. The reason of all 
 this is obvious. Plants, like animals, are rendered 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 81 
 
 most perfect by selecting the finest individuals of 
 the species from which to breed. Away, then, with 
 such miserable economy ; and, instead of planting 
 skins, or slices, or dwarfs, take for seed the best 
 and largest potatoes, those having in them the most 
 ahment for the young plants;* place them in your 
 furrows ten or twelve inches apart, and cover them 
 carefully with earth. 
 
 3d. Of the treatment of the growing crop. 
 
 As soon as the potatoes begin to show themselves 
 weeds will also appear; a good harrowing will then 
 save much future labour, and the injury it does the 
 potato will be little or none. In a short time an- 
 other weeding will become necessary; but your 
 crop having now obtained some inches in height, 
 you can no longer safely use the common harrow ; 
 but, instead of this, the small one of triangular form, 
 so made as to accommodate itself to the width of 
 the intervals. This labour may be occasionally re- 
 peated, if necessary, until the potatoes begin to 
 flower, when the horse-hoe must be substituted for 
 the harrovir. The effects of this instrument (the 
 horse-hoe) are to extirpate the weeds, to divide and 
 loosen the soil, and to throw over the potatoes an 
 additional covering of earth. 
 
 The harvesting and preserving of potato crops 
 are processes well known in this country. With 
 regard to the latter, however, we would suggest 
 whether stacking potatoes on the surface of the soil, 
 and with a narrow base, is not a better mode than 
 burying them in the ground. Fifteen bushels will 
 be enough for one stack, which must be well cov- 
 ered with straw and earth, and trenched around its 
 whole circumference, to carry off dissolving snows 
 and rain-water. 
 
 II. Of rye. 
 
 * The interior of the potato forms the fecula, which subsists 
 the young plants. 
 
82 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 This grain, though of the same family with wheat, 
 is less valuable. A bushel of rye weighs less, and 
 gives less flour, and of worse qunhty, than a bushel 
 of wheat. Still there are circumstances which, as 
 an object of culture, may give it the preference ; 
 1st, it grows well in soils where wheat cannot be 
 raised ; 2d, it bears a much greater degree of cold 
 than wheat ; 3d, it goes through all the phases of 
 vegetation in a shorter period, and, of course, ex- 
 hausts the soil less ;* 4th, if sown early in the fall, 
 it gives a great deal of pasture, without much even- 
 tual injury to the crop; and, 5th, its produce, from 
 an equal surface, is one sixth greater than that of 
 wheat. These circumstances render it peculiarly 
 valuable for poor soils and poor people, for mount- 
 ains of great elevation, and for high northern lati- 
 tudes.f 
 
 Its use, as food for horses, is known as well in 
 this country as in Europe. The grain and straw, 
 chopped and mixed, form the principal horsefood 
 in Pennsylvania ; and in Germany, the postillions 
 are often seen slicing a black and hard rye bread, 
 called henpournikel, for their horses ; and the same 
 practice prevails in Belgium and Holland. 
 
 Its conversion into whiskey is a use less appro- 
 ved by rexison and patriotism. 
 
 The species of this grain cultivated here are two, 
 the Hack and the white ; for spring rye, though often 
 mistaken for a species, is but a variety produced by- 
 time and culture, and restored again to its former 
 character and habits by a similar process. J 
 
 ♦ We have seen a field bear rye several years in succession 
 without manure, and the last crop was much the best. This 
 fact is one of those which tend to discredit theory., 
 
 t Without rye the northern part of Russia would be scarcely 
 habitable. 
 
 t Spring rye, sown in the fall, will give a tolerable crop ; 
 winter rye, sown in the spring, a very bad one : which shows 
 that the nature of the plant requires a slow rather than a quick 
 vegetation. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 83 
 
 According to the course of crops detailed in our 
 last chapter, potatoes, in a sandy soil, precede rye. 
 The ploughing, harrowing, and manuring given to 
 that crop, will therefore make part of the prepara- 
 tion necessary for this. After harvesting the pota- 
 toes, crossplough the ground, and sow and harrow 
 in the rye ; taking care, as in all other cases, that 
 the seed be carefully selected and thorougly wash- 
 ed in hme-water, as the means best calculated to 
 prevent the ergot ; a disease to which it is most lia- 
 ble, and which is supposed to be occasioned by too 
 great humidity.* 
 
 Rye is not exempt from the attacks of insects, 
 but suffers less from them than either wheat or bar- 
 ley. Whenever the straw of winter rye becomes 
 yellow, shining, or flinty, and circulates no more 
 juices, nature gives the signal for harvest, and no 
 time should be lost in obeying it. " Cut two days 
 too soon rather than one day too late,'''' was among 
 the precepts of Cato; which, if adopted here, would 
 save much grain, terminate the harvest about the 
 10th of July, and give abundant time to turn down 
 the stubble and sow the crop next in succession. 
 
 Hi. Turnips. 
 
 These are said to be natives of the seacoast of 
 the north of Europe, where they are found growing 
 spontaneously. There are eight species and many 
 varieties ; but, as they have all the same character 
 and uses, and require nearly the same treatment, 
 we shall only speak of the white turnip and the 
 yellow. 
 
 Two methods of cultivation have been pursued, 
 according to the plan either of turning iheni .iown 
 as manure, or of consuming them on the field or in 
 the stable by sheep or cattle. In the first case, the 
 harrow is used instead of the plough ; and, even upon 
 light, porous soil, is a pretty good substitute. Th^' 
 
 ♦ See Tessier on the Diseases of Plants. 
 
 r 
 
84 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 seed is sown after the harrow, and too frequently 
 left to its own protection. In the other case, the 
 plough is first used, and after it the harrow ; a 
 method much to be preferred, as the difference of 
 3rops will more than pay the difference of labour, 
 the only advantage claimed by those who advocate 
 and adopt the first method. 
 
 Our own practice is to plough in the stubble, har- 
 row the ground lightly, and sow the turnip-seed in. 
 the quantity of two pounds to the acre. This al- 
 lows something for insects and something for waste. 
 When the plants are generally above ground, give 
 them a light covering of ashes, which, by quicken- 
 ing the growth of the plants and leaching on their 
 leaves at the same time, better protects them againsi 
 the fly than any other means practicable on a large 
 scale with which we are acquainted.* When the 
 plants attain the height of four inches, we set the 
 horse-hoe to work, running a furrow the whole 
 length or breadth of the field, and returning with 
 another at the distance of three feet from the for- 
 mer, and so continuing the work till the whole is 
 laid off into beds of that width. What we lose by 
 this method is only the seed buried by the horse- 
 hoe; what we gain is the manure created by the 
 young plants ploughed in between the beds, and 
 the advantage of being able to weed and work those 
 left standing for the crop. This part of the labour, 
 which immediately follows the horse-hoeing, is ex- 
 peditiously performed by two men travelling in the 
 furrows, one on each side of a bed, and employing 
 themselves in thinning and hand-hoeing the surplus 
 plants. These operations of ploughing and weeding 
 may be performed a second, and even a third time, 
 with advantage. 
 
 * On a small scale, water in which potatoes have been boiled 
 is believed to be very useful in protecting cabbage, turnips, and 
 other plants from the attacks of the fly. We are in a course 
 of experiments which will determine how far this remedy may 
 be relied on. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 85 
 
 If we determine to plough in the crop as manure, 
 we should do it while ihe ground retains a tempera- 
 ture favourable to the decomposition of the plants, 
 and before the frost has diminished the volume or 
 altered their juices. If, on the other hand, we de- 
 cide on feeding off the crop on the ground, it is but 
 7iecessary to turn in our sheep upon it, under such 
 restrictions as will limit their range and prevent 
 waste ; and, indeed, that nothing may be lost, hogs 
 should be made to fo'/ow the sheep. If, however, 
 feeding in the stables be thought more advisable 
 (and it certainly better economizes both food and 
 manure), the turnips should be drawn, topped, and 
 stacked ; interposing between each layer of them 
 one of coarse hay or other barn-rubbish, and cap- 
 ping the whole with a few bundles of clean long 
 straw. Though less nutritive than either potatoes, 
 carrots, or cabbages, the turnip is found to be par- 
 ticularly useful to stall-fed cattle, correcting, by its 
 aqueous qualities, the heating effects of corn, oats, 
 or rye meal. 
 
 Our acquaintance with the yellow turnip (or ruta 
 baga) is but beginning. Mr. Cobbett's experiments 
 have, however, been very successful, and tend 
 much to recommend the plant in preference to the 
 vi^hite or common species. That, of the two, it is 
 the more compact, the heavier, the more nutritious, 
 the less apt to become stringy, and the more easily 
 preserved, are facts not to be contested. In both 
 France and England it is rising in reputation, and 
 perhaps only wants time to get into general use 
 here. To this article we will but add an extract 
 from the work of M. D'Edelcrants (of Sweden) on 
 the ruta baga. 
 
 " Its root is milder and more saccharine than 
 that of the other species, particularly when boiled. 
 Its flesh is harder and more consistent ; which bet- 
 ter enables it to withstand frosts, and to keep from 
 «ne year to another. Its leaves extend horizon« 
 
86 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 * 
 
 tally, and may be stripped off from time to time, as 
 wanted for forage, without injuring the product of 
 the root ; which, on good soil, gives to the acre, in 
 Sweden, 350 quintals ; and, even on poor soil, a 
 good crop. We sow half a pound of seed about 
 the beginning or middle of May, which will give 
 plants enough to fill an acre. Transplanting is 
 performed about the last of June or first of July. 
 To set out and water 5 or 600 feet in a day is the 
 task of one man or of two women. One or two 
 hoeings augment the product much. The harvest 
 is made about the first of November, and the tur 
 nips are covered in ditches, or dry caves or cellars 
 for winter use." 
 
 IV. Of Barley. 
 
 It is probable that bread was first made from this 
 grain. The Jewish scriptures speak only of barley 
 loaves; the gladiators among the Greeks were call- 
 ed harley-eaiers ; and Columella says (like our In- 
 dian corn and beans in the Southern states) that 
 barley was the food of the slaves. Among the Ro- 
 mans it was first employed as a food for man, and 
 afterward for cattle.* The same qualities which 
 recommended it then, have since diff*used it more 
 generally than any other grain ; it is found to 
 be better adapted to diff'erent soils and climates ; 
 less subject to the attacks of insects, and more 
 easily preserved. In times of scarcity it is a good 
 substitute for wheat, and at all times yields the 
 beverage known under the name of beer, ale, or 
 porter. It is, besides, a food on which cattle do 
 well, and horses arrive at their greatest possible 
 perfection. I 
 
 The species of this grain most in request are two 
 Kordeum Distichum (two-rowed barley) and Hor- 
 
 * This use grew out of the belief of its nutritive and invigoi' 
 ating qualities. 
 t See Buflfon on the horse t)f Arabia. Vol. xxii., p. 195. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 87 
 
 deum Caeleste (naked barley). The former is pre- 
 ferred in England, and, as we believe, in France. 
 M. Parmentier ascribes to it all the good qualities of 
 the other species, and much greater productiveness.* 
 Of the latter species, the nations of the north vi^ho 
 are most in the habit of using barley as the basis 
 both of food and drink, speak highly. f But among 
 us, who cultivate it only for the last purpose, this 
 species has less credit, and is even considered the 
 worst from a belief that, after being dried, it malts 
 imperfectly or with difficulty. 
 
 Though not so nice in relation to soil as either 
 wheat or rye, still barley prefers a loose, warm, and 
 moist, though not wet, soil, and 'even grows re- 
 markably well in sand (where we have sowed it), in 
 succession to turnips, either ploughed into the 
 ground or consumed on the field. 
 
 Other things being equal, the spring crops which 
 are first sowed give the best and largest products. 
 The moment, therefore, that your soil is sufficient- 
 ly dry, begin ploughing, and at a depth not less than 
 six inches, since the roots of barley enter the 
 earth more deeply than those of any of the other 
 cereal graminse. If the soil be well pulverized [as 
 it ought to be after turnips], a second ploughing 
 would be a waste of time and money :% proceed, 
 therefore, to sow your barley broadcast,^ and cov- 
 
 * He states it to be double as much. 
 
 + " Hordeum caeleste Norvegis gratissimum, quoniam cere- 
 visiam generosam, prsebeit." The naked barley, most grateful 
 to the Norwegians, as affording to them their generous beer. — 
 Mitterpacher, Elemen. rei rust., page 312. 
 
 % The Romans had two maxims on the subject of expense, 
 which it would be wise in us to adopt: " Those profits are to be 
 preferred which cost the least;" and again, "iSothiug is less 
 profitable than very high cultivation." " Nihil minus expedire, 
 quam agratn optirne colere " 
 
 (^ Mr. Young's experiments show that there is something in 
 the constitution or habits of this grain to whifh the dnii.or row 
 husbandry is not accommodated. Even isolated grains weeded 
 and hoed, did not do better Uian thc^-^ime number in broad cast. 
 
88 AGRICLiJLTURE. 
 
 er It with a short-toothed harrow. The last opera- 
 tion will be to sow and roll in your clover- seed, 
 destined to become the next crop in succession. 
 
 V. Of Clover. 
 
 The Trifolium Agrariuin of Linnaeus is found 
 growing spontaneously in- many places, as is suffi- 
 ciently indicated by the names given to it; as 
 Dutch clover, Spanish clover, clover of Piedmont, 
 clover of Normandy, &c., &c.* It is about two 
 centuries since it first became an object of agricul- 
 tural attention as forage, while its ameliorating ef- 
 fects on the soil, produced by its peculiar system of 
 roots and leaves, was a discovery of modern date. 
 It IS now generally sown with barley, or other 
 spring grain of the culmiferous kind, and rarely by 
 Itself. The advantages proposed by this practice 
 are three: 1st, the preparation given to the soil for 
 the grain crop, which is exactly that best fitted for 
 the clover : 2d, the protection given by the barley 
 to the young clover against the combined effects of 
 heat and dryness ; and, 3d, the improved condition 
 in which it leaves the soil for subsequent culture 
 In this practice, however, a less quantity of barley 
 must be sown than usual, because, without ventila 
 tion, the clover plants will perish. To this condi- 
 tion two others must be added, which are indispen- 
 sable to a good crop : 1st, that your seed be good; 
 •and, 2d, that it be regularly and equally sown. The 
 tests of good seed are, its comparative size and 
 weight (the largest and heaviest being always the 
 best), its plumpness, its yellow or purple colour, 
 its glossy skin, and, lastly, its cleanness or separ- 
 ation from other seeds and from dirt. 
 
 The human hand was, no doubt, the first ma- 
 chine employed for sowing seeds. The difficulty, 
 
 * A seed of Holland clover, of the same volume with one of 
 Normandy clover, weighs one seventh more. See Gilbert on 
 Artificial Meadows. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 89 
 
 however, of scattering them equally over every part 
 of the field, soon attracted notice, and engaged me- 
 chanics in devising something which should better 
 answer that purpose. China was the first to produce 
 anything at all commensurate with this object ; and 
 it was not till the seventeenth century that this, or 
 some similar invention, was introduced into Europe 
 by Lucateo, a Spaniard, who, meeting no encour- 
 agement at home, transmitted his real or pretended 
 discovery to London. Here, as has been conjec- 
 tured, it served as a model for the sowing-machines 
 of Tull; and from 1750 to 1770, the mania on this 
 subject was at its height ; but from that period to 
 the present it has been gradually subsiding, and the 
 hand is now generally restored to its original func- 
 tions. 
 
 The quantity of seed to be given to the acre 
 should, in a great degree, depend on the soil ; if 
 this be rich, ten or twelve pounds are sufficient ; 
 and if poor, double that quantity will not be too 
 much. The practice of mixing the seeds of timo- 
 thy and rye grass, &c., with that of clover, is a bad 
 one, because these grasses neither rise nor ripen at 
 the same time. Another practice, equally bad, is 
 that of sowing clover seed on winter grain before 
 the earth has acquired^ a temperature favourable to 
 vegetation, and when there cannot be a doubt but 
 that two thirds of the seed will perish. 
 
 By the time your barley or other covering crop 
 is harvested, your clover will be sufficiently estab- 
 lished to live alone ; and, if not pastured* to brave 
 the ensuing winter, and during the next summer to 
 repay your labour by two abundant crops of grass 
 or hay. 
 
 The period in the growth of clover at which it 
 
 *■ If the crowns of young clover roots be nibbled or otherwise 
 wounded, the roots die. Sheep and horses (both of which bite 
 closely) should, therefore, be particularly excluded from clover, 
 unless intended for pasturage only. 
 
90 
 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 is most profitably cut and used, presents a question 
 much discussed and variously answered ; because 
 depending on extraneous and local circumstances 
 (such as the state and proximity of markets, &c.), 
 which cannot fail to vary the results in the hands 
 of different persons, and even of the same person 
 at different times and at different places. There 
 are, however, some general remarks which belong 
 to the case, and which ought not to be omitted in 
 even this brief view of the subject. 
 
 1st. Clover cut before it flowers abounds in water, 
 has in it but little nutritive matter, and is even apt 
 to produce indigestion in the cattle fed upon it.* 
 
 2d. The stems of clover cut after seeding are 
 hard and woody, and no longer hold the leaf : and, 
 
 3d. All plants, when permitted to seed, exhaust 
 the soil ; and to this rule clover is not an exception. 
 
 From premises furnished by these facts, we would 
 conclude that the short period between the flower- 
 ing and seeding of clover is that in which its use 
 would be most advantageous, whether regarded as 
 z. forage or as an ameliorating crop. 
 
 When seed is the principal object of culture, vfe 
 cannot do better than adopt the practice in Hol- 
 land, where the first crop is cut before it flowers, 
 and the second is reserved for seed. 
 
 The largeness of the stems, the number of the 
 leaves, and the aqueous quantity of both, render it 
 a difficult business to make clover grass into hay ; 
 and the difficulty is not a little inci^eased by the 
 brittleness or disposition of the drying grass to fall 
 into pieces during the process of handling. To 
 meet this case, two supplementary means have been 
 employed, which enable you to house or stack clo- 
 ver in a much greener or less dry state than would 
 otherwise be safe. The one is to scatter over each 
 
 * This effect of clover (which we call having) is prevented 
 in Alsace by watering the cattle before giving them clover, be- 
 cause a certain quantity of water pxe\ex\\& fermentation. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 91 
 
 cartload, while slowing away for keeping, two oi 
 three quarts of sea-salt : the other, to interpose be- 
 tween two layers of clover one of clean straw. By 
 the first method, the whole mass is made accept- 
 able to cattle ; by the second, the quantum of nu- 
 tritive forage is increased ; and by both methods the 
 clover is effectually prevented from heating* 
 
 The next step in our system is to plough in the 
 clover stubble as a preparation for the succeeding 
 crop. 
 
 VI. Of Wheat. • 
 
 This grain, so useful to man, because forming so 
 large a portion of his subsistence, is happily found 
 to adapt itself to a great variety of soils and cli- 
 mates. It grows vigorously in clay, in loam, in 
 calcareous earth, and even in sand, when aided by 
 manures, or in succession to pease, vetches, clo- 
 ver, &c. To the north it is found in the frozen 
 regions of Siberia ; and in the south, under the 
 burning sun of Africa, it yields, according to the 
 declaration of PUny, more than one hundred fold.f 
 In ancient Rome, its use, as a food for man, soon 
 superseded that of barley and rye ; and in modern 
 Europe it is denominated com, by way of eminence. 
 
 Of this invaluable grain there are four species, 
 distinctly marked and generally acknowledged, viz., 
 many-headed wheat,| Polish wheat, spelts, and 
 
 * The more modern, and, we think, far better way of making 
 clover hay, is to put it into small cocks as soon as it has become 
 dried or wilted in the swaths ; and to leave it so for thirty or 
 forty hours, when it will be found sufficiently dried, on being 
 opened and spread to the sun an hour or two, to take to the barn 
 01 stack. In this way it makes the most and best fodder, and is 
 cured with the least labour. — J. B. 
 
 f " Tritico nihil estfertilius : utpote cum e modio, si sit ap^ 
 lum solum, quale in Byzacio Africae campo, centum quinquageni 
 modii reddentur." — XV'III. L. Nat. Hist. Pliny. Nothing is 
 more productive than wheat ; for a bushel of this grain, sown on 
 a soil adapted to it, as that of the plain of Byzantium, in Africa, 
 Will yield a hundred and fifty fold. 
 
 t This is the Triticum Compositum of hotanUh^, railed wheat 
 8 
 
92 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 common wheat. We shall speak only of the third 
 and fourth species, because with the others we have 
 little practical acquaintance ; and, 
 
 1st. Of Spelts. This species and its principal va- 
 riety (Triticum Monoicum) is much cultivated in 
 Germany and Switzerland. Deprived of its husk, 
 the grain is smaller than that of common wheat, but 
 yields a flour of finer quality, and better fitted for 
 the purposes of pastry.* Two other circumstances 
 recommend it ; it withstands the attack of insects, 
 and will grow in poorer soil an(f with less prepara- 
 tory labour than the fourth species. 
 
 2d. Common ivheat has many varieties, some of 
 which are bearded, and others bald ; some oval, and 
 others round or square ; some yellow or red, and 
 others white ; some soft, and others flinty ; acci- 
 dents arising from culture and climate, and not, as 
 we believe, the result of an organization uniformly 
 and essentially diff'erent. 
 
 With regard to the culture of this plant, we shall 
 confine ourselves to the following points : the prep- 
 aration of the soil, the choice and preparation of 
 the seed, and the time and diff'erent modes of sow- 
 ing or planting it. 
 
 1st. Of the preparation of the soil. 
 
 Products of much value to man can only be ob- 
 tained by corresponding degrees of labour. The 
 sugar-cane, rice, and wheat, are more valuable than 
 oats, buckwheat, or turnips, and require more la- 
 bour and expense in their cultivation. Indeed, un- 
 der the old system of fallows, the degree of both 
 bestowed upon a wheat crop was enormous. Two 
 years and five or six ploughings were sometimes 
 ffiven to this preparatory culture ; but, on the new 
 plan of a rotation of crops, the necessity for this 
 
 of plenty, miraculous wheat, ^c, yielding largely, but, on manu- 
 facture, giving much bran and bad flour. 
 
 * The bread of Frankfort, Nuremberg, &c., so much boast- 
 ed in Germany, is made from spelts. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 93 
 
 IS in a great degree obviated, and two ploughings 
 of a clover lay are in general amply sufficient. 
 Still 'this takes for granted that these ploughings 
 are well performed ; that no clods are to be seen ; 
 and that the field presents an unbroken surface of 
 mellow and finely-pulverized earth. 
 
 2. Of the choice and preparation of seed. 
 
 Seed should be taken from some fine crop of the 
 preceding year* which shall have ripened thorough- 
 ly and been well preserved. This, after passing 
 two or three times through the fanning mill, should 
 be carefully washed in clean water, and again in 
 water in which a quantity of fresh lime has been 
 slackened ; or, if lime cannot be had, in which clean 
 and recent wood ashes have been leached. This 
 washing, as we have already suggested, should 
 never be omitted : because, besides detecting the 
 shrunk or shrivelled grains, and many seeds of 
 other plants which will float on the surface of the 
 water, it entirely removes the dust of smut^ rust, 
 &c., and thus prevents their propagation.! Our 
 
 * A great variety of experiments show that wheat preserves 
 its germinating faculties under circumstances apparently very 
 unfavourable, and that it may even be sown to advantage when 
 several years old, after a slight degree of malting in the sheaf 
 or the stack, and after having been subjected to a high degree 
 of artificial heat. We mention this fact, however, not to invite 
 to a selection of seed-grain of either of these descriptions, but 
 to assure the farmer that, where better cannot be had, he may 
 employ even such, without apprehending a total loss of his 
 time and labour. 
 
 t Smut, charbon, and rust in grain, were, according to the old 
 philosophy, attributed to storms, or some other particular state 
 of the atmosphere ; but Messrs. Tillet, Tessier, B. Prevot, and 
 Decandolle, have shown, that the two former of these diseases 
 are produced by an intestinal parasite, of the uredo or mushroom 
 family, the progress of which is much promoted by humidity 
 and shade. Analogy favours the opinion, that rust owes its ori- 
 gin to the same cause. The remedy for all is the same ; wash 
 your seed-grain thoroughly in lime water, roll it in plaster of 
 Paris, and sow it in the fall, before the cold and wet weather 
 begins, or in the spring after it has ended. 
 
94 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 next step in this process is to roll the seed in pul. 
 verized gypsum. 
 
 3d. Of the time of sowing wheat. 
 
 On this head there is a diversity both in practice 
 and opinion. Some prefer early, others late sow- 
 ing : some sow in the full, others in the wane of 
 the moon, &c. 
 
 Theory is certainly on the side of early sowing ; 
 since i.; gives time for the roots of the grain to es- 
 tablish themselves before winter; and experience 
 proves that grain early sown throws up more lat- 
 eral stems than that which is sown late. 
 
 Of lunar influences we know very little, except- 
 ing that they extend to the waves of the ocean ; 
 which probably first gave rise to the opinion held 
 by M. Toaldo and other philosophers, that the at- 
 mosphere, which is only another- and more fluid 
 ocean, and which has much to do with the health 
 and diseases of animals and vegetables, is also sub- 
 ject to these influences. But the calculations of 
 M. de Place prove that the effect of lunar influ- 
 ence on the atmosphere does not make adiff"erence 
 of one line and a. half on the barometer, and that it 
 is wholly insufficient to account for those great 
 agitations of the atmosphere which have been sup- 
 posed most to aff'ect vegetation. 
 
 4th. Of the different modes of sowing wheat. 
 
 These are two, the one executed with the hand, 
 the other with a sowing machine, of which we have 
 already spoken. The latter has been advocated on 
 the ground of economy, employing less seed, and 
 distributing what it does employ more equally. 
 Nor will it be denied that, when wheat is very high 
 and labour very cheap, there may be a saving in the 
 use of this machine ; but in all other circumstances 
 the comparison is in favour of the other method, as 
 it requires less time and fewer labourers, an4 as the 
 waste and irregularity imputed to it are, in hands 
 practised and steady, reduced to little or nothing. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 95 
 
 A third method of propagating wheat, viz., by 
 transplanting the suckers at regular distances from 
 the seed-bed into another prepared to receive them, 
 has been practised on a small scale, and is found to 
 yield abundantly ; but it is so embarrassed with ex- 
 pense as to render it entirely unfit for general use. 
 
 Of the produce of wheat very different accounts 
 have been given. To fhe extraordinary fertility of 
 Byzantium, already mentioned, Pliny adds that in 
 Leoniium, in Sicily, its produce was one hundred 
 for one ; yet Cicero, who had been quasstor of that 
 island, asserts that the produce of Sicily was but 
 ten or twelve for one.* To conciliate these high 
 and opposite authorities, M. Yvart has supposed 
 that the product mentioned by Cicero was an aver- 
 age one of the whole island ; and that that report- 
 ed by Pliny was the result of one or more trans- 
 planting experiments ; an opinion rendered probable 
 from the fact that the parent stems and their off- 
 spring had been sent to Rome by the procurator of 
 Augustus. 
 
 Some calculators have supposed, and on data not 
 easily refuted, that the maximum produce of this 
 grain over the whole face of the globe, and in a 
 series of any ten given years, will not exceed six; 
 bushels reaped for one bushel sovvn.f 
 
 VII. Of Pease. 
 
 The pea is a native of the southern parts of Eu- 
 rope, and is found growing spontaneously in the 
 western parts of our own continent. The family 
 is a large one, containing several species ; but of 
 these \he field-pea alone comes within the scope of 
 our present purpose. Of this there are two varie- 
 ties, denominated, from their colour, the gray and 
 
 * Orat. contra Verrem. 
 
 t The reader will remember that, on our plan, turnips follow 
 wheat as they do rye, and without any difference in cultivation 
 See article 3d of this chapter. To repeat what we have sale 
 ther-e would be useless. 
 
96 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 the green; both productive, and, when separated 
 from the skin that surrounds them, a food of excel- 
 lent quality for man, wholesome, nutritive, and 
 pleasant ; and for cattle, whether in a dry or green 
 state, much to be recommended. Sheep, cows, and 
 horses are particularly fond of them ; and hogs are 
 more promptly and economically fattened on a mix- 
 ture of pea and barley meal, in a state of acetous 
 fermentation, than with any other food. 
 
 The structure of the roots would indicate that 
 pease are an exhausting crop; and it is on this evi- 
 dence that in Europe they are admitted only in 
 long, or six years' rotations; but if we examine the 
 leaves, in regard to both number and form, we shall 
 probably find reason to modify this opinion, and to 
 allow that, by stifling weeds, by checking evapora- 
 tion, and eventually by their own fall, they ameli- 
 orate the soil, and render it more favourable to sub- 
 sequent crops. 
 
 Following turnips in the rotation we are now dis- 
 cussing, the preparatory labour for a pea crop is not 
 great. One, or, at most, two ploughings, will be 
 sufficient. Sowing, as a general rule, ought to fol- 
 low ploughing without loss of time ; and care should 
 be taken that the seed be not laid too deeply. The 
 two methods, row and broadcast sowing, may be 
 indifferently pursued. By the former the seed is 
 economized, the product increased, and the soil bet- 
 ter tilled ; but not, as some have supposed, with 
 such decided advantages as to outweigh the saving 
 in time and labour, of the latter. 
 
 The length and feebleness of the stems of pease, 
 and the little tendrils they throw out for support, 
 indicate the advaiitage of mixing with them other 
 plants of more erect growth, which may prevent the 
 pease from falling and lodging. For this purpose 
 rye, oats, and beans have been selected, and with 
 great advantage. 
 
 This crop is employed either in a dry or in a 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. • 97 
 
 green state ; between which every farmer will se- 
 lect according to circumstances. If the market for 
 pease be brisk anjd high, he will harvest, thresh, and 
 sell the grain ; if, on the other hand, pease be low 
 and pork high, the moment the pods fill he will turn 
 in his hogs upon them, and with the following ad- 
 vantages : 1st, the hogs will feed and fatten them- 
 selves, without any additional interposition of his 
 labour ; 2d, no part of their manure will be lost ; 3d, 
 the remains of the crop, refused by the hogs, will 
 be given back to the soil ; and, 4th, the rooting of 
 these animals, which in other cases is an injury, 
 will in this be a benefit. 
 
 VIII. Of Indian Corn. 
 
 This is a native of South America, and was in- 
 troduced into Europe in the 16th century ; where it 
 is known by the names of wheat of Turkey, Indian 
 wheat, Spanish wheat, &c.* Its productiveness and 
 other good qualities have brought it into general 
 use ; for it is now found in every part of the globe 
 where its cultivation is not forbidden by the cold- 
 ness of the climate. With proper culture, it grows 
 well in a great variety of soils ; but prefers old 
 and rich pasture-grounds, artificial meadows, warm 
 loams, and moist vegetable mould. 
 
 There are many varieties of this grain, denomi- 
 nated from its colour, number of rows, and differ- 
 ent periods of ripening. The white and the yellow^ 
 of eight and twelve rows, are the varieties general- 
 ly preferred. 
 
 Corn, from its bulk, its prolific character, and sys- 
 tem of roots, must necessarily be a great feeder, 
 and draw much of its supplies from the ^arth; 
 whence arises the rule that it ought not immediate- 
 
 * This is the Zea of the botanists. In what does this differ 
 from the zea or semen of the ancients? The favourite dish of 
 the Romans was alica ; and " AUca fit e zea, quam semen ap- 
 pellavimus" — Alica is made of a grain called semen. — Plin, 18 
 L. Nat. Hist. 
 
98 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ly to follow or to precede any other cereal crop ; 
 and that it should not be found oftener than once in 
 six years in the same field. 
 
 The seed should be taken from the finest ears of 
 the last year's crop, and from those growing on 
 stems which have had the largest number of ears. 
 After steeping it twenty-four hours in a strong so- 
 lution of nitre, it should be planted.* 
 
 There is some difference of practice, without any 
 great difference of result, in the modes of planting. 
 Furrows are sometimes made at the distance of 
 three or four feet from each other, and in one direc- 
 tion only, and in these the seed is placed fourteen 
 or sixteen inches apart. At other times the field is 
 furrowed both ways, and the seed dropped and cov- 
 ered at the points of intersection ; while, again, two 
 rows of beans or potatoes, or mangel wurzel, are 
 sometimes interposed between as many rows of 
 corn. This last practice is most conformable to 
 theory; but the other methods generally prevail, 
 and pumpkins, beans, or turnips form the under 
 crops. 
 
 Whatever method be adopted, the time of planting 
 is that at which the earth first acquires the warmth 
 necessary to vegetation, and which is sufliciently 
 indicated by her spontaneous productions. If we 
 plant earlier, the seed is apt to rot ; if later, the 
 ripening of the crop is hazarded. 
 
 No crop, while growing, requires more attention 
 than corn, and none better repays the labour be- 
 stowed upon it. The objects of this are two : to 
 extirpate weeds, and to keep the earth loose and 
 open to the influences of the atmosphere. As soon, 
 therefore, as weeds begin to show themselves, the 
 surface of the field must be well harrowed. Plas- 
 tering is the next operation, and may, at the dis- 
 
 «■ See in Judge Peters's Notices to Young Farmers, the effect 
 of this solution on corn crops. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 99 
 
 tance of a few days, be repeated with advantage. 
 The weeds will now reappear, when the triangular 
 harrow, accommodated to the width of the inter- 
 vals, must be employed. This, drawn by a single 
 horse, will do its work expeditiously and well. The 
 plough called the cultivator, with a double mould- 
 board, follows the harrow,* and is itself followed 
 by the hand-hoe, which alone can perform well the 
 last and great operation of hilling] the corn. The 
 first effect of this is to enable the grain to form new 
 joints near the surface of the earth, whence will 
 issue lateral roots, fitted to receive an additional 
 quantity of aliment necessary or proper for the 
 plant.| Care must, however, be taken to flatten 
 these little mounds of earth, so as to make them 
 better recipients of water. 
 
 Corn is sometimes cultivated with a view only to 
 the forage it may yield ; in which case it is gener- 
 ally sown broadcast, at the rate of ten bushels to 
 the acre, and cut green, while its saccharine quali- 
 ties most abound. We are told by Bosc, that in the 
 volcanic soil of Vicenteri, in Italy, corn managed 
 in this way gives four crops in the year. As a dry 
 forage, it is a great resource in warm climates, 
 where natural meadows are rare, and artificial near- 
 ly unknown. In the eastern parts of Virginia, it 
 furnishes the principal stock of horse fodder, and 
 in our northern latitudes is a useful supplement to 
 clover, timothy, and red-top hay. 
 
 The produce of corn is much affected by weath- 
 
 * The implement now termed cultivator, or horse-hoe, is of 
 recent introduction among us. We have it of various patterns, 
 and it is coming into extensive use in the culture of hoed or 
 drilled crops, in place of the plough. — J. B. 
 
 t Hilling corn is becoming an exploded practice, as being 
 rather prejudicial to the crop than otherwise.— J. B. 
 
 t Bonnet was the first to make this observation ; but, if the 
 reader wishes to see a full illustration of it, we refer him to the 
 Memoir of M. Varennes de Fenillis, who has pro"ed that the 
 crop is increased 1 13th merely by hiUing. 
 
100 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 er. If this be hot and dry, the leaves, stems, and 
 ears are all diminutive ; if wet, the leaves and stems 
 are abundant, but the ears deficient and often dis- 
 eased ; if both wet and cold, no ears are produced; 
 while, on the other hand, if it be moist and warm, 
 more particularly when the grain is flowering, the 
 crop will be excellent. To produce this combina- 
 tion is not within the reach of human industry. 
 All, therefore, that agricultural foresight can effect, 
 is to interpose a few days between the planting of 
 different parts of the crop, so as to multiply the 
 chances of favourable weather. 
 
 IX. Of Beans. 
 
 Of these there are several species, which, to oc- 
 cupiers of clay soils, are of the utmost importance, 
 because in them beans thrive best, while, at the 
 same time, they greatly ameliorate and fit them for 
 wheat and oat crops. The species most recom- 
 mended are the Heligoland,* or small horsebean 
 of England, and the white bean.f The former is 
 vigorous, hardy, and productive, and an excellent 
 food for cattle; the latter is more delicate and nu- 
 tritive, and much employed as a food for man. J 
 
 If beans are made to commence a course of 
 crops, as they may very properly do, they ought to 
 receive the dung of the year; which, as in the case 
 of potatoes, should be spread over the surface of 
 the field, and ploughed in without loss of time. The 
 moment the spring frosts are over, the planting 
 should take place, in rows or in hills, as described 
 in the last article for corn; and throughout the 
 
 * The Heligoland, and other beans of the vicia family, are 
 not found to do well with us. They grow and blossom, but do 
 not fruit well. — J. B. 
 
 t This, as well as the China and other beans of the genus 
 Phareola, are profitably grown on sandy as well as on clay soils. 
 —J. B. 
 
 X Pythagoras forbade his disciples the use of beans. Whence 
 we may conclude that the Greeks cultivated only the horse 
 bean, or bean of the marshes. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 101 
 
 whole course of vegetation, the crop must be kept 
 free from vveeSs : a condition, if well observed, that 
 will secure an abundant produce.* 
 
 X. Of Oats. 
 
 Oats is among grains what the ass is among an- 
 imals, very little respected, but very extensively 
 employed. The levis avena of Ovid, and the ster- 
 iles dominantur avena. of Virgil, show the degrees, 
 both of use and abuse, with which it was regarded 
 by the Romans. In modern times, a great literary 
 authorityt describes it as food for Scotch men and 
 English horses. It is probably this its state of deg- 
 radation among poets and philosophers, that deter- 
 mined the botanists of Europe to give to America 
 the honour of having produced it. Mr. Adanson 
 found it growing spontaneously in Juan Fernandez ; 
 whence the philosophers wisely concluded that it 
 must be a native of Chili ! But in this conclusion 
 they appear to have equally forgotten the laws of 
 nature and the decisions of history ; for the quota- 
 tions with which we began this article show that 
 oats were cultivated in Italy many centuries before 
 the existence of America was known to any Euro- 
 pean, and few are ignorant that Chili is among the 
 hottest and driest regions of the globe, and that 
 oats perish in dry and hot climates. 
 
 Of the many different species or varieties of this 
 grain, the black and the white are those which best 
 deserve cultivation, because most hardy and pro- 
 ductive. In the poorest soil, and with the smallest 
 possible labour, they give something ; but because 
 they do not give much, in circumstances under 
 which other grains would give nothing, we infer 
 that the grain itself is a poor one, and, at the same 
 time, a great exhauster of the soil. We owe to 
 Mr. Dranus a series of experiments and calcula- 
 
 * In a favourable season, under good management, the white 
 oean gives thirty for one. 
 t Dr. Johnson. 
 
102 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 tions which overturn this opinion, and demonstrate 
 that " oats, in rotation, under proper culture and in 
 good soil, are not less profitable than wheat or rye ; 
 that after beans, cabbages, or potatoes, it yields 
 great crops, and that it exhausts less than other 
 grains which occupy the soil a greater length of 
 time." As a protector of Clover or other grass 
 seeds, with some of which it should always be 
 sown, it is second only to barley. 
 
 XI. Of Cabbages* 
 
 These have been long known among us as a gar- 
 den vegetable, but are rarely met with in field cul- 
 ture ; a fact the more extraordinary, as in England 
 they have been very extensively and profitably em- 
 ployed in that way for more than half a century. 
 
 The species most recommended are the early 
 Salsbury and York, the great Scotch, the Drum- 
 head, the Cavalier, and the green Savoy. Mr. Cob- 
 bett has remarked, with much good sense, that the 
 species best for man are also best for cattle ; and 
 that, on this ground, the last of those mentioned 
 should form the principal part of our cabbage crop. 
 
 The seed of early cabbages, as the York and the 
 Salsbury, should be sown in hotbeds about the 
 middle of February ; and that of winter and fall 
 cabbages in the open field about the 15th of May. 
 The bed selected for the latter should be of good 
 soil and well ventilated ; that is, exposed on all 
 sides to the influences of the air, and without arti- 
 ficial shelter. When the plants rise, they should 
 be sprinkled with unleached ashes or gypsum, and, 
 if attacked by the fly, may be slightly and tempo- 
 rarily covered with branches of elder. If the weath- 
 er be uncommonly dry, a little watering may be 
 
 * It Is doubtful whether cabbages will ever constitute with 
 us a field crop for feeding stock, since the introduction of ruta 
 baga, beets, and carrots, which are found to be more certain 
 and abundant crops here than the cabbage, and are more easily 
 preserved for winter use. — J. B. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 103 
 
 proper; but much of this should be avoided, I /ecause 
 plants, like animals, may become topers, and will 
 then drink more than will be useful to them. 
 
 The transplanting of early cabbages should not 
 be delayed beyond the 12ih of May, nor that of the 
 late kinds beyond the first of June. An acre of 
 ground will require about six thousand plants. 
 
 The preparation of the soil for this crop is exactly 
 that described for potatoes, and which, therefore, 
 need not be repeated here. When the manuring, 
 ploughing, and harrowing are finished, strike your 
 furrows from east to west, four feet apart ; place 
 your plants in these, twenty inches from each other, 
 and do not forget so to press the earth as to bring it 
 in contact with every part of the roots. 
 
 The advantage of this crop will be best seen by 
 contrasting it with another, hay for example. If 
 we get a ton of timothy per acre, we think we do 
 well, and are satisfied; yet, if this acre had been 
 well worked and manured, and planted in cabbages, 
 it would, according to Mr. Young, have given you 
 more than thirty times the weight of the hay. Why 
 not, then, prefer the cabbages to the hay ? Our cat- 
 tle, it may be said, will not like them so well. Hear 
 what the same author says on this head : " Young 
 cattle go through the winter well on cabbages ; ewes 
 and lambs thrive on them ; fatting oxen improve 
 faster on them than on any other food, and never fall 
 off, as they sometimes do on turnips; and milch 
 cows do better on cabbages, six to one, than on 
 hay,'' &c. But the difficulty of preserving them 
 through the winter may be great. Not half as great 
 as that of preserving potatoes ; for a frost that will 
 convert these into dirty water, will do cabbages no 
 harm, and may even do them good. Mr. Cobbett 
 preserved them through a Long Island winter, and 
 had them sound and fresh in the month of May, 
 and by a method equally cheap and expeditious ; re- 
 quiring only a plough, a few leaves, straw, or brush, 
 
104 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 and some shovelfuls of earth : " nnd here," says 
 he, " they were at all times ready ; l^r to this land I 
 could have gone at aiiv lime. and have brought 
 away (if the quantity had been large) a wagon-load 
 in ten minutes." 
 
 XII. Of Buckwheat. 
 
 This excellent grain is a native of Asia, whence 
 it was carried to Africa, and thence by the Moors 
 to Europe. In France it yet retains the name of 
 sarrasin. 
 
 The species of it in cultivation are two, the com- 
 mon and the Tartarean (Polygonum Tartaricum of 
 Linnaeus.)* This last species is highly extolled by 
 Professor Pallas and others. It ripens earlier, and 
 produces more than the common species ; but, on 
 the other hand, it shells more easily, and has in it 
 an unpleasant degree of bitterness. 
 
 Cattle, hogs, and poultry are particularly fond of 
 this grain, and no food fattens them more promptly. 
 
 Being entirely destitute of gluten (the animo ve- 
 getable part of wheat), it is not convertible into 
 bread, but, made into batter and baked into cakes, 
 it forms a very tolerable substitute. Another great 
 advantage of buckwheat is, that, with a small de- 
 gree of labour, it thrives well in the poorest sand or 
 gravel ; and in clays which are only slightly moist, 
 it gives a good crop, and never fails to leave them 
 loose, friable, and clean. To the clay-land farmer 
 this property is invaluable ; and, to make the most of 
 it, he should remember that this labour-saving grain 
 ought to have more of attention and liberality 
 than is generally given to it ; for if, under the hard 
 treatment and in the by-places where it is now 
 cultivated, it yields so much and works these im- 
 portant effects on the soil, how greatly would its 
 usefulness be increased, were it made to follow 
 pease, beans, cabbages, or potatoes, in regular rota- 
 tion and on a large scale. 
 
 * Called also Indian wheat. — J. B. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 105 
 
 We have already spoken of it as a manure ; and 
 we take this occasion to quote from a late editor of 
 the Theatre d' Agriculture of O. Serres, the follow- 
 ing passage : " We cannot too much recommend, 
 after our old and constant practice, the emplo}''- 
 ment of this precious plant as a manure. It is 
 certainly the most economical and convenient the 
 farmer can employ. A small quantity of seed, cost- 
 ing very little, sows a large surface and gives a great 
 crop. When in flower, first roll and then plough it 
 in. Its shade, while growing, destroys all weeds, 
 and itself, when buried, is soon converted into ter- 
 reau."* 
 
 The experiments of M. Vauquelin show that, of 
 one hundred parts of buckwheat, ^//y are carbonate 
 and sulphate of potash, and carbonate of Hme 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF OTHER PLANTS USEFUL IN A ROTATION OF CROPS, 
 AND ADAPTED TO OUR CLIMATE. 
 
 These may be brought under three classes ; those 
 which yield a colouring matter, those which yield 
 oil, and those whose bark is convertible into cloth- 
 ing. Of the first are madder, saffron, and woad ; of 
 the second, poppy, colet, and palma Christi ; and of 
 the third, flax and hemp. 
 
 I. Of Madder. 
 
 Madder is the erythros of the Greeks, and the ru- 
 hia of the Latins, so called from its imparting a red 
 colour to wool and leather. It is cultivated in the 
 Levant, in France, in Flanders, and in England ; but 
 nowhere more extensively or profitably than in 
 
 * Vegetable mould. 
 
106 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Holland. The province of Zealand is principally 
 occupied with it, and the little island of Schowen 
 alone gives annually one thousand tuns of the root. 
 
 The species generally cultivated are two, the 
 Azara and Izari; names by which they are called 
 in the Levant, whence the seed is generally import- 
 ed to Europe, and preferred to that raised in more 
 northern latitudes. 
 
 The soil most proper for this plant is a rich loam, 
 and the manures fittest for it the sweepings of streets 
 and gutters, and mud of ponds.* It is remarked in 
 England that it succeeds better after a grain than 
 after a grass crop. The preparatory labour should 
 be performed in the fall, leaving a single ploughing 
 only for the spring, which, like those that preceded 
 it, should be as deep as possible. The planting 
 should follow without delay. In the Levant they 
 form beds, alternately, of unequal elevation ; one 
 high, the other low ; on the latter the madder is 
 planted,! and in the autumn of the second year the 
 surface of the higher bed is scattered over that 
 which is lower ; and by a similar process the next 
 year the lower bed is raised six inches higher than 
 the other. By this management the earth retains 
 sufficient humidity for the growing plants. 
 
 In transplanting madder, care must be taken to 
 preserve the buttons which attach themselves to 
 the roots, and that the roots themselves be ten 
 inches apart in the rows, and their crowns not more 
 than two inches below the surface. 
 
 The greatest duration of the plant is six years, 
 but three is the permitted term; as, after that, age, 
 the roots lose in colour and soundness what they 
 
 * Young's works. 
 
 t Madder requires more moisture in its first stage than is 
 ordinarily furnished by rains and dews. Thence arose the meth- 
 od of raising the plants in a seed-bed, where they might be 
 watered at will, and afterward transferred to the place where 
 they were intended to grow. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 107 
 
 gain in bulk. At three years a single root has been 
 found to weigh between thirty and forty pounds ; 
 and, the larger the root, the less does it lose, in pro- 
 portion, by depreciation.* 
 
 When the roots are taken up, they are suspended 
 under cover for ten or twelve days to dry. During 
 this time much of the water of vegetation is evapo- 
 rated ; the plant becomes soft, and is then subjected 
 to the heat of an oven from which bread has been 
 taken. After a second baking it comes out dry and 
 brittle ; and to disengage from it the earth, the small 
 fibres, and the outer skin of the root, it is lightly 
 threshed with a flail, after which it is fit for grinding. 
 
 Of Woad.^ 
 
 This plant, till 1756, was much employed, and fur- 
 nished the finest blue colour ; and, in the opinion of 
 some dyers, is even now very profitably united with 
 indigo, giving to the colour imparted by it more in- 
 tensity as well as duration. The maturity of the 
 leaves', which are the only useful part of the plant, is 
 announced by their drooping, and by the yellow col- 
 our which they take. At this signal they must be 
 stripped from their stems, housed, and left in mass 
 till, freed from, the water of vegetation, they begin 
 to macerate by their own weight. They are then 
 to be washed and reduced to a paste ; after which a 
 fermentation takes place, and the fecula shows it- 
 self and forms a black crust, which is not to be bro- 
 ken, because necessary to prevent evaporation. 
 When the fermentation has subsided (which may 
 be known by the diminished stench), the mass is 
 pounded and formed into balls for use. The soil 
 and preparation indicated in the last article for mad- 
 der are most proper for woad. 
 
 Of Saffron. 
 
 This plant is culivated only for the stigmata of 
 the flowers, which give a yellow colour and are 
 
 * In large roots this loss is (S-7ths, in small ones 7-8ths. 
 9 
 
108 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 employed in dyeing and in gauche painting. It suc- 
 ceeds best in a ricli, friable, black earth, or in one 
 of a dark red or chocolate colour. Some writers 
 have remarked that the roots, which are bulbous, 
 grow to the greatest size in the former of these 
 soils, and that the flowers attain the highest perfec- 
 tion in the latter. The manure best adapted to it is 
 old and thorougly-rotted dung. 
 
 After being well ploughed, rolled, and harrowed, 
 the ground intended for this crop is trenched, and 
 the roots placed in the trenches nine or ten inches 
 apart. So soon as the flowers appear, which al- 
 ways precede the leaves, the soil about them must 
 be lightly hoed. When fully blown, and while wet 
 with dew, they are taken off carefully with the hand 
 and spread upon boards to dry. The stigmata are 
 then separated from the styles, after which they are 
 ready for market. 
 
 Of the Poppy. 
 
 The poppy is among the most important of the 
 oil-giving plants, as well for the value as for the 
 abundance of its produce. The oil is altogether 
 found in the seeds, and does not partake of any som- 
 niferous or other deleterious quality, as some per- 
 sons have supposed. It is often mixed with olive 
 oil, and, so long as it is fresh, it is equally pleasant 
 and wholesome. It is much used in France, Hol- 
 land, and Germany, in salads. Its only fault is, 
 that, if long kept, it becomes thick and viscous. The 
 plant is annual, and requires a good and well- labour- 
 ed soil. The seeds should be taken from the ripest 
 and largest capsules of the preceding year ; should 
 be sown early and thin, and in broadcast ; because, 
 if thickly sown, the plants rot, and, if sown late, 
 they are injured by a too rapid vegetation. The 
 fall of the leaf, the dying of the stalk, and the brown 
 colour of the capsules, indicate the time for harvest- 
 ing the crop. These last are carefully gathered 
 and dried, and the seed separated from them. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 109 
 
 Of Cole. 
 
 Cole or rape is a variety of the cabbage, the seed 
 of which ^aelds an oil very useful to the arts, and 
 renders the plant of great importance in agriculture. 
 Its general management does not differ from that of 
 any other variety of the kind. When the seed is 
 ripe, it must be carefully gathered and separated 
 from its chaff. The plantations of cole in Flanders, 
 and particularly in the neighbourhood of Lisle, Has- 
 brook, and Douay, and on a part of the Escant, are 
 immense. They generally follow a crop of well- 
 dunged, well-laboured potatoes, and are followed by 
 one of wheat. 
 
 Palma Christie or the castor-oil plant, and the rici- 
 nus of botanists, has been cultivated in this state; 
 but whether profitably or not we do not know. Its 
 seed gives an oil fit for lamps, but principally em- 
 ployed as a medicine. The cultivation of this plant 
 has been tried in the southern parts of France, but 
 not on a large scale, as it was found to require much 
 ground and to give few seeds, which ripen only in 
 succession. In Carolina the stem attains the height 
 of ten or twelve feet, and a diameter of four or five 
 inches. As an ornamental shrub, the palma Christi 
 is much to be recommended. 
 
 Of the Sunflower. 
 
 This plant is a native of Peru, and is cultivated 
 in Europe principally for the seeds, which give a 
 large proportion of oil, of much use for domestic 
 purposes. It requires a good soil, well manured, 
 and thoroughly worked and cleansed. The seeds 
 should be sown one foot apart, and in rows two feet 
 asunder. In France the stems are employed for 
 fuel and peasticks, and the leaves for fodder.* 
 
 Of Flax. 
 
 Flax is of Asiatic origin, and, from its hardiness 
 and usefulness, is generally diffused over the globe. 
 
 * See Crete de Paleuil on tht Sunflower. 
 
110 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 No plant undergoes a greater change in the hands 
 of labour, and few, if any, better repays the labour 
 bestowed upon it.* It is cultivated for two differ- 
 ent objects : for the fibre which surrounds the stem, 
 and which is convertible into cloth, and for the 
 seeds, which yield an oil very important to the arts. 
 These diiferent purposes have been supposed to be 
 best promoted by different kinds of seed and differ- 
 ent kinds of culture. In England it is believed that 
 the seed of this country gives a flax of greater 
 length and of finer fibre ; and that the seed of Me- 
 mel or Rigaf produces a coarser plant and a greater 
 quantity of seed. We doubt, however, the correct- 
 ness of this distinction, and think ourselves support- 
 ed by experience, as well as theory, in placing the 
 difference less to the account of any peculiar qual- 
 ity of the seed, than to the greater or smaller quan- 
 tity of it sown ; for we have invariably observed 
 that, if flaxseed, wherever grown, be sown thinly^ 
 the stem is shorter, the fibre coarser, and the seed 
 more abundant, and vice versa. This difference 
 will necessarily be increased by different modes of 
 culture. The row husbandry, admitting of more 
 ventilation, will hasten more the maturity of the 
 plant, and increase the quantity and quality of the 
 seed; whereas the broadcast method will, on the 
 other hand, retard the maturity of the plant, length- 
 en the stem and the fibre that covers it, and, in the 
 same proportion, diminish the quantity of seed. 
 
 Flax may be made to follow potatoes very advan- 
 tageously ; and we have seen the practice of sowing 
 it with a crop of that kind earnestly recommend- 
 ed.| 
 
 The time for harvesting flax depends on the con- 
 
 * How wonderful the difference between the raw material 
 and Brussels lace ! 
 
 t The flaxseed of Riga is broad and flat, and of a darker 
 colour than that of this country. 
 
 X See 2d vol, Varla's Husbandry. 
 
PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. Ill 
 
 siderations suggested above. If seed be the princi- 
 pal end of the crop, your harvesting ought not to 
 begin till this is completely ripe ; whereas, if the 
 fibre be your main object, pull the flax two or three 
 weeks earlier. Elax thus prematurely pulled is 
 called white flax, and makes the finest thread. The 
 exhausting quality of this plant is generally admit- 
 ted, and has been long known. Pliny says of it, 
 that it burns and degrades the soil in return for the 
 nourishment it receives from it.* 
 
 Of Hemp. 
 
 The cultivation of this plant need not be attempt-' 
 ed on soils which are not naturally or artificially 
 very rich. They who possess the former will of- 
 ten find the culture of hemp useful in reducing the 
 staple of the soil to that medium quality which is 
 best fitted for the production of grain' In some 
 parts of our own country hemp has been cultivated 
 many years in succession, before this effect was 
 produced; and in Italy, in the neighbourhood of 
 Bologna, after centuries of cultivation, the rotation 
 continues to be wheat and hemp alternately, and 
 without fallows. So also in the environs of Ter- 
 monde, near Brussels, the usual rotation is hemp, 
 flax, and wheat.\ It is, perhaps, to those favoured 
 soils we ought to look for the best mode of culti- 
 vating this very useful and profitable plant. " Du- 
 ring the first year," says M. Simmonde, in his Pic- 
 ture of Tuscan Agriculture, " the field intended for 
 hemp is laid flat by the small Tuscan plough in the 
 months of August and September. This is follow- 
 ed by the great plough, which reinstates the four- 
 feet furrows, and throws up the intermediate earth 
 mto ridges. The manure is applied to these in the 
 spring; after which the hemp-seed is sown and 
 
 * " Ut sentiamus, nolente id ferre natura, urit agrum deteri 
 oremqueetiain terram facit." Nat. Hist., l.xix. 
 
 t Francis de Neauchateau's State of Husbandry in the sena 
 toriat of Brussels. 
 
112 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 the ground harrowed. This crop, like that of flax 
 should be weeded when about four inches high." 
 
 Of Swallow-wort or Milkweed. 
 
 This is the asclepias Syriaca of the botanists, and 
 not improperly called the cotton of northern lati- 
 tudes. Its cortical fibre yields a*fine, soft, and white 
 thread, and the pods a silky material, usefully em- 
 ployed in waddings and in hat-making, &c. " There 
 are few plants," says Sonnini, " the culture of which 
 unites more advantages, or which is more worthy 
 the attention of farmers. In Silesia it has made 
 considerable progress ; and experience shows that 
 in a middling, or even a bad soil, it gives a product 
 eight times more valuable than the finest crop of 
 flax or hay. It requires a strong and moist soil, 
 well laboured and manured, and may be propagated 
 by seeds, by suckers, or by roots. The row hus- 
 bandry is the most proper for it, and in the course 
 of three years the intervals between the furrows 
 will be completely filled up by new and multiplied 
 shoots. 
 
 Of the plant called New- Zealand Flax. 
 
 This is iheformion tenax of botanists ; the leaves 
 of which, by maceration in water, yield a fibre re- 
 markable for beauty and strength. We owe to M. 
 Labillardiere a series of experiments, the result of 
 which shows that the strength of flax being 11, that 
 of hemp is 16 1-3, and that of formion 23 5-11. In 
 the hot countries, of which this plant is a native, it 
 is found on the seashore, growing sometimes in 
 wet or marshy soils, and sometimes in arid sands. 
 M. Thouin has succeeded in naturalizing it in the 
 north of France, which gives reason to believe that 
 it may be made to succeed in this climate 
 
 i 
 
MEADOWS. 113 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OF MEADOWS. 
 
 These are either natural or artificial ; the former 
 containing only plants of spontaneous growth, the 
 latter those selected, sown, and cultivated by man. 
 The better to keep this distinction in view, we shall 
 speak of them separately ; and, 
 
 I. Of Natural Meadows. 
 
 These have been classed by botanists according 
 to their elevation; and have thence been denomina- 
 ted high, middhng, and low. But as this principle 
 fails altogether to indicate their agricultural charac- 
 ter and properties,* a better one has been found in 
 their relative moisture ; whence they are denom- 
 iniited dry, or moist, or wet. The products of these 
 have been carefully and skilfully analyzed in Ger- 
 many, in Italy, in England, and in France ;t and the 
 result shows that wet meadows contain a smaller 
 number of the different species of plants, but a 
 greater number of those which are either useless 
 or injurious; and, on the other hand, that moist 
 meadows contain a greater number of the former, 
 and a smaller number of the latter. The following 
 simple table exhibits, at a glance, the present state 
 of knowledge on this important part of our subject : 
 Whole number of Plants 
 
 in wet meadows, 30 ; useful 4, useless or bad 26. 
 Do. in dry meadows, 38 ; do. 8, do. 30. 
 
 Do. in moist meadows, 42 ; do. 17, do. 25. 
 
 * We often find bogs on the tops of mountains, and arid sands 
 on the banks of rivers. 
 
 t See " Observations mac'ie by the Agricultural Society of 
 Great Britain," and " Merncires sur I'Agriculture du Bouton- 
 nai.s," &c., &c., per M. Dumont de Coursit. 
 
114 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 The agricultural labours suggested by these facts 
 are of two kinds: the eradicating of useless or per- 
 nicious plants, and the continuance and multiplica- 
 tion of those which are good. The first of these 
 objects is promoted by mowing the meadows be- 
 fore the seeds of noxious plants ripen, by pasturing 
 them once in three years with sheep, horses, and 
 cattle in succession ; by harrowing them in the 
 spring and fall ; by weeding and hoeing them ; and, 
 lastly, by sufficiently draining those that are wet. 
 
 Many pernicious plants are annuals, and are kill- 
 ed by the first of these operations, A similar ef- 
 fect is produced by the second ; the harrow, or scar- 
 ificator, will best destroy mosses or other weeds 
 whose roots are fibrous and superficial ; the hand- 
 hoe will extirpate such tap-rooted plants as resist 
 the harrow and are refused by cattle ; and draining 
 will expel all worthless aquatics. 
 
 Of these remedies, the last may require some ex- 
 planation. Meadows are wet from different caus- 
 es ; from obstructions, accidental or permanent, to 
 the course of rivers ; from occasional inundations ; 
 from high and uncommon tides ; from neighbouring 
 springs, issuing sometimes above and sometimes 
 below the level of the grounds you wish to drain ; 
 and frequently from others rising up within the 
 meadows themselves. In the first case, the reme- 
 dy is obvious, and consists altogether in removing 
 the obstructions ; in the second and third, embank- 
 ments, as in the Mississippi and Delaware, will ex- 
 clude the flood ; and in the fourth and fifth, the cure 
 lies in creating a surface of lower level than that 
 of the meadows to be drained, or in raising the 
 water to a level above that of the meadows, and 
 carrying it off by raceways or canals. The former 
 of these methods is to be executed by ditching, or 
 by digging through the subsoil into sand or gravel, 
 whence the water will find a subterranean passage. 
 The latter is effected by enclosing the springs with- 
 
MEADOWS. 115 
 
 in walls, and permitting them to rise to the level 
 of their own source. It is evident, however, that 
 if these be not higher than that of the meadow, the 
 experiment will fail* 
 
 The second object, viz., the multiplication and 
 continuance of good plants, will be ensured by scat- 
 tering in the fall or spring, or both, after the har- 
 row or scarificator, the seeds of useful grasses,! 
 particularly upon places rendered raw or bare by 
 the harrow or the hoe; by covering the meadows 
 in the fall with straw, dung, lime, or marl ; and in 
 the spring, with plaster of Paris or ashes ; by fold- 
 ing or parking sheep or horned cattle during the 
 summer, and while the ground is hard, on places re- 
 quiring manure ; by foddering on such places during 
 the winter ; and, lastly, by irrigation. This last and 
 most efficient method of bettering the condition of 
 meadows is sometimes characterized by the dura- 
 tion of its means, and sometimes by the mode of 
 applying them. In the first case, it is called tem- 
 porary or permanent, as the stream it employs may 
 be the one or the other. In the second case, it is 
 denominated filtration or submersion, according to 
 the eff*ect produced. If, for instance, the surface 
 be only wetted by running water, it is called filtra- 
 tion ; but if entirely covered with water, in a state 
 of rest, it is called submersion. These diflferent. 
 modes have some principles common to both, and 
 some peculiar to each. The common principles 
 are, 
 
 1st. Such command of water as will cover the 
 largest surface with the least labour and expense. 
 
 2d. Muddy water (the eff'ect of loosened soil and 
 heavy rains) is most favourable to vegetation, be- 
 
 * See Anderson's Essays on Agriculture, vol. i., p. 119, &c.* 
 
 t In selecting these grasses, care should be taken to employ 
 
 those most resembling the spontaneous growth of the field, or, 
 
 in other words, those which flower and seed at the same time 
 
 with this spontaneous growth. 
 
116 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 cause, besides giving the necessary moisture, it fur- 
 nishes a considerable portion of alluvial matter. 
 
 3d. Water charged with sand or gravel, or con- 
 taining irpn or vitriol, or of a temperature very hot 
 or very cold, is unfavourable to vegetation, and 
 ought not to be employed, until, by standing in res- 
 ervoirs, it deposites these injurious matters in the 
 one case, and in the other acquires the temperature 
 of the atmosphere. 
 
 4th. Clay and calcareous soils require less water- 
 ing than others. 
 
 5th. Irrigation is of less importance in northern 
 than in southern latitudes ; and, 
 
 6th. In cold climates, or in situations of much 
 elevation, irrigation is most usefully employed in 
 the spring and autumn; and in hot climates and 
 sandy soils in the summer. 
 
 The principles peculiar to the two modes may 
 be collected from the following brief detail of the 
 labours necessary to each. In irrigating by sub- 
 mersion, the first and great labour is to make a dam 
 of such strength as shall resist the volume of water 
 by which it may be pressed ; of such height as will 
 raise the water above the level of the ground you 
 wish to overflow ; and of such structure as will en- 
 able you to discharge the water it collects promptly 
 and entirely. The signal for doing this is the rising 
 of air-bubbles from the bottom of the pond, which 
 never takes place until a decomposition of the 
 plants below begins. In winter, this tendency to 
 decomposition is corrected by cold ; and the sub- 
 mersion may, of course, be continued for weeks 
 and months, and the water permitted to freeze, not 
 only without injury, but with great benefit to the 
 plants, particularly if they have been closely pas- 
 tured in the fall. 
 
 Filtration is a process requiring, in general, more 
 labour and science than the other; because, besides 
 a dam to raise a sufficient head of water, you must 
 
MEADOWS. 117 
 
 have your canal of derivation, your reservoir, your 
 cuts or ditches, and, lastly, your fosse or pit of dis- 
 charge, which, to be useful, must be well construct- 
 ed and judiciously placed. The cana] and reservoir 
 will necessarily occupy the highest ground, and be 
 proportioned to the quantity of water to be conduct- 
 ed and retained ; the cuts or ditches, supplied from 
 the reservoir, will be parallel to each other, of near- 
 ly equal descent, but of diameters diminishing in 
 proportion to their length, so as to give to the water 
 the same swiftness it had when its volume was 
 greatest. Stops or gates must be made in the cuts 
 or ditches in such number as may be necessary so 
 to pond the water as to make it overflow the lovv<er 
 sides of the ditches, and at such points as will, from 
 the shape of the ground, diffuse it most generally. In 
 this way, small streams, occasional showers, and 
 dissolving snows may be turned to great account, 
 and with this additional advantage, that they require 
 no reservoirs, and little, if any, draining, and only 
 cuts or ditches formed with a plough or a hoe. 
 
 A third kind, compounded of the two others, is 
 sometimes seen in Europe, where the water, after 
 being employed in irrigating the sides of hills, is 
 brought upon flats for the purpose of inundation, or, 
 more generally, for that of forming reservoirs, from 
 which it may again be raised by machinery, such 
 as the noria of the Moors, or the hydraulic ram of 
 Montgolfier, &c.* 
 
 II. Of Artificial Meadows. 
 
 We have seen that natural meadows abound in 
 plants either useless or pernicious ; and that it is 
 among the principal labours of agriculture to eradi- 
 
 * Whoever may have occasion to study the two subjects ' 
 (draining and irrigation), either separately or in connexion, can- 
 not do better than consult the HydraulicArchitecture of Belli- 
 dor, the Hydraulics of Dubuat, M. de Ourche's General Treatise 
 on Meadovvs, Defue on the Embankments of Holland, and Rich 
 ardson's Agriculture. 
 
118 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 caie these, and to substitute for them others of 
 greater product or better quality. It was probably 
 this process which first suggested the idea of arti- 
 ficial meadoivs, or those composed only of plants of 
 our own choosing, and alternating with grain or root 
 crops. And it cannot be doubted that, if the grasses 
 selected be good in themselves, adapted to the soil, 
 and carefully culivated, we thus arrive at the high- 
 est possible degree of perfection of which this 
 branch of the art is susceptible ; because, besides 
 having only wholesome and nutritive forage, we double 
 its quantity, and, at the same time, put the soil in a 
 state to give us a series of good subsequent crops. 
 
 France claims the credit of having been the first 
 to discover the value, and to introduce the practice 
 of this new system ; and it may not be amiss to col- 
 lect some of the reports of her writers on the agri- 
 cultural changes wrought by it. " If," says Yvart, 
 " meadows be the nerve of good husbandry, it is, 
 above all, to artificial meadows we must apply this 
 great truth. The state of those cantons which have 
 adopted the new system is now as brilliant as it 
 was before wretched and miserable. Alsace has 
 put on a new face since the introduction of clover, 
 and wheat crops have been increased more than 
 one third. The village of Sebach, under the old 
 system, bought annually 180^,000 pounds of forage, 
 and now sells 150,000. The canton of Virien, which 
 gave formerly only rye and buckwheat (and poor 
 crops of these), now gives abundant crops of fine 
 wheat. This is altogether owing to clover and gyp- 
 sum. The same remark applies to the department 
 of Doubs. In the department of the Seine and Ouse, 
 the four year rotation is adopted, of which clover 
 is the basis, and more than doubles the produce for 
 exportation. In Varenne, the soil of which is a 
 poor sand, the same effect is produced by sainfoin 
 instead of clover. In a canton of the department 
 of Loiret, M. Sageret has doubled his income by 
 
MEADOWS. 119 
 
 the introduction and culture of lucerne." It would 
 be mere waste of time to multiply quotations on 
 this liead. Few men of our own country who have 
 had their eyes open for some years past, but must 
 have seen the wonderful effects produced by plaster- 
 ed clover ; and if there be any who resist these evi- 
 dences, or are insensible to them, they must be far 
 beyond the reach of instruction. We hasten, there- 
 fore, to another and important part of our subject, 
 the choice of grasses for artificial meadows. Those 
 most recommended by the experience of all coun- 
 tries are lucerne, sainfoin, and clover of the legu- 
 minous family ; and timothy, oat-grass, ray-grass, 
 and meadow fox-tail of the gramineal.* We shall 
 say a few words of each, and, 1st. oi Lucerne. — This 
 plant is a native of Media, whence its Latin name 
 Medica. It was well known and highly esteemed 
 by the ancients, uniting in itself many valuable quali- 
 ties, as early fitness for use, great productiveness 
 and duration,! and juices the most nutritious and 
 acceptable to cattle. In the south of Europe it still 
 maintains this high reputation, and in our southern 
 climates would entirely deserve it ; but of its suc- 
 cess here we have doubts, founded on the fact that 
 all attempts made to introduce it, and coming with- 
 in our own observation, have failed. Two condi- 
 tions are, however, indispensable to its prosperity 
 in any climate, and these are a rich soil and careful 
 cultivation. In wet, or stony, or stiff ground, it does 
 not thrive. Its long tap-root must plunge into the 
 earth without obstruction, otherwise the plant suf- 
 fers and dies prematurely. 2d. Sainfoin. — This 
 
 * Of the grasses here named, sainfoin is found not to succeed 
 in the United States. We have not the chalky soil in which it 
 thrives best, and our winters are considered too severe for it ; 
 and the ray or rye-grass is not well adapted to our hot summers. 
 Neither seem to be congenial to our soil and climate. — J. B, 
 
 t " Tante dos est ejus ut eum uno situ tricenis annis duret 
 medica." — Plin., Nat. Hist. Such are the valuable properties of 
 lucerne, that it will flourish for thirty years on 'the same spot. 
 
120 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 grows well in Europe as high as the 51st degree of 
 north latitude. A species of it is found growing 
 spontaneously in the Pays de Calais, which shows 
 itself earlier than the more common or Spanish spe- 
 cies. Its produce is less than that of lucerne ; but 
 the quality of its herbage, whether green or dry, is 
 better. Sheep are particularly fond of it. . It affects 
 high, dry, naked, white, cretaceous soils ; amelio- 
 rates the condition of these, and holds them better 
 together than any other plant. The following ex- 
 tract may give both instruction and encouragement 
 to those who would cultivate this plant: " In Cala- 
 bria, sainfoin is sown upon wheat or other stubble, 
 which is then burned, and the ashes made to furnish 
 a covering for the grass-seed. In the spring, with- 
 out other care or culture, the field is found covered 
 thickly with sainfoin, and converted into a fine 
 meadow. This grass crop is cut and fed between 
 May and August, when the ground is ploughed for 
 grain, of which the crop is generally very abundant. 
 But the advantages of this husbandry do not end 
 here ; for, after the grain is harvested, the earth re- 
 sumes its covering of sainfoin, which, in this way, 
 is continued forty years and more, admitting every 
 second year a crop of fine wheat,"* 3d. Like sain- 
 foin and lucerne, clover is of the leguminous family, 
 and, though less productive than the others, has 
 one advantage that gives it a decided preference, 
 viz., its growing well in a great variety of soils. In 
 gravel, in loam, in alluvial and calcareous earths, if 
 does well ; and we have already seen that in poor 
 and sandy soils it doubles the income of those who 
 employ it, as well by increasing the quantity of for- 
 age, as by putting the ground into a state to yield 
 many and abundant future crops of grain. Still 
 there are soils, stiff, cold, and wet, in which it does 
 not succeed, and in which'lt ought to give place to 
 
 * Grimaldi on the agriculture of Calabria. 
 
MEADOWS. 121 
 
 the gramineal family. 4th. Timothy. — This grass, in 
 Europe, is called herd-grass, cat's-tail, or phleum 
 pralense (the botanical name) ; but, as the plant is 
 of Yankee origin, we have chosen to retain the 
 Yankee denomination. Its reputation abroad was at 
 one time very high, and in moist grounds deserves to 
 be so at all limes ; but, being very tardy in showing 
 itself in the spring, it has in many places fallen into 
 disuse. 5th. Ray or rye-grass, to the good proper- 
 ties of timothy, superadds that precocity which tim- 
 othy wants. " We have seen," says Gilbert, " in 
 the canton of Basle, rye-grass five feet high on the 
 first day of June ;" and M. de Courset assures us 
 that he has obtained " three cuttings from it in one 
 year." Sheep are found to prefer it in the spring 
 to any other plant ; and the shepherds of Spain have 
 a proverb which very energetically expresses its 
 nutritive quaUties : " Bouccado van ventrado," a 
 mouthful is a bellyful. We particularly invite the 
 attention of farmers having clay, or other moist or 
 wet soils, to the cultivation of this and the two fol- 
 lowing species of grasses. 6th. Oat-grass, the Ave- 
 na elatior of botanists, was first cultivated in 1754, 
 and, having been committed to a good soil, the re- 
 sults were highly favourable. It was accordingly 
 recommended as yielding abundance of forage, and 
 of a good quality : and that the first cutting might 
 take place as early as the last of March. Though 
 new and extended experiments have in some degree 
 diminished this reputation, still enough of it is left 
 to render this grass a favourite with every scientific 
 agriculturist. 7th. Of the meadow fox- tail there are 
 four species, but we shall speak only of the Alope- 
 curus pratensis, which, of all the grasses we have 
 mentioned, is the tallest, the most vigorous, and 
 the soonest fit for pasturage or the scythe. Its 
 hay appears to be of a better quality than that of 
 the gramineal grasses, because equally rehshed by 
 cows, horses, and sheep. It is only, however, in 
 
122 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 soils neither too moist nor too dry that it attains 
 the perfection of which it is susceptible. 
 
 What remains of this subject may be referred to 
 the general principles of tillage, and the particular 
 preparation necessarj' for clover crops, both of 
 which may be found in the preceding chapters. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF FARM CATTLE. 
 
 These consist of horses, mules, cows, oxen, 
 sheep, and hogs. It is not the object of this chap- 
 ter to discuss the relative value of animals of differ- 
 ent kinds, nor to explain the principles on which an 
 individual of either kind is preferred to another in- 
 dividual of the same kind, but merely to indicate 
 the uses of each, and the modes most approved for 
 giving extension and value to these uses. And, 
 
 I. Of the Horse. 
 
 Of this animal naturalists admit but one species, 
 but many and widely different varieties, which are 
 again subdivided under the denomination of races.* 
 At the head of these, by common consent, stands 
 the horse of Arabia, and after him the Persian, the 
 Barb, the Andalusian, and the English. His flesh 
 not entering, like that of the ox, into the general 
 and ordinary subsistence of man,t he is valued only 
 
 * Bakewell and others have shown that you may multiply 
 these races at will. By selecting two individuals of any given 
 shape, size, and colour which you may prefer, you secure a 
 progeny having all the qualities of their parents. This obser- 
 vation applies as well to horned cattle and hogs as to horses, 
 and might be usefully taken as a rule of conduct in this country. 
 
 t Horseflesh is eaten by the Negroes of Africa, the ArabS; 
 Tartars, and occasionally by the Chinese. Page 213, vol. 22d 
 BufFon's Nat. Hist. 
 
OP FARM CATTLE. 123 
 
 for the beauty of his form, the nobleness of his car- 
 riage, the rapidity of his march, and the strength, 
 spirit, and patience with which he bears the heavi- 
 est burdens and the most ex ^essive fatigues. 
 
 Of these powers some cut ous and extraordinary 
 instances are recorded. The couriers of Russia 
 travel from Petersburgh to Tobolsk, a distance of 
 190 2Gm., in twelve days. Their rate of travelling 
 is, of course, about one hundred miles a day. What, 
 in equestrian phrase, is called a great mover, will, 
 without pressing, trot 640 yards in 80 seconds, and, 
 if pressed, will go over the same distance in 50 sec- 
 onds. In the first case, the rate of moving is 5 feet 
 3 inches per second, and in the other 8 feet 5 inch- 
 es. The Roman horses, probably descendants from 
 Barbs, ran at the rate of 27 feet the second of time ; 
 and the British horse Childers is said to have run 
 at the rate of 45 feet 5 inches ; and Stirhng, an- 
 other British horse, at the rate of 82 1-2 feet per 
 second.* This may be regarded as the maximum 
 of horse speed. 
 
 The ordinary load in France of a four-wheeled 
 wagon, drawn by six horses on a pavement, is 
 10,000 pounds; that of a cart, drawn by four hor- 
 ses, 5500. With these loads they travel 10 leagues 
 a day for six weeks together. A single horse has 
 been known to draw 500 pounds at the rate of 140 
 yards in 112 seconds; and on the pavements of Lon- 
 don a single horse has drawn 6000 pounds for a 
 short distance, and 3000 for a considerable distance, 
 and with facility. This appears to be the maximum 
 of horse power in drawing. 
 
 * British Zoology for 1763-4. In Peru are two races of hor- 
 ses (originally Andalusian) well worth the attention of the rich 
 amateurs of the United Stales. The names by which these 
 races are known are the Parameros and the Aqualillas. See UI- 
 loa's Voyage, tome i., page 370. In Chili also is a race which, 
 for beauty, action, and hardiness, may be compared with the 
 horse of Arabia, and with this advantage, that they are very 
 cheap, while those of Arabia are very dear. See Molina's Nat. 
 Hist, of Chili, page 505. et sea. 
 10 
 
124 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Under the pack or saddle, 300 pounds is the or- 
 dinary load for a horse ; but, according to M. Thi- 
 roux, a dragoon horse carries 340 pounds. This 
 includes the weight of the rider and of his arms, 
 accoutrements, and baggage. The well-known ex- 
 periment of Marshal Saxe shows the maximum of 
 horse power in this respect. He directed that a 
 strong and vigorous horse, while in motion, should 
 be loaded until he fell. The effect was not produ- 
 ced until the load amounted to 1200 weight.* 
 
 II. Of the Mule. 
 
 This is the well-known product of a jack and a 
 mare, or of a horse and a jenny, the name given to 
 a female ass. Their advantages over the horse 
 are, that they are more patient of hunger and heat; 
 less nice or delicate with regard to their food ; sus- 
 tain better, and for a longer time, fatigues of all 
 kinds ; carry heavier burdens ; are more sure foot- 
 ed ; less liable to sickness, and live to a much 
 greater age. In Italy and Spain they are much 
 employed in harness, and in the mountainous parts 
 of those countries for the saddle. Their value and 
 quahties, however, depend principally on the size 
 of the jack : if he be large, active, and strong, his 
 progeny will be proportionably valuable. Nothing, 
 therefore, can be more ill-judged than employing 
 small jacks. t 
 
 III. Of the Cow and the Ox. 
 
 It was long supposed that this animal was a na- 
 tive of Europe, and that the Auroch, found wild in 
 the forests of Poland, was the type of the species. 
 The researches into comparative anatomy of Cu- 
 vier have overthrown this theory, and men of sci- 
 ence now substitute for it another, viz., that the 
 cow is a native of Asia, and has thence been trans- 
 
 * See Fourcroy (of the corps of engineers) on the powers of 
 the horse, quoted by the Nouveau Cours d'Agriculture. 
 
 t The asses of Arabia, Egypt, and the Barbary Coast are the 
 best In Sicily is a race of inferior size, but of great powers 
 See Sonnini's Supplement to Buffon on this animal. 
 
OF FARM CATTLE. 125 
 
 lated to other parts of the globe. Be this fact as 
 it may, her uses are so many, so various, and so 
 importani, that we cannot hesitate to transfer from 
 the horse the distinction bestowed upon him by an 
 eloquent writer of the last century, and to pro- 
 nounce the cow " the noblest conquest made by man.'*''* 
 During two thirds of her life, which may be pro- 
 tracted to twelve years, she is annually producing 
 her species, and during the same period yielding an 
 abundant supply of that beverage so universally 
 known and so generally acceptable ; a beverage so 
 happily adapted, from its compound nature (part 
 animal and part vegetable), to all ages and condi- 
 tions, to the young and to the old, to the poor am^ 
 to the rich, to the sick and to the sound ; and which, 
 in its concrete forms of butter and cheese, has, in 
 all civihzed countries, become an article of the first 
 necessity. Nor is her value diminished by death ; 
 for, having been fatted and prepared for market, her 
 flesh forms our most savoury and substantial food ; 
 her tallow, in the form of candles, supphes the ab- 
 sence of natural light ; her skin, wrought into leath- 
 er, furnishes shoes and other articles rendered ne- 
 cessary by habit or custom ; her horns are convert- 
 ed into combs and lanterns ; her blood is essential 
 to the refinement of our sugars ; chymistry draws 
 from her hoofs important uses ; her hair is made 
 to pad our collars and saddles, and, by entering into 
 the construction of our buildings, adds to their 
 beauty, comfort, and soUdity. If in her progeny 
 (the ox) strength and speed be less combined than 
 in the horse, it will be also remembered that his 
 subsistence is cheaper, and his labour more contin- 
 ued and persevering ; that he is, besides, less liable 
 to accidents which diminish his value, and that he 
 may even become lame and Wind without eventual 
 loss to his owner : for, when prepared for the sham- 
 
 * Buffon's Nat. Hist., voL 22. 
 
126 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 bles, like his parent, he gives us beef, taliow, &c., 
 and those of a superior kind. How important, then, 
 is it that this useful animal should be multiplied, 
 and that pains should be taken to ameliorate the 
 breed. In England and in Holland, wealth, enter- 
 prise, and philosophy have combined to exalt the 
 character of domestic animals, and the effect has 
 been to create many new, artificial, and more per- 
 fect races. These are examples we ought to fol- 
 low, and these are the countries which can best en- 
 able us to do so. 
 
 It has, however, been found that, in temperatures 
 either very hot or very cold, the bulk of the cow is 
 diminished ; and though it is by no means verified 
 that animals secrete milk in proportion to their size, 
 still, on other accounts, the largest cows may justly 
 be considered the best. Treatment, or the quantity 
 and quality of food, has a still more decided influ- 
 ence than climate on animal growth and develop- 
 ment, and hence it is that, when the cows of Eng- 
 land, Holland, or Switzerland are transferred to pas- 
 tures less abundant or nutritive than those in which 
 they have been reared, or are otherwise put on short- 
 er allowance than that to which they have been ac- 
 customed, their qualities degenerate, and their pro- 
 geny with them. The lesson that these facts incul- 
 cate cannot, we believe, be mistaken, and will not, 
 we hope, be overlooked. 
 
 IV. Of Sheep. 
 
 Of the different races of sheep, we shall speak 
 only of two, those of Spain and England ; because 
 in them are best united the two great objects for 
 which this animal are reared, t{;ooZ m^dfood. 
 
 The sheep of Spain, generally known under the 
 name of Merinoes, are composed of two classes, the 
 travelling and the stationary. The former of these 
 is again divided into two distinct races, called the 
 Leonese and the Sorian; while the latter, composed 
 of a numbei of degenerate breeds, are denominated 
 
OP FARM CATTLE. ^ 127 
 
 Charras. The Leonese and the Sorian winter in 
 Estramadura, and are never parked or housed, ex- 
 cepting for fifteen days of each year, at the Esqui- 
 Icos, or shearing houses, near Segovia. After this 
 operation, their march to the mountains begins in 
 two columns ; the one to old Castile and the king- 
 dom of Leon, the other to the province of Soria, 
 and, subsequently, to Navarre or the Pyrenees. 
 The preference of the Leonese to the Sorian is suf- 
 ficiently estabhshed by the fact that the wool of the 
 former sells for one fourth, and sometimes for one 
 third more than that of the latter. But even in this 
 pre-eminent race there is a marked difference be- 
 tween the different troops composing it; those of 
 the late Prince of Peace, of Nigretta, of Montaco, 
 of Peralez, of Fernando Nunez, and of Tlnfantado, 
 are particularly distinguished by the fineness, and 
 what, in technical language, is called the nerve of 
 their wool.* 
 
 The policy of Great Britain was early directed to 
 the amelioration of sheep. It is, however, to Hen- 
 ry VIIL and to Elizabeth that the praise is partic- 
 ularly due of importing into England sheep of the 
 finest Spanish races ; of promulgating rules and reg- 
 ulations for their proper management ; and, lastly, of 
 commencing that prohibitory system, which has se- 
 cured their continuance, and, what is of still greater 
 importance, the exclusive fabrication of the wool they 
 produce. It was not, however, in the power of laws 
 entirely to abrogate, or even materially to alter, the 
 effect of climate. That of England did not so much 
 favour the production of fine as of long wool, and 
 hence it is that the wool of that country is not so 
 remarkable for the former as for the latter of these 
 qualities. But in all cases, when our object is to 
 unite the two great products of wool and flesh, it is 
 to the Enghsh breeds we should look for the best 
 
 * The Saxon sheep of the Merino family were not known to 
 us when this treatise was written.— J. B. 
 
128 * AGRICULTURE. 
 
 means of doing it. The flesh of the pure Merino 
 is neither so abundant nor so well flavoured as that 
 of the mixed races, and, when brought to the great- 
 est perfection, the quantity of his wool is less. His 
 carcass, when prepared for market, does not exceed 
 10 pounds a quarter, and the average weight of his 
 fleece will not rise above four pounds ; whereas the 
 best English races give 25 pounds the quarter, and 
 fleeces weighing 7 and 8 pounds each. 
 
 V. Of the Hog. 
 
 The wild boar is considered the type of this spe- 
 cies, of which there are several varieties. The most 
 distinguished of these are the Asiatic or Chinese hog, 
 the European hog, with long, broad, and pendant ears, 
 and the Solipede, or horse-hoofed hog of Sweden.* 
 As this animal is principally useful as food, the im- 
 provers of the species have aimed only at forming 
 a race which, with the least expense and in the 
 shortest time, should acquire the greatest bulk and 
 the highest degree of fatness. It is on this princi- 
 ple that the Chinese hog, which fats promptly and 
 easily, but which attains only to a small size, is with 
 great propriety mixed with the hog of Europe, which 
 acquires a much greater bulk, but is proportionably 
 slow and diflJicult of fattening. The result of this 
 mixture has been many improved races, at the head 
 of which stands the hog of Parma, and those known 
 in England by the names of the Bakewell and By- 
 field breeds. f 
 
 The weight of the hog at eighteen months or two 
 years of age (taking for granted a regular and suf- 
 ficient nourishment), varies from two to four hun- 
 dred pounds. Buffon mentions a hog killed in Eng- 
 
 * This is the Sas angula indivisa of Linnaeus. Aristotle was 
 the first to mention this species, and, after him, Pliny. Linnaeus 
 says, it is common in tlpsal and other cantons of Sweden. 
 A.menitat. Acad., tome v., page 450. 
 
 t The Berkshire has since come into notice, and has obtained 
 a decided preference over other varieties. — J. B. 
 
OF FARM CATTLE. 129 
 
 land which weighed 850 pounds. Sonnini, his com- 
 mentator, mentions another, killed in France, which 
 weighed 990 pounds ; and Mr. Jefferson, a third, kill- 
 ed in Virginia, which reached the enormous weight 
 of 1200 pounds.* 
 
 The value of the hog is increased by their natural 
 fecundity, which much exceeds that of any other spe- 
 cies of domestic animal. This subject was thought 
 worthy the pen of Marshal Vauban, who left behind 
 him a manuscript calculation of the offspring of a 
 single sow. The paper was read in the Institute of 
 France some years ago, was heard with great inter- 
 est, and gave an enormous result, but not sufficient- 
 ly recollected to be stated here. 
 
 As, from the constitution of the human mind, 
 there have been skeptics on all subjects, little and 
 great, so on this we find some doubting whether the 
 hog did not, from his insatiable appetite, consume 
 more during his life than the amount of his value at 
 the time of his death. These doubts could not fail 
 to engage calculating men in ascertaining this point. 
 Their experiments show a profit of eight dollars on 
 every hog reared and fed to the age of two years, 
 by persons having no farms, and obliged to buy ev- 
 ery article going to their nourishment. How much 
 greater, then, the profits of those who have the 
 means of subsisting them on grasses and roots, 
 which cost only the labour of raising 1 
 
 To these specific temarks upon different animals, 
 we now proceed to add a few observations on the 
 breeding of cattle, and a brief view of the general 
 principles on which the fattening of such of them as 
 enter into the subsistence of man more peculiarly 
 depends. And, 
 
 1st. Of the breeding of Cattle. 
 
 It rarely happens that the breeders of cattle are 
 the fatteners of them. The first of these employ- 
 
 * Notes on Virginia. 
 
130 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 ments seems more particularly to belong to those 
 who, other circumstances being favourable, are re- 
 mote from markets ; the second to those who, from 
 local situation or navigable streams, are convenient 
 to markets. In the breeding business two condi- 
 tions are indispensable to its success : 1st, that the 
 sires of each species be well chosen, because their 
 qualities and appearance have much more influence 
 on the character of the offspring than those of the 
 females ; and, 2d, that, during pregnancy, the fe- 
 males be abundantly fed,, and otherwise subjected 
 to no hard or injurious treatment.* 
 
 2d. Of the fattening of Cattle. 
 
 The objects in fattening cattle are two, the increase 
 of tallow, which is an important article in domestic 
 economy ; and the improvement of the fleshy or mus- 
 cular parts ; the lean meat of fat animals being better 
 flavoured and more nutritive than that of poor ones. 
 The means of eff"ecting this object are either living 
 vegetables, or those which have been cut, dried, 
 and stored for use. Under the first head are the 
 whole family of the grasses, and under the second, 
 grains, roots, pease, and beans. WUen we resort to 
 the first, the only care necessary is, that the provis- 
 ion of plants be both abundant and nutritive. Up- 
 land pastures, where they unite these conditions, 
 best fulfil this intention ; but the fat of cattle thus 
 fed, though better distributed (the eff"ect, as we be- 
 lieve, of exercise), is less in qiiantity, and of an in- 
 ferior quality. The second mode, which is called 
 stall feeding, is more difficult and expensive, and re- 
 quires great attention to the repose of the animal, 
 to his cleanliness, and to the caprices of his appe- 
 tite. In England, where this business is most prac- 
 tised and best understood, they envelop the head of 
 
 * The inhabitants of the Boullonois, in France, employ the 
 mare instead of the horse for all agricultural purposes ; because, 
 besides labouring the soil, they give yeaily a foal, wliich they 
 Bell at eight months to t4ie graziers at JSjormaiidy. 
 
OF FARM CATTLE. 131 
 
 the fattening animal in several folds of woollen cloth 
 so as to deprive him, in a great degree, of the pow- 
 er of hearing, and altogether of that of seeing. The 
 doors of his stable are opened but once a day, to 
 change his litter, and his food and drink are given 
 through loopholes opening into his manger, which 
 are afterward immediately closed. With respect 
 to feeding, the first rule is to give little at a time 
 and often ; because experience has shown that ani- 
 mals that eat much in a short time do not fatten so 
 well as those which eat less at a time, and more 
 slowly and frequently. The second rule is to begin 
 the course with cabbages and turnips ; then to em- 
 ploy carrots and potatoes ; and, lastly, Indian, oat, 
 or barley meal, the marsh bean, or the gray pea. 
 These aliments ought to be varied five or six times 
 a day, and oftener if convenient ; and, instead of 
 always reducing them into flour, there is an advan- 
 tage in sometimes boiling them. A little salt, given 
 daily, is very useful, and for drink clean water, but 
 neither frequently nor in great quantity. Warm 
 water, by its temperature, most favours digestion, 
 but, if long continued, will enfeeble the stomach. It 
 ought, therefore, to be employed only towards the 
 end of the term. The fattening is complete when 
 the superficial inequalities of the animal, whether 
 muscular or bony, are filled up ; when his body pre- 
 sents only a round and smooth surface ; when he 
 becomes drowsy and inert, dislikes motion, and 
 is apparently insensible to everything about him. 
 These are the signals for death, and the sooner you 
 inflict it after their appearance the better; for, 
 should the feeding be farther urged, you run the 
 risk of inducing the disease called the melting of the 
 grease, or, in more scientific language, the reabsorp- 
 tion of it by the blood, which is always fatal. 
 
 They who are at all acquainted with the subject 
 on which we write, need hardly be told that there 
 are many circumstances independent of food, clean- 
 11 
 
132 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 liness, and quiet, which influence the fattening of 
 cattle. We shall mention them sepatately, and add 
 a few words to each in explanation. 
 
 1st. Constitution. — If this be not sound and heal- 
 thy, no care or expense will be sufficient to cor- 
 rect it. The anin al will want appetite, or have too 
 much of it, and what it eats will not better its con- 
 dition. 
 
 2d. Alteration. — The flesh of unaltered males is 
 hard, fibrous, and ill-flavoured, and that of females, 
 not spayed, far inferior to the flesh of those which 
 have undergone that operation. Where either are 
 early and completely altered, the animals become 
 more docile, less restless, and fat with great facil- 
 ity. 
 
 3d. Temperature. — Whoever makes the experi- 
 ment will find that this consideration is very impor- 
 tant. The cold of winter, the heat of summer, and 
 the capricious character of the spring, are all ad- 
 verse to the fattening of cattle, though perhaps not 
 equally so. The autumn, on the other hand, long 
 and temperate, is the true season for that business, 
 not only from the greater abundance of food which 
 is then to be found, but because the transpiration 
 of the animal is then first checked, and immediately 
 converted into tallow. And, 
 
 4th. Age. — Tallow is formed from the surplus 
 nourishment given to animals beyond that necessa- 
 ry to their mere physical development ; whence it 
 follows, that those which have not attained their 
 full growth are fatted with difficulty, and only by 
 extraordinary means. Calves, for example, can 
 only be fatted by great quantities of milk, to which 
 must often be added eggs, barley, oat meal, or the 
 flour of beans and pease ; and with all this abundance 
 and selection of food, they yield little interior fat 
 or tallow. Whereas oxen, at six years of age, with 
 correspondent treatment, give large quantities of 
 that article. Old cattle are also, from loss of teeth, 
 
DAIRY. 133 
 
 debility of stomach, or other internal disorganiza- 
 tion, difficult to fatten. These facts sufficiently in- 
 dicate what, on this head, ought to be our practice ; 
 to fatten cattle as soon after they have attained their 
 growth as possible. Oxen generally attain their 
 growth at five or six years, and sheep and hogs at 
 two. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 OF THE DAIRY. 
 
 The business of the dairy, besides its connexion 
 with the subject of the last chapter, is too impor- 
 tant in itself to be omitted in any professed trea- 
 tise on Agriculture. We shall therefore consign 
 what we have to say upon it to the present chapter. 
 A few preliminary observations may be proper. 
 
 Milk is the well-known basis of all the operations 
 of the dairy. Few things have more engaged the 
 attention of chymists. Boyle, Boerhave, Hoffman, 
 and Macquer, all the old school and many of the 
 new,* have employed themselves in detecting its 
 constituent parts, and in estabhshing their several 
 proportions. In the first branch of the inquiry they 
 have sufficiently succeeded, and we accordingly 
 know that this very important fluid is principally 
 composed of an oily matter, of curd, of an essen- 
 tial salt called sugar of milk, and of serum. But, 
 m the other branch of the inquiry, so various have 
 been the results of experiments made on the milk 
 of different animals, and of the same animal at dif- 
 ferent times, that it continues to be the reproach 
 of chymistry ; and we have now before us the ac- 
 
 * HaMer, Brisson, Deyeux, Parmentier, Fourcroy, &c., &;c 
 
134 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 knowledgment of M, Perthuys, of the French In- 
 stitute, that " to determine these proportions with 
 the necessary exactness is impossible.'''' Fortunate- 
 ly, however, the pride of science is more affected 
 by this failure than the interests of agriculture. 
 
 Milk is reducible to two species : that of rumina- 
 ting animals, and that of animals which do not ru- 
 minate. Milk of the first description abounds in 
 cream and in curd, that of the other in sugar and 
 whey; and it is on this distinction that the milk of 
 cows, sheep, and goats is principally employed for 
 the purposes of the dairy, while that of mares and 
 asses is, with similar propriety, yielded to the ser- 
 vice of medicine.* 
 
 Observation has shown that this secretion is much 
 influenced by circumstances of weather, of aliment, 
 and of age. A stormy day lessens its quantity and 
 alters its quality; bad or deficient food has a sim- 
 ilar but greater effect, and the fact is well known 
 that very young and very old cows give poor milk. 
 Mild weather, on the other hand, promotes the se- 
 cretion, and soft, nourishing aliments, easy of diges- 
 tion and in sufficient quantity, make it redundant. 
 
 A fact established by the labours of Messrs. De- 
 yeux and Parmentier, and long before known to the 
 dairy maid, is, that the milk first drawn is serous; 
 that that which succeeds is less so, and that what 
 are commonly called strippings are nearly all cream. 
 
 Having premised these facts, we proceed to the 
 business of butter-making, the theory of which is 
 reducible to the following heads : 
 
 1st. Butter is found suspended in milk, in the 
 form of a white and liquid oil. This suspension is 
 the effect of the saccharine matter and the curd, 
 which are among the component parts of milk. 
 
 * The medical uses of asses' milk have come down to us 
 from Hippocrates and Galen. The milk of mares is only estab- 
 lished in the pharmacopoeia of Tartary, where, according to the 
 reports made by travellers, it is food, physic, and brandy. 
 
DAIRY. 135 
 
 2d. In a state of repose and in a cool tempera- 
 ture, this oily matter separates itself, in a great de- 
 gree, from the serum and curd, mounts to the sur- 
 face, and there forms a pellicle of greater or less 
 density, 
 
 3d. When in contact with atmospheric air, it 
 draws from it a portion of oxygen, and thence ac- 
 quires a yellow colour and a disposition to harden. 
 
 4th. Agitation and pressure are necessary to sep- 
 arate it from the serum and curd which may have 
 mounted with it. And, 
 
 5th. To correct its tendency to decomposition, 
 which first shows itself by a rancid smell and taste, 
 it must be subjected to the action of heat, or a por- 
 tion of the muriate of soda must be incorporated 
 with it. From this theory of butler-making, it will 
 be easy to deduce the rules necessary to practice. 
 
 1st. The formation of cream is, as we have seen, 
 a process of nature which we best promote by giv- 
 ing to our dairies a northern exposition ; by keep- 
 ing them perfectly clean ; because filth, besides other 
 mischief, is predisposed to fermentation, and is, of 
 course, productive of heat; and, lastly, by so form- 
 ing our pans as to make them narrow at the bottom 
 and wide at the top, to the end that they may oflfer 
 to the atmosphere the largest possible surface.* 
 
 2d. The separation of the butter from the milk, 
 with which it is still connected, is our own labour, 
 and must be carefully and thoroughly performed. 
 This is called churning, and ought to be only a mod- 
 erate and continued agitation. If the movement be 
 loo slowor frequently interrupted, the effect intend- 
 ed is not produced ; and if hurried and violent, the 
 cream is too much heated, and yields a white and 
 curdlike butter. When this operation is well per- 
 formed, the butter is found adhering to the staff and 
 flyers of the churn, is of an agreeable taste and col- 
 our, and of a certain degree of consistency. 
 
 * See, in Fourcroy's Chymistry, vol. ix , the effects of cover« 
 mg milk-pans. 
 
136 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 3d. To increase this last, and more perfectly to 
 discharge the milk from the butter, the latter is 
 again subjected to frequent pressure and washing in 
 cold water, which, readily uniting with the milk, 
 carries it along with it. • 
 
 4th. What now remains is to employ the means 
 necessary to its preservation. These are of two 
 kinds ; a small portion of common salt, well dried 
 and pulverized, may be wrought into the mass, and 
 distributed as equally as possible; or the fresh mass, 
 subjected to a demi-fusion, will throw up a frothy 
 and feculent matter, which must be carefully taken 
 off, and which, if neither evaporated nor skimmed 
 in this way, nor absorbed by the salt in the other, 
 would produce the rancidity of which we have al- 
 ready spoken. The butter of Prevalais, the finest 
 in Europe, is prepared after this last mode. The 
 secret was long and well kept, but was at length di- 
 vulged by M. Tessier, about the year 1809. 
 
 Of cheese-making. 
 
 The curd of milk is known to be the basis of 
 cheese, and the theory of making this may be brought 
 under three heads. 
 
 1st. Turning the milk, or separating the curd from 
 the other constituents of milk, by a chymical pro- 
 cess, or by permitting it to separate spontaneously. 
 
 2d. Expressing ivhat remains of these from the curd 
 by mechanical means ; and, 
 
 3d. Seasoning the mass, by the introduction of 
 some matter of conservative quality, as muriate of 
 soda, sage, balm, aromatic clover, &c., &c. 
 
 These principles maybe much varied, and, under 
 different managements, will produce cheeses of 
 very different species, which may, however, be gen- 
 eralized as follows : 
 
 1st. Those in the fabrication of which the coagu- 
 lation of the milk is spontaneous. This species re- 
 tains a great degree of softness, is peculiarly liable 
 to decomposition, and is therefore used in a shor* 
 
DAIRY. 137 
 
 time after being made. Siich is the cream cheese, 
 and the cheeses of Viry, Mont Didier, and Mont 
 d'Or. 
 
 2d. Those which have been deprived of their se- 
 rosity by means only of compression. Such are 
 the cheeses of Holland, of Cantal in France, &c. 
 And, 
 
 3d. Those to which have been applied, not only 
 the action of the press, but of fire. Such are the 
 cheeses known by the name of Gruyere, Parmesan, 
 and Cheshire.* 
 
 Of these different species it is our intention to 
 speak only of the second and third, because these 
 form the cheeses of commerce, and have most con- 
 nexion with the public interest. 
 
 Turning the milk, which is the first step in the 
 process, may be effected by many different sub- 
 stances, such as vegetable acids and astringents ; 
 but the matter generally, if not universally employ- 
 ed, is either the second stomach of the calf or its 
 contents, which are called rennet. A portion of 
 either put into the milk, which must be left in a 
 state of repose, will in a few hours produce the de- 
 sired separation. The quantity of rennet employed 
 is not, however, a matter of indifference. If too 
 much be used, the curd will remain in parcels, with- 
 out consistency, and altogether deprived of the 
 cream of the milk. If, on the other hand, the quan- 
 tity employed be too small, the separation of the 
 curd from the serum will not be complete. The 
 exact quantity necessary is an affair of experience, 
 which only a number of trials on different portions 
 of milk enables one to regulate and adjust. A cir- 
 
 * The Schabzieger (cheese made in Switzerland) is of a dif 
 ferent kind. Instead of the curd, the Swiss employ the sedi 
 ment of the serum, and macerate in it a few of the leaves, stems, 
 or seeds of the trifolium oderatum, or blue clover. It is this 
 which gives to the Schabzieger its peculiar and highly aromatic 
 taste and smell. 
 
138 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 cumstance of still greater importance, but of less 
 difficulty, is that of determining the character of 
 the rennet. If this emit any strong or disagreeable 
 odour, it is bad, and should not be employed, as it 
 will infallibly communicate to the curd its own of- 
 fensive qualities. 
 
 As soon as the c.urd is separated, it must be bro- 
 ken into pieces, so that the serum, which is now col- 
 lected into little cells, may have the means of es- 
 caping. By this operation the curd is reduced to a 
 paste, which acquires coherency as fast as the fluid 
 is separated from it. This paste is now put into 
 moulds, and compressed until a farther portion of 
 the moisture is expelled. When this effect is pro- 
 duced the curd is again divided, squeezed by the 
 hand, replaced in the moulds, and subjected to heavy 
 weights, which expel the last remaining drops of 
 the whey. If the weather be warm, the cheeses 
 will swell and cavities appear on their surfaces; 
 an effect of the disengagement of air, which is the 
 sign of interior fermentation, and the signal for re- 
 moving the cheeses to the drying room, and begin- 
 ning the application of salt to their surfaces and 
 sides. This application must be continued daily, 
 and the cheeses be turned as often, so that the salt 
 be equally distributed throughout them. If they 
 present a dry surface, they should be wetted with 
 salted whey ; and if a frothy appearance, they should 
 be carefully wiped and the outer rind scraped with 
 a blunt knife. They will soon acquire the neces- 
 sary hardness and the proper colour.* 
 
 In these operations we have described the mode 
 of making cheeses deprived of their serosity by 
 compression only. What we have yet to say ap- 
 plies to those in the making of which fire is a ne- 
 cessary agent. The milk destined for these is 
 
 * The Italians employ saffron, and the English the bixa, to 
 colour their cheeses. These are only expedients to make next 
 cheese pass for old in the market. - 
 
DAIRY. 139 
 
 placed in a boiler and on a moderate fire ; the ren- 
 net is then applied, and the milk stirred without in- 
 terruption. The moment the action of the rennet 
 becomes apparent, the boiler is taken from the fire 
 and the contents left undisturbed. A coagulation 
 soon takes place, when a portion of the serum must 
 be removed, and the remaining portion be left to 
 boil the curd, which is seen floating in distinct par- 
 cels or lumps. The boiler must now be replaced 
 on the fire, and the mass be continually stirred 
 until the curd takes a degree of coherency. When 
 this effect is produced the boiling is complete, and 
 the curds, collected into masses, are taken from the 
 serum and committed to moulds. The press is now 
 employed and the salt applied, as in the preceding 
 directions. During three weeks or a month, the 
 moulds are gently and gradually tightened, and, so 
 soon as a superabundant moisture appears on the 
 surface of the cheese, the salting is discontinued.* 
 Various means have been used to improve the 
 qualities of cheese, besides those employed in the 
 process of fabrication. Though we give little credit 
 to these devices, still, as others may have more 
 faith than ourselves, it may not be improper to men- 
 tion some of them. The most simple and most 
 easily employed are, rubbing them with oil, with 
 butter not salted, with the lees of wine, and some- 
 times enveloping them with linen dipped in vinegar, 
 or in new hay moistened with warm water. An- 
 other, more compounded and not so easily obtained, 
 has fallen within the scope of our reading. It is 
 given by M. Chazotte, inspector of mines to the 
 Duke of Parma, who says of it " that cheeses the 
 most dry and of the worst quality, if moistened daily 
 for twenty or thirty days with a liquor composed of 
 strong vinegar and alkalized nitre, and which en- 
 tirely resembles the foliated earth of tartar, known 
 
 * This appearance shows that the absorption of salt is com- 
 plete. 
 
140 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 to cliyrnists and physicians, will become excellent." 
 What on this head is suggested by our own expe- 
 rience is, that, if not made better, they are assured- 
 ly best preserved by dark apartments, neither very 
 dry nor very humid, and by shelves or tables fre- 
 quently washed, and not containing in them any res- 
 inous matter. 
 
 Of the residuum or whey left after cheese-ma- 
 king. 
 
 This is not without its uses, and some of them im- 
 portant. The medicinal virtues of whey have been 
 long acknowledged and much celebrated, and ap- 
 pear to be beyond even the reach of time, which 
 has neither abated their force nor diminished their 
 fame ; for, when all other remedies fail, the modern 
 valetudinarian, like the ancient, is dismissed to 
 mountain air and whey diet. The lives of literary 
 men furnish many striking instances of its nourish- 
 ing as well as its medicinal properties. Boerhave 
 persevered in the use of it, to the exclusion of other 
 food, for many months; and Ferguson for many 
 years. Its effect in fattening hogs is universally 
 known. This nutritive property exists in the mu- 
 cus sugar with which it abounds ; the extraction of 
 which has long employed the science and industry 
 of the Swiss cantons.* 
 
 * See Lichtenstein and Rocol on the sugar of milk. The 
 maximum of its quantity l-28th ; the minimum l-60th. Scheele 
 has shown that this saccharine matter differs essentially frona 
 the «! gar of canes. See Fourcroy's Chymistry. vol ii. 
 
ORCHARDS. 341 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OP ORCHARDS. 
 
 These are generally composed of apple, pear, 
 peach, and cherry trees. The apple has been known 
 from the most remote antiquity, and, from the names • 
 given to it, would appear to have been a native of 
 many different countries.* 
 
 About the close of the 15th century, the varieties 
 of this fruit in Europe were multiplied to the num- 
 ber of forty-six,t and it is not to be doubted but 
 that four additional centuries have much increased 
 this amount. While, however, the line was length- 
 ening in this direction, it was shortening in another ; 
 for, according to the philosophy of the present day, 
 vegetables, like animals, perish not only individu- 
 ally, but by whole races. J 
 
 The uses of the apple are various. Besides those 
 of the table, it yields the well-known liquor called 
 cider, which is again convertible into brandy. We 
 have, in our country, orchards which annually pro- 
 duce from five to eight hundred dollars. In the 
 view of profit, therefore, fruit is an important ob- 
 ject to the agriculturist.^ 
 
 * The Syrian, Scanian, Pelusian, &c. About one hundred 
 years before Christ, the Romans began to call them after par- 
 ticular men who had been instrumental in removing them ; as 
 the Appian, or Pomme D'Apiof the French, after Claudius Ap- 
 pius. 
 
 t See Olivier de Serres. 
 
 X See Davy's Elements. 
 
 i) One of the most important uses of the apple in the present 
 dtfy, and to which it was not formerly applied, or but partially, 
 is the feeding and fattening of pigs and other farm-stock. For 
 this purpose alone, apple-orchards now constitute one of the 
 most profitable objects of farm culture— J. B. 
 
142 AGRICULTDRE. 
 
 The pear is less difficult with regard to soil than 
 the apple-tree. We have seen it grow well in light 
 sand ; and a part of Normandy, called Bocage, the 
 soil of which is a stiff clay, is renowned for its 
 pears, and for a liquor called Perry, made from 
 their juices.* 
 
 Oliver de Serres counted sixly-two varieties of 
 the pear; and, according to the treatise of M. Van 
 Mons, published in 1808, the number then cultivated 
 in Europe amounted to more than six hundred. Of 
 these we shall name a few, in the order in which 
 they ripen. The Muscat I'Allemand, in May ; the 
 St. John and the Bergamot of Holland, in June ; the 
 Petit Muscat and the Cuisse Madame, or Jargonelle, 
 in July; the Salviat and the Bon Chretien d'Ete 
 Musque, in August ; the Beurre Gris, in Septem- 
 ber ; the Bergamot Suisse and Messire Jean, in Oc- 
 tober; the Bon Chretien Turc and the fall Berga- 
 mot, in November ; the Chasserais, the Beurre 
 d'Hiver, the Merveille d'Hiver, the Vergouleuse, the 
 St. Germain, and the Sarrussin, in December.:|: 
 
 * When made without the addition of water, Perry is an ex- 
 cellent liquor, and keeps well in bottles. 
 
 f We offer this list as a direction to those who may wish to 
 obtain the best succession of crops, and have therefore retained 
 the names under which they are known abroad. 
 
 X The pears here named belong to the old catalogue ; the 
 quality of the new kinds, named by Van Mons, not then being 
 known to us. The new varieties have since been introduced and 
 fruited, and have added much to the value and variety of thi.s 
 fiuit. We recommend the following, embracing mostly new 
 varieties, as a better selection than the one named in the text. 
 They should be added to old collections, and in new plantations 
 may be advantageously introduced as substitutes for old, and, 
 in many cases, degenerated varieties. Beginning with the early 
 varieties, we recommend the Citron des Carmes, Jargonelle. 
 Summer Rose, &c., ripening in July and August ; the Belle et 
 Bonne, Vergaleu, or White Doyenne, Flemish Beauty, Neill, 
 &c., as ripening in September : the Autumn Bergamot, Aston 
 Town, Capiaumont, Beurre d' Gil il, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Ma- 
 ria Louise, &c., ripening in October; the Forello, Glout JVIor- 
 ceau, Napoleon, Colmar, &c., ripening in November ; the 
 
ORCHARDS. 143 
 
 The cherry-tree is said to have been first brought 
 to Europe by Lucullus, from Asia Minor. A Ger- 
 man amateur (the Baron de Truckless) has brought 
 together, in \\\> garden in Franconia, sixty-five spe- 
 cies of it. Besides the raw fruit, the cherry is much 
 employed in confitures, and gives also three liquors 
 in much request, the Kirt' ii; awasser of Germany, 
 the Marrasquin of Venice, and a distilled but unfer- 
 mented liquor of the Rhine, having nothing in it 
 spirituous, and retaining only the watery and aro- 
 matic parts of the fruit. The cherry-tree dreads 
 cold or wet soils, nor does it succeed well in those 
 which are either hot or dry. Its outer skin differs 
 in its organization from that of other trees ; the 
 fibres are longer and stronger, and sometimes so 
 bind the woody part as to obstruct its growth. 
 Hence the practice of making shallow and longitu- 
 dinal cuts through the outer bark; a practice, how- 
 ever, which, like pruning, ought to be skilfully per- 
 formed, otherwise the wound becomes gummy, 
 chancrous, and incurable.* 
 
 The peach-tree is a native of Persia, where it 
 grows without cultivation. Its varieties are very- 
 numerous, all of which are much influenced by cli- 
 mate and soil. In Europe it is only in the south 
 of France, in Italy, and in Spain, where you find 
 peaches that have reached the perfection of which 
 this fruit is susceptible ; and in similar climates here 
 we may, no doubt, have fruit equally good. Our 
 own climate (that of New- York) does not appear to 
 be favourable to its production. Our trees are often 
 sickly, and our peaches generally sour and watery, 
 and entirely destitute of that aroma which forms 
 the great excellence of this fruit. After these gcn- 
 
 NelJs, Passe Colmar, Bezi Vait, Beurre d'Aremburgh, &c., 
 ripening in December; the Easter Beurre, Beurre Ranee, 
 Chaumohtelle, &c., as late winter and spring pears; and the 
 Cattilac, Chaptal, Bezi d'Hui, as good bakirig or stewing 
 pears. — J. B. 
 
 * Cut only the outer or circular bark. — J. B. 
 
144 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 eral remarks, we proceed to what is more particu- 
 larly the object of this chapter. 
 
 It hus been said, and, v> e think, with much good- 
 sense, that "every farm< i- ought to raise his own 
 trees," because, besides the risk, inconvenience, 
 and expense of bringing our plants from abroad, we 
 have, in pursuing that mode of supply, to encoun- 
 ter the tricks and blunders of nurserymen, and the 
 ill consequences which follow a want of analogy 
 between the soil in which the plants were raised 
 and that to which they are to be transferred. The 
 first step, therefore, towards obtaining a good or- 
 chard, is to create a good nursery. The situation 
 most favourable for this is a piece of level ground, 
 defended from cold and violent winds either by 
 natural or artificial means, and which, in composi- 
 tion, is neither wet nor dry, and of only middling 
 fertility. This condition of the soil is a circum- 
 stance of much importance, and ought to be rigor- 
 ously observed, because the vessels of young trees 
 growing in rich soils take a size proportioned to 
 the quantity of sap they receive and circulate ; and 
 if their situation be changed for the worse, the 
 quantity of the sap being necessarily diminished, 
 the vessels become rigid and unhealthy, and unable 
 to carry to the extremity of the branches the nour- 
 ishment required by them. The ground, selected 
 on these principles, must be securely fenced, thor- 
 oughly ploughed and harrowed, freed from stones 
 and the roots of perennial plants, and then thrown 
 up into three or four feet ridges, on which you will 
 sow and cover your apple and pear seed, and plant 
 your cherry and peach stones. It will now be use- 
 ful to roll the beds for the purpose of bringing the 
 soil and the seeds everywhere into contact; after 
 which they may be covered with clean straw for 
 the winter. In the spring your young apple and 
 pear-trees will show themselves, and afterward 
 your cherries and peaches. The treatment to all 
 
l/ORCHARDS; 145 
 
 will be the same : they must be thinned to the dis- 
 tance of fifteen or twenty inches from each other, 
 kept perfectly free from weeds, and, if the weather 
 be hot and dry, occasionally watered. They re- 
 quire only a repetition of this process, with the ad- 
 dition of a little careful pruning, till they have at- 
 tained the height of seven or eight feet, when they 
 are fit for grafting.* It is generally known that by 
 this operation we continue any given species of 
 fruit ; but a fact with which the public is less ac- 
 quainted is, that if the graft be also grafted, the 
 product is improved both in quantity and quality ; 
 and, it is to be presumed, will continue to improve 
 under every new and similar operation. Grafts, to 
 be well chosen, should be taken from wood of the 
 present year, from young and healthy races, and 
 accommodated to the future use of the fruit. If, 
 for instance, your object be cider-making, you will 
 take your grafts from the crab or the redstreak ;f 
 and if for barrelling, from the pippin, the Spitzen- 
 berg, the greening, or the Swaur. As we only 
 speak of grafting incidentally, it will not be expect- 
 ed that we should go into a dissertation upon that 
 art, nor to elucidate the many divisions and sub- 
 divisions which technical men have made of it.| 
 It is enough for us to say, that, of all these different 
 modes, the scion and the slit is the simplest and the 
 
 * Budding is generally preferred to grafting in nursery estab 
 lishraents, because it gives a longer season for propagating, is 
 more expeditiously performed, more certain, especially with 
 stone fruit, and may be performed upon stbeks a year or two 
 earlier than grafting. Budding should be performed when the 
 stock is from the size of a pipestem to the size of the little fin- 
 ger.— J. B. 
 
 + The redstreak is no longer with us in a healthy condition; 
 it has degenerated. The Harrison, winesap, pippin, and crab, 
 are our best cider fruits. — J. B. 
 
 X The two grand divisions are by approach and hy scion. Their 
 varieties and sub-varieties, nearly a hundred, are known by 
 the names of ancients and moderns, as Varro, Virgil, Columella, 
 Maiherbes, Duhamel, Bosc, Michaux, &c., &c 
 
146 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 best. When your grafts have acquired some inches 
 in length, it may be well to rub off all the buds 
 which have pushed below them on the stem, and 
 perhaps a few of those which have appeared above 
 them ;* and if the grafts themselves put out any 
 lateral shoots, spare them till the succeeding year, 
 when you are called to regraft such as have failed, 
 and to furnish props to those which are feeble, or 
 crooked, or ill-directed. 
 
 Planting is the next operation in the process ; but, 
 as some preliminary measures, on which its suc- 
 cess will much depend, are yet untouched, we will 
 begin with these ; and, 
 
 1st. Of the soil chosen for your intended orchard. 
 It is generally admitted that fruit-trees do well in a 
 warm, friable, moist, and deep soil ; that they suc- 
 ceed but indifferently in one that is cold and stiff, 
 and that they altogether fail in one either very dry 
 or very wet ; but a fact less known, though not less 
 established, is, that the subsoil has a powerful in- 
 fluence on the health and prosperity of plants. If 
 this be rock, or what is called hardpan, whatever 
 be the surface, the tree and its fruits are much de- 
 teriorated ; nor will the remedy, sometimes resort- 
 ed to, of cutting off the pivot or plunging-root, and 
 leaving the tree to subsist by those which are mere- 
 ly lateral, be sufficient. It may palliate, but it does 
 not cure. 
 
 2d. Next to soil, exposition is most important. In 
 this climate northern and western expositions are 
 bad ; because the tree has least time for vegetation, 
 its juices are less concocted, and it is itself most 
 
 * Many grafts are annually lost by removing the upper buds, 
 shoots, and limbs. It throws too much nourishment into the 
 graft, which dies of repletion. Having omitted in the text to 
 say anything of the different stems employed in grafting, we here 
 reinark, what all amateurs in fruit-trees ought to know, that sci 
 ons, whether of apple or pear trees, grafted on quince stocks, 
 give fairer fruit and much sooner than if grafted on apple or 
 pear stocks ; but the trees are short -hved. 
 
ORCHARDS. 147 
 
 exposed to the action of high winds. These re- 
 marks will sufficiently indicate why eastern and 
 southern expositions are favourable, and ought to 
 be preferred. But the rule these facts suggest can- 
 not be made absolute, since many persons occupy 
 only the northern and western sides of hills. In 
 these situations, therefore, the course most appro- 
 ved by theory and experience is, to plant only trees 
 which are late in forming or maturing their fruit. 
 
 3d. The preparation of the soil is not to be neg- 
 lected, and any summer crop in rows and well cul- 
 tivated forms a good one. With these remarks we 
 return to our general head of planting. 
 
 The /orm in which your trees stand is not matter 
 of indifference. The quincunx is recommended as 
 giving to them that position which is relatively best ; 
 but the caize (straight hues intersecting each other), 
 better admitting the movements of the plough, is gen- 
 erally preferred. Whichever of the two be adopted, 
 the holes indicated in a former part of this section 
 must be made accordingly, and ought to be six feet 
 wide and as many long, and two feet deep. The 
 advantages of these will abundantly repay the extra 
 labour they require, as we find by M. Chalumeau's 
 experiments on peach-trees, from which we make 
 the following extract : " Four peach-trees, resem- 
 bhng each other, as to size and vigour of growth, as 
 much as possible, were planted: No. 1 in a hole 
 three feet square ; No. 2 in a hole two feet square ; 
 and Nos. 3 and 4 in holes eighteen inches square. 
 The soil and exposition similar. No. 1 has every 
 year given the most abundant crops, and the rela- 
 tive sizes of the trees now are as follows : the stem 
 of No. 1, 18 feet high and eight inches in circum- 
 ference : that of No. 2, nine feet high and five and a 
 half mches m circumference ; No. 3, six feet high, 
 and three inches eight lines in circumference ; and 
 No. 4, five and a half feet high, and three inches in 
 circumference." Here is a difference between the 
 12 
 
148 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 largest and smallest of five inches in circumference 
 and 12 1-2 feet in height ; a most decisive proof of 
 the advantages of trenching.* 
 
 When the holes are thus prepared, and at a dis- 
 tance not less than 30 feet from each other, and a 
 portion of the soil, is mixed with marl, the mud of 
 ponds, or bog-earth, returned to them, you may be- 
 gin to take up your young trees from the nursery ; 
 and, in doing this, you must be careful not to wound 
 or otherwise injure their roots or their bark ; nor 
 must they suffer any topping or pruning. Three 
 hands are necessary to planting; one to place and 
 range the trees, and the others to fill in the remain- 
 ing part of the earth, mixed as above mentioned. 
 It now only remains to fix short poles (technically 
 called tutors) near them, to which they may be tied, 
 and by means of which their true vertical position 
 may be preserved. 
 
 The year after planting, and in the month of Feb- 
 ruary,! when there is no circulation of sap, you vv^ill 
 do well to begin to give to the heads of your young 
 trees that form which you wish them ultimately to 
 take. The more circular you make them, the better, 
 always taking care to lop off those branches which 
 do already, or may hereafter, cross others having a 
 proper direction. This proper direction will be gen- 
 erally horizontal, but with a slight curve ; an opin- 
 ion requiring, perhaps, a little explanation. All 
 straight branches produce what are usually termed 
 gourmands, or gluttons, giving little if any fruit 
 themselves, and exceedingly exhausting the tree. 
 Curved branches, on the other hand, rarely produce 
 gourmands ; and, when the season is favourable, give 
 much fruit. The observation of these facts, made 
 
 * The apple, pear, and cherry, occupying more room than the 
 peach, require proportionate trenches. 
 
 t The last of June, after the tree has made its first growths 
 and is charged with elaborated sap, is recommended as the best 
 time for performing this operation. — J. B. 
 
 I 
 
ORCHARDS. 149 
 
 long since, and probably growing out of the man- 
 agement of espaliers, first suggested the practice of 
 bending straight branches by artificial means. The 
 cflfect entirely justified the theory ; these straight and 
 barren branches, bent into nearly half a circle,* 
 changed their character with their shape, and be- 
 came very productive. But there is a time for this 
 as for all other things, and, unless the ex|)eriment be 
 began about the first of July and continued to Sep- 
 tember, it will fail, because it is only within that 
 period that fruit buds are formed. f 
 
 As your trees advance in age, they will require 
 vruning. Suckers must be removed, and dead and 
 dying limbs taken off. For this purpose a hand- 
 saw, a chissel, a mallet, and a gardener's knife, are 
 the instruments to be used : all others must be pro- 
 scribed, and particularly the axe, which, in the hands 
 of folly and ignorance, has been so mischievous to 
 fruit-trees. Wounds, if large, should always be 
 covered from drying winds, from moisture, and even 
 from air. In gummy trees, as the peach or the cher- 
 ry, this precaution is indispensable, and the neglect 
 of it a disgrace, since the best covering is that com- 
 posed of cow-dung and clay ; materials costing no- 
 thing, and always at hand. 
 
 On this subject we have but one other rule to 
 give, and that is, to open the ground about the roots 
 of your trees in the fall, to the influences of the air, 
 rain, and frost. The last of these, besides promo- 
 ting vegetation, destroys many insects in the chrys- 
 alis state, which, if left undisturbed, would in the 
 spring be very injurious. Another part of the same 
 rule is to cover with straw, in the spring, the ground 
 you make bare in the fall ; the object of which is to 
 prevent evaporation by intercepting the rays of the 
 
 * More than half a circle will obstruct the circulation of sap 
 and destroy the limb. 
 
 t The circulation of the sap is then slowest. See Art. Cour 
 bure, Nouveau Cours d'Agriculture, vol. iv. 
 
160 GARDENING. 
 
 sun, and thus securing to the roots the moisture ne- 
 cessary to their welfare. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 
 
 The first page of history informs us that, imme- 
 diately after the creation, man was placed in a gar- 
 den, " to dress and to keep it." Nor will the wis- 
 dom of this designation be doubted by those who 
 duly consider the effects, moral and physical, of the 
 occupation it enjoins. " Emollit mores, nee sinet 
 esse feros," is an observation of great antiquity and 
 acknowledged truth ; to which might be added oth- 
 ers of equal authority and importance, viz. : that it 
 expands the mind, strengthens the body, tranqml- 
 lizes the spirit,* and begets habits of order, dili- 
 gence, temperance, economy, and observation.! 
 
 Thus recommended (apart from its pecuniary 
 
 * Lord Bacon calls it " the purest of human pleasures, the 
 greatest refreshment to the spirits of man, without which build- 
 ings and palaces are but gross handiworks." 
 
 f Of those among the ancients who may be considered as 
 authorities, Cicero is perhaps alone in regarding the retirement 
 of rural life as tending rather to relax than to invigorate the 
 mental faculties. — De Orat., i., 2. Pliny, on the other hand, re 
 marks, " Experieris non Dianatn magis montibus, quam M'nsr- 
 vam inerrare." We need scarcely quote the well-known decis- 
 ions of Horace and Virgil. " Scriptorum chorus omnis amat 
 nemus, et fugit urbes." " Rura mihi et regni placeant," <&c. 
 The controversy, after all, is one of words; for besides that 
 there may have been some peculiarity of mind in Cicero, calling 
 for an uncommon kind or degree of stimulus, it must not be 
 forgotten that his great and distinguishing talent could only 
 receive development and exercise from the presence and agita 
 tions of a crowd. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 251 
 
 profits), it will not be thought extraordinary that 
 gardening, considered both as a science and an art 
 should have engaged the attention of able and learn- 
 ed men, who, at different times and in various lan- 
 guages, have written upon it. To collect and 
 methodize their remarks and experiments, to illus- 
 trate their different doctrines, and to adapt the whole 
 to our own climate, soil, and social condition, form 
 the leading objects of the present work. 
 
 Another important, though a secondary object, is 
 to bring what is known and necessary on so copious 
 a subject into the smallest compass, persuaded, as 
 we are, that the highest service that can now be 
 rendered to science is to shorten and illustrate its 
 processes, and thus render attainable by many what 
 otherwise would be known only to few. 
 
 Gardens are technically classed under five heads : 
 the Kitchen Garden, the Fruit Garden, the Flower 
 Garden, the Botanic Garden, and the Landscape, 
 commonly, but improperly, called the English Gar- 
 den. These have many principles in common, but 
 some which are peculiar, and they consequently 
 call for different kinds of culture, and different sorts 
 and degrees of knowledge in the cultivator. We 
 shall treat here only of the two first named ; and 
 begin with the Kitchen Garden. 
 
 This is the description of garden most important 
 to man, because employed in the production of ar- 
 ticles of the first necessity, and common to every 
 class of society. Several conditions are, however, 
 necessary to enable it to fulfil this intention. Such 
 are, suflicient fences, a good soil, a favourable ex- 
 position, and abundant water. The^r^^, to be suffi- 
 cient, ought to have the property not only of ex- 
 cluding the depredations of man and beast, but that 
 also of shutting out vermin, and even some of the 
 tribes of larger insects: The second should be 
 deep, rich, friable, and moist (not wet), because this 
 description of soil is best adapted to the mass of 
 
152 G4ADENING. 
 
 garden vegetables, and not positively unfriendly to 
 any. The third should have an inclination to the 
 south and east, as this exposure will best secure 
 that temperature both of the earth and of the aij 
 which is most favourable to vegetation ; and of the 
 fourth we need only remark, that it is emphatically 
 called the life of plants.* 
 
 The size and shape of this species of garden are 
 not indifferent, but admit no positive rules for their 
 regulation, because depending on circumstances 
 rarely alike in two cases ; the nature of the ground, 
 and the wants or abihty of the occupier. On these 
 heads, therefore, we only say that a parallelogram 
 and a square are the forms most approved, because 
 most susceptible of a cheap, and easy, and regular 
 arrangement into beds ; and that tivo acres] devoted 
 to the culture of table vegetables will furnish an 
 abundant supply for even a large family. 
 
 With these few prehminary remarks, we proceed 
 to what is more pecuharly the object of this branch 
 of our work, viz., an enumeration of the articles 
 selected for garden culture, and the means best cal- 
 culated for bringing them to that degree of perfec- 
 tion of which they may be respectively susceptible. 
 
 The Artichoke {Cynara Scolymus). The proto- 
 type of this race is a native of the south of Europe, 
 and rarely to be found in northern climates, except- 
 ing in botanical collections ; the varieties produced 
 by culture are much preferable to the parent plant.J 
 
 * Water impregnated with minerals is not merely useless, 
 but injurious to vegetation. Such is often the water found in 
 wells, and sometimes in rivulets. River and rain water may 
 always be safely employed, as well from their constituent parts 
 as from their temperature. Every garden should have a pond to 
 receive and hold r» in water. 
 
 t The author, doubtless, would include potatoes, and esculent 
 garden vegetables of every kind in this estimate. 
 
 % Miller considers the globe artichoke, which he calls the 
 Cynara Hortensis, as a distinct species from the Cynara Scoly- 
 mus, and rests his opinion on the difference between the two 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 153 
 
 These varieties are numerous, and take their dis- 
 tinctive names from their colour: as the green, the 
 red, the violet, and the white. The first of these 
 (the green) is the best, as well on account of its 
 larger size, as its better flavour and greater ability 
 to resist cold and wet weather; the constant and 
 most formidable enemy of the whole family. 
 
 This plant is propagated in two vvays, by seed and 
 by suckers ; by the former when it is desired to ob- 
 tain new races, and by the latter when we wish to 
 continue old ones. The first method is occasionally 
 practised by amateurs, and is that by which the 
 plant may be soonest naturalized, and made to attain 
 its highest perfection. The second is preferred by 
 practical men seeking immediate profit, and risking 
 as little as possible on experiments.* 
 
 If the first method be adopted, select sound and 
 fresh seeds, and, in the month of February, sow 
 them in pots filled with rich and mellow earth, and 
 plunged in a hotbed. Each pot may receive three 
 seeds. The young plants will soon show them- 
 selves, and, by watering and ventilating them at 
 proper times and in a moderate degree, will he fit 
 for transplanting in April. If the second method be 
 preferred, after having carefully uncovered and 
 cleaned the stems of the mother plants, take from 
 them, with the hand, as many sprouts or sutkers 
 as may be wanted, remembering that those near- 
 est the heart are the best ; and taking care also to 
 crop the sprouts close to the stem, and always be- 
 low what gardeners call the nut, and without chafing 
 or otherwise injuring the fibres which surround this, 
 and which are destined to become the roots of the 
 future artichoke. 
 
 Such are the two modes of obtaining plants, to 
 
 in relation to bulk and to shape. The later, and, we think, the 
 better opinion is, that this difference is the effect only of culture. 
 * The average loss of plants from the seed-bed is one half, 
 that from suckers only one tenth.— Cours d'Ag. 
 
154 GARDENING. 
 
 which we now add the subsequent management 
 common to both. 
 
 In hot and dry chmates, the soil best adapted to 
 the artichoke is that which is most retentive of 
 moisture, and vice versa. In our own particular 
 climate, which may be regarded as a medium be-' 
 tween the two extremes, a soil neither very wet nor 
 very dry is to be preferred. A portion of this, of 
 such extent as the required number of plants may 
 render necessary, which has been previously and 
 thoroughly worked and manured, should be raked 
 smooth, and so scored, both lengthwise and across, 
 as to form a number of beds or squares of three feet 
 — in the centre of each of which a hole is to be dib- 
 bled and an artichoke placed — remembering, how- 
 ever, before you do so (if the plants are seedlings), 
 to pinch off the tap or pivot root,* and to leave 
 as much of the native soil as the lateral roots will 
 hold together, and (whether seedhngs or suckers) 
 to press with your hand or your dibbler the earth 
 into close contact with the buried part of the plant, 
 leaving only the heart uncovered. When this is 
 done, sow rows of lettuce seed in the intervals be- 
 tween the artichokes; which, besides giving an ad- 
 ditional and useful article to your crop, will best 
 protect from the ravages of the grub that which is 
 your primary object ; for many observations concur 
 in showing that, where the grub has the power of 
 
 * The facts on which this theory rests are two. 1st. That it 
 is the peculiar office of the pivot to give sustenance to the stem 
 and leaves, and of the lateral roots to supply the suckers and 
 heads, which are the things we want. Now if the pivot be re- 
 moved, the lateral roots acquire an increased vigour, and the 
 head is made better in proportion. " M. Feburier, of Rennes, 
 planted two rows of artichokes, the one with pivot roots, the 
 other deprived of them. The former threw out leaves so long 
 and numerous, that it became necessary to thin them ; but their 
 fruit was neither abundant nor fine, while the latter grew well, 
 and gave fruit much better and earlier than the other." — Cou a 
 d Agri., art. Artichoke. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 155 
 
 choosing, it never fails to prefer the lettuce to the 
 artichoke. 
 
 • The processes of watering and hoeing are next in 
 order of time, and are either multiplied, or decreas- 
 ed, or discontinued, according to circumstances. 
 The rules which regulate these labours are two : if 
 the weather be dry, and you wish to hasten the ma- 
 turity of the fruit, you must hoe often and water 
 every other day. If, on the contrary, the weather 
 be wet, and you have other beds to draw from for 
 the supply of the current year, hoe seldom and do 
 not water at ail ; and by this management you may 
 either quicken or retard the progress of the plant. 
 
 To have large artichokes, you must leave only one 
 sprout to a stem ; and in this case, the taking off the 
 surplus suckers should not be delayed beyond the 
 first week in July. If, on the other hand, you dis- 
 regard the size of the fruit, you may leave the plant 
 to regulate its own products as to number. The 
 maturity of the fruit is indicated by the opening of 
 the scales, and we must be careful to take it before 
 the flower begins to show itself; and in doing this, 
 to cut it close to the ground, leaving no stump to 
 impoverish the root. It is a practice not uncom- 
 mon to dig and loosen the earth around the roots 
 in the fall of the year, and in dry and warm winter 
 cHmates the practice is not a bad one ; but in ours, 
 where frosts are severe and snows frequent, it would 
 be highly injudicious, as earth recently dug absorbs 
 and retains moisture more, and, consequently, freezes 
 sooner and deeper, than that which has not been 
 worked for some months preceding ; a remark 
 which, by-the-way, calls us to the consideration of 
 the best means of preserving the outstanding plants 
 during the winter. 
 
 Various means have been employed for this pur- 
 pose. That which is most commonly used is, after 
 stripping off the dead or decaying leaves, and trim- 
 ming down the soun l ones to three or four inches 
 
156 GARDENING. 
 
 to open trenches around the plant, and to draw up 
 about it the earth furnished by these. This is again 
 covered with long dung or stable litter, so as entire-, 
 ly to exclude rain, and snow, and frost. But, in ma- 
 King these provisions against cold and wet weather, 
 we must not forget that it is possible to be careful 
 over-much; for if the mounds of earth and litter be 
 large and close, we expose our plants to suffocation 
 from want of air ; to exhaustion from a continued 
 vegetation, and to scorching from the fermentation 
 of the covering matter, which, if the weather be wet 
 and but occasionally warm, seldom fails to occur. 
 
 To obviate these difficulties, it has been proposed 
 that the mounds be gradually formed ; that the first 
 covering be merely a wrapping of long dung, and 
 that the additions made to it be conformed to the 
 weather, leaving openings in all cases on its south- 
 ern side for the purposes of ventilation, and in no 
 case permitting the covering to exceed two feet in 
 thickness.* But even this mode of treatment is not 
 free from objection ; for, first, the direct application 
 of the dung to the plant will always alter its flavour, 
 and very much degrade it ; and again, the capri- 
 ciousness of the weather does not generally give 
 either warning of its changes, or time to accommo- 
 date ourselves to them : they often take place in 
 the night, and often (whether in the night or in the 
 day) under circumstances which prevent us from 
 giving to the plant the additional covering it may 
 require. Two other methods, therefore, not dis- 
 similar in themselves, have been suggested; the 
 one, to employ hollow cylinders of earthenware, 
 covered with a tile or piece of slate, and of capa- 
 city sufficient to embrace the plant; the other, to 
 form caps of straw (such as are used for lodging 
 bees), and having a moveable top of the same ma- 
 
 * This suggestion is M. Thoum's ; the writer of the excel- 
 lent article on the artichoke, to be found in the Encyclopedie 
 Methodique. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 157 
 
 terial.* To the last method we see no room for ob- 
 jection: in application it is easy, requiring no skill 
 and little labour, while the material and workman- 
 ship are both cheap and durable, and their property 
 of excluding rain, snow, and frost, not to be doubted. 
 Every gardener who understands his trade will 
 take care to set apart a few of the finest heads of 
 his own crop for seed ; but as the stock is upright, 
 and the head so formed as to receive and hold wa- 
 ter, it often happens that the seeds rot. To prevent 
 this, the stems of the plants so set apart should be 
 tied to stakes driven into the ground near them, and 
 gradually bent, so as to give to the heads that de- 
 gree of declination that will be sufficient to carry 
 off the water that may fall upon them. 
 
 When well managed, the artichoke will give fruit 
 four or five years in succession ; but, to avoid acci- 
 dents, new plantations should be made every year. 
 In some parts of Europe, as in France and Italy, 
 the taste for this vegetable is excessive, and much 
 beyond what it merits on the score either of nutri- 
 tiousness or flavour. Of this partiality the garden- 
 ers avail themselves, and by employing the varie- 
 ties which ripen soonest and latest, contrive to keep 
 the plant in the market (in its natural state) seven 
 or eight months of the twelve ; and means are then 
 employed to prolong its use, by converting it into a 
 comfit. In this country the taste for it is neither 
 common nor great ; and as the culture is expensive 
 and'not always successful, we have doubts whether, 
 to gardeners who cultivate for the market, it is de- 
 serving of much attention. 
 
 Asparagus {Maratimus Officinalis). Of this plant 
 there are ten species, one of which only is an ob- 
 ject of garden culture, and to this botanists have 
 given the name prefixed to this article. 
 
 * The earthen cylinders have been proposed by M. Bosc, of 
 the French Institute, and the straw caps by M. Feburier, of 
 Rennes. 
 
158 GARDENING. 
 
 Vegetables which have been long cultivated have 
 in general many varieties; but to this law the as 
 paragus appears to be an exception, having, as we 
 believe, but two^ and these differing from each other 
 only in volume. They are found growing sponta- 
 neously in high northern latitudes, near the mouths 
 of great rivers, where the soil is annually covered 
 with a new coat of alluvial matter. The natural 
 life of an individual plant does not exceed five years ; 
 but, left undisturbed in its native bed, ii rises in the 
 spring, ripens its seeds in the summer, and in au- 
 tumn sheds them on the soft and rich surface which 
 the spring floods have prepared for them : and in 
 this way continues to propagate the race from one 
 century to another. 
 
 These facts could not have been either long ob- 
 served or much considered, without suggesting the 
 kind of treatment which would be most proper for 
 the plant when transferred to an artificial bed ; yet 
 the modes indicated for this purpose have been very 
 different, and, like other things of even less conse- 
 quence, have given rise to much and warm discus- 
 sion. Of these disputed points the principal are, 
 whether sowing or planting gives the most profit; 
 whether plants of one, of two, or of three years 
 are to be preferred ; whether the seedbed should 
 be as rich, or less so than the plantation ; and, last- 
 ly, whether this (the plantation) should be formed 
 on the surface of the earth in its natural state, or 
 on an excavation filled up with new and better ma- 
 terials. 
 
 The first of these questions appears to us to turn 
 principally on convenience. If we can postpone the 
 use of the plant for a year or two, sowing is to be 
 preferred; because the crop it gives (other things 
 being equal), though later in coming, is more abun- 
 dant, of better quality, and of longer duration ; but 
 if our supply must be prompt, planting is best, for 
 by this mode we no doubt soonest obtain the fruit 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 159: 
 
 The same or similar considerations influence the 
 second question ; but there are others which affect, 
 and which may be thought sufficient to decide it. 
 Roots of three years will not only give fruit sooner 
 than those of one or of two years, but their fibres 
 being harder and roots more numerous, are better 
 able to sustain the violence inseparable from trans- 
 plantation, and the other accidents (such as heating 
 and chafing) which often accompany it, particularly 
 if the roots be brought from a distance. 
 
 With regard to the third question we would only 
 remark, that the translation of seedlings from the 
 nursery to the plantation always forms a crisis in 
 their health and character, during which they are 
 best supported by giving to them an increased stimu- 
 lus or nutrition. But if the seedbed be as rich as 
 that of the plantation, the transferred plant has no 
 support of this kind ; and hence it is that, though it 
 may not perish, it will not thrive. 
 
 The last question may be considered as one alto- 
 gether of means or abihty in the cultivator ; and as 
 among our readers there may be both poor and 
 rich, we will give a sketch of both methods, the 
 saving plan, and that which, though more expensive, 
 is decidedly better. 
 
 First Method. — Manure the square (allotted for 
 asparagus) largely, in the fall of the year, with well- 
 rotted dung. Trench it to the depth of twenty or 
 thirty inches, and leave it in a rough state during 
 the winter. As early as possible in the spring, cov- 
 er it with two or three inches of manure, and dig it 
 to the depth of ten or twelve inches, taking care 
 to mix the earth and the dung intimately together. 
 The square being now dug and manured, level and 
 smooth its surface, divide it into beds of four feet, 
 drill these lengthwise with the spade or the hoe, 
 and in the drills (which may be a foot apart) sow 
 your seeds sparsely, or plant your roots, as the case 
 may be, at the distance from each other (in the 
 
160 GARDENING. 
 
 rows) of fourteen inches. If you sow, cover the 
 seed with an inch of good soil ; and if you plant, 
 cover the roots to the depth of three inches with a 
 similar soil. No other crop should be sown in these 
 beds, and weeds should be carefully taken out by 
 the hand from time to time. On the approach of 
 winter, mow off the young asparagus, and cover the 
 bed with stable htter. In the spring, rake off this 
 covering, and keep the beds clean and loose during 
 the summer. Continue the same process till the 
 third year, when you may begin (but sparingly) to 
 cut the plants for table use. Formed and managed 
 in this way, and manured every third year after- 
 ward, an asparagus-bed will last ten or twelve 
 years.* 
 
 Second Method. — In the summer or autumn pre- 
 ceding your sowing or planting, divide the square 
 intended for asparagus into four feet beds, marking 
 the angles by stakes, and leaving alleys between 
 the beds of 1 1-2 or 2 feet. Excavate the beds to 
 the depth of twenty-six inches, and if you find the 
 bottom cold, and clayey, and retentive of moisture, 
 sink it half a foot deeper. Lay on this six inches 
 of coarse gravel, or stones, or both, and on these 
 place a layer of equal depth of tanner's bark or 
 chips, brushwood, weeds, horns, hoofs, or any other 
 slowly-decomposing matter, vegetable or animal. 
 Over this spread another layer, composed of cow 
 and horse dung mixed, to the depth of twelve inch- 
 es, and on the top of all replace the surface soil you 
 have thrown out, adding to it as much well-rotted 
 dung as will entirely fill up the excavation. In this 
 way you proceed to form the remaining beds ; and, 
 when all are finished, level and rake them, and re- 
 move the poor soil thrown out in trenching. As 
 early in the spring as the temperature of the weather 
 and the state of the ground will permit, dig the beds 
 
 * American Gardener. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 161 
 
 ten or twelve inch'.^^ deep, and work into them as 
 much well-rotted dung as will bring them to the 
 level of the alleys (for they will have sunk consid- 
 erably) ; after which, rake and smooth them, and 
 trace out with the spade or the hoe four small 
 trenches on each, not more than one inch deep ; 
 and in these sow fresh, and large, and well-ripened 
 seed, and so sparsely, that, when the plants rise, 
 they will not be found nearer together (in the rows) 
 than fourteen inches. Draw an inch of mould over 
 the seeds, and then ro'l or tread the rows, so as 
 to press the seed and the earth everywhere into 
 contact. 
 
 If, on the other hand, you prefer planting, select 
 roots of one, of two, or of three years, remember- 
 ing that " the white are only to be employed, and 
 that those of a violet or livid colour are always 
 hollow and unproductive."* In putting these down, 
 your trenches must be deep enough to receive the 
 roots and a covering of three inches. The crowns 
 of these roots must be placed upright, and the pattes 
 [or fingers], as they are sometimes called, spread 
 and directed downward ; for on their taking this 
 direction (to the food provided for them) the pros- 
 perity of the plantation will principally depend. It 
 now only remains to cover them, and that should 
 be done with three inches of good fresh mould. In 
 winter the plants may be left to themselves, as 
 many experiments show that, in beds constructed 
 in the way and of the materials we have described, 
 they are never injured by frost ; and farther, that, if 
 the surfaces of such beds be entirely exposed to its 
 
 * Duchesne, Prof. Nat. History, Versailles. Another remark 
 of this author is, that the male plants are much more profitable 
 than the female, and that, therefore, whether we sow or plant, 
 the number of seeds in the one case, and of roots in the other, 
 should be double the number usually employed ; and that, at the 
 time of flowering, when the sexes can be readily discriminattd, 
 the females should be destroyed. 
 
162 GARDENING. 
 
 action, the crop will be less liable to the attacks of 
 insects the ensuing spring. 
 
 In the month of March or April (during the whole 
 existence of the plant) the beds must be carefully- 
 forked and dressed, and kept clear of weeds.* Oc- 
 casional waterings are necessary till the third or 
 fourth year, when the plants will be sufficiently es- 
 tabhshed to do without them ; but it is at this epoch, 
 and in some degree as a substitute for watering, that 
 you must cover your beds with three inches of ad- 
 ditional earth. 
 
 With regard to the cutting of asparagus, it may 
 not be unnecessary to remark, that this should not 
 be done till the third year, and then but sparingly 
 and late in the season ; and that it should be discon- 
 tinued the moment you find the buds dwindling in 
 size and diminishing in number. 
 
 It will be readil}'" perceived, that the modes of 
 cultivation we have indicated are those only which 
 furnish the article in its natural season ; but as win- 
 ter asparagus, like winter roses, takes an increased 
 value from its rarity, it remains to say something of 
 the method technically called/orcm^. The first step 
 in this process is to procure a supply of three-year 
 old plants (for none else are fit for the purpose), 
 and the next to have a hotbed of proper tempera- 
 ture ready to receive them. You now trench its 
 surface lengthwise, and by drawing the earth to the 
 side of each trench, you form ridges, against which 
 you set the roots, at the distance of two inches apart, 
 the buds upright, and the fingers spread as directed 
 in method second. They are then to be covered 
 
 * It has been lately asserted, and with sufficient confidence, 
 that a pickle of salt and water, of the ordinary strength for pre- 
 serving meat, may be very usefully applied to asparagus beds in 
 the spring. The effects ascribed to it ar-e its stimulating power 
 upon the crop, and its tendency to destroy the seeds of weeds 
 and of insects lying near the surface. Experiments on this 
 subject should be raultip-ied, and with pickles differing in strength 
 9nd onantity. 
 
KITCHEN GARUfJN 163 
 
 with mould, and the glasses to be replaced on the 
 frames, and, when the buds begin to show them- 
 selves, they must have a second and similar cover- 
 ing. 
 
 The ventilation iirst of the bed, and subsequently 
 of the plants, ha.i distinct rules, requiring the strict- 
 est observance. With regard to the former, the gen- 
 eral direction is, to give to the bed as much air as 
 possible, without permitting the earth to be cither 
 frozen or chilled ; with regard to the latter, so soon 
 as the buds show themselves through the second 
 covering of mould, ventilate every day, and through- 
 out the day if the weather be good; but during the 
 night, whatever may be the state of the weather, 
 keep your glasses down, and constantly covered 
 with straw matting. 
 
 Though we have thus far taken for granted that 
 the temperature of the hotbed is a proper one, still, as 
 accidents sometimes occur in that respect, and of a 
 character and with effects directly opposite to each 
 other, it may not be amiss to remark that, for ten 
 days after the roots are put down, the degree of 
 beat in the bed must be carefully watched, lest it 
 be too great ; and, if found to be so, holes must be 
 ^mediately bored, with a stake of two or three 
 inches diameter, into the fermenting mass from 
 without, and other similar holes into the earth di- 
 rectly below the roots; and when, by these means, 
 the heat is sufficiently moderated, the holes are to 
 be carefully stopped. On the other hand, should 
 the heat be found insufficient or to decline too rap- 
 idly,«a moment must not be lost in giving a new 
 lining of fresh and hot dung to the sides of the bed. 
 The common method of ascertaining the degree of 
 heat in these cases, is to run down a sharp-pointed 
 stick between the roots, and, if it become suddenly 
 and greatly heated, or heated in a small degree, or 
 not at ail, the conclusion is drawn accordingly. Foi 
 ourselves, we have found the finger a very safe ther 
 13 
 
164 GARDENING. 
 
 mometer, and having this advantage over any other, 
 that it is sure to be always at hand. 
 
 In four weeks the plants will be fit for use, and, 
 if well managed, will give buds for three weeks to 
 come. But it may be useful to notice, that the 
 mode of taking these differs from that used for 
 plants raised in the natural way. If you employ a 
 knife, you cannot fail to destroy many young plants 
 (on account of the closeness with which they stand 
 to each other) ; but the mode by which you do least 
 mischief is to thrust your finger down along side 
 of the bud, and break it off at the root. 
 
 We shall close this article with the description 
 of a method practised in France, which will prob- 
 ably be new to most of our readers, and which, we 
 think, may be usefully employed as part of the hot- 
 bed method just described. We quote from the 
 N. Cours d'Agriculiure, art. Asperge. " M. Sequen, 
 of Baz-Sur-le-Seine, introduces the bud, the day it 
 shows itself, into the neck of a broken or cracked 
 bottle, through which it alternately mounts and de- 
 scends until it completely fills the whole cavity. 
 One of these plants is sufficient for a dish, weighs 
 14 oz., and is as tender and well flavoured as the 
 buds taken in the ordinary way. The neck of the 
 inverted bottle is pressed into the earth as far as it 
 will go, and other means employed to keep it up- 
 right ; a condition necessary to the success of the 
 experiment." 
 
 The Bean {Faha), a genus of plants according to 
 Tournefort and Jessieu, and a species [of Vicia] ac- 
 cording to Linnaeus and other botanists. Olivier 
 found it growing spontaneously in Persia, and con- 
 siders it a native of that, or of some neighbouring 
 part of Asia. 
 
 The ancients had many ridiculous prejudices in 
 relation to this vegetable. In Egypt, to look at 
 it was an act of uncleanness. In Greece, Pythag 
 eras forbade its use ; and at Rome, the Flamen Di • 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 165 
 
 alls was not permitted to name it. This proscrip- 
 tion is differently accounted for by different writers. 
 Clemens Alexandrinus ascribes it to a supposed 
 property in the bean to create banrenness in animals ; 
 and Theophrastus superadds a similar properly in re- 
 lation to vegetables ; while Cicero accounts for it by 
 alleging that it " disturbed the mind, and obscured 
 the faculty of divination by dreams." It has, how- 
 ever, surmounted all these prejudices, and has long 
 been in general use, either in a green or dry state, in 
 every part of the world. 
 
 Of the species we have mentioned, the horsebean 
 is supposed to be the type, and has many varieties, 
 known in different places by different names, as the 
 Julian, the Mazagan, the Toker, the Sandwich, the 
 Spanish, the green Genoa, and the Windsor. Of the 
 Kidney bean (the Phaseolus Vulgaris), the varieties 
 are still more multiplied, as they alter, when planted 
 near each other, by reciprocal fecundation. La 
 Buriays, in his La Quintanie, enumerates sixty, and 
 M. Bosc says that, in the garden of M. Gavoty de 
 Resthe, he had seen four hundred.* 
 
 But, however multiplied the races, the character 
 and habits of the plants continue to be nearly the 
 same. They all affect a strong, substantial, moist 
 soil, well dug and abundantly manured ; and the en- 
 emies they most dread are late and frosty springs, 
 and early and hot summers. These circumstances 
 cannot fail to attract the attention of the cultivator, 
 and the more so as they involve a practical contra- 
 diction; for as the one invites to late planting, so 
 the other would appear to forbid it. The only 
 remedy, in this case, is to regulate our labours, not 
 by the almanac, but by the temperature of the 
 weather and the earth, which will never deceive us. 
 When these begin to favour vegetation, and not be- 
 fore, dig and manure your ground thoroughly, and 
 
 * N. Cours d'Agriculture, art, Feve. 
 
166 GARDENING. 
 
 (after smoothing the surface and forming the drills) 
 begin by planting the Toker, broad Spanish, and 
 Windsor, and subsequently the Mazagan, early Lis- 
 bon, long pod, white blossom, and green Genoa, the 
 former four inches apart in the rows, and the latter 
 half that distance. The effect of this management 
 will be to secure a succession of fruit, according to 
 the different degrees of precocity in the plants ; and 
 to make the varieties which bear cold the best the 
 first, and those which are least injured by heat the 
 last in the series. 
 
 The kidney-bean, being more sensible of cold 
 and wet weather than the preceding species, must 
 be planted later. Its varieties are divided into two 
 races ; the climbing and the dwarf (scandens et 
 thumilis), the former requiring poles to support' 
 them, the other requiring no support. Of the first 
 of these races, the most approved are, the Prague, 
 the Prudhome, the altogether-yellow, and the red ; 
 and of the second, the Dutch, the Laon, the yellow, 
 and the Swiss.* After the preparatory labour in- 
 dicated above, the climbers should be planted in 
 groups (four or five together), with a pole, well fixed 
 in the earth, for them to mount upon; while the 
 dwarfs should be placed in rows, at the distance of 
 two or three inches from each other, and carefully 
 covered. Squares of these (the dwarfs) may be 
 planted from April till August, according to the 
 taste and convenience of the cultivator. 
 
 The last species we shall mention and the latest 
 to be sown, is the Lima bean, which ought not to 
 be hazarded before the frosts are completely over, 
 and then committed only to a rich, warm, and well- 
 laboured soil. It is usually and best cultivated 
 (like all other climbers) in what gardeners call kills, 
 composed of rich mould, and separated six feet from 
 
 * A new variety of climbers, called the Horticaltural bean, 
 has lately come into notice, much admired for its rich flavovif 
 and prolific properties. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 167 
 
 each other. Four or five beans, and two or three 
 stout poles nine or ten feet in length, are sufficient 
 for each hill. When the beans begin to run they 
 should be trained to mount the poles, for it is only 
 by doing so that they will receive that degree of 
 air and of sunshine which is necessary to the pro- 
 duction of their fruit.* 
 
 Our remarks thus far have been confined, or 
 nearly so, to the sowing of the bean. Those which 
 follow apply to its management after that work is 
 over, and are common to the labours necessary or 
 useful to the whole family. When the plant has 
 attained the length of three or four inches, the earth 
 about its roots should be loosened with the hoe, and 
 a fresh portion of it drawn up to the stem. The 
 rule for subsequent labours is to hoe again when 
 the flowers begin to show themselves, and a third 
 time about a month after the second hoeing ; but 
 the better practice is to take as our guide, in this 
 respect, not the condition of the plant, but that of 
 the soil and of the weather ; and, whenever the latter 
 is dry and hot, or the former hard, or baked, or in- 
 fested with weeds, repeat the hoeing ; remember- 
 ing' that it is not easy to commit any excess in this 
 way; and, in general, that the oftener the work is 
 repeated (unless the weather be wet), the finer and 
 more abundant will be the crop. 
 
 When the bean is sufficiently in blossom (which 
 is taken for granted as soon as the lower or first 
 formed pods begin to swell), it is a practice not un- 
 common to pinch off" the tops of the vines ; the ob- 
 ject of which is to prevent the plant from having 
 more pods than it can bring to perfection, and to 
 render better those which are left, by giving to them 
 a nutriment which would have otherwise gone to 
 
 * The Carolina bean is but a variety of the Lima, and is 
 therefore to be managed in the same way, with the exception 
 that, being less in volume, four feet t 'tween the hills give suf- 
 ficient room for it. 
 
168 GARDENING. 
 
 the support of a useless portion of stem. But of 
 this practice, and of the theory on which it is found- 
 ed, we may be permitted to doubt, because it does 
 not appear to follow that, when the growth of a 
 plant is checked or suspended in one direction, it 
 will not exert itself in another as injuriously to the 
 crop as any increased length of stem would have 
 done. Every day's experience shows that, if we 
 pollard an apple-tree, we indeed stop its growth up- 
 ward, but that, instead of sending its surplus juices 
 to the support and enlargement of the fruit (as this 
 practice supposes), it hastens to throw out lateral 
 stems or suckers, which give no fruit whatever. 
 Our creed therefore is, that in the vegetable econ- 
 omy, certain juices go to the production of stem, 
 and certain others, more elaborated and of a differ- 
 ent quality, to that of flowers and fruits ; and that, 
 whether desirable or not, the art of giving to either 
 a destination different from what nature intended, is 
 yet to be discovered. 
 
 The bean, of every species or variety, is exempt, 
 as we believe, from the depredations of insects ; but, 
 left for seed or winter use, it often suffers from 
 very dry or very wet weather; the one diminishing 
 the bulk, and hardening and shrivelling the skin ; the 
 other rotting the bean, and, when it does least mis- 
 chief, altering its flavour. For the former, frequent 
 watering may be a cure, but for the latter there is 
 perhaps no remedy. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of cities, the dwarf varieties 
 are often cultivated in hotbeds, but the product is 
 always of a very inferior kind ; for, of the whole 
 catalogue of table vegetables, none is more apt to 
 take a disagreeable flavour from hot and fermented 
 dung (which is the basis of these beds) than the 
 bean. Of this process, therefore, we only say, that 
 it differs in nothing from that already described for 
 forcing asparagus.* 
 
 * N. C. d'Agriculture, art. Feve. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 169 
 
 The Beet {Beta) is of the family of the Cheno- 
 podees, and contains five species, two of which, the 
 Beta Cycla and Beta Hortensis, are objects of gar- 
 den culture. The former is what tlie English call 
 the Maraiime beet, and the French the Poiree. 
 Some botanists have regarded this as the type of the 
 genus, while others consider it a product of cultiva- 
 tion. Its varieties are two, the tall and the Dutch 
 which are used for the same purposes ; the leaves 
 as salad, or as an ingredient in soups, either alone 
 or mixed with sorrel ; and the roots as food for cat- 
 tle, and particularly for hogs. 
 
 Of the second species there are five varieties, 
 which take their natnes from their colour or size ; 
 the yellow, the white, the large red, the small 
 red, and the white with red veins. It is to this 
 last variety that M. Commeril has given the whim- 
 sical name of Scarcity, though its products per 
 acre is greater than that of any other garden vege- 
 table.* 
 
 Like all other garden plants, the beet is nutritive 
 in proportion to the saccharine matter it contains. 
 Of the varieties we have named, the yellow has the 
 most, and the white veined with red the least of 
 this matter. Yet the experiments of M. Deyeux 
 prove that colour has less to do with this produc- 
 tion than culture. " Two beds," says he, " of sim- 
 ilar soil, and laboured alike, were sown with beet- 
 seed of the same variety. One of these was high- 
 ly manured with well-rotted dung, the other had no 
 manure of any kind applied to it. The beets grown 
 in the former were large, but, on analysis, yielded 
 no saccharine matter, while those grown on the 
 latter gave the ordinary quantity of sugar." 
 
 Margraff t was the first to extract from the beet 
 
 * See Arthur Young on the product of the beet, and a me- 
 moir of M. d'Aughbigny, in the I6th volume of the Transac- 
 tions of the Agricultural Society of the Seine. 
 
 t About a century ago. 
 
170 GARDENING. 
 
 a marketable sugar, or what is called the sugar ot 
 commerce. Achard followed in the same track, 
 and with a success that led him to believe that it 
 might be afforded at the low price of five or six 
 sous the pound ; but later experiments, more care- 
 fully and scientifically made, under the direction of 
 the French Institute, demonstrate that this product 
 can never come into competition with sugar made 
 from the cane.*f The saccharine mucus in which 
 it abounds, and the disposition it has to vinous fer- 
 mentation, has, however, long since suggested an- 
 other employment of it, that of making brandy, 
 and hence it is, that in countries in which the 
 vine does not prosper (as in the north of Germa- 
 ny), great quantities of it are distilled into an ardeni 
 spirit. 
 
 The cultivation of the beet, whatever be its spe- 
 cies or variety, is the same. Having prepared (by 
 a thorough digging) a square of loose, rich, and deep 
 soilj (which has been well manured the preceding 
 fall), divide it into beds of four feet width ; score 
 
 * It may not be amiss to mention here the process for ma- 
 king sugar from the beet, ascribed to Professor Gotthng, and 
 detailed in the 1 6th volume of the Bibliotheque Brittanique. " To 
 disengage the saccharine matter from the mucus, which pre- 
 vents it from crystaUizing, cut the roots into long slices, and as 
 thin as possible, and dry them on tiles in a stove. When thor- 
 oughly dry, put them for some hours in a small quantity of cold 
 water. The sugar will pass from the beet to the water before 
 the slices are softened, and may be again separated from it (the 
 water) by evaporation and crystallization. If we attempt to dry 
 the' beet in the open air, many of them will rot; and if you put 
 them in an oven, you run the risk of baking them. The residu- 
 um which this process leaves is useful for cattle, poultry, &c.'' 
 
 ■}• This prediction has not been verified ; for in France beet 
 sugar has come into serious competition with that made from 
 cane, in consequence of the manufacturing process being greatly 
 improved and simplified, and the whole of the saccharine mat 
 ter being now extracted from the roots. — J. B. 
 
 X Yet Mr. Cobbett recommends sowing beet- seed in the fall 
 like parsnips, and says the frost cannot mjure them ! 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 171 
 
 these lengthwise about an inch and a half deep, and 
 one foot asunder ; drop the seeds* into these rows 
 thinly, and draw over them a hght covering of the 
 surface soil, trodden down with the foot. 
 
 As the beet is easily affected by frost, the plant- 
 ing of the main crop should be delayed till the mid- 
 die of May. A month after, or so soon as the 
 plants have put out three or four leaves, thin the 
 rows so as to leave the young beets at the distance 
 of twelve or fourteen inches apart ; and if there be 
 chasms in the rows, as will sometimes happen from 
 bad seed or unskilful sowing, fill these up with the 
 surplus plants. The intervals between the rows 
 should at the same time be thoroughly cleaned from 
 weeds, and the oftener this operation is performed 
 and the ground stirred during the whole course of 
 vegetation in the plant, the larger will be the pro- 
 duct and the better its quality. In dry weather, 
 and during the infancy of the plant, watering is in- 
 dispensable. 
 
 Some writers have proposed raising the beet in- 
 seedbeds and transplanting i^ ; but experience for- 
 bids this practice, as the fact is well estabhshed 
 that, other things being equal, the transplanted beet 
 is never so fine as that which has been left undis- 
 turbed ; a remark, by-the-way, which applies gen- 
 erally, perhaps universally, to tap-rooted plants. 
 
 As soon as vegetation is over, which always oc- 
 curs after the first hard frost, take up the plants, 
 expose them a day or two to the air to evaporate 
 
 * The same author attributes the forking of beets, not to 
 stones or clods, as is generally done, but to working and ma- 
 nuring the ground around their roots, which, according to his 
 theory, attracts one side of the root to the right and the other 
 to the left, and never stops till it gives the plant two legs to stand 
 upon instead of one. How happens it, then, that in deep, rich, 
 .cose soils, whatever be the labour, there is no forking, and that 
 in stony or cloddy ground, though little worked, there is so 
 much of it '. This subject will be found fully discussed in the 
 N. C. d'Agriculture, art. Beterave- 
 14 
 
i72 GARDENING^ 
 
 their surplus moisture, and then liouse them care- 
 fully. This is best done by putting them in layers 
 in a dry cellar, and interposing between them a 
 slight covering of sand. 
 
 A few of the largest and finest roots should be 
 kept for seed. Twenty of them, set out in the 
 spring and occasionally laboured, will give nearly 
 a bushel of seed. 
 
 The Cabbage {Brasica) is a genus of plants con- 
 taining several species, of which the cabbage, prop^ 
 erly so called, and two or three others, are objects 
 of garden culture. It is only of the first (to which 
 botanists have given the name of Brasica Oleracea) 
 and its varieties that we mean to speak at present, 
 and of these there are more than fifty ;* some of 
 which differ so entirely from others as to have puz- 
 zled the savans in finding for them any common 
 character.! To extenuate, if not to extinguish, this 
 reproach to science, M. Duchesne has ingeniously 
 divided them into six races, distinguished by the 
 parts which severally render them objects of culti- 
 vation, viz. : ^ 
 
 The Oleracea, cultivated for the seed, which gives 
 an oil ; 
 
 The Viridis, for its open and upright long and 
 broad leaves ; 
 
 The Capitata, for its leaves, in a round or flat and 
 compact form, called a head; 
 
 * When Brussonnet was at the head of the great national 
 garden at Altfort, in France, he had collected more than fifty 
 of these varieties. 
 
 t " Le chou, dont les varietes sont si nombreuses (j'en ai vu 
 cultiver simultanement plus de cinquante) et si differentes les 
 unes des autres, qu'il est impossible de leur assigner un charac 
 tere commun, est une plante annuelle originaire des bords de la 
 mer."— Parmentier. 
 
 The cabbage, of which the varieties are so numerous (I have 
 fleen more than fifty different kinds cultivated together), and so 
 unlike each other that it is impossible to ascribe to them a com 
 mon character, is an annual plant, originally growing on the 
 borders of the sea. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 173 
 
 The Coliflora, for its branches, buds, and flowers 
 
 The Rapa-Brasica, for its root ; and 
 
 The Napus-Brasica, for its stem. 
 
 With the first and last of these varieties we have 
 nothing to do, as they belong exclusively to field 
 culiure. We begin, therefore, with 
 
 The Green, of which there are many sub-varieties, 
 called by different names, as borecole, Jerusalem 
 kale, Scotch kale, Brussels sprouts, Cavalier, &c., 
 &c., some of which are red and others green, some 
 curled and others smooth, but agreeing in two cir- 
 cumstances : the open erect leaf, and a power of 
 resisting frost much beyond that of any other vari- 
 ety of the family. It is this last circumstance that 
 particularly recommends it ; for a frost that would 
 be destructive of head cabbage will make kale 
 better. This fact determines its use in garden cul- 
 ture, which is always for winter and spring greens. 
 
 Head cabbage, like the preceding, is subdivided 
 into races, distinguished from each other by the 
 smoothness or curl of the leaf, and by the colour 
 of the flower. Of the smooth-leafed and yellow- 
 flowered race, the most approved varieties are the 
 early dwarf, the early York, the early Bonneuil, 
 the white Alsace, the red cabbage, and the Stras- 
 burg or Quintal.* Of the curled sort, the early 
 Milan, the Milan taper, the golden, and the green 
 dwarf Savoy, are the best. 
 
 The Cauliflower.— The organization of this race 
 differs considerably from those we have mentioned. 
 In them, the juices are principally determined to the 
 leaves, whereas in this they are directed to the ped- 
 uncles, producing a mass of branches and buds 
 equally tender and delicate. Of this race there are 
 
 * In the cultivation of the cabbage (and in this they appear 
 to have been very successful), the Romans particularly aimed 
 at giving to the plant great size. " Caule in tantum saginato, 
 ut pauperie mensa non capiat," says Pliny. "The cabbage of 
 such size that the dish would not hold it." 
 
174 GARDENING. 
 
 two varieties : the cauliflower proper and the broc- 
 coli, each of which has its sub-varieties. Those 
 of the former are the hard (called also the English 
 cauliflower) and the tender. The first, being occa- 
 sionally very productive, would be exclusively cul- 
 tivated, did it succeed equally well at all times and 
 In all places ; but its capriciousness makes the cul- 
 tivation of the second sort proper, because, though 
 this may sometimes give little, it will always give 
 something. The sub-varieties of the broccoli are 
 two, the common and the Maltese* distinguishable 
 only by the number, the bulk, and the colour of the 
 flowers. f 
 
 Turnip Cabhage. — Like the preceding, this has its 
 peculiarities ; for, after attaining its ordinary height, 
 the leaf falls, and the stem swells to a circumfer- 
 ence of many inches, enclosing a succulent, nutri- 
 tious, and agreeable matter, for the sake of which 
 the plant is cultivated. | 
 
 Races so diff"erent in appearance and in the laws 
 which govern them, may be supposed to require 
 different kinds and degrees of culture : but what of 
 this is common to all forms not only the larger, but 
 by much the most essential part of the treatment. 
 We shall, therefore, speak first of this, and then of 
 the less important particulars in which their man- 
 agement may diff'er. 
 
 Every variety of cabbage grows best in a strong, 
 rich, substantial soil, inclining rather to clay than 
 to sand ; but will grow in any soil if it be thoroughly 
 worked and abundantly manured with well-rotted 
 dung. As soon, therefore, as the ground designed 
 for the crop has been thus prepared, and offers signs 
 of spontaneous vegetation, the planting of early cab- 
 
 * Now generally denominated " Kohl-rabbi," or " turnip-root- 
 ed cabbage." — J. B 
 
 t The common terms now given to the broccoli by gardeners 
 are the White and Red Cape. — J. B. 
 
 t Some of the bulbs get to be twenty-three inches in circumfer" 
 ence, and weigh twelve pounds.'' — M'Mahon, page 317 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 175 
 
 bages should begin. But without plants this cannot 
 be done, and these are only to be had from a hotbed 
 prepared in January or February (as for asparagus), 
 and sown with the seeds of cauliflowers, of broc- 
 coli, and of the early sorts of the head cabbage.* 
 When the plants are two or three inches high, they 
 should be removed to another hotbed of lower tem- 
 perature and larger surface, where they should re- 
 main until transferred to the open air, and to the 
 bed where they are permanently to stand. The 
 time for doing this (as already indicated) is when 
 the earth, by its spontaneous productions, discovers 
 the warmth necessary for vegetation. To do it ear- 
 lier would be to risk your plants, and not to do it 
 now would be to fail in your intention of having 
 early cabbages. The time of this last transplant- 
 ing is also that for forming seedbeds in the open 
 air for your winter supply.f As in the former case, 
 the plants, when two or three inches high, must be 
 removed to beds prepared for them, and thence, be- 
 tween the 1st and 20th of June, be transferred to 
 their permanent beds. No vegetable bears trans- 
 planting better than the cabbage. The advantages 
 resulting from it are shorter and stouter stems and 
 larger heads, which rarely burst or run to seed. J 
 
 The act of planting should be performed care- 
 fully. Holes of sufficient depth and width should 
 be dibbled, for the smaller sorts of cabbages at the 
 distance of two feet and a half, and for the larger 
 sorts of three feet every way. In these the plants 
 should be placed up to their lower leaves,^ and the 
 
 * M'Mahon advises sowing the seeds of the early sorts in 
 September, in the open air, transplanting them to hotbeds in 
 November, and prickmg them out in the spring. 
 
 t We have found that from the 25th to the 28th May is early 
 enough to sow winter cabbages and broccoli. If sown earlier, 
 they mature too early, and many of the heads of the cabbage 
 break open before winter, and the broccoli runs to seed and 
 waste unless there be a market at hand.— J. B. 
 
 t See Millar, Beriays, M'Mahon, &c., &c. 
 
 ^ The turnip cabbage is an exception to this rule. The 
 earth must only be brought to the bulb. 
 
176 GARDENING. 
 
 earth brought closely about the roots, which is best 
 done by pushing down the dibbler at a small angle 
 with the plant, and then bringing it up to it with a 
 'jerk. This leaves no chambering (as gardeners call 
 it), no vacancy between the plant and the soil. 
 
 The state of the weather when these operations 
 are performed is not a matter of indifference, and 
 has been a subject of controversy ; some recom- 
 mending dry weather, others wet. As in many 
 other disputed cases, the truth lies between them ; 
 that is, moist weather, w^hich is neither dry nor 
 wet, and is precisely that which is best for putting 
 out cabbages, or any other vegetable. We ought 
 not, however, to wait long for even this most fa- 
 vourable state of the atmosphere, since, with a little 
 labour, M'e have the means of making up for its 
 absence. If the weather be dry, water green and 
 head cabbage plants once a day ; and cauliflower, 
 broccoli, and turnip cabbage plants iivice a day, 
 till they have taken root. Without a good deal of 
 water, the last is apt to become stringy and even 
 ligneous ; and in Spain and Italy, where cauliflow- 
 ers and broccoli are finest, they are generally plant- 
 ed in trenches, on the very margin of little rivulets, 
 natural or artificial. 
 
 The three last-tnentioned varieties require more 
 of manure and labour, as well as of water, than the 
 others ; and in this circumstance consists the prin- 
 cipal difference of treatment in the cultivation of 
 them. The most successful method with the cau- 
 liflower race is to place them in trenches two feet 
 and a half from each other, and on layers of equal 
 parts of earth and cow-dung thoroughly mixed to- 
 gether. Whenever weeds encroach upon these, let 
 them be well hoed ; and, whenever hoed, let fresh 
 earth be brought up to the plants. For head cab- 
 bage, hoeing and earthing once a month is the ordi- 
 nary rule.* 
 
 * Once or twice a week is preferable. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 177 
 
 The modes of preserving these varieties through 
 the winter are also somewhat different. The open- 
 leaved sorts may be left where they have grown,* 
 and used as wanted. Head cabbage may be set in 
 cellars, or buried in holes or trenches in the gar- 
 den, and covered with straw and earth; cauliflow- 
 ers must be housed in cellars or barns, and hung up 
 by their roots ; and broccoli, which does not bear 
 this treatment, maybe left in the garden,! andiman- 
 aged in the v/ay last suggested for head cabbage. 
 The stalks of the more common species are worth 
 preserving ; and, when set out in the spring, give 
 sprouts,! which furnish an excellent and well-timed 
 article for the table. 
 
 A few of the best plants of each variety should 
 be kept for seed ; and, in setting them out, care 
 must be taken to keep them as far apart as possible. 
 
 The Carrot (Daucus). — This genus comprehends 
 several species, the principal of which is the Dau- 
 cus Carota. Of this there are three varieties, the 
 white, the orange or yellow, and the red : having 
 perhaps different qualities in different soils and cli- 
 mates, as we find the white preferred in Italy, the 
 yellow in France, and the red in England. Abbe 
 Rozier says of the white variety, that " it is less 
 injured by humidity than the others;" which, as is 
 justly remarked by the compilers of the Cours d' Ag- 
 riculture, would be a good reason why it should be 
 preferred in England, or in some of the northern or 
 western provinces of France, but a very bad one 
 
 * Even the open-leaved sorts are better to be buried in trench- 
 es. A hard winter will utterly destroy them in the open ground. 
 —J. B. 
 
 t In France, the winter management of the broccoli is ex- 
 actly that of the artichoke. See Parmentier and the Phytolo- 
 gie Uriiverselle of Jolyclerc. 
 
 X It has been suggested that cabbage sprouts, taken off lite 
 suckers from artichokes, and planted, will give good heads, and 
 sooner than they can otherwise be obtained ; but of this we 
 have ourselves no experience. 
 
178 GARDENING. 
 
 why a preference should be given to it in Italy, 
 where the climate is remarkably dry. Many wri- 
 ters speak of a fourth variety, the round or turnip- 
 rooted carrot of Holland ; but M. Thouin considers 
 this form of root as a 4iiere imperfection in the 
 plant, arising from a stiff subsoil, which prevents 
 its penetrating into the earth. 
 
 The carrot, like the beet, contains much saccha- 
 rine matter, but of a quality less valuable, as it can- 
 not be made to crystallize. An extract may, how- 
 ever, be taken from it, which forms no bad substi- 
 tute for honey. 
 
 The culture of the carrot does not differ at all 
 from that of the beet. The seeds (from their long 
 and hairy covering) are apt to catch and hold fast to 
 each other ; and should therefore be well rubbed 
 with sand, and separated before they are sown. If 
 the plants come up too closely, thin them, leaving 
 twelve or fourteen inches between them. They 
 will be the finer, not only from the increased space 
 to grow in, but from the greater room which such 
 space affords for the hoe or the hook.* They are 
 taken up at the same period as beets, and, like them, 
 are preserved through the winter in cellars or root- 
 houses made for tHe purpose. 
 
 A few of the roots put out in the spring, when 
 the frosts are over, will give abundance of seed- 
 
 Celery {Apium Graveolens). — Of this there are two 
 species, the branching and the turnip-rooted. Some 
 botanists have conjectured that the latter (which is 
 sometimes called Celeriac) was only a variety of 
 the former; but Millar points out distinct character- 
 istics, and asserts that, in the course of many years 
 
 * M.Trolli advises, for the last weeding, the employment of a 
 hook of two teeth, 1 5 or 1 G inches long. He says that, weeded by 
 this instrument, the carrots are remarkably improved. As soon 
 as the tops are fully out, no farther weeding is necessary, as 
 these will suffocate everything growing under them, and pre- 
 serve by their shade the necessary humidity in the soil. 
 
KITCHEJf GARDEN. 179 
 
 cultivation, these have never disappeared. The 
 roots o( the one are short and thick, and, in the 
 process of vegetation, throw up tall and erect 
 branches ; while those of the other have the shape, 
 and, in favourable situations, the size of a turnip. 
 The leaves of this last species are shorter than those 
 of the other, and its top, instead of rising upright, 
 spreads horizontally. The essential property, which 
 renders the plant an object of cultivation, is its fla- 
 vour, which is alike in both species, and existing in 
 all their parts, roots, branches, leaves, and seeds. 
 Of each species there are several varieties, taking 
 their names from colour and organization ; as the 
 red, the solid, the hollow, &c.j modifications, as we 
 believe, entirely of culture. 
 
 Celery is said to be a native of the marshes of 
 Italy ; a fact which sufficiently indicates the warmth 
 and moisture necessary for its proper treatment 
 here. Sown in the spring and in the open air, the 
 seeds, like those of all the other parsleys, will be 
 slow in germinating ; whence it follows that, to have 
 early plants, we must resort to the aid of artificial 
 heat. A hotbed, such as that mentioned under the 
 head of asparagus, will supply a whole neighbour- 
 hood ; but one of cheaper form may be found in 
 a couple of flower-pots of the larger size, filled with 
 good soil, and kept in a room moderately warmed 
 during cold weather. If the apartment has a win- 
 dow of southern or eastern aspect, the pots should 
 be placed before it, so as to give them light and air 
 as well as heat. With the aid of water a little 
 warmed, the seeds sown in the pots will show them- 
 selves in a fortnight ; and in four weeks more will 
 be fit to set out in the garden. The success of the 
 experiment thus far will, however, greatly depend 
 on the sowing ; for, if this has been done with a 
 heavy hand, your plants will come up tall, and feeble, 
 and diseased; whereas, if spursel}- sown, they will 
 rise strong, healthy, and verdant, and will bear the 
 
180 GARDENING. 
 
 subsequent transplanting with little, if any, injury. 
 As soon as the frosts are over, this last operation 
 begins ; and to meet it, a trench or trenches, accord- 
 ing to the quantity of the article required, must bo 
 cut from east to west, remembering to throw the 
 displaced earth on your right hand, and in such way 
 as to form an additional protection against the north 
 wind. On the bottom of the trench must be placed 
 a layer of well-rotted dung, wood ashes, and garden- 
 mould, thoroughly incorporated, and on the surface 
 of this set your plants (trimmed down to about six 
 inches in length), at the distance of six or eight 
 inches from each other. Care must be taken to fix 
 the roots, and to keep the young branches closely 
 together, the better to prevent any portions of earth 
 from lodging between them ; after which, they roust 
 be watered frequently and abundantly.* The next 
 business is to earth them. Some of the French 
 horticulturists direct this to be done at a single op- 
 eration, and not till after the plant has acquired its 
 full size ; but the more approved method is to do it 
 gradually and at different times. The objects to be 
 obtained by this operation are two : 1st, to alter the 
 colour of the plant from green to white ; and, 2d, to 
 render it more tender, sweet, and succulent, by 
 shutting out light and heat, and preventing dryness, 
 which give it an acrid taste, and render its fibres 
 tough and hard, and even woody. 
 
 ♦ In planting out celery, as well as cabbages and other plants, 
 we have successfully adopted Cobbett's plan of transplanting in 
 fair warm days, and, if the ground be dry, it is not the worse. 
 The plants are carefully taken up, well grouted, that is, their 
 roots dipped in mud of the consistence of porridge, planted in 
 the after part of the day, and watered at evening. By the grout 
 they become saturated with moisture, and, placed in a. warm 
 soil, they in a few hours send forth their radicles, revive and 
 grow. By transplanting in this manner we have seldom found 
 it necessary to water a second time ; and the plants rarely fail 
 to obtain an early and good growth, without ever being covered 
 to protect them from the sun. We prefer transplanting this wav 
 in a clear hot day, to doing it in a wet and cool one. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 181 
 
 The Abbe Rozier has suggested that the whole 
 labour, delay, and risk which unavoidably attend 
 transplanting, might be saved by preparing trenches 
 as above described, and sowing the seeds in them 
 directly ; but though obviously the best method in 
 climates of the south, which admit sowing in Feb- 
 ruary, it is by no means clear that it would be 
 equally fitted for ours, where culture in the open 
 air does not begin till April. Coming, however, 
 from so high an authority, the plan may be worthy 
 of an experiment; and, if even successful in giving a 
 crop for winter use, it would no doubt tend to sim- 
 plify and abridge our labours. 
 
 We need scarcely remark, that it is of the culture 
 of the branching or upright celery that we have been 
 thus far speaking, as the turnip-rooted sort requires 
 neither trenching nor earthing. Both species are 
 preserved through the winter in the same way, 
 either by covering the plants where they grow with 
 boards and stable litter, or by setting the roots in 
 sand, in the corner of a dark and moderately warm 
 roothouse or cellar. Plants which have been 
 kept in the former way are the fittest for giving 
 seed, and should be preferred for that purpose. 
 When this (the seed) is ripe, it separates easily 
 from the chaflf, and should then be rubbed out by 
 the hand, put in paper bags, and hung up in a dry 
 and ventilated room for future use. 
 
 Succory (Cichorium). — But two species of this 
 plant are cultivated in gardens, the Intybus and the 
 Endivia; the one for medicinal purposes, and the 
 other for the uses of the kitchen. Of the last, which 
 alone falls within the scope of our work, there are 
 several varieties, the best of which are the endive, 
 properly so called, the Celestine, and the always- 
 white. The first of these is the most prolific, and 
 the second the most tender and fittest for salads. 
 
 In stiiF clays and poor sands succory is a feeble 
 plant ; in dry soils it becomes tough and disagreea- 
 
182 GARDENING 
 
 bly bitter; and in ground manured with fermenting 
 dung, or too abundantly, its flavour is both altered 
 and degraded. The soil mOst favourable to it is a 
 light, and fresh, and moist loam, thoroughly dug, 
 moderately manured, and copiously watered. This 
 last circumstance is not only essential to its germi- 
 nation and development, but is the best remedy 
 against the disposition, always shown by the plant 
 in hot weather, to run into seed. An auxiliary 
 means to secure this end is to tie up the heads so as 
 to give them the form of a cone, which, by-the- 
 way, is the method also employed for bleaching the 
 plant. This is done by two tyings (one near the 
 roots of the leaves, the other near the tops or 
 points), and which should be made in succession, 
 and at the distance of a iew days from each other. 
 
 The seeds of this plant are generally and best 
 sown in small beds. When the plants attain the 
 height of three inches, transfer them to the place 
 where they are to stand, and set them in rows at 
 the distance of ten or twelve inches apart. Keep 
 them free from weeds, water them frequently, and, 
 when full grown, tie up the heads, or cover them 
 with earthen pots reversed. The first and the last 
 crops (those of spring and autumn) are best, but, 
 with proper care, good ones may be had at midsum- 
 mer ; in this case, however, your plantation must 
 have a northern exposition. After tying, keep the 
 heads erect, for such as lean are apt to burst, 
 
 The green curled endive is the best for fall plant- 
 ing, being the hardiest of all the different races. 
 The winter management of this plant does not dif- 
 fer from that of celery. 
 
 Corn {Zed). — This is a native of America, was 
 cultivated from time immemorial by the aborigines, 
 and was introduced into Europe about three centu- 
 ries ago. After a cultivation so long continued and 
 so general, the- great number of varieties it now pre- 
 sents cannot be thought extraordinary. These are 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 183 
 
 distinguished from each other by the colour or the 
 size of the grain, the number of rows on the cob, 
 the length of time they respectively take in ripen- 
 ing, and the degree of hardness acquired by them. 
 Some are white and others black, some yellow and 
 others brown, red, or violet, &c. Some have cobs 
 twelve inches long, stud(]r(l with twelve rows of 
 large grains, while others iiave only six rows on a 
 cob three inches long, and covered with grains 
 even smaller than peppercorns. Some are five 
 months in ripening, while others ripen in forty 
 days; and, again, some are hard and even flinty, 
 while others are soft and succulent, and cannot be 
 long preserved but by means of artificial heat. It 
 so happens that, of this great variety, the sorts least 
 valuable in commerce are those most sought after 
 in garden culture, viz., the small, from its ripening 
 soon, and the soft, from its greater tenderness and 
 sweetness. It is, therefore, of these last varieties 
 only that we shall speak. 
 
 Observation has shown that, in raising Indian 
 corn, something is gained, 1st, by taking your seed 
 from plants which have each ripened two or more 
 ears ; 2d, by rejecting the grains growing on either 
 extremity of the ears, and employing only the cen- 
 tral grains ; and, 3d, by steeping these in a solution 
 oftiitre for twenty-four hours before sowing. With 
 regard to this operation (sowing), one of two modes 
 may be adopted ; either score your ground (which 
 we take for granted has been well dug and manu- 
 red) at the distance of three feet and a half both 
 ways, and plant at the points of intersection (three 
 grains at each), or score only one way (east and 
 west), at the distance of four feet, and plant in the 
 rows single grains eight or ten inches from each 
 other. Hoe every ten days after the corn shows 
 itself till it begins to set, and at each hoeing draw 
 up a little earth round the roots of the plants; this 
 is what is called hilling, and is a necessary part 
 
184 GARDENING. # 
 
 of the treatment. Pulverized gypsum, applied in 
 small quantities to the hills at tlie iirst and second 
 hoeings, is found to be ii.^cful. The same remark 
 may be made of wood allies, used in the same way, 
 but in larger quantity. To supply seeds for the 
 next year, cut off the tops of a few of the best 
 plants the moment the ears fill.* The effect of 
 this is to let in the air and sun on the ears, and, at 
 the same time, to concentrate in these the remaining 
 juices of the plant. 
 
 The Water Cress. — There are two plants of this 
 name, belonging to different genera ; the Cardamine, 
 of the Cruciform, and the Hortensis, of the Passerage 
 genus ; the first includes two useful species : the 
 water cress, and the cress of the meadows ; the 
 other has several varieties, as the golden, the cress 
 of Brazil, that of India, that of Mexico, that of Para, 
 all better than the parent plant, and between which 
 there appears to be but little choice. The qualities 
 and uses of both kinds are the same ; their taste is 
 hot and piquant, and they are principally employed 
 in the composition of salads. Lasteyrie tells us 
 that in Germany great pains are taken to propagate 
 the water cress, and gives the following account of 
 their mode of doing it : *' The water (says he) most 
 favourable for its production is that in which it gro^s 
 naturally, and which in winter preserves heat enough 
 to prevent it from freezing. The situation on which 
 to form a cress plantation ought to have a little slope 
 or inclination ; because water, in a state of repose, 
 alters the flavour of the plant. Having chosen the 
 place, it is formed into heights and hollows alter- 
 nately ; the latter are destined for the cresses, and 
 the former for the culture of other plants. The 
 size of the hollows is made to depend on the quan- 
 tity of water you can bring into them, and the de- 
 
 * Decidedly a bad practice. Cut up the whole stock, or 
 leave the whole to mature the seed. Either mode is better than 
 topping. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 185 
 
 mand for the article to be raised. If the soil of the 
 hollows is not sufficiently rich, better earth must be 
 brought to amend it ; and, if the bottom be marshy, 
 you throw over it some inches of sand. Your next 
 step is to cover it with water for some hours, after 
 which you drain and sow, or plant. At the end of 
 a few days you let in the water and drain as before, 
 and continue these processes until the cresses ap- 
 pear, if sown, or until they have taken root, if plant- 
 ed. The quantity of water let in is always to be 
 regulated by the growth of the plant ; for, though it 
 cannot live but in water, it will not bear to be long 
 covered with it. Planting is always surer than sow- 
 ing, and is therefore preferred. The time for this is 
 either March or August. The distance between the 
 plants should not be less than ten or fifteen inches. 
 Moving the earth about their roots with the hoe, 
 from time to time, is useful ; but for the rest (hav- 
 ing once taken root), no farther care is necessary. 
 A cress plantation is in full bearing the second year, 
 and lasts a long time. When it begins to fail, it 
 may be renewed by taking off a foot of the surface 
 soil of the old beds, and replacing it with good and 
 fresh earth. In winter the beds are covered more 
 deeply with water, which protects the plant against 
 the frost." 
 
 The same writer informs us how they manage 
 their cress plantations near Paris. " Having there 
 (he says) no running water, they cultivate it in the 
 neighbourhood of wells, and water it every day. 
 The cress vegetates promptly, but becomes acrid in 
 its taste. They accordingly prefer sowing to plant- 
 ing, because, if cut when only six inches high, and 
 treated in all respects as an annual, it has least of 
 this pungency." 
 
 The Garden Cress requires a moist and well-la- 
 boured soil, and, if possible, a cool and shady situa- 
 tion. The north side of a wall or fence is its true 
 place in a garden, and, if frequently and abundantly 
 
186 GARDENING. 
 
 watered, it will there arrive at all the perfection of 
 which it is susceptible. 
 
 Cucumber {Cucumis). — This genus of plants in- 
 cludes many species, varying in foliage, and in the 
 size and shape of their fruit. The more common 
 and useful of these are the bouquet, or cluster cu- 
 cumber, and the white, which are best fitted for 
 frames ; the yellow and the parrot, which are most 
 robust, productive, and best flavoured, and the green^ 
 which, being nearest the wild state, is the fittest for 
 pickling. In our climate, this plant is raised in every 
 description of soil, and with a small degree of labour. 
 The ground being dug and smoothed, line it into 
 squares of six feet. In the centre of each dig a 
 hole about fourteen inches deep; fill this with well- 
 rotted dung, and sow on it five or six cucumber 
 seeds ;* cover these with mould, and, when they are 
 grown to have a rough leaf, select two for each hill, 
 and draw out the remainder. You have now to 
 choose between three methods of treating the plant, 
 each of which has many and warm advocates. 1st. 
 Permitting it to regulate itself with regard to the 
 production and the length of the stem; 2d. The 
 pinching system, which, by shortening the stem, 
 compels it to push lateral branches; and, 3d. The 
 plan of Rozier, which, by burying the runner at 
 short distances, avoids the hazard of pinching or 
 cutting, and, at the same time, obtains new roots 
 from the buried joints. Of the three methods, the 
 last has, in our opinion, the preference ; but, as 
 others may come to a different conclusion, we will 
 point out the time, the mode, and the effect of short- 
 ening the stem. Soon after the plant acquires a sec- 
 ond rough leaf, you will discover about the foot of 
 it a bud which, if left to itself, would become a run- 
 ner. This must be pinched off", taking care, howev- 
 
 * Twenty is a better number. Plants can be more readily 
 diminished than increased, and seeds cost little or nothing. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 187 
 
 er, not to wound the joint from which it proceeds. 
 The effect of this pinching will be the production of 
 side shoots, which in their turn must also be pinched 
 off, leaving only two eyes on each, destined to be- 
 come future runners, and so to be conducted that 
 they will not shade or crowd each other. 
 
 The sowing, of which we have here spoken, can- 
 not be safely made in our climate till the 10th of 
 May. For the fall and pickling crops, you must 
 sow the first or second week of July. The treat- 
 ment of these is in all respects like that prescribed 
 for the first crop in the open air, excepting that the 
 pinching part of it is altogether omitted, as at this 
 season, the vigorous vegetation (which this opera- 
 tion is intended to correct) is much diminished. 
 
 It now remains to say a few words with regard to 
 early cucumbers. To obtain these we must have 
 recourse to artificial heat ; and with the less reluc- 
 tance, as, of all plants, the cucumber is that with 
 which it best agrees. To this end, therefore, scoop 
 out as many large turnips as you propose to have 
 hills ; fill these with good garden mould ; sow in each 
 three or four seeds, and plunge them into a hotbed 
 (as described in the article Asparagus). When the 
 runners show themselves, spare them, or pinch 
 them, or bury them, as you may think best, and on 
 the 10th of May transfer them to the beds where 
 they are to stand. The advantage of the scooped 
 turnip as a seedbed over pots or vases, will now 
 appear, for, instead of the ordinary difficulty of sep- 
 arating the mass of earth and the plant from the pot 
 which contained them, and without injury to either, 
 we reinier both pot and plant, and even find in the 
 one an additional nutriment for the other. The sub- 
 sequent treatment does not differ at all from that of 
 plants sown and cultivated in the open air. 
 
 A debate has long existed on the preference to be 
 given to old or to new seeds, and which, like many 
 others, appears to be interminable. I'he Abbe Ro- 
 15 
 
188 GARDENING. 
 
 zier and his followers think that the most vigorous 
 plants, of all species and kinds, are the best; and 
 accordingly prefer new seeds, because more likely 
 to produce such than old ones : while, on the other 
 hand, their opponents maintain that plants may have 
 too much vigour as well as too httle ; and that, 
 M^henever an excess of vigour exists, according to 
 all vegetable analogy, it shows itself in the produc- 
 tion of stems and leaves, and not in that of flowers 
 and fruits ; whence they conclude that old cucum- 
 ber seeds (like those of all the rest of the cucurbi- 
 taceae family) are better than new, because less vig- 
 orous. The best practical use to be made of this 
 controversy is to sow old seeds in the spring, when 
 vegetation is most powerful, and new ones in July, 
 when it begins to abate. 
 
 Garlic (Allium). — A. genus of plants found grow- 
 ing spontaneously in very diff'erent and even oppo- 
 site climates. Jollyclerc says it grows without 
 care in Sicily and in the south of France, and the 
 continuator of Cook's Journal informs us that it was 
 found in the open fields and forests of Kamschatka. 
 Its species are many. Lamarck mentions thirty- 
 nine, and Wildenow fifty-eight, the principal of 
 which are the onion, the leek, the eschalot, and the 
 cive. 
 
 The onion is the Allium Cepa of the botanists, and, 
 like other plants which have been long subjected to 
 cultivation, has many varieties, distinguished by 
 colour, size, and taste, and one of them by organi- 
 zation (the Canadense), which carries its fruit on its 
 head in the place of flowers. Of these varieties 
 the red is the largest, but most acrid ; the pale red 
 and the yellow are less in size than the red, and 
 somewhat milder ; but the white (of Spain and 
 Florence), though the smallest, are the mildest, the 
 soonest fit for use, and the best for keeping. 'I'hey 
 are eaten like apples, and without any wry faces. 
 On analysis, they are found to possess less of those 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 189 
 
 elements (oil and sulphur) which give to the com- 
 mon onion its peculiar taste and smell. Light and 
 frequent waterings have the effect of diminishing 
 this odour.* 
 
 A rich moist sand is the soil most favourable to 
 the onion ; and " when to this," says Bosc, " we 
 can add a long and hot summer, their development 
 is prodigious. I have seen them a foot in diameter, 
 and have heard of others which were larger. But 
 it is to the south of France, to Sicily, to the isles of 
 Greece, and particularly to Egypt, where we must 
 go to see the onion in its most improved state." 
 In clay or stony soils, or pure sand, the onion does 
 not prosper ; it becomes small and acrid, and expe- 
 rience shows that fermenting or half-rotted dung is 
 by no means favourable to it. 
 
 It is propagated either by the seed or by the 
 bulbs.f In the first case you sow in shallow drills, 
 twelve or fourteen inches apart, cover with mould, 
 and when the plants come up, thin them, so that 
 they may stand three or four inches from each oth- 
 er. The sooner this is done in the spring after the 
 earth has acquired a temperature favourable to ve- 
 getation, the better will be your crop. It only re- 
 mains to keep the earth loose and clean about the 
 roots, and, if the vegetation be too vigorous, to 
 break down the tops, so as to determine the juices 
 to the bulbs. In the other case you employ the 
 small and half-grown onion of the preceding fall 
 instead of seed. In this consists all the difference 
 of the two modes. The Canadense variety is, we 
 believe, always managed in this way. 
 
 To preserve onions, of whatever variety, through 
 the winter, they are best formed into ropes (tied to 
 each other), and kept in a dry and moderately warm 
 
 * Cours d' Agriculture. 
 
 t The Tartars propagate them by cutting. They sht the bulb 
 downward, and leave to each cutting a portion of the fibrous 
 roots. Cours d'Agriculture. 
 
190 GARDENING. 
 
 cellar. A few of the largest of these are set out in 
 the spring for seed ; and, when this is perfectly ripe, 
 the stems are cut and the seed left in the capsules 
 for use ; as experience shows that, preserved in 
 this way, it retains its germinating power much 
 longer than if threshed immediately after ripening. 
 
 The leek is the Allium Porrum of the botanists, 
 and a native of the southern parts of Europe. In 
 Spain it has become one of the scourges of agricul- 
 ture, as the fields are literally infested with it. In 
 no country is this plant eaten alone, excepting per- 
 haps in Spain, and the more southern provinces of 
 France; but in many countries it is employed in 
 the composition of soups. The culture of it resem- 
 bles entirely that of the onion, excepting only that 
 it requires more water. Of its many varieties we 
 have seen only the long and the short. The former 
 is the milder of the two ; the latter the more bul- 
 bous, acrid, and hardy. 
 
 The eschalot (Allium Ascalonicum) is said to be a 
 native of Palestine. Of this there are three sub- 
 varieties, two of which are generally found in gar- 
 dens, the large and the small. The bottoms of 
 these, when the plant is ripe, is composed of sev- 
 eral bulbs of different sizes, under a common cov- 
 ering, the larger of which are taken for culinary 
 uses, and the smaller kept for planting. The cul- 
 ture of these bulbs does not differ from that of the 
 common, or of the Canadense varieties of the onion. 
 
 The cive (Cepula) is a small plant much used in 
 soups and salads. Of this there are three sub- 
 varieties, the Cepula Minor, Cepula Britannica, and 
 Cepula Major. The bulbs of all grow in clusters, 
 and the plant is usually propagated by separating 
 these into small tufts (half a dozen of the roots to- 
 gether) every third or fourth year, and setting them 
 out in borders or in beds eight or ten inches apart. 
 The leaves only are used, and, to have these tender, 
 they must be cut often. In the fall and on the ap- 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 191 
 
 proach of frost, clip them close to the ground, and 
 cover the roots with dung or stable litter. They 
 require little if any other care, and will last many 
 years. 
 
 Lettuce (Lactuca). — Of the native country of this 
 plant we are not sufficiently assured. Lamarck 
 thinks that the Quercina of Linnaeus (a product of 
 an island in the Baltic) is the type of the genus, 
 while Rozier regards the Scareola of the same au- 
 thor as entitled to that distinction. Of the known 
 species there are twenty-one ;* the most remarka- 
 ble of which are the Capitata, the Romana, and the 
 Spinosa. The first and second are found in all 
 kitchen gardens, while the third is rather a medici- 
 nal than a culinary plant, and principally useful for 
 its narcotic powers, which are said to be little in- 
 ferior to those of opium. The varieties of the Cap- 
 itata and Romana have, by long culture, been mul- 
 tiplied to the number of one hundred and twenty, 
 and are separated by lines so nearly imperceptible 
 and so difficult to characterize, that botanists have 
 found it convenient to arrange them into series, the 
 principal of which are, 1st, the Head Lettuce ; 2d, 
 the Curled Lettuce ; and, 3d, the Lettuce with open, 
 straight, and erect leaves. These are again sub- 
 divided by gardeners, according to the season most 
 favourable to the plants respectively, as spring, 
 summer, fall, or winter lettuce; and as this view of 
 them is likely to be best known and most useful, 
 we shall employ it in what we have to say on the 
 subject. 
 
 The varieties known by the names of the brown 
 Dutch, Capuchin green, and grand admiral (being 
 the moBt hardy), are those which should be sown 
 in the fall, to remain in the ground through the win- 
 ter, and vegetate early in the spring. If the soil be 
 
 * Brisseau Mirbel. One of these species is American (Lac- 
 tuca Elongata of Dr. Muhlenberg). 
 
192 GARDENING 
 
 clayey, the beds should be thoroughly manured and 
 dug in the month of October, and thrown up into 
 four-feet ridges, well trenched, and with an inclina- 
 tion on one of their sides or corners to carry off 
 superfluous moisture. The seed should now be 
 sown and covered with a short-toothed rake, and 
 subsequently, as the frost approaches, with a light 
 layer of stable litter. This should be removed in 
 the spring, and the surfaces of the beds loosened 
 with an iron-toothed rake. The first vegetation 
 that shows itself will be that of the lettuce, and, if 
 too thickly sown, the surplus plants should be taken 
 up, and set out in rows for head-salad. In warm 
 and sandy soils the treatment is the same, with the 
 exception that the trenching and ridging will be un- 
 necessary : but, in every kind of soil, the precocity 
 of the crop will be best assured by a temporary wall 
 of straw or cornstalks, held together by a few stakes 
 and wattles, and so placed as to protect the beds 
 from north and northwest winds. 
 
 The varieties most approved for spring culture 
 are the white, the green, the spotted coss, the Sile- 
 sia, the Great Mogul, and the India ; for summer 
 use, the white Dutch, the imperial, the Aleppo, and 
 the green Egyptian ;* and for that of autumn, as 
 already stated, the white coss, the brown Dutch, 
 the grand admiral, and the New-Zealand. We need 
 scarcely remark, that the straight-leafed sort is best 
 cultivated in broadcast, and does not require trans- 
 planting, but that the curled and head lettuce cannot 
 succeed without it. In summer culture this may be 
 especially necessary, as the lettuce, like the cab 
 bage, has at this season a strong propensity to run 
 
 * Millar says that the white coss obtained the preference over 
 all other branches of the family till the introduction of the 
 green Egyptian. This is probably the variety mentioned by 
 Oliver and Brugiere as forming the delight of the Egyptians, 
 and which among them is eaten by all ranks at all hours. See 
 Memoire sur I'Egypte. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 193 
 
 to seed, which can only be effectually checked by 
 transplanting. The plants should stand at the dis 
 tance of ten or twelve inches apart in the rows. 
 The curled sort, when the heads begin tc spread, 
 should be tied up, and will then blanch fineljj-; but it 
 must also be noticed that the effect of this compres- 
 sion is to hasten the progress of vegetation, and, of 
 course, to precipitate the seeding. 
 
 All the varieties of the three series will grow well 
 in hotbeds, but the Romana species is preferred for 
 this culture, 1st, because it bears squeezing or 
 crowding the best, and, 2d, because, by throwing up 
 erect leaves, it occupies less room under the frames 
 than either of the other sorts. 
 
 The Melon {Cucumis Melo). — This is one of the 
 many useful and delicious presents furnished by 
 Asia to the rest of the world. There are but two 
 species ; the melon with a rough or embroidered 
 coat, and that with a thin and smooth skin. The 
 first is called the musk, from its peculiar flavour, 
 and the other, from its thin and abundant juices, 
 the watermelon. Of each of these species there 
 are many varieties, differing in shape and size, and 
 in the colour of the rind and of the flesh. The most 
 approved of the mnskmelon species are the cante- 
 lope, the citron, the nutmeg, and the Persian ; and 
 of the watermelon, the Carohna, the Maltese, the 
 Candia, and the Chate or Egyptian.* 
 
 Both species and all the varieties succeed best 
 in a hot climate and sandy soil, and in .these their 
 culture is easy and alike, and their product abun- 
 dant; nor is it to be complained of here, where our 
 
 * Prosper Alpin says that he las seen watermelons so large 
 in Egypc, that three or four formed the ordmary load of a cam- 
 el. Of this species there are seven known varieties, according 
 to Brisseau Mirbel. The Chate is one of these, and the Egyp- 
 tian mode of using it is to make a hole in the side, through 
 which, by means of a stick, they reduce the pulp to a liquid. 
 This is then poured into a cup and drank. 
 
194 GARDENING. 
 
 summers are frequently long, and hot, aiv 1 dry. To 
 succeed in raising them for market, the Honjieur 
 method, as described by M. Calvel, may be employ- 
 ed. Select a spot well defended against the north 
 wind, and open to the sun throughout the day. If 
 such is not to be found in your garden, create a 
 temporary and artificial shelter producing the same 
 effect. At the end of March, form holes two feet in 
 diameter, and distant from each other seven feet 
 and a half; fill these with horse-dung and litter, or 
 a mixture of mould, dung, and sand. At the end of 
 twenty days, cover the holes which have been thus 
 filled with hand glasses. When the heat rises to 
 36 of Reaumur, sow the seeds four inches apart ; and 
 when the plants have acquired two or three leaves, 
 pinch off the end of the branch or runner.* This 
 will produce lateral branches, which must again be 
 pinched off so soon as they respectively attain the 
 length of ten inches. When the plant has out- 
 grown the glass, the latter becomes useless and 
 may be removed ; but, should the weather be wet or 
 chilly, substitute coverings of clean straw for that 
 of the glasses, until the young plant becomes strong 
 enough to bear the open air. Two or three melons 
 only are left to each vine, and under each of these 
 is placed a slate, without which the upper and under 
 sides will not ripen together. Two months are re- 
 quired to mature them. The people of Honfleur at- 
 tribute their success in melon-raising to the sea va- 
 pour which surrounds them, and to the saline parti- 
 
 * There is much controversy among gardeners and savants on 
 this point ; nor are the pinchers entirely united in opinion how far 
 this practice should be carried. Some content themselves witti 
 taking off the cotyledons when the plant has acquired three or 
 four leaves, while others take off the principal branches at the 
 lirst eye above the fruit, and suppress all the secondary brancR 
 es, male tiowers, and tendrils. " These operations," says M 
 Bosc, " are founded in bad reasoning. A cutting which sup 
 presses two thirds of the plant at once cannot fail to disorgan 
 ize what rema^"Ds." 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 195 
 
 cles contained i a it ; an advantage to be anywhere 
 commanded by dissolving a little salt in the water 
 employed to mciisten them. 
 
 If we want melons at a period earlier than this 
 method will give them, we must employ a higher 
 degree and longer continuance of artificial heat ; in 
 a word, we must resort to hotbeds ; and in these the 
 point most important, and, at the same tim6, the 
 most difficult of attainment, is to secure a certain 
 degree of heat, and no more, throughout the whole 
 process. To lessen the difficulty in this case, gar- 
 deners who understand their trade make choice of 
 those varieties which have the thinnest skins and 
 the least bulk ; as experience proves that, other 
 things being equal, they require less heat* than 
 those of thicker rinds and greater size, and are, of 
 course, less subject to some of the accidents to 
 which this species of culture is exposed. In choo- 
 sing the seeds, those of the last year are only to be 
 used, because they are of quicker vegetation than 
 old ones, and, accordingly, best fulfil the intention of 
 the hotbed, which is to give earl]/ fruit. Another 
 practice conducive to the safety of the plants is to 
 sow the seed in small pots, and then to plunge them 
 into a hotbed. If the heat be deficient, they are, in 
 this case, made no worse than they would have 
 been if sown directly in the bed ; and if it be ex- 
 cessive, it is only necessary to raise the pots, with- 
 out in the smallest degree disturbing the plant. 
 These things being premised, it only remains to 
 show what ought to be the subsequent management 
 after the seed has been sown and the pots placed 
 under the frames. One of the most important points 
 now to be observed is sufficiently to ventilate the 
 
 * No one is ignorant that surfaces augment as the squares, 
 and that soUds follow the proportion of cubes. If, for instance, 
 the surface of the melon be four, the quantity of its matter will 
 be eight; and if the surface of another melon be nine, its matter 
 will be equal to t venty-seven. 
 
196 GARDEV/ING. 
 
 bed, as well before as after the plants show them- 
 selves. This should be done at midday and in sun- 
 shine, and as often as a necessity for it shall be in- 
 dicated by an accumulation of steam under the 
 glasses. At night these (the glasses) should be care 
 fully covered with matting. These two prelimina- 
 ries (ventilation in the day and covering at night) 
 being carefully observed, your plants will soon show 
 themselves in a vigorous and healthy state, and 
 may be kept in that condition by a continuation of 
 the same means, and by moderately moistening the 
 earth when it shall appear to have become loo dry. 
 The water employed should be of the temperature 
 of the air under the frames ; and, to secure this, it is 
 well to keep a supply of it in a pot placed in a cor- 
 ner of the hotbed. In about a month, the plants 
 thus raised will be fit for transferring to a second 
 and larger hotbed, constructed like the preceding,* 
 with the exception that the mass of dung must now 
 be greater, and that, after earthing, the bed should 
 not be less than three and a half or four feet in 
 depth. The plants, with the earth in which they 
 grow, are now to be taken from the pots ; an opera- 
 tion in which practice only will make us expert, and 
 which consists in placing the neck of the plant be- 
 tween the first and second finger of the left hand, 
 reversing the pot, and gently striking its sides until 
 the earth be disengaged. The discharged mass is 
 then placed in a hole previously prepared in the 
 square, where it is intended the plant shall ripen and 
 produce. The male flowers should not be disturb- 
 ed. When they have fulfilled the intentions of na- 
 ture, they will fall of themselves ; and if the branches 
 be vigorous and long, stretch them carefully over a 
 level surface, and bury every fourth or fifth joint. 
 This is best done by means of a wooden crotchet. 
 The objects of pinching or shortening the stem are 
 
 * See article Asparagus for the formation of hotbeds. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 197 
 
 thus completely fulfilled, without any of the risk 
 which attends that op( ration, and with advantages 
 peculiar to this method ; since, wherever the plant 
 is buried, new roots are formed for the better nutri- 
 tion of the stem and the fruit. Melons should be 
 permitted to acquire a bulk not less than one inch 
 in diameter before you venture on reducing their 
 number, and no reduction of the leaves should be 
 made at any time ; for from the size, number, and 
 thickness of these, and the smallness and little ex- 
 tension of the roots, it is evident that this plant de- 
 rives more of its nutriment from the atmosphere 
 than from the earth. If the weather be dry, multi- 
 ply the hoeings, but water sparingly, as |(l|ny ex- 
 periments show that water alters the juices of the 
 fruit, and that, though it may augment its quantity, 
 it never fails to degrade its quality. The ripeness 
 of the muskmelon is known by its colour and its 
 odour, and by the drying of the stem where it at 
 taches itself to the fruit.* The watermelon fur- 
 nishes neither of these signs, but affords another 
 peculiar to itself, a hollow sound on being struck on 
 the rind, the result of an actual hollowness, begin- 
 ning and increasing with its maturity. The seeds 
 of both species are best preserved by drying in the 
 shade, and in a portion of their own juice. 
 
 Egg Plant.— JIelongena {Solanum Melongena of 
 Lin.). — Of this pint the principal varieties are the 
 long purple and the long yellow, each of which 
 has a sub-variety which is round. Like other plants 
 of tropical origin, it requires a dry soil and warm 
 weather, and with these advantages grows vigor- 
 ously and bears abundantly. To have early plants, 
 sow the seeds in a hotbed towards the end of March, 
 and, as soon as the frosts are over, transfer the young 
 plants to the open ground and a southern exposure. 
 
 * When fit tc pick, the stem will separate from the fruit by a 
 ,?entle pressure of the thumb. It will be in best eating cond» 
 tion the follow'.ig day. — J. B. 
 
198 GARDENING. 
 
 Keep them clean, and water them (if the weather 
 be dry) often, but lightly. To have a succession of 
 this fruit throughout the summer, you must occa- 
 sionally renew the sowings. A few of the largest 
 plants should be left for seed, and when the fruit be- 
 gins to rot is the time for taking it. Cut off the 
 plant and dry it in the shade, for seed immediately 
 removed from the pulp is rarely good. 
 
 The family connexions of this plant (the Sola- 
 nums) have made some persons questi(;n its salubri- 
 ty, but, as we think, without reason. If in certain 
 cases it prove indigestible, of what fruit may not 
 the san^ be said, particularly if eaten to excess 1 
 The JHleral impunity with which our southern 
 neighbours use. it, even habitually and largely, is 
 in itself a sufficient guarantee of the safety with 
 which it may be, occasionally and temperately, em- 
 ployed here. 
 
 Mustard (Sinapis). — Two species of the mustard 
 are objects of garden culture : the black, which is 
 cultivated for the seed, and the white, which is a 
 good substitute for spinach, and which is sometimes 
 used with pepper-grass as an ingredient in salads.* 
 Both species grow well in a great diversity of soils, 
 and with a small portion of labour; but the richer 
 the soil and the greater the care, the more vigor- 
 ous will be the plants. ^ 
 
 If the seed of the first specieWoe our object, we 
 should remember that, as the pods do not either 
 form or ripen but in succession, we must not delay 
 our harvest until all have been matured : as in this 
 case we should lose the seed soonest ripe (which 
 is always the best), for the sake of preserving that 
 which is later and worse. The best rule, therefore, 
 is to pull up or cut off the crop as soon as the stems 
 
 * In Spain, and throughout the south of Europe, the seed of 
 the white species ir preferred for the fabrication of mustard; 
 because g ving a whiter and milder flour than the seed of the 
 black. 
 
K1TCHE(.( GARDEN. 199 
 
 become yellof*', and carry it into the barn, where it 
 may remain, covered with straw, for a month. At 
 the end of this time it will be fit to thresh ; and this 
 should be done on cloths, and not with flails, since 
 these would bruise and break the seed ; but wiili 
 bunches of rods. Passed two or three ti mes through 
 a fanning mill, it will be fit for use ; and the sooner 
 it is used after cleaning, the better mustard it will 
 make.* 
 
 The Mushroom {Agaricus of Lin. , Fungus of Tour.). 
 — The latter of these botanists numbers not fewer 
 than seventy-five plants of this genus, diff"ering from 
 each other in colour, in smell, and in the size, form, 
 and number of their heads or chapeaux ; and With- 
 ering, if we do not mistake, makes them to amount 
 to more than two hundred. To describe, or even 
 to name them, would be an unprofitable task, and 
 entirely beside the object of the present work ; as of 
 the whole number, the Agaricus Campestris, or Fun- 
 gus Sativus Equinus, is the only species admitted 
 into garden culture. 
 
 This plant is^ propagated from the seeds only : 
 which are threa'ds or fibres of a white colour, found 
 m old pasture grounds, in masses of rotten horse- 
 dung, sometimes under stable floors, and frequently 
 in the remains of old hotbeds. They are also al- 
 ways to be met with on the growing plant, some- 
 times on the upper, at others on the under surface, 
 and oftener in the interior. Their extreme small- 
 ness makes them difficult to detect ; but, by placing 
 the plant on ice, and enclosing it for a day or two, 
 they may be readily discovered, and will be found 
 to be semeniform, and in this respect differing from 
 the seeds of all other vegetables, and even raising 
 a doubt whether the mushroom does not partake 
 more of the animal than of the vegetable charac- 
 ter. Nor is this fact the only one that warrants 
 
 * Its duration seems to be limited to two years ; older than 
 this, it is rarely good.— Bosc. 
 
200 GARDENING. 
 
 the suggestion ; s nee, on analysis, it ts found that 
 the product of the mushroom is almost altogether 
 animal ; whence it is that those botanists, who are 
 tenacious of what is called the natural order, make 
 it the first vegetable link in the chain, as zoologists 
 make the polypus the last in the animal series. 
 
 Another suggestion, of more practical importance, 
 is that, whether animal or vegetable, the mushroom 
 is often poisonous ; either from some quality inhe- 
 rent in itself, or from some adventitious matter (such 
 as the larvae of insects) being imbibed and held by 
 its spongy surface. On this head there has been no 
 want either of inquiry or of admonition. Natural- 
 ists, in succession, from Pliny to Parmentier, have 
 investigated the subject, and come to nearly the 
 same conclusion, viz., " that many species of the 
 mushrooms are active poisons,* and that the best 
 are dangerous, as well from the total want of any 
 general rule for distinguishing between the good and 
 the bad,t as from the tendency of all to produce in- 
 digestion."J In despite, however, of these sage dis- 
 coveries and councils, the mushroom continues to 
 be eaten, and even to be a favourite*; for, not con- 
 tented with the abundance of the article provided 
 by nature at a particular season, means are employ- 
 ed to have it at all seasons, and it is of this culture 
 we have now to speak. 
 
 Prepare a bed early in October, either in a corner 
 of the hothouse, if you have one, or of a dry and 
 warm cellar. The width of the bed at the bottom 
 should not be less than four feet, and its length pro- 
 
 * Geoffroi, Paulet, and others. 
 
 t " It has been said that the mushroom which it is safe to 
 eat is distmguished from the bad by a membrane which sur- 
 rounds the footstalk. This sign is, however, the less sure, as 
 this membrane is found to belong to a species the most danger 
 ous." Phytalogie Universelle, vol. ii., p. 161. 
 
 X Parmentier on Poisonous Mushrooms, Strong vinegar and 
 fimetics are the surest remedies against the eifects of these. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. ^ 201 
 
 portioned to the quantity of spawn provided. Its 
 sides should rise perpendicularly one foot, and should 
 afterward decrease to the centre, forming four slo- 
 ping surfaces. We need hardly say that the male- 
 rials of the bed at this stage of the business must 
 be horse-dung, well forked and pressed together, to 
 prevent its settling unequally. It should then be 
 covered with long straw, as well to exclude frost 
 as to keep in the volatile parts of the mass, which 
 wrould otherwise escape. After ten days the tem- 
 perature of the bed will be sufficiently moderated, 
 when the straw is to be removed, and a covering of 
 good mould, to the depth of an inch, laid over the 
 dung. On this the seed or spawn of the mushroom 
 is to be placed in rows, six inches apart, occupying 
 all the sloping parts of the bed, which is again to be 
 covered with a second inch of fresh mould and a 
 coat of straw. If your bed has been well con- 
 structed your mushrooms will be fit for use at the 
 end of five or six weeks, and will continue to be 
 productive for several months. Should you, how- 
 ever, in the course of the winter, find its productive- 
 ness diminished, take off nearly all the original 
 covering, and replace it with eight or ten inches of 
 fresh dung and a coat of clean straw. This, by 
 creating a new heat, will revive the action of the 
 spawn, and give a long succession of mushrooms. 
 
 The flavour of this vegetable is highest in the 
 button state ; when the heads attain to the diameter 
 of an inch, they are still good, and most profitable 
 in the market ; but, when fully developed, they are 
 not worth picking. 
 
 Parsley {Apium Petrosihnum). — A native of Sar- 
 dinia, according to Jollyclerc, and, according to 
 Bosc, an article without which the cook could not 
 exercise his trade.* There are three or four varie- 
 
 * " Oter le persil d'entre les mains d'unquisinierc'est presque 
 le nietra dans I'irnpossibilite d'exercer son art." 
 
 Take away the parsley from the cook, and you make it irc- 
 ''f>p-;ible tor him to practise his art. 
 
202 , GARDENING. 
 
 eties, the fine, the curled, the variegated, and the 
 large-rooted. Of these the curled is the most deli- 
 cate, hut most apt to degenerate. The large-rooted 
 is the hardiest, least liable to change, most abun- 
 dant in foliage, and quicker in renewing itself. 
 These circumstances give it the preference. 
 
 Parsley will grow in almost any soil, but prefers 
 that which is light, and fresh, and rich. It is best 
 sown in the spring in a well-laboured bed, manured 
 with old and thoroughly rotted dung, and in rows 
 sufficiently far apart to admit the hoe and the 
 weeder. The cultivator must not be out of pa- 
 tience at the slowness with which it shows itself. 
 It seldom appears before forty days, and not always 
 at the end of that term. Hoeing and watering are, 
 however, all it requires after it does appear. The 
 leaves are cropped in the fall, and hung up in bun- 
 dles for winter use. If the soil in which the plants 
 grow be stiff and moist, the roots ought to be cov- 
 ered in the fall, otherwise there is a risk of their 
 being thrown out by the frost. 
 
 Parsnip (Pastinaca). — Of this there are five spe- 
 cies, but one of which (Pastinaca Sativa) is admit- 
 ted into the garden. This has two varieties, the 
 round or turnip parsnip, and the Siam, neither ot 
 which is much known. 
 
 Like other tap-rooted plants, the pastinaca thrives 
 best in a rich, deep, friable soil, growing in the 
 drills where it was originally sown, and undisturbed 
 by transplanting. The rows should be twelve or 
 fourteen inches apart, and four of these in a bedj 
 and the plants themselves should not stand nearer 
 together than eight inches. 
 
 The first crop may be sown in March, as no de- 
 gree of cold injures either the seed or the plant; 
 but the seedtime of the main or winter crop need 
 not begin till the first of June, as enough of the sea- 
 son will then be left to mature it, and as the hard- 
 est frosts but make it better. It is evidently a plant 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 203 
 
 of northern origin, contains much sugar, is very nu- 
 tritious, and merits more both of cultivation and 
 use than it has received. 
 
 The Pex {Pisum) is a native of the south of Eu- 
 rope, of which, accordingto Linnaeus, there are four 
 species, and according to Millar six, while other bot- 
 anists recognise only two (the field and the garden), 
 and some even contend that the latter of these is 
 merely a variety of the former, produced by culti- 
 vation. What these naturalists better agree in is 
 the arrangement of the whole family into two 
 classes, those having coriaceous pods (tough and 
 parchment like), and those having pods tender and 
 edible, like the pea itself. These are again subdi- 
 vided into dwarfs and climbers, and, for more prac- 
 tical use, into early and late pease. Of the for- 
 mer, in their order of ripening, the most approved 
 sorts are, the early frame, early Charlton, and 
 golden Hotspur, and of the latter, in the same or- 
 der, the large marrowfat, the white Rounsevil, the 
 Spanish Marotto, and large imperial.* The dwarfs 
 are generally employed in hotbed culture, which, 
 however, succeeds badly, and is neither worth at- 
 tending to or describing, and the less so as early 
 crops may be more certainly had by sowing in the 
 fall in sheltered situations, and covering in the win- 
 ter with a layer of leaves, and another of long sta- 
 ble litter loosely applied, to keep the leaves in 
 their places. After the earth acquires a temper- 
 ature favourable to vegetation, your pea-sowings 
 should be made once a fortnight to keep up a regu- 
 
 * The dwarf sugar, the dwarf Spanish, and Lead man's dwarf, 
 may be usefully interposed between these. These dwarf vari 
 eties are all excellent, the last, perhaps, more prolific than any 
 other of the family. In France the varieties of early and late 
 pease are different, or, at least, called by different names from 
 those we have mentioned. The series of both sorts there are, 
 the Michaux of Holland, the baron, the Blois, the cluster, and 
 the forty days, which are early ; and the nonpareil, the Laurens, 
 the Swiss, the Eul Noir, and the Calmart, which are late 
 16 
 
204 GARDENING. 
 
 lar and successive supply. A loose and warm soil 
 is most favourable to this vegetable, virhich, by-the- 
 way, is neither improved in quality nor quantity 
 by stable manure. The soil of Clichy, and of Point 
 de jour des Colombe, &c., &c., in the neighbour- 
 hood of Paris, is a pure sand, principally devoted 
 to pea-crops, and yielding these most abundantly, 
 without the application of dung, new or old. What, 
 however, is essential in their treatment is, frequent 
 hoeing, and occasional watering if the weather be 
 dry, and seasonable propping for the tall sorts, 
 which ought to be completed by the time the plants 
 get to be three or four inches high. All the varie- 
 ties of this last description of the pea require double 
 the room given to dwarfs. The rows in which they 
 stand should not, therefore, be less than four feet 
 apart, and they should grow in these six inches 
 from each other, and their covering should not ex- 
 ceed two inches, nor be less than one, according to 
 the nature and condition of the soil in which they 
 are sown. We nee,d scarcely remark that the dif- 
 ferent varieties should be cultivated apart. 
 
 Like other vegetables, the pea is susceptible of 
 considerable improvement, by the simple means 
 of marking the finest plants of each variety, and 
 keeping them for seed. Wilson's frame and the 
 Knight pea have been formed in this way, and af- 
 ford sufficient proof of the wonders produced by a 
 very small degree of observation and care. 
 
 The general rehsh for the pea has induced the 
 employment of means to have them on the table 
 the year round. The methods in use for this pur- 
 pose are two. According to one of them, the pea 
 is subjected to the action of boiling water for two 
 or three minutes, when it is withdrawn, cooled in 
 fresh spring water, dried in the shade, and, lastly, 
 hung up in paper bags in a dry and well-aired closet. 
 The other process is later and perhaps better ; in 
 this the pease are put into bottles, which are aftei- 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 205 
 
 ward hermetically sealed, and subjected to the ac- 
 tion of boiling water for fifteen minutes. In both 
 cases the pease require boiling a second time in the 
 ordinary way to make them fit for the table ; and, 
 when preserved according to the first method, a 
 great deal of boiling; Boscsays twenty-four hours. 
 All the varieties are not found to be equally fit for 
 this process ; the Michaux of Holland and the Cal- 
 mart are those exclusively employed in France. 
 
 Pepper, red (Capsicum). — This is the Annual 
 Pepper of the botanists, of which there are two 
 species, the Grossum and the Frutescens, the latter 
 of which we have only seen in hothouses. 
 
 Like other natives of southern climates, the cap- 
 sicum requires a warm soil, and, if sown early, a 
 good deal of dung and a favourable exposition. The 
 seeds may be placed in rows three feet apart, or in 
 hills at the hke distance from each other. In dry 
 weather the plants require watering, and, in all 
 kinds of weather, weeding and hoeing. ' The seeds 
 are best preserved by running a string through the 
 pods and hanging them up in a dry garret. 
 
 The Potato {Solarium Tuberosum). — Of the sixty 
 varieties of this vegetable, two are particularly rec- 
 ommended for garden culture ; the one from its 
 precocity (ripening in forty days), and the other 
 from its excellence. This last is most generally 
 known by the name of the t/am potato, and is so 
 called from its great resemblance (in taste) to the 
 vegetable of that name. 
 
 The hardiness of this plant enables it to grow in 
 any soil and under very negligent culture ; but the 
 soil most propitious to it is a rich loam, and the 
 more hoeing and hilling it gets before it flowers, 
 the better will be your crop. In gardens it is best 
 placed in rows three ff et apart. Gypsum applied 
 lo the leaves of the j/owing plant will be found 
 useful. 
 
 The Potato (sweet) is a species of convolvulus, 
 
206 GARDENING. 
 
 originally from Asia, making great part of the food 
 of tropical latitudes, and occasionally cultivated as 
 far north as Long Island. Of its many varieties 
 three only are known to us, and these take their de- 
 nominations from their colour. The red is the ear- 
 liest, the yellow the sweetest, and the white the 
 largest. In the sandy and humid parts of South 
 Carolina, all these races attain to a considerable 
 size. On Long Island they are small and (what is 
 more to be regretted) very inferior in the nutritive 
 and agreeable qualities which distinguish the fruit 
 when growing under more favourable circum- 
 stances.* 
 
 This plant is easily cultivated, and, whether it 
 gives us fruit or not, its beauty is such as will well 
 repay us for the trouble of raising it. Score the 
 square intended for it (which should have been pre- 
 viously well dug and manured) both ways, and at 
 the distance of four feet each way, and place and 
 cover the seeds at the angles of intersection. When 
 the plants rise, keep them clear of weeds, and, as 
 in hilling corn, draw up the earth well about the 
 roots. 
 
 The Pumpkin is a species of the Cucurbita. 
 Among its varieties are the Maltese, the Barbary, 
 the Iroquois, and the white, which is the winter 
 pumpkin. t The culture of all is the same. They 
 are less nice than cucumbers and melons with re- 
 gard to soil, and will grow in any dry and well-la- 
 boured earth. The best time for sowing them is 
 between the 15th and 25th of May. 
 
 The Radish {Raphanus Sativus). — Of this there are 
 
 * Parmentier analyzed the sweet potatoe in 1780. There- 
 suit was sugar, amidon, and an extractive matter ; but he well 
 remarks that " these principles vary with the age and variety of 
 the plant, and with the soil and ch nate in which it grows." 
 
 t Many new varieties have been recently introduced, and 
 among the best is the Valparaiso, known under different names. 
 -J.B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 207 
 
 two species, distinguished only by the shape of 
 their roots ; that of the one being long, and that of 
 the other round. The principal varieties of llie for- 
 mer are the early, the salmon, the red, and tlie 
 large, which last has no characteristic colour. 
 Those of the latter species are also distinguished by 
 their different colour and size ; some are large, oth- 
 ers small ; some are white, others black ; some are 
 ash-coloured, and others are pink and purple. All 
 require a similar soil (loose and rich) and a careful, 
 seasonable, and cleanly cultivation. The sowings 
 of the radish, like tliose of spinach and lettuce, 
 must be frequent, " Sow every fourteen days" is 
 the common rule, and it seems to be a good one, 
 and founded on the known disposition of the plant 
 to run promptly to seed. 
 
 The Radish [horse] {Cochlearia Armoriacia) . — 
 This plant is one of six species having the common 
 English name of spleenwort or scurvy-grass. It, is 
 generally propagated by cuttings or offsets taken 
 from the crown of the parent plant, and having each 
 a bud, and set in a trench ten inches deep and four 
 or five inches apart. The cuttings are then covered 
 with mould, and the surfaces of the trenches kept 
 clean and loose. The plants will soon take root, 
 and, after doing so, will fear no rivals. 
 
 Rampion {Campanula). — Two or more species of 
 this plant are cultivated for purposes merely of dec- 
 oration ; as the pyramidal, the peach-leaf, the mir- 
 ror of Venus, &c. ; but that which alone interests us 
 is the Hortensis, and which, from its abundant mu- 
 cilage, is regarded as both nutritive and refreshing, 
 and an excellent ingredient in salads. The seed is 
 remarkably small, and should be sown thin in the 
 month of .lune. It requires little, if any, covering 
 and germinates best in a loose, moist soil, and shady 
 situation. 
 
 Rosemary {Rosmarinus Officinalis). — The leaves 
 of this plant abound in aroma, and are employed in 
 
208 GARDENING. 
 
 soups and sauces. It is, besides, the basis oi the cel- 
 ebrated liqueur called La Reine de Hongrie, and is 
 yet more famous for giving to the honey of Nar- 
 bonne its acknowledged superiority. The tops of 
 the branches furnish an essential oil, which, accord- 
 ing to the experiments of Proust, contain much 
 camphire. It is propagated by cuttings and suck- 
 ers. " Planted in the month of March six inches 
 apart, and inserted two thirds of their lengths in the 
 ground, they will take root freely, and by the month 
 of September be fit for transplanting wherever they 
 are destined to remain."* 
 
 Rue {Ruta Graveolens), — This plant is a native of 
 mountainous and arid regions, and, so far as we 
 have any acquaintance with it, exclusively medici- 
 nal; but, having obtained a place in the kitchen gar- 
 den, it is not for us to reject it. As with other ar- 
 ornatics, a light, and warm, and dry soil is that 
 which agrees best with it. It is propagated from 
 cuttings and offsets planted in March or April, and 
 kept clear of weeds throughout the summer. Its 
 beauty is much increased by lopping the branches 
 close to the earth every fourth year. 
 
 Rhubarb (Rheum). — Most of the known species of 
 this plant are of Asiatic origin, but the two which 
 alone enter into the food of man (the Rhaponticum 
 and Undulatum) are natives of Thrace and Russia.f 
 The stalks, which are the parts used for culinary 
 
 » M'Mahon. 
 
 t Several new varieties, if not new species, of this plant, 
 adapted to culinary uses, have recently been introduced. Among 
 those most worthy of culture is the giant, the leaf stems of 
 which grow upon rich soils to the size of six and seven inches 
 in circumference, and give a leaf a yard in diameter. Those 
 who are fond of pies and tarts cannot obtain a more convenient 
 article for these than the rhubarb, from March to September; 
 for, placed in a tub with earth in autumn, and set in a cellar or 
 basement kitchen, and merely watered, the roots will send forth 
 an abundance of stalks, which may be used early in March. — 
 J.B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 209 
 
 purposes, grow to the length of twenty-four inches, 
 and acquire the thickness of a man's thumb. Strip- 
 ped of their outer covering, they yield a substance 
 slightly acid,* which is much admired, and employ- 
 ed as an ingredient in the composition of puddings 
 and tarts. Cobbett supposes that a hundred wagon- 
 loads of these stalks are annually sold in the markets 
 of London, at a shilling sterling per bunch.f 
 
 The rhubarb is propagated sometimes from seeds, 
 and oftener from offsets from old roots. J It re- 
 quires a soil dry, and rich, and well-laboured. Two 
 years are necessary to render it fit for use, but, 
 once established, it will last a century. 
 
 Sage {Salvia Officinalis). — This is one of the hun- 
 dred and more species of Salvia enumerated by 
 botanists. It has many varieties, the most impor- 
 tant of which are, the large-leaved, the curled,^ the 
 three-coloured, and the variegated. They are all 
 propagated alike, by seeds, by suckers, and by por- 
 tions of old roots, and grow well in any soil not 
 positively wet. Till three or four years old, they 
 have a healthy and agreeable appearance, forming 
 full and regular tufts; but after this period they 
 lose the central branches, and even become ragged 
 and broken on their edges. The treatment already 
 suggested for rue might be useful for sage. Under 
 it the roots would probably renew their vigour, and 
 throw out new and healthy shoots ; but of this the- 
 ory we have no experience. 
 
 Salsify {Tragopogon). — This is a native of the 
 southern mountains of Europe, has been long cul- 
 
 * The stalks, like the roots, yield, on analysis, sulphur and 
 lime. 
 
 t American Gardener. 
 
 i The best mode is to propagate from seeds which ripen in 
 fuly. If then sown, the plants may be put out three feet apart 
 the next spring, and will give a good crop the second summer af- 
 ter transplanting.— J. B. 
 
 (} This is made a distinct species by Wildenow, under the 
 nam'> of Salvia Tomentosa. 
 
210 GARDENING. 
 
 tivated, and has several varieties, of which it is un- 
 necessary to speak. Deep and humid soils are most 
 favourable to its production. After the preliminary 
 labours of digging and smoothing, the square in- 
 tended for it should be formed into four-feet beds, 
 and the seeds be sown and covered in rows eight, 
 or ten inches apart. This should be done as soon 
 as the frosts are over in the spring, for the earlier 
 the sowing the finer will be the crop. Two hoe- 
 ings, and frequent watering during dry and hot 
 weather, are indispensable. It is only in the au- 
 tumn that the plants attain to their full size. In 
 mild climates they winter where they grow, like 
 parsnips ; but in cold regions they must be taken 
 up and preserved in roothouses or cellars, under 
 coverings of sand or litter. Plants intended to give 
 seed should be left to winter in the ground where 
 they have grown, and be there protected by leaves, 
 straw, &c. 
 
 Salsify Black {Scorzonera Hispanica) affects the 
 same kind of soil, and requires the same kind of 
 culture and management as the preceding kind, and 
 is of the same family. 
 
 Savory {Satureja). — Of this plant Millar describes 
 nine species, but two of which come within our 
 views, and which are denominated from two of the 
 seasons, winter and summer. The former is a per- 
 ennial plant, and is propagated from seeds or slips ; 
 the latter is an annual, and is propagated from seeds 
 only. For either process, sowing or planting, April 
 is the time. Neither sort is nice with regard to 
 soil ; and it is said of one of them (the winter spe- 
 cies) that it grows best in barren sands and bleak 
 situations. 
 
 Seakale* {Crambe Maratima) is a native of the 
 seashore, growing vigorously in sands occasionally 
 
 * We have found by experience that good seakale, like Frank- 
 lin's whistle, costs more than it is worth. We have given up 
 its culture.— J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 211 
 
 inundated by salt water. When the head of the 
 plant first shows itself, it is white, and tender, and 
 well-flavoured, and not inferior to asparagus ; but, 
 after reaching the light and the air, it soon becomes 
 green and bitter, and quite unfit for the table. The 
 natural condition of the plant would appear to in- 
 dicate the best mode of cultivating it, and that the 
 bed destined for it should be pure sand, moistened 
 by a solution of salt in water ; but we have on this 
 head the assurance of practical gardeners, that, in a 
 well-manured and thoroughly dug loam, the seakale 
 does even better than in its natural bed.* This 
 plant is propagated by cuttings and by seeds, 
 and most surely by the former ; but the quality of 
 the product is inferior to that given by the other 
 mode.f In case of planting, your beds must be so 
 prepared as to receive each two rows of the slips, 
 which are to stand fourteen inches apart (in an up- 
 right position), with their crowns not more than 
 one inch under the surface. In five or six weeks 
 they may show themselves above ground, and du- 
 ring the second year, if kept free from weeds and 
 occasionally watered, will be fit for use. \i sowing 
 be preferred, after labouring the ground thoroughly, 
 form a number of hills as for Indian corn, and sow 
 in each six or eight seeds. Should they all vege- 
 tate, they may be reduced to two, which you will 
 manage in the way prescribed for the cuttings. In 
 November, whether your bed has been filled with 
 plants or with seedlings, be careful to cover them 
 with a thick coat of well-rotted dung; and so 
 soon in the ensuing spring or summer as you find 
 them pushing through this covering, put over each 
 a garden-pot inverted, having first stopped the bot- 
 tom-holes. J The signal for cutting is when the 
 plants have risen about three inches above the sur- 
 face. 
 
 * M'Mahon. + Idem. Millar. 
 
 t The object in doing this is to exclude the light, for undei 
 its influence the plant becomes green and bitter 
 
 17 
 
212 GARDENING. 
 
 The Skirret (Sium Sisarum of Tournefort). — This 
 is called by Millar the Water Parsnip, and is found 
 growing spontaneously in many parts of England, 
 in moist or wet grounds. There are six species, 
 but one of which is cultivated in the garden. The 
 root, which is the only edible part of the plant, is 
 long and fibrous, wholesome and nutritious ; but to 
 some palates it is disagreeably sweet. It is propa 
 gated indifferently from seeds or from cuttings, 
 though Millar prefers the latter, as furnishing roots 
 of greater size and better quality. April is the 
 month most proper for either operation, sowing or 
 planting. In both modes .the culture is in drills, 
 taking care that the plants be not nearer than four 
 or five inches to each other. The soil in which it 
 succeeds best is a loose, moist loam ; and the cul- 
 ture and subsequent management do not differ from 
 those already described for parsnips. 
 
 Sorrel {Rumex Acetosa of Linnaus). — Of this 
 plant there are four species, distinguished by the 
 shape and size of their leaves, as the pointed, the 
 obtuse, the round, the large, the small, &c. All 
 soils not positively dry or wet are adapted to this 
 vegetable ; nor do they require more than a light 
 dressing. It is propagated as well by cuttings as 
 by seeds. In the former case the slips are put 
 down in the fall, and in the latter the seeds are 
 sown in the sprhig. In gathering it, many garden- 
 ets cut off an entire tuft close to the ground ; but a 
 better method, because more favourable to repro- 
 duction, is to crop the outer leaves first, always 
 leaving the central ones to be last taken.* We need 
 scarcely mention that, besides culinary uses, sorrel 
 furnishes an acid salt, much employed in taking out 
 stains from linen, and that the roots yield a beauti- 
 ful red water, known in medicine as a sudorific. f 
 
 * This is the practice of the gardeners of Paris, 
 t Bosc. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 213 
 
 Spinach (Spinachia). — Of this there are but two 
 known species, the Fera and the Oleracea ; the one 
 a native of Siberia,* the other of Persia. fj It is the 
 latter only that is known in garden culture, and of 
 it there are four varieties, distinguished by the 
 shape of their seeds, and. the greater or less abun- 
 dance and size of their leaves, as follows : Spinach 
 with sharp-pointed seeds and small leaves : spinach 
 with round seeds and small leaves; spinach with 
 pointed seeds and large leaves ; and spinach with 
 round seeds and large leaves, commonly called 
 spinach of Holland. The first of these varieties is 
 recommended by its hardiness ; as it stands the win- 
 ter better than either of the others, and is, of course, 
 to be preferred for fall sowing. The third gives 
 most foliage, and is fittest for spring culture. The 
 fourth unites, in a great degree, the advantages of 
 the first and third, bearing the winter well, and pro- 
 ducing an abundance of foliage. If, therefore, we 
 cultivate but one of these varieties, this is the one 
 which we ought to prefer. The soil most proper 
 for spinach is a moist, rich loam, well dug and well 
 manured. The seed should be sown in drills six 
 inches apart, and lightly covered. For fall sowing 
 the middle of October is a good time ; and for the 
 spring crop the seed should be sown the moment 
 you are able to get it into the earth. To the for- 
 mer a light covering of straw, during the winter, 
 will be useful. According to the opinion of the 
 French physicians, this plant is not only food, but 
 physic ; and is hence emphatically called " Le balai 
 de I'estomac" — the broom of the stomach — sweep- 
 ing and deterging every hole and corner of that or 
 gan, without giving pain, or in any degree inter- 
 
 * Phyt. Univer., art. Epinard, -f Olivier. 
 
 t The New-Zealand spinach has been recently introduced. 
 It is an excellent pot herb ; but, being natural to a warmer cli- 
 mate, it does not come forward till warm weather, and until 
 other garden productions are in abundance. — J. B. 
 
214 GARDENING. 
 
 rupting the ordinary avocations of the persons using 
 it. It may be useful to remark, that, to have the 
 full benefit of this nutritious and curative vegetable, 
 the spring and summer sowings should be made 
 every month, and that those of the latter should 
 have a shaded or northern exposition, as otherwise 
 they will run rapidly to seed. 
 
 The Squash is a species of the cucurbita, and 
 seems to be the link that connects the melon with 
 the pumpkin. According to Millar, this species is 
 very inconstant in its appearance, rarely preserving 
 the same form three years in succession, sometimes 
 taking that of a shrub, and at other times that of a 
 vine. Our own experience does not warrant this 
 reproach.* The*^ush and the Bell varieties appear 
 to us to be sufficiently distinct, nor have we noticed 
 any proneness in them to exchange characters. 
 With regard to soil and culture, those which are 
 fittest for the pumpkin are also most propitious to 
 the squash. 
 
 Thyme {Thymus) is of a species embracing not 
 less than twenty varieties, but one of which (the 
 common or cultivated) comes within the plan of 
 our work. This is generally found in gardens, 
 sometimes in tufts, and sometimes in rows; but, 
 however placed, always growing best in poor, light, 
 and warm soils. In those which are cold, stiff, or 
 moist, it does not thrive ; its branches become rag- 
 ged, its leaves few, its flowers faded, and their pe- 
 culiar aroma is less strong. When cultivated under 
 circumstances more propitious, it requires a change 
 of place every fourth or fifth year. All the parts of 
 this plant, but particularly the calix of its flower, 
 yields an essential oil, yellow and odorous, and 
 
 * The pumpkin and the squash seem to be first cousins, and 
 consequently will intermix, and produce an mfirm progeny. 
 They should be kept apart. The vegetable marrow is a new 
 and superior variety; good both in its green and matured state 
 whether for summer or winter use. — J. B. 
 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 215 
 
 highly charged with camphire. In the kitchen it is 
 used as an ingredient in sauces and stuffings, and 
 in what are technically called forced meals. The 
 plant may be propagated either by seed or by suck- 
 ers, and requires only to be kept free from weeds 
 or grasses. 
 
 Tomatoes {Solanum Ly coper siciim). — This plant is 
 of the same family with the potato, and, like it, is a 
 native of Southern America. R has several species, 
 two of which fall under our notice as garden vege 
 tables, and are distinguished from each other only 
 by a difference of size.* The smaller of these is 
 held to be the parent plant, and has the advantage 
 of ripening sooner than the other, and better resist- 
 ing cold weather. To have an early crop, sow the 
 seed in a warm and dry soil, and sheltered situation, 
 in October,! and cover the bed with straw or stable 
 litter during the winter. For summer and fall use 
 sow again in May, and water freely. If the soil 
 and situation be favourable, and the culture proper, 
 the product will be great. Bosc says, " J'ai vu de 
 ces pieds qui couvraient une toise de terrain, et qui 
 fournissoient plusieurs centaines de fruits. "J The 
 distance between the plants should not be less than 
 two feet. 
 
 Jerusalem Artichoke {Helianthus Tuherosus) is a 
 native of the mountains of Chili, and a species of 
 sunflower, having roots somewhat resembling pota- 
 toes in bulk and shape, and more nearly approach- 
 ing the artichoke in taste. Its nutritive principles 
 are less abundant than those of the potato, carrot, 
 &c. On analysis it yields neither sugar nor aniidon, 
 and is not susceptible either of the panary or the 
 
 * The varieties are now numerous, and differ in size and 
 colour.— J. B. 
 
 t They may as well be sown in a hotbed in April. The plants 
 will attain sufificient size to be planted in the op%n ground as 
 soon as the season will permit. — J. B. 
 
 X i have seen as many of these plants as covered a space of two 
 yards square, producing several hundred heads of fruit. 
 
216 GARDENING. 
 
 vinous fermentation. It is, however, recommended 
 
 by its hardiness (fearing neither cold, nor heat, nor 
 drought) and by the cheapness of its culture ; for, if 
 once committed to the earth, it calls for no additional 
 care ; continuing itself, and spreading and flourish- 
 ing in the midst of rivals and enemies. It is this 
 last property which renders it so precious to the 
 agriculturist as a permanent hog-pasture ; and the 
 more so, as it will accommodate itself to any de- 
 scription of soil, though that most congenial to it 
 is a deep, moist, or marshy loam. Like the potato, 
 it is propagated by cuttings. 
 
 The Turnip {Rapa). — This plant is of the cabbage 
 family. But, unlike its relations, it requires a loose, 
 warm, and dry soil, either sandy or calcareous ; and 
 as a manure, wood ashes rather ih^m dung. There 
 are many varieties, four of which are common to 
 garden and field culture, viz., the Dutch, whose ve- 
 getation is most rapid, and, of course, fittest for early 
 crops ; and the Swedish, the green, and the purple 
 top, which do not succeed unless sown late, and 
 which, on this account as well as on account of their 
 greater solidity and less evaporation, are the most 
 suitable for winter use. Turnip seed is generally 
 sown broadcast; but the experiments of Lord Town- 
 send have clearly established the preference of the 
 row or drill method, as well for a greater economy 
 of time and labour, as for a better and more abun- 
 dant product. The time of sowing, as already in- 
 dicated, will depend on the variety selected. If the 
 Dutch, sow early ; if the ruta baga, sow about the 
 1st of June ;* and if the green or purple top, do not 
 sow till the last week of July or first week of 
 August. After sufliciently covering the seed, press 
 it down with a heavy roller; the object of which is 
 not merely to bring the earth and the seed into con- 
 tact, but t« protect the rising crop against the fly, as 
 many experiments concur in proving that these in- 
 
 * The J5lh or 20th is preferable.— J. B. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 217 
 
 sects are much multiplied by leaving the surface of 
 the earth loose and pervious, and much diminished 
 by rendering it close and compact. 
 
 The only variety of this plant made better, or, 
 rather, not made worse by transplanting, is the rata 
 baga. A few feet square will give a sufficient num- 
 ber of plants. Draw and set these about a foot from 
 each other, on ridges three feet apart. Keep the 
 plants free from weeds during the whole course of 
 their vegetation, and you will rarely fail to have an 
 abundant crop. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE FRUIT GARDEN. 
 
 Next to bread corn and culinary esculents, Ine 
 products of this description of garden holds the 
 highest place on the scale of table economy. As 
 articles of food and drink, ripe fruits and their pre- 
 pared juices are equally wholesome and pleasant; 
 and in many complaints are auxiliary to medicine, 
 while in others they serve as substitutes for it. 
 Every portion of ground, therefore, set apart for 
 the purposes of horticulture, should contain a few 
 fruit-bearing trees and shrubs of the paore common 
 and useful kinds (as apples, cherries, peaches, 
 &c.), to be placed in the borders of its northern and 
 western sides, where they will least interfere with 
 other products, and even be useful in defending 
 these from high and cold winds. But in all cases 
 where the occupant has room for an exclusive fruit 
 garden, this ought to be preferred, as possessing 
 many advantages over the mixed kind, and particu- 
 larly that of giving to trees and shrubs the soil, ex- 
 position, culture, and arrangement best fitted for 
 their several kinds and species. To the end, how- 
 
218 GARDENING. 
 
 ever, that either plan may be pursued according to 
 the taste or convenience pf the cultivator, we shall 
 take up the list of fruit-giving plants under the com- 
 mon and technical division oi kernel and stone fruits, 
 berries and nuts ; and, under separate heads, indi- 
 cate the soil, exposure, &c., &c., most proper for 
 each. 
 
 The Apple-tree (Mains) * — Of the many fruit- 
 trees in cultivation, this may be deemed the most 
 important; not only from the great abundance, di- 
 versified character, and numerous uses of its pro- 
 ducts, but from the small degree of care and labour 
 required in its culture, and the uncommon facility 
 vi^ith which it adapts itself to a great diversity of 
 soils, climates, and situations. One of its varie- 
 ties (the crab) is a native of our own forests ; but 
 the cultivated sorts among us have all been deri- 
 ved from Europe, as those of Europe were originally 
 derived from Asia Minor. 
 
 No general catalogue of the varieties of the ap- 
 ple-tree has ever, so far as our reading extends, 
 been given to the public, nor is it probable, from 
 their great and increasing multiplication, that any 
 successful attempt could now be made at their 
 enumeration and description. In the time of Pliny 
 twenty different sorts were known at Rome, whence 
 they gradually spread themselves over the other 
 parts of Europe. It was not till 1572, according to 
 Stow, that they appeared in England. In 1629, 
 Parkinson enumera.ied Jifti/ varieties growing there ; 
 in 1650, Hartlib counted two hundred; and in 1822, 
 London offered a list of two hundred and forty ap- 
 proved sorts then selling at the London nurseries. f J 
 
 * Linnaeus places it in the family of pears, and thence denom- 
 inates it Pyrus malus; but Millar and others regard it as a dis- 
 tinct genus. 
 
 t Encyclopaedia of Gardening. 
 
 j The varieties in the London Horticultural Garden alone 
 exceed fourteen hundred, and this collection comprises but a 
 part. — J. B. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 219 
 
 In choosing between so many varieties, old and 
 young, though disappointment would perhaps be 
 impossible, still selection might not be easy ; and 
 in this view it may not be amiss to furnish the 
 reader with a short list, in a tabular form, of those 
 sorts which stand highest in horticultural estima- 
 tion, for the hardness and productiveness of the 
 tree, the excellence of the fruit, and the variety of 
 uses to which this may be applie.d.* (See next page.) 
 
 It was perhaps a comparison between modern 
 and ancient lists which first suggested the idea that 
 " the varieties of the apple-tree have but a limited 
 duration, and that they disappear by whole races." 
 The Moil, the Redstreak, the Musts and the Golden 
 Pippin, the Stire and the Fox Whelp, according to 
 the observations of Knight,! are rapidly declining ; 
 and some recent facts warrant us in the behef that 
 our own Spitzenberg is fast hastening to its end. 
 
 Before the discovery of this law of nature, little, 
 if any, attention was given to the propagation of 
 the apple-tree by modes other than those which 
 perpetuate a favourite race ; and hence it was that 
 scions, buds, layers, and cuttings, were long and ex- 
 clusively employed. But this practice is now con- 
 siderably qualified, and many horticulturists and am- 
 ateurs are engaged in producing new varieties froni 
 the seeds, and from a commixture of the farinas of 
 sorts whose merits are already established. J Of 
 
 * Such has been the improvement in the apple, that not more 
 than one half of these varieties would now be ranked in the first 
 class of fruit. — J. B. 
 
 t Treatise on Apple and Pear Trees, p. 15. 
 
 % The credit of this discovery is due to Mr. Knight, the dis- 
 tinguished president of the Horticultural Society of London. 
 On this point, however, there are skeptics, and of considerable 
 name. Williamson and Speechley consider the deterioration of 
 the apple-tree as accidental, not uniform ; as the temporary ef- 
 fect of weather, not that of a settled law of nature ; and, there- 
 fore, that " genial summers will restore to old trees their ordi- 
 nary health and duration." — Hort. Trans , vol. iii., p. 291 ; and 
 Hints, p. 188 
 
220 
 
 GARDENING. 
 
 s-'s. 
 
 
 • s o 
 
 ore? 5; 
 
 5' 
 
 log 
 
 O O -^ 
 
 3 ?5 " 
 » a> o 
 
 ^H3 
 
 CD g 3 
 O ZT.S 
 
 
 ot3CT>a>!:ir'cniOoPS?a>ca);5s'aP 
 
 
 w' 3 
 
 -^ < 2 o ?; 
 
 CD CD 
 
 CD =r ^ 
 
 ID 3 
 
 >< cc- 
 
 CD O 
 t 5: 
 
 6 S< 
 
 OTQ CD 
 
 3 33 
 
 O O O O ^gCR 
 
 ■ ■ ■ P3 S- JS 
 
 Oq » 
 
 o o o 2 9 o 2 
 
 l-H BJ fc-l 5? N- ^ 
 
 o ^o goo 
 
 (TCJ 
 
 ^ci 
 
 
 2.0 
 5'o" 
 
 00023 GO o ooooo!3!og ooooo 
 
 oooscoo O 0000030C=:00000. 
 
 
 CD " o) 
 D O CD 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 221 
 
 hese different methods of propagation, the first we 
 shall describe is that 
 
 By seeds, which has two objects ; the supply of 
 stems, on which to ingraft or inoculate old and fa- 
 vourite races ; and the production of varieties which 
 shall be entirely new. In the first of these cases, 
 sound and thriving stocks are necessary ; and these 
 are only to be had from the seeds of apples grown 
 on healthy and vigorous trees.* In the other case, 
 it is not enough that the parent plant be sound and 
 thriving; it should possess those properties also 
 which the cultivator is most desirous of giving to 
 his orchard : such as bearing abundantly, giving its 
 fruit early in the seasoft^ or of a fine flavour, or col- 
 our, or size, &c., &c. The observance of these 
 rules is indispensable to the success of all experi- 
 ments made of this method ; and is so because the 
 rules themselves are founded on an immutable law 
 of nature, that vegetables, like animals, transmit their 
 properties, good or had, to their offspring. 
 
 The culture of the seeds, whether intended for 
 stems or for fruit, will be the same for the first 
 year. Sow them in autumn, in beds of light mel- 
 low earth of middling quality ; cover them an inch 
 thick with garden mould; and, at the end of the 
 
 Table Apples. — Junating, Prince's Harvest, Bough, Summer 
 Queen, Early Pearmain, Summer Rose, Codling, Maiden's 
 Blush, Hagloe Crab, Catiline, Romanite or Rambo, Fall Pippin, 
 Doctor Apple, Wine, Late Pearmain, Burlington, Greening, 
 Bellflower, Newark Pippin, Pennock, Michael Henry, Spitzen- 
 bergh, Newtown Pippin, Priestley, Lady Apple, Carthouse, 
 Tewiisbury, Winter Blush. 
 
 Cider Apples. — Hewes's Crab, Grayhouse, Winesap, Harrison, 
 Styre, Roane's White Crab, Gloucester White, Redstreak, 
 Campfield, American Pippin, Golden Rennet, Hagloe Crab, 
 Cooper's Russeting, Ruckman's Pearmain. 
 
 There are propagated in our nurseries several new varieties, 
 obtained from seeds, worthy of cultivation. — Ediur. 
 
 * The usual method of employing the pumice from a cider- 
 mill is very slovenly, and necessarily rejects all discrimination 
 between good and bad, sound and unsound stems. 
 
222 GARDENING. 
 
 year, thin the plants to the distance of a foot from 
 each other. Such of them as are intended for graft- 
 ing or budding may remain in the nursery till these 
 operations have been performed ; but those cultiva- 
 ted with a view to new races should be transplant- 
 ed, and in rows ten feet apart every way.* Left to 
 themselves, they maybe slow in producing fruit; a 
 circumstance which has engaged artists in a search 
 after means which should bestow upon them an ar- 
 tificial precocity. These divide themselves into two 
 classes : such as operate exclusively on the soil, and 
 such as apply directly to the plant. If the young 
 tree abound in leaves, branches, and suckers, with 
 a bark green, smooth, and shining, the remedy will 
 consist in removing from its roots a portion of the 
 original earth, and s'ubstituting for it a soil contain- 
 ing less vegetable food ; such as sand, gravel, or 
 schist, &c. If, on the other hand, the tree be 
 small and weak, having little foliage and few branch- 
 es, and a bark rough, dry, and spotted, there is rea- 
 son to suspect that its want of fertility is occasion- 
 ed by a want of nourishment, and we must hasten, 
 by reversing the management just laid down, to give 
 it an additional supply of food. As belonging to the 
 second class of means, we may enumerate partial 
 decortication, piercing, wiring, grafting, pegging, cut- 
 ting a portion of the roots, &c., but all depending on 
 the same principle, " the obstruction, in a greater 
 or less degree, of the descending sap." Of these, 
 the first (which has got the name of ringing) is the 
 most ancient and best recommended. The Romans 
 were well acquainted with it,t and Du Hamel revi- 
 ved its use in France about the year 1733,| whence 
 it extended itself to Holland and Germany.^ The 
 
 * Encyclopaedia of Gardening, 
 t Virgil and Columella. 
 
 X Memoires de L'Academie des Sciences, 1788. 
 ^ Works of Dederich and Diel. Darwin's Phytologia de 
 scribes and explains it, yet it was considered as a ne /v discover* 
 
FRUIT tfARDEN. 223 
 
 practice, however, never became general; probably 
 from discovering that the intended effect was not. al- 
 ways produced, and that, in other respects, the tree 
 was injured by liie process. Still, as some of our 
 readers may wish to make the experiment for them- 
 selves, we subjjuin the following directions : " Cut out 
 with a knife a ring of the o i:cr and inner barls. If 
 the tree be large, the excision should be made in 
 the branches ; but if small, in the stock. In apple 
 or other trees bearing kernel fruit, the wound should 
 not be larger than will fill up in two, or, at most, three 
 years ; and in peach or other stone-bearing fruit, in 
 one year."* The time for doing this is early in the 
 spring, and before the sap begins to circulate, as the 
 rationale of the practice takes for granted that, " by 
 preventing the descent of this below the ring, you 
 accumulate a force above it, which shows itself in . 
 the production of fruit buds." 
 
 Another means of effecting this object is men- 
 tioned by Williams (the discoverer of it), and con- 
 sists altogether in leaving the plant to throw out 
 lateral shoots, with little, if any restraint. By pur- 
 suing this method, " the leaves soou take that pecu- 
 liar conformation which is necessary to the produc- 
 tion of blossom buds ; and seedling apples give fruit 
 in four, five, and six years, instead of eight, ten, and 
 even fifteen, as is the case by the usual method of 
 planting close and pruning to naked stems. "f 
 
 2. Of propagation by Cuttings. — Every variety of 
 the apple-tree may be propagated by this method, 
 and will give the finest fruit in the smallest com- 
 pass for many years.J^ But it does not follow that 
 
 by the London Horticultural Society as late as 1817! (See a 
 paper from Dr. Nohden in the Transactions of that year.) And, 
 what is hardly less extraordinary, Hemphill, a German clergy- 
 man, claims the discovery as his own in 1815 ! , 
 
 * Hort. Trans., vol. i., p. 108. See a paper on Ringing, by 
 Williams. 
 
 t Idem., p. 333. % Loudon's Encyclopaedia. 
 
 ^ So far as our experiments indicate Loudon is wrong. Cut- 
 
224 GARDENING. 
 
 a]l the varieties adapt themselves rqually well to it. 
 Cuttings of the pippin, of the reiiuct, of the pear- 
 main, and of some other iiibes, do not succeed with 
 the same facility as those of the codhn races ; and 
 between these there is some difference. The vari- 
 eties known by the name of the While, the Keswic, 
 the Burknot, and the Carlisle, are best fitted for it, as 
 they produce roots sooner and in greater abundance 
 than the others. 
 
 Whatever variety we employ, care must be taken 
 in selecting the cuttings. Shoots growing on top 
 branches are not so good as side shoots ; and, other 
 things being equal, the nearer these can be got to 
 the ground, the better they are, having in them more 
 of the living principle. Another rule is to choose 
 those having an obhque or horizontal direction, rath- 
 er than such as grow perpendicularly. A cutting of 
 eight or ten inches will be sufficiently long ; but, as 
 the power of putting forth roots is found to reside 
 principally in the joints^ and as these are formed of 
 woods of different ages, we must remember to give 
 to the cuttings a portion of both : and hence the rule, 
 " to leave to one of six or eight inches of the wood 
 of the present year, an inch or half an inch of that 
 of the last year." 
 
 The time for planting is that of the full flow of 
 the juices, as it is then that, being most strongly 
 determined downward, they will soonest form that 
 callus or ring which is destined to become the ba- 
 sis of the future roots. Nor is the manner of plant- 
 ing them a matter of indifference. When your holes 
 are ready, put into the bottom of each some hard 
 substance (pieces of crockery are the best), and so 
 set your plants that they shall rest on these, and 
 not on the earth ;* after which, fill up what is left of 
 
 tings cannot be depended on for propagating the apple by any 
 mode which has been tried in our climate.— J. B 
 
 * "The Orange and Ceretonia, &c., if inserted in a mere 
 mass of earth, will hardly, if at all, throw out roots ; while, if 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 225 
 
 the holes, and press the ground closely about the 
 plants. They must now be covered with hand- 
 glasses, shaded in hot weather, and watered and 
 ventilated occasionally and moderately. In August 
 the glasses may be dispensed with, and in October 
 the cuttings should be transplanted to the nursery. 
 
 3. Of propagation hy Layers. — This mode was 
 probably suggested by observing th ? habits peculiar 
 to some trees and shrubs (as the laurel and the cur- 
 rant), of pointing their branches to the earth ; where, 
 finding an habitual moisture, they strike root, and 
 become distinct plants. In imitating this natural 
 process, the artist notches the lower side of the 
 branch he employs, buries it in the earth three or 
 four inches deep, and keeps it down by a wooden 
 crotchet. As this is done before the descent of the 
 sap, the notch operates like a dam or obstruction 
 to the descending juices, and forces them into a 
 bulbous form and granular substance, whence are 
 emitted a mass of roots necessary to the infant 
 plant. When these are sufficiently formed, that 
 part of the branch which binds them to the stem is 
 severed, and the layer taken up and transplanted. 
 
 4. Of propagation by Suckers. — This mode is never 
 employed but to obtain a supply of stems, on which 
 to ingraft dwarfs and espaliers, and is, of course, 
 confined to the Paradise and Creeper varieties. All 
 that it requires is to dig up the plants, to give a por- 
 tion of root to each, to shorten the stems to a fourth 
 or a half of their natural length, and to set them 
 out in nursery rows. 
 
 5. Of propagation by Scions. — These are parts of 
 living trees, which, when inserted in others of the 
 same nature, identify themselves with them, and 
 grow as if on their parent stems. The objects to 
 
 inserted at the sides of pots, so as to touch them, they seldom 
 fail of becoming rooted plants. T. A. Knight succeeded well 
 with the mulberry in this way."— Encyclopaedia of Gardening, 
 p. 444 
 
226 GARDENING. 
 
 be obtained by this operation (which is called graft- 
 ing) are four, viz., to preserve and multiply varie- 
 ties of known and acknowledged merit ; to improve 
 the qualities of the fruit ;* to hasten fructification 
 in trees slow in bearing; and, lastly, to render bar- 
 ren trees fruitful. f The general rules which guide 
 in the operation are to unite varieties of the same 
 nature, as apples and quinces, or apricots and plums, 
 &c., &c. ; to seek a resemblance in the flow of the 
 juices and the permanence of the foliage, between 
 the scion and the stock ; to take the scion from lat- 
 eral shoots, and from the last growth of the wood, 
 and at a proper season (which is during the winter) ; 
 to unite exactly the inner bark of the scion to that 
 of the stock, and to do this when the sap of the lat- 
 ter is in full motion. The age of the stocks is reg- 
 ulated by the character they are to bear : if intend- 
 ed for full standards, they should not be less than 
 three years old; if for half standards, two years 
 old; and if for dwarfs, one year old. The same 
 rule appears to have determined the elevation at 
 
 * Lord Bacon's opinion, that the office of the stem is merely 
 passive and subservient to the scion, is received with much 
 quahfication by professional horticulturists. Millar asserts that 
 "crab stocks cause apples to be firmer and sharper, and to keep 
 longer; and that breaking pears put on quince stocks give 
 gritty fruit ; while melting pears, on stocks of the same kind, 
 give fruit highly improved." Neil thinks "the qualities of the 
 fruit are partially alfiscted by the character of the stock on which 
 it is placed." Thouin necessarily holds the same opinion, as he 
 recommends grafting on a graft as a great improvement of the 
 fruit; and Loudon, in his Encyclopaidia, gives it as the settled 
 opinion " of all practical men, that the nature of the fruit is in 
 some degree affected by that of the stock." 
 
 t Encyclopaedia of Gardening, p. 783 ; and M'Donald's Ex 
 periments. if trees comparatively or absolutely barren be 
 headed down, and receive two or more scions, the roots and 
 stems, having now less to do, will nourish the grafts well, and 
 soon enable them to bear fruit. But, besides this effect of in- 
 creased nourishment, we must remember that grafting, like 
 ringing, predisposes to the production, of fruit-buds by the ob- 
 struction it gives to the descending sap.. ^ 
 
PRUIT GARDEN. 227 
 
 which the scions are to be inserted ; as it is the 
 general practice to graft standards at six feet from 
 the ground, half standards at three feet, and dwarfs 
 at six or eight inches : but both Millar and Knight 
 recommend loio grafting in preference to high, " in 
 all cases where the durability o^ the tree is an ob- 
 ject with the cultivator ;" and our own experience, 
 though comparatively small, is decidedly with them. 
 
 6. Of propagation ly Buds. — This method is a 
 modification of the former, and differs from it only 
 in this, that in grafting we employ a shoot already 
 matured into wood ; and in budding, a shoot in em- 
 bryo. Tiie rules which govern in this case are to 
 select buds from lateral shoots only, and from the 
 middle of these in preference to either extremity ; 
 to take them in moist or cloudy weather, or (if 4his 
 condition of the atmosphere -do not exist) early in 
 the morning or late in the evening, as at these times 
 the perspiration of the leaves being least active, the 
 buds will suffer least by the operation. If, after re- 
 moving the woody part (which comes off with the 
 shield), you discover a hole or opening under the 
 bud, it is unfit for use, having, in technical language, 
 lost its root. If, on the other hand, the bottom be 
 sound, lose no time in inserting it in the stock on 
 which it is destined to grow ; and in doing this, pre- 
 fer the north to the south side of the stem, and 
 smooth and shining bark to that which is dry and 
 spotted; and be particularly careful to cover the 
 edges of the shield with the bark of the stem, and 
 to tie with double ligatures ; the one intended mere- 
 ly to keep the bud in its place, the other, and up- 
 permost, to obstruct, in some degree, the ascent of 
 the sap.* 
 
 The time for budding is from the first of July to 
 the last of August ; but the true criterion in this 
 respect is the condition of the bud, and of the bark 
 
 * Encyclopaedia of Gardening. 
 18 
 
228 GARDENING. 
 
 adhering to it. When the first is full and verdant, 
 and when the last separates readily from the stem, 
 the operation cannot be ill timed. 
 
 7, Of propagation by mixing the farinas of different 
 sorts. — This mode (which, by-the-way, is only a 
 qualification of the first) is of late discovery, and 
 has not yet been much practised. We are, hov/ev- 
 er, assured that it has already produced many new 
 and excellent varieties ; and, according to Loudon, 
 it consists " in cutting out the stamens of the blos- 
 soms to be impregnated, and afterward, when the 
 stigma is mature, introducing the pollen of the other 
 parent." By this process the discoverer (Mr. Knight) 
 has obtained the Doivnton. red and yzllow Ingestrie, 
 Grange, Bj'indgwood, and Siberian pippins. The four 
 first«fiamed of these were produced by crossing the 
 orange and the golden pippin : the fifth by crossing 
 the golden pippin and the golden Harvey ; and the 
 sixth by crossing the Siberian crab and the pear- 
 main.* The only important rule laid down for this 
 method is " to select for crossing those varieties 
 whose qualities most nearly resemble each other ;" 
 as many observations show that where the differ- 
 ence between the sorts employed is great (even in 
 
 * This, and another seedling from the same parents, called 
 the yellow Siberian, are, according to Knight's test (the specific 
 gravity of the juices), the best cider apples yet known ; " the 
 gravity of the one being 1079, and that of the other 1085, water 
 being 1000."— Loudon's Catalogue of Apples.* 
 
 * Subsequent, probably, to Loudon's publication, the specific 
 gravity of the juice of the Dovvnton pippin was ascertained to 
 be 1080. Mr. Knight also produced, in 1807-8, two new varie- 
 ties, the Siberian Harvey and the Foxley Apple ; the first affording 
 the heaviest juice ever known, it being 1091 : that of the latter 
 was 1080. — See Knight on the Apple and Pear; also' ^ Hints," 
 <SfC., by W. Salisbury. 
 
 The celebrity of Mr. Knight's new varieties of apples induced 
 me to send to England for them in 1623 ; and I have now grow- 
 ing in my garden the Downton and Grange pippins, the Siberian 
 Harvey, Foxley Apple, and some others not named above.— Ed 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 229 
 
 point of size), the new variety produced is not valu- 
 able.* We subjoin to these remarks, and in illus- 
 tration of them, an experiment of this mode, made 
 by a distinguished Scotch agriculturist (M'Donald), 
 as given in the Encyclopcedia of Gardening, page 
 783. " In 1808 he selected some blossoms of the 
 Nonpareil, which he impregnated with the pollen 
 of the golden and Newton pippins. When the ap- 
 ples were ripe, he selected some of the best, from 
 which he took the seeds, and sowed them in pots, 
 which he placed under a frame. He had eight or 
 nine seedlings, which he transplanted into the open 
 ground in the spring of 1809. In 1811 he picked 
 out a few of the strongest plants, and put them 
 singly into pots. In the spring of 1812 he observ- 
 ed some of the plants showing fruit-buds. He took 
 a few of the twigs and grafted them on a healthy 
 stock on a wall, and in 1813 he had a few apples. 
 This year his seedlings yielded several dozens, and 
 also his grafts ; and he mentions that the apples on 
 the grafts were the largest." 
 
 Having indicated the varieties of the apple-tree, 
 and the means of continuing these and of produ- 
 cing new ones ; the selection to be made among 
 them, and the points in which their management 
 may differ, we proceed to what, in this respect, is 
 common to them all, viz., transplanting, pruning, 
 training, thinning, and, lastly, manuring, or other- 
 wise altering the condition of the soil.f 
 
 Of Transplanting. — This process is sometimes 
 repeated twice or thrice before the tree is perma- 
 nently placed, and, in the opinion of Knight, never 
 
 * Mr. Kline, the anatomist, &cc., holds the same doctrine in 
 relation to animals. 
 
 t The French make a distinction, and justly, between Vamende- 
 ment and Vengrais, for which we have no corresponding terms 
 which sufficiently illustrate the distinction. Ploughing, harrow- 
 ing, irrigating, and leaving in fallow, are among the amendemens 
 (improvements) : animal and vegetable matter, under some o' 
 their many modifications, constitute Vengrais (manures). 
 
230 GARDENING. 
 
 to its advantage, and often to its injury. Our own 
 practice is to work the stocks as soon as they have 
 attained the diameter of an inch in the seedbed, 
 and transplant once and permanently; believing 
 that, though repeated removals may hasten the pro- 
 duction of fruit, they retard the general growth and 
 development of the plant, and sometimes form a 
 crisis in its health from which it never recovers. 
 
 The rules which govern in this operation are as 
 follows : Take up the young trees with as little in- 
 jury to the roots as possible, and replant them with- 
 out any avoidable delay, in holes not less than three 
 feet square,* and thirty feet apart ; give them the 
 same depth and exposition they had in the nursery ; 
 bring the earth and the roots into full contact, and 
 water freely till the young trees give evidence of 
 having taken root anew. The time for this opera- 
 tion is during any mild weather in the spring, before 
 the sap has got into motion; or in the autumn, after 
 its circulation has ceased. f 
 
 Of Pruning. — This branch was originally confined 
 to the removal of dead, or diseased, or fractured 
 wood ; but the discovery was soon made that 
 branches might do mischief from their position as 
 well as from their unsoundness : and hence the rule, 
 " to retrench whatever intercepts the rays of light, or 
 prevents a due ventilation of the tree.'" The next step 
 in the art was to take off redundant branches; as 
 frequent experiments proved that, by lessening the 
 quantity of wood, that which was left was made 
 more productive. A third discovery followed : that 
 
 * For the advantage of this practice, see Cours d'Agriculture, 
 art. Pecher. 
 
 t Each of these seasons has its advocates; one set forbidding 
 fall planting, because the high winds of the winter shake and 
 fatigue the young trees ; the other spring planting, because a dry 
 and warm spring will destroy them. Our own practice is to 
 employ both seasons indiscriminately, and experience justifies 
 this course. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 231 
 
 Straight or perpendicular shoots gave little and bad 
 fruit ; while those pushing at angles less than 45 de- 
 grees,* gave fruit abundantly and of a good quality : 
 and hence the rule, "/or rigorously suppressing ivater- 
 shoots and gluttons, and for encouraging side-shoots 
 growing horizontalhj,'''' or nearly so, in relation to the 
 parent stem. An extension of the principle of this 
 rule was found to be usefully applied to side-shoots 
 themselves : and hence the practice " of heading 
 these down, so as to give to the direction of their future 
 growth new and artificial angles ;" for, by obstructing 
 the flow of the sap, and compelling it to travel more 
 slowly, you compel it also to throw out more blos- 
 soms, and, consequently, to give more fruit. 
 
 To these remarks we^ subjoin a few others on this 
 head. 
 
 1. Young trees, if of moderate growth, should be 
 pruned early in the spring ;t if of luxuriant growth, 
 later in the season. 
 
 2. Established and bearing trees are best pruned 
 in the fall; the operation, performed then, strength- 
 ens the tree, and tends to the production of blossom 
 buds. 
 
 3. Superfluous and ill-placed buds may be rubbed 
 off" at any time ; and no buds pushing after midsum- 
 mer should be spared. 
 
 4. The number of shoots to be retained must be 
 limited by the nature of the tree, the size of the 
 
 * Cours d' Agriculture, art. Courbure. 
 
 t From some years' experience in summer pruning, say late 
 in June and early in July, we are disposed to give it a prefer- 
 ence over autumn or spring pruning. At either of the latter 
 periods the tree is divested of foliage, and the wounds are ex- 
 posed to the drying and corroding influence of the sun and winds ; 
 and the accustomed flow of sap in the spring induqes the growth 
 of a multiplicity of new sprouts. At midsummer the wounds 
 are shielded by the foliage, the flow of sap is moderate, and the 
 caubium, or elaborated sap, which is then most abundant, soon 
 covers the lips of the wounds, and prevents disease and decay. 
 — J. B. 
 
232 GARDENING. 
 
 fruit, and that of the head. Trees which produce 
 only on young spurs (as the apple-tree), require a 
 larger provision of this sort than those which give 
 fruit for several years in succession on old spurs. 
 
 5. In choosing between the shoots to be retained, 
 other things being equal, preserve those which are 
 lowest placed, and, of lateral shoots, those which 
 are nearest to the origin of a branch. 
 
 6. The retained shoots should be treated accord- 
 ing to the class of fruit-trees to which they belong. 
 If to that which bears on distinct branches and on 
 old spurs, they should be shortened as little as pos- 
 sible, or not at all ; if to the class which bears on 
 the last year's wood only (as the apple, apricot, pear, 
 cherry, and plum), they should be shortened alter- 
 nately, year and year about, so as always to furnish 
 a proper supply of bearers ; and if to the anoma- 
 lous class which bears on both kinds of spurs, the 
 treatment should be of the mixed kind, partaking of 
 the modes severally prescribed for the two other 
 classes, and in proportion as the shoots may indicate 
 a greater or less assimilation to either of these.* 
 
 7. Shorten strong shoots one fourth, and feeble 
 ones one half. 
 
 Of Training. — Many observations led to the be- 
 lief that, though the apple tree, when left to its nat- 
 ural form and bulk, possessed its greatest vigour 
 and productiveness, and was in the condition fittest 
 for large and permanent orchards, still that in other 
 forms, and on feebler stems, and under a treatment 
 in all respects more artificial, it may be made to 
 give fruit of an earlier sort, of a larger size, and of 
 better appearance. Of this important discover)^ 
 
 * Some gardeners are in the practice of heading down old and 
 much decayed apple-trees within a few inches of the ground. 
 Forsyth was the first to recommend this practice, on the credit 
 of many experiments made by himself, which prove that trees 
 so managed may be restored to vigour and fruitfulness. — See hisj 
 work on Fruit 'I'rees, 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 233 
 
 horticulturists were not slow in availipg them- 
 selves, and, as in many similar cases, even abused 
 it; for hence came the whole family of dwarfs and 
 monsters, so fashionable in the days of La Quinteuy 
 and D'Andilly, and of which some specimens may yet 
 be found in different parts of Europe. However![as 
 experiments multiplied, and science and good taste 
 increased, a medium size, and forms less foreign 
 from vegetable nature than those of the hon and the 
 stag, tlie distaff and the urn, were brought into use, 
 and established as most proper for garden culture. 
 
 In forming these (to which have been given the 
 names of the half standard, the pyramid, and the 
 espalier), the labour necessarily begins in the nur- 
 sery. The stock of the crab, the paradise, or the 
 quince, is grafted two, three, or four inches from 
 the earth, with the variety you wish to propagate. 
 In the spring of the second year after grafting, one 
 of two methods is employed to form the head ; ei- 
 ther by shortening the shoots which may have 
 pashed from the graft, or the graft itself to the third 
 or fourth eye from its root. In either case, a growth 
 of more vigorous shoots succeeds, from which you 
 select your m.ain or leading branches; always taking 
 care to reject those which are spongy and over- 
 grown, or feeble and wiry. 
 
 The future management of the tree will necessa- 
 rily be regulated by its destination. If intended for 
 a standard, your labour will be principally confined 
 to the removal of dead or dying, and redundant 
 wood; and "to the thinning and shortening the ex- 
 terior parts of the branches, so that the light may 
 everywhere penetrate into the head, without any- 
 where passing through it."* If, on the other hand,, 
 you mean that your tree shall be a 'pyramid, the or- 
 dinary mode of giving this form consists in making 
 the oldest and lowest branches the longest, and in 
 
 ♦ Encyclopaedia of Gardening. 
 
234 GARDENING. 
 
 shortening the upper and younger growths gradual- 
 ly to the top. But against this practice we are ad- 
 monished by a British writer of considerable au- 
 thority,* who says that, " when appHed to apple, or 
 pear, or other trees which produce their fruits at the 
 extremities of the last years wood, the conical form 
 is both absurd and ruinous ; since, to produce or pre- 
 serve it, we must necessarily destroy a large pro- 
 portion of fruit-buds." The terms of this position 
 are, however, too broad ; for, though the objection 
 be good against the old or ordinary method of pro- 
 ducing this shape, it fails altogether against the shape 
 itself, provided any mode of producing it be found 
 which shall leave the fruit-buds untouched ; and that 
 such mode does exist, we learn from another writer 
 of the same nation, and of equal, if not higher au- 
 thority.! " If," he says, " the graft you employ be 
 inserted with its point (or terminal) bud perfect, the 
 branches will range themselves horizontally and in 
 series, and, without violence, produce all the effects 
 (as to shape) which have hitherto been produced by 
 pruning and training." The espalier form, if that be 
 desired, is produced by selecting two healthy shoots 
 the second year after grafting, which, when spread 
 out, like the ribs of a fan, against an open frame, 
 and filled up within by lateral shoots, present two 
 surfaces, the one in front and the other in rear, for 
 the production of fruit. The knife in this case is 
 only used in keeping these surfaces clear of dead, 
 or unhealthy, or fractured wood, and in removing all 
 shoots other than those growing laterally. 
 With these several forms may be associated the 
 
 * Nicol. 
 
 t Hayward's Principles of Gardening. An additional author- 
 ity in favour of the pyramidal form is the practice of those em- 
 inent botanists, Thouin and Bosc, in the national gardens at 
 Paris (the Jardin des Plantes and the Luxembourg). It is, be- 
 sides, the form generally adopted, if we mistake not, in the 
 schools of botany. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 235 
 
 artificial shelter of walls ; which, from many experi- 
 ments made in the most crowded parts of our cities, 
 are beUeved to be useful in maturing fruits of many- 
 kinds, and especially to such as are of southern ori- 
 gin and delicate constitution, as the peach, the nec- 
 tarine, the fig, &c. The rules whicli apply to this 
 branch of the art are few and simple, and will be re- 
 served for a future subject (the peach-tree), as one 
 to which they better apply than to the apple-tree. 
 
 Of Thinning* — In using this term, we confine 
 ourselves to the removal of superfluous leaves and 
 fruit ; an operation which, though proper and use- 
 ful, must be cautiously performed ; as, in the vege- 
 table economy, the office to which the leaf is des- 
 tined is very important : being the supply of the 
 pLuit with that portion of its subsistence derived 
 from the atmosphere. We know of no purpose, 
 therefore, that will justify us in stripping off any 
 considerable part of the foliage, unless it be that of 
 maturing fruit and wood, which, from constitutional 
 defects or a faulty situation, would not otherwise 
 ripen. Peaches, pears, grapes, and some varieties 
 of apples, occasionally come within this description ; 
 and though the process may not be equally indispen- 
 sable to them all, yet all are undoubtedly improved 
 by it. The rule which governs in this case is, " to 
 remove such leaves as shade the fruit, so soon as 
 this has attained its full size, and begins to lose its 
 green colour." To do it earlier would impair the 
 growth of the fruit ; and to do it rigorously and at 
 once, would arrest that of the retained shoots : 
 whence it follows that " the thinning must be grad- 
 ual, and at two or more different times during the 
 space of five or six days."t If the leaves of wall- 
 trees hang longer than usual, they should be brushed 
 off, the better to ventilate and ripen the young wood ; 
 
 * Encyclopedia of Gardening. 
 
 t Not applicable, or, if appli«='able, seldom or ever practised on 
 the farm.— J. B. 
 
236 GARDENING. 
 
 but, in doing this, we must be careful to brush up- 
 ward and outward, and never in the opposite direc- 
 tions, as in that case we could not fail to injure the 
 retained buds. 
 
 Thinning the fruit is also an important operation ; 
 since, if properly managed, it has the direct effect 
 of improving both the size and the quality of what 
 is left', while, ai the same time, it betters the condi- 
 tion of ihe tree, and adds greatly to its longevity. 
 Few persons have been such negligent observers as 
 not to have remarked the proneness in apricot, nec- 
 tarine, peach, and plum trees, to set more fruit than 
 they are able to ripen. It is true that this exces- 
 sive bearing will in some degree cure itself, but al- 
 ways at the expense of the tree and of the fruit it 
 actually ripens ; whence the economy of anticipa- 
 ting nature, and relieving her from the labour of 
 sustaining a useless and abortive progeny. Bu^, 
 as in the case of superfluous leaves, this thinning 
 should be performed cautiously and at different 
 times. " If the fruit be thickly set ever particular 
 parts of the tree only, begin by taking off one half 
 from such parts ; and if every part of the tree be 
 crowded, take off the same proportion from the 
 whole." Revise it again in June, and finally in Ju- 
 ly ; taking off, at each of these revisions, such as 
 may be usefully spared. On healthy and full-bear- 
 ing trees, one apple of large size to every square 
 foot of the superficial contents of the tree, is con- 
 sidered a just proportion ; that is, a space of fifteen 
 feet by twelve may be allowed to ripen two hundred 
 apples ; and if the fruit be small, this proportion may 
 be increased a third part.* " Many persons," says 
 Nicol, " may think that thinning to this extent will 
 be excessive ; but I wish such to be convinced of 
 the propriety of doing so by comparison. If they 
 have two trees of a kind, healthy and well-loaded, 
 
 * Encyclopsedia of Gardening. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 237 
 
 thin the one as directed, and leave the other to it- 
 self. It will be found that the tree which has been 
 thinned will produce an equal or greater weight of 
 fruit, and this incomparably more beautiful ajid high- 
 er in flavour. The operation should be over by the 
 time the fruit is half grown ; for, if delayed till they 
 are nearly full grown, and beginning to swell off for 
 ripening, the mischief will be already done, both to 
 the tree and to the fruit which is reiained." 
 
 Of Manuring, and otherwise altering the condition 
 of the soil. — We have said that apple-trees grow 
 well in a great variety of soils ; but it by no means 
 follows that they affect all soils alike. A substan- 
 tial loam, whose substratum is dry, is that in which 
 they thrive best ; and a circumstance which is not 
 discouraging to the agriculturist is, that, should he 
 not find such ready made to his hand, he can him- 
 self make it without much expense of time or 
 money. Its elements are cheap and abundant, 
 being sand, clay, and vegetable or animal matter in 
 a state of decomposition. Equal proportions of the 
 first and second of these, and a smaller quantity of 
 the third, will give a soil of great power and dura- 
 bility, requiring only occasional supplies of mould 
 to reinstate what of that may be taken from the 
 mass by successive croppings. This mould is it- 
 self created by a mixture of various substances, as 
 dung, ashes, leaves, weeds, lime, marl, &c., fre- 
 quently turned and thoroughly rotted, and to which, 
 in this condition, has been given the technical name 
 of com.post. A biennial dressing of tfiis, applied to 
 the whole surface, with an annual and careful cul- 
 ture of some esculent plant between the trees, will 
 bestow on the latter all the advantages that, in our 
 climate, can be given by labouring and manuring 
 the earth. 
 
 Apple, like other fruit trees, have their enemies 
 and their diseases. All excesses of heat or cold, 
 wetness or dryness, are unfriendly to them; some- 
 
238 GARDENING. 
 
 times wholly destroying their fertility for the sea- 
 son, at others seriously injuring it, and occasional- 
 ly, though rarely, disorganizing the trees them- 
 selves. • Many insects also prey upon them, attack- 
 ing their leaves, blossoms, fruit, bark, or roots ; of 
 which the J\phis \a3n1gera,* the curculio, the scara- 
 beus, &c., arc the most common and injurious ; 
 nor, 'dnfortunrltel\^ do we know any specific remedy 
 against these evils. f Bur, after all, may not our 
 own negligence be considered as lUe iiiost fruitful 
 source of many others of a simihu* kind] How 
 often do we find me bark of fruit-trees covered and 
 coloured with parasiies, in the form of mosses, and 
 lichens, and smui, wliich a small degree of labour 
 and a little whitewash would entirely and promptly 
 remove. I How patiently do we look on and see 
 the ravages made on their leaves and fruit-buds by 
 caterpillars of different names and appearances, 
 when, if we visited them at daybreak, all would be 
 found at home and asleep, and entirely within our 
 reach 1 And, lastly, how various and fatal are the 
 wounds inflicted on stems and branches (under the 
 name and pretence of pruning) when left open, as 
 they generally are, to the alternate action of air, 
 and frost, and sunshine, without giving them even 
 the cheap and simple covering of St. Fiacre 1^ 
 
 * The Eriosoma mall of Leach. This insect forms the excres- 
 cences called galls on the stems and branches of trees. " W. 
 Salisbury gives an engraving of it, as it appeared through a mag- 
 nifying glass, eating its way into the roots of a tree ; and another 
 of the same insect m the bug state, which he believed to be the 
 male." — Loudon, p. 788. 
 
 f Watering, fumigation, &c., are the remedies usually pre- 
 scribed ; but, in our opinion. " a judicious management of the 
 sub and surface soil, culture and pruning, are the things luost 
 to be relied upon." — Idem, 
 
 X The best wash for the apple-tree is a strong ley, to be ap 
 plied to the trunk and larger branches with a brush, early in 
 June. It destroys both parasitic plants and insects. — .1. B. 
 
 {) A mixture of cow-dung and clay is called in France (tl^t 
 land of saints'! *' the ointment of St. Fiacre ;" and is, in the 
 
FRUIT GARDEKf. 239 
 
 The Pear-tree {Pyrus communis) was not un- 
 known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, and 
 grows spontaneously in the forests of Europe as 
 high as the 51st degree of north latitude. It differs 
 from the apple-tree in its greater tendency to a py- 
 ramidal form, in its being more slow in arriving at 
 a bearing or productive state,* and, lastly, in its 
 living to a much greater age.f 
 
 The hardiness of the tree and the excellence of 
 its fruit have recommended it to general cultiva- 
 tion, as might be inferred from the very great num- 
 ber of its varieties. These, which in the time of 
 Pliny amounted to thirty, have since increased to 
 three hundred ; and, if Van Mons is to be credited, 
 to even double that number. From this long mus- 
 ter-roll of names we shall select a few, in their nat- 
 ural order of ripening, which stand highest in pub- 
 lic estimation for dessert and culinary uses, and 
 which may be made to supply our tables from 
 July to March : The Green Chissel, the Red Musca- 
 dine, the Avorat or Muscat Robine, the Royale d^Ete^ 
 the Green Yair, the Beurre Rouge, the Messieur Jean, 
 the Crassan, the Colmar, the Vergoleuse, the Wondei 
 of Winter, the Poire d''Auch, the Brown Beurre, the 
 Muscat VAllemande, the Winter St. Germain, and the 
 Bon Chretien.^) 
 
 As these varieties do not reproduce themselves 
 from the seed ; as the plants furnished by layers, 
 
 opinion ©f the best horticulturists of that country, a more effi 
 cient coveiing for the wounds of trees than the complicated and 
 much-vaunted mixture of Forsyth. 
 
 * Generally from 15 to 18 years. — Cours d'Agriculture, art. 
 Poirier. 
 
 t Knight asserts, that the variety called in England the Bar- 
 land has existed from the beginning of the 17th century, and 
 conjectures that the Tanuton Squash (an older variety) was first 
 known in the 6egmning of the 16th. 
 
 X Du Hamei divides the varieties known in his day into two 
 classes, and considers them all as proceeding from the fecunda- 
 tion of the wild pear by the quince. 
 
 ^ See our note on orchards, p. 0(^. — J. B. 
 
240 GARDENING. 
 
 cuttings, and suckers are very indifferent ; and as 
 seedlings are slow in giving their fruit, it follows 
 that the pear is principally propagated by scions 
 and buds. These are placed on quince or pear 
 stocks, according as taste or interest may invite to 
 early and small crops of fine quality, or to later 
 and more abundant ones of inferior character. In 
 the former case, the stem of the quince must be 
 employed, and in the latter that of the common 
 pear, and without any material difference in the 
 operation, excepting that " the feebler the stem, the 
 nearer to the earth should be placed the scion or 
 the bud." 
 
 Notwithstanding the hardiness ascribed to the 
 pear-tree, we know not any of the kernel class more 
 readily or sensibly affected by particular conditions 
 of the atmosphere. A moist and cold spring, a wet 
 summer, and a rainy autumn, are alike unpropi- 
 tious to it. In either of these cases, the fruit which 
 does not rot is watery and tasteless, and when all 
 take place, the evil extends to even a second year ; 
 as, according to the observations of Coursette, 
 " long-continued moisture rarely fails to convert 
 fruit-buds into wood-buds." 
 
 The second year after budding or grafting, the 
 plants may be removed to the places where it is in- 
 tended they shall stand ; and as the manner and 
 time of doing this do not diifer from those already 
 prescribed for the apple-tree, we may spare our- 
 selves and our readers the trouble of a repetition 
 of our directions on those heads. 
 
 With respect to expositioa and soil, though the 
 pear-tree may be made to grow anywhere, still it 
 will succeed badly on the north side of hills or in 
 stiff dry soils, and still worse on those which rest 
 on a wet subsoil. Some of its later and finer vari- 
 eties require and deserve a deep substantial loam, 
 occasionally refreshed with a dressing of well-rot- 
 ted duiTg, and some of the best aspects the garde?. 
 can furnish. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 241 
 
 Cultivated as standards and pyramids, the young 
 trees should be left in a great degree to regulate 
 their own shape ;* and if interference become prop- 
 er at all, it should be conducted under two rules, 
 " to keep the middle of the head pretty open, and 
 the sides well balanced. ■"! Trees of other forms, 
 and intended for walls and espaliers, require more 
 labour and management, and a degree of both sum- 
 mer and winter pruning ; the former of which con- 
 sists in rubbing off all fore-right, ill-placed, super- 
 fluous, or spongy shoots, before they become so 
 hard as to render the use of the knife necessary ; 
 while the latter (performed during any temperate 
 weather between November and April) is conduct- 
 ed on the general rule " of sparing all such well- 
 placed and thriving laterals as maybe necessary for 
 preserving the form given to the head of the tree, 
 and of cutting away all others close to the branch 
 from which they grow." If the older wood be dis- 
 eased or redundant, cut this away also, or short- 
 en it down to some healthy and promising shoots. 
 The retained branches, if growing against a wall or 
 trellis, should, after each pruning, be laid down and 
 nailed, with as much extension as can conveniently 
 be given to them. 
 
 Mr. Knight's mode of training the pear-tree is to 
 leave on the young stock two lateral branches on 
 each side. When about six feet high, he transplants 
 the tree early in the spring, and inserts grafts on 
 each of the laterals, " so that two of them shall 
 push from the stem about four feet from the ground, 
 and two others from the summit, the ensuing year. 
 
 * Knight remarks that, in general, very little pruning is re- 
 quired for pear standards or pyramids ; but that there are sorts 
 which form heads resembling those of apple-trees, and that for 
 these pruning may be beneficial. 
 
 f To produce a well-balanced tree, shorten the wood of the 
 deficient side, and leave the other to itself. For the reason ot 
 Jhis rule, see a note on the art. Apple-tree. 
 
242 GARDENING. 
 
 The shoots produced by these grafts, when about 
 a foot long, are to be trained downward, the lower 
 ones almost perpendicularly, and the upper ones 
 just below a horizontal line, and so placed as to 
 distance that the leaves of the one will not at all 
 shade the other. Continue this mode of training 
 the second year, and in the third you may expect 
 an abundant crop of fruit."* 
 
 When an old tree becomes unproductive, one of 
 •wo methods should be adopted : either to cut it 
 down within eighteen inches or two feet from the 
 ground, and train up anew some selected shoots 
 which may have pushed from the stump (which is 
 the method of Forsyth), or "to take off at its base 
 every branch which does not want at least twenty 
 degrees of being perpendicular, and all spurs from 
 such other branches as, by this rule, will be left. 
 Into these (the retained branches), at their subdivis- 
 ions, and at different distances from their bases 
 quite to their extremities, grafts must be carefully 
 inserted, which, when they attain sufficient length 
 (say twelve inches), must be trained downward be- 
 tween the branches, as directed in the preceding 
 
 paragraph."! 
 
 The enemies and diseases of the pear-tree being 
 those of the apple-tree, we refer the reader to what 
 has been said in relation to them in the preceding 
 article. 
 
 The Quince {Pyrus cydonia) is a native of the 
 southern and eastern parts of Europe, where it is 
 much cultivated for its fruit, which, though not eat- 
 able in a raw state, is readily converted into a mar- 
 
 * We have varied Mr. Knight's phraseology a little, having 
 «ubstituted the form oi 2i precept for what he has given in that of 
 an experiment. 
 
 t Forsyth's objection to the practice of cutting oiFold spurs, 
 viz., "that it brings on the canker, and renders the fruit small 
 and spotted," would admonish us against the employment of 
 this method, had it not been adopted and recommended by Mr 
 Knight. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 243 
 
 malade, and an excellent dry paste, to which is giv 
 en the name of calignac. The stem is also employ- 
 ed for the reception of apple and pear grafts, and 
 has the property of giving to the fruit it bears great- 
 er precocity, an increased size, and an improved 
 flavour , but with this drawback, that " the quantity 
 is small, and the product short-lived, as the age of 
 the tree seldom exceeds ten or twelve years." 
 
 The varieties of the quince are four : the pear 
 quince, the apple quince, the mild, and the Portuguese ; 
 of which the last should in all cases be preferred, 
 being hardier, handsomer, and a better bearer than 
 the other sorts, and, what we consider as no small 
 additional recommendation, being also more tena- 
 cious of its fruit, which rarely falls from mere ri 
 pening. 
 
 Like the other varieties, this is propagated by 
 seeds, layers, suckers, and cuttings. The first give 
 the finest plants ; but the process is so slow as of- 
 ten to exhaust our patience, and thus raise against 
 it formidable objections. Still, as some may wish 
 to make the experiment for themselves, it may not 
 be improper to remark, that, when seeds are em- 
 ployed, they should be fresh and plump, and sown 
 in a bed of light and moist soil, having a southern 
 aspect. After vegetating in the spring, the plants 
 should be thoroughly hoed, and the ground about 
 them kept clear of wee-ds till the second year, when 
 they may be removed to the nursery, where, with 
 the care ordinarily given to this department of the 
 garden, they w^ill do well, until transplanted to the 
 places where they are permanently to stand. 
 
 Layers from the quince do not always succeed, 
 and hence it is that they are seldom employed ; but 
 his is not the case with cuttings, which, placed in 
 a soil and situation proper for them (moist and sha- 
 ded), rarely, if ever, fail. Taken in the spring, they 
 are set out in the nursery at the distance of fifteen 
 or eighteen inches apart; and, if intended for pear 
 19 
 
244 GARDENING. 
 
 or appie stocks, are grafted early the ensuing yeai. 
 In this case the ceil dormant, within a few inches 
 of the earth, is the species of graft ordinarily em* 
 ployed. But it is not to be forgotten that, from 
 causes not obvious in the present state of our knowl- 
 edge, some of the varieties of the pear submit qui- 
 etly to this operation, and even thrive under it, while 
 others will not survive it. Of the former descrip- 
 tion are the Vergoleuse and the Beurre ; and of the 
 latter, the Bon Chretien, Bergamot of England, Sal- 
 viati, the pound pear, and the Quenois.* The rea- 
 son assigned by naturalists is the difference of 
 strength between the stem and the graft, or, in 
 other words, the feebleness of the quince stock. 
 But what has a tendency, at least, to lessen our 
 confidence in this theory is, that the Vergoleuse 
 and the Beurre are both placed among the hardy 
 varieties, and yet do well on stems of this kind. 
 
 In propagating for stocks, remove the lower 
 shoots, and preserve the stem clean as high as the 
 graft. When the fruit of the quince is the object 
 of culture, train the stem to a rod or stake until it 
 reach the height of four or five feet, or, in other 
 words, till it be able to support itself. The time of 
 planting, mode of bearing, and general culture, are 
 those already described for apples and pears. 
 
 The Almond-tree {Amygdalus). — Of the six or 
 seven species of this tree known to botanists, there 
 is but one that would at all repay the expense and 
 trouble of cultivation here, and this is the Amyg- 
 dalus communis, or common almond. f Its varie- 
 ties, which amount to six or eight, are distinguish- 
 ed by some quality of the shell or of the fruit, as 
 the hard and the soft, the bitter and the sweet ; or 
 by names arbitrarily given, as the peach,| the pis- 
 
 * Cours d'Agriculture. 
 
 + All the different species are natives of Asia and Africa. 
 
 } This variety is supposed by Knight to be the Tuberes of 
 Pliny, produced by dusting the stigma of the almond with the 
 pollen of the peach.— Hort. Trans., vol, iii., p. 4. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 245 
 
 tachio, the cornichon, and the sultana. Of these, 
 the last and the sweet alnmond of Du Hamel and 
 Forsyth are the sorts most esteemed. 
 
 Like the apple, &c., the almond-tree is propaga- 
 ted by seeds when new varieties are sought for, and 
 by buds when old ones are to be continued. Graft- 
 ing is rarely practised, and never with good effect, 
 from the loss of gum inseparable from the wound 
 it inflicts. Whence it follows that, in moist soils, 
 the plum stock, and in dry soils, that of the peach 
 or of the bitter almond, are employed as stocks. 
 
 The best time for sowing is in the spring ; and 
 the seeds selected should be those which have been 
 taken from ripe fruit, and carefully buried in some 
 dry and cool place, to prevent evaporation. When 
 put out in the nursery they should be placed with 
 the sharp ends downward, in rows two and a half 
 feet apart, and kept free from weeds. As soon as 
 the young plants show themselves, cover them du- 
 ring the hot weather with straw, and, when four or 
 five feet 1iigh, inoculate ; when they are three 
 years old, transplant them into the fruit garden or 
 the shrubbery, as you may think best. In either 
 place, annually labouring the earth around the roots 
 will be useful. 
 
 The cultivation of this tree, under circumstances 
 favourable to it, is very profitable ;* but it must not 
 be dissembled, that in our climate, whether northern 
 or southern, it does not succeed. In the former, 
 the early production of its blossoms (which always 
 precede the leaves)f greatly expose it to frosts, the 
 slightest of which are sufficient to destroy it ; and 
 in the latter, from causes not sufficiently explored, 
 " the fruit falls," as we are informed by Bosc, " be- 
 
 * '• The profits of this culture in the south of France are not 
 so great, but more certain than those arising from the culture 
 of the olive."— Bosc. 
 
 t There is but one exception to this, the sultana, a sub-vari- 
 ety of the tender shell. 
 
246 GARDENING. 
 
 fore it ripens." With us, therefore, the manage- 
 ment of the tree, both with regard to soil and expo- 
 sition, must differ from that ordinarily prescribed ; 
 and, instead of giving to it a dry and warm sand, a 
 southern aspect, and a wall to reflect the heat, we 
 must be careful to employ means which shall have 
 the effect of retarding vegetation. These are, bud- 
 ding on the plum instead of either the peach or the 
 almond stock ; avoiding a southern aspect ; planting 
 in a soil poor and moist, and always in the open 
 air, and without the shelter of walls, fences, or hills ; 
 exposing the roots to the action of the frost during 
 winter; covering them with a thick coat of straw 
 during the hot days of the spring ; and, lastly, an- 
 nular excisions made in the bark. 
 
 The Apricot {Prunus). — The origin of this tree 
 has been somewhat contested. On the supposition 
 that it was a native of Armenia, the botanists have 
 called it the Prunus Armeniaca. Pallas, however, 
 claims it for the region of the Caucasus ; Grossie'r 
 for the barren mountains west of Pekin ; Thunberg 
 for Japan ; and Regnier for the banks of the Niger; 
 while Olivier finds it growing spontaneously, with- 
 out care or culture, in Asia Minor and in Persia. 
 The date of its introduction into Europe is not bet- 
 ter ascertained than its origin ; but the presumption 
 is that this was very remote, as the tree was known 
 in Italy in the time of Dioscorides, and was culti- 
 vated in France (as we learn from Thouin) when 
 that country was a Roman province. 
 
 As in the case of other fruit-trees long subjected 
 to cultivation, its varieties are numerous ; and many 
 of them so imperfectly distinguished from each 
 other, that their imputed differences sometimes es- 
 cape the observation of even practised horticultu- 
 rists. The varieties best ascertaine'd and most es- 
 teemed, are, 
 
 1. The early, principally recommended by its pre- 
 cocity, and by the circumstance that the stones 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 247 
 
 never fail to give fruit resembling in all respects 
 that of the parent tree. 
 
 2. The Angumois, distinguished by the oblong 
 form of its fruit ; by a flesh rich, juicy, and slightly 
 acid ; and by the abundance of its aroma. This 
 tree attains to great perfection in the southern parts 
 of Europe, thrives best in a calcareous soil, and in 
 an open and thoroughly ventilated situation; bears 
 badly the neighbourhood of walls, and entirely re- 
 fuses the discipline of the espalier. 
 
 3. The common^ recommended alike by its vigor- 
 ous growth, its hardness, and productiveness. The 
 fruit is, howeuer, less rich and less aromatic than 
 that of other varieties. 
 
 4. The Dutch. — The stem of this, if left to itself, 
 is apt to be feeble or diseased ; and hence it is that 
 we generally find this variety grafted on plum 
 stocks. Its fruit, like that of the Angumois, is 
 nealy spherical, juicy, and high flavoured, and (when 
 the tree has a good exposition, and is otherwise 
 well managed) attains to a considerable size. 
 
 5. The Portuguese. — The fruit of this sort is small 
 and round, but abounding in juices, and very high 
 flavoured. 
 
 G. The Alexandrian gives a fruit particularly adapt- 
 ed to confitures and marmalades ; as its own sugar 
 is nearly sufficient for its preservation. The objec- 
 tion to the tree is its precocity and tendernesss, as 
 it blossoms early, and blights under the smallest de- 
 gree of frost. 
 
 7. The Breda is an excellent variety, does well in 
 England, and would probably do better here. The 
 fruit is large and round, of a deep yellow colour, 
 with a pulp soft and juicy. The tree is a great 
 bearer, especially in the standard form, to which it 
 seems to be particularly adapted. 
 
 8. The Brussels gives a fruit of meduim size, in- 
 clining to an oval form, the flavour fine, and the pulp 
 not liable to dryness or toughness. The tree is a 
 
248 GARDENING. 
 
 great bearer, and, like the apricot of Breda, is well 
 adapted to the standard form. 
 
 9. The Moor Park or Peach, rarely, if ever, met 
 with in this country ; a fact the more extraordinary, 
 as many circumstances conspire to give it a decided 
 preference over all the other varieties. The tree 
 is large, vigorous, and hardy, and is propagated like 
 the kind first named, from the stone, without risk 
 or trouble of grafting or budding; it does well either 
 as a standard or espalier, and gives fruit in great 
 abundance and of an excellent quality.* 
 
 The apricot is multiplied in various ways, but 
 principally by seeds and budding. If we employ 
 the former of these methods, not a moment should 
 be lost after the fall of the fruit in placing the 
 stones in the earth ; nor should we omit for a single 
 day to water them after they are planted. With- 
 out an observance of these rules, the pits or seeds 
 shrivel or become rancid ; and in either case, the 
 power of germination (which in the apricot is nat- 
 urally feeble) is always impaired and often destroy- 
 ed. Sow also in the lines and at the distances at 
 which the trees are permanently to stand, whether 
 as wall fruit or standards ; for, by so doing, the 
 plants will have more and stouter roots, be better 
 assured against high winds (which always fatigue 
 and often destroy them), give their fruit sooner, and 
 escape the many hazards of transplantation. f 
 
 We have just suggested that the stone of the 
 apricot is slow in giving signs of life ; and we may 
 add that, when it does give them, it requires several 
 years to render the plant strong, healthy, and pro- 
 ductive. This last is probably the circumstance 
 that has decided nursery-men in favour of the other 
 (or budding) method of propagation, as by this they 
 
 * Catalogue-makers unite in giving this variety the prefer- 
 ence. — See Loudon, &c., &c. 
 
 t JVIanage this as we may, still there is a hazard in it, and 
 particularly so with regard to the apricot. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 249 
 
 obtain fruit in half the time necessary in .,he pre- 
 ceding process. Ahiiond or plum stocks are gen- 
 erally employed for stems ; and of the latter, those 
 of the two varieties called the Cerisette and St. Ju- 
 lian are the most approved. Knight, however, pre- 
 fers budding the Moor Park on the common apri- 
 cot ; and gives as a reason for doing so, that, " thus 
 managed, he finds the trees do not become debili- 
 tated or diseased as when budded on plum stocks.* 
 
 In selecting plants from the nursery, take those 
 of three years in preference to such as are either 
 older or younger ; and those having a single stem 
 to such as have two branches. On this last point 
 Forsyth goes so far as to recommend lopping off 
 one branch where the tree may happen to have 
 two : " as," he adds, " if both be retained, the mid- 
 dle space between them will be naked." 
 
 Apricots are often trained against walls (for the 
 general/eason of sooner and better maturing the 
 fruit) ; and, when so managed, will no doubt bear 
 much earlier than in the standard form. But to this 
 process there is a serious objection, arising from 
 the frequent and severe pruning which it renders 
 necessary, and the ill effects of this on the health 
 and longevity of the tree. On the other hand, if set 
 out and managed as standards, though much of this 
 injurious discipline will be avoided, and though in 
 the result we shall have abundant fruit and of fine 
 flavour, still we are compelled to wait long for it, 
 generally eight, and sometimes ten years. Influen- 
 ced by these considerations, the well-instructed hor- 
 ticulturist takes a middle course ; plants his apri- 
 cots in a border ; leaves them, in a great degree, to 
 regulate themselves as to shape ; uses the knife 
 only to get rid of dead or diseased wood ; rubs off 
 the fore-right and superfluous buds while in a her- 
 baceous state, and trains the retained shoots to a 
 
 *• Hort. Trans., vol. ii., p. 19. 
 
250 GARDENING. 
 
 trellis, so placed as almost to touch the south side 
 of the wall. By these means he secures the advan- 
 tages of both methods, and, at the same time, either 
 entirely avoids or so qualifies their defects, as to 
 render them of little importance. 
 
 The fruit is often attacked by flies and wasps, and 
 is best protected against these by nettings. Insects 
 do not appear to do much injury to the tree itself, 
 probably owing to the roughness of its bark and the 
 coriaceous nature of its leaves. 
 
 The Cherry-tree {Cerasus). — This, like most of 
 our other fruit-trees, is a native of Asia, and was 
 jfirst brought to Italy from the town of Oerasunt* 
 by the Roman general Lucullus. Its cultivated va- 
 rieties are about forty in number,| and are divided 
 by the French botanists into three races, to which 
 they have given the names of the bigarrotier, the 
 griottier, and the guignier. The fruit of the first is 
 distinguished by its hard and fleshlike substance ; 
 that of the second by its juiciness and tenderness ; 
 and that of the last by its comparative sweetness. 
 Subjoined is a list of such of the varieties (placed 
 in their natural order of ripening) as may be most 
 worthy of attention: The May Duke, the Early 
 Black (a cross made by Knight between the Graf- 
 fian and the May Duke),| Ronald's Large Black 
 Heart, Frazier's Tartarian, the Elton (another new 
 variety produced by crossing the Graffian and the 
 White Heart), the Bleeding Heart, Harrison'' s Heart,- 
 the Cerone, the Black Gean, the Florence, the Amber 
 Heart, and the Morello. 
 
 The cherry-tree is propagated both by needs and 
 
 Hence the generic name of Cerasus. 
 
 t The Luxembourg Catalogue contains forty-two. 
 
 t Hort. Trans., vol. iii., p. 212. " The cherry sports more ex- 
 tensively in variety when propagated from seeds, than any other 
 fruit that I have subjected to the experiment, and probably is 
 therefore capalile of attainint,' to a higher degree of perfection 
 than it has yet reach3d."--Kn)gh* "*'"■ 'iVans., vol. li., p. 13S 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 251 
 
 suckers when stems are wanted ; by seeds alone 
 when new varieties are required;* by scions when 
 you have to work on old subjects ; and by buds 
 when your trees are young. If intende^d for dwarfs, 
 bud your plants at two, and if for standards, a.t four 
 years of age. The spring succeeding this operation 
 is the time for transplanting, which should be done 
 carefully, and in the manner prescribed for setting 
 out apple-trees. The fashion or form of the trees 
 will direct the distance at which they are to stand 
 from each other : between standards this should not 
 be less than thirty feet ;f and between pyramids and 
 espaliers not less than twenty. 
 
 Though in our climate all the varieties of the 
 cherry-tree do well as standards and pyramids, and 
 are, therefore, generally and properly cultivated in 
 these forms, still it may be useful to remark that 
 two of them, the May Duke and the Morello, when 
 trained against walls, give fruit not only of greater 
 precocity, but of much finer flavour ; a circum- 
 stance in which they differ, not only from other va- 
 rieties of their own races, but from fruit-trees of all 
 other kinds. J 
 
 As the cherry grows on small spurs, pushing from 
 the sides and ends of two, three, and four year old 
 wood, and as the procession of new buds is con- 
 stant, it follows, as a general rule, that "the knife 
 must be sparingly employed ;" and as a particular 
 one in Relation to wall-trees, that "bearing branches 
 are not to be shortened if room can be found for 
 extending them."§ These rules, however rigorous- 
 ly executed, must not prevent .yi^mmer pruning (which, 
 
 * The seeds employed should be taken from ripe fruit, com 
 mitted promptly to a bed of sand, and kept in a dry and cool 
 place till the spring, when they may be set out in rows two and 
 a half feet apart. 
 
 t Millar thinks the distance should be forty feet. 
 
 t Nicol. 
 
 (} Abercrombie's Art of Pruning. 
 20 
 
252 GARDENING. 
 
 as already stated, consists in rubbing off redundant 
 or ill-placed buds), nor that of winter^ if confined to 
 the removal of fractured or unsound wood, or 
 branches too much multiplied or crossing each oth- 
 er.* The nature of the Morello will, however, ren- 
 der it an exception to the general rule here recom- 
 mended ; for, instead of bearing, like other varie- 
 ties, on two, three, and even four year old wood, its 
 fruit is generally produced on shoots of the last 
 year, and rarely, if ever, on even two year old wood. 
 Whence it follows that, with regard to this variety, 
 our aim in both summer and winter pruning ought 
 to be " a removal of old and a provision of new 
 bearers." 
 
 In renovating an old tree pursue Forsyth's meth- 
 od ; shorten it to a stump not more than 18 inches 
 high ; remove the old soil from the roots ; replace it 
 with that of upland pasture, on a layer of stone or 
 some other impervious body, two feet below the 
 surface, and encourage a single shoot. 
 
 Cherry-trees in general are not much affected 
 by insects. Of this class the red spider is their 
 greatest enemy in England ; and in Scotland an in- 
 sect called the black beetle, which Naismith found 
 the means of killing " by burning under the trees a 
 mixture of pitch, orpiment, and sulphur, and then 
 giving them a good washing with the garden en- 
 gine." Birds are here a more potent enemy ; and 
 the best remedy against them are old fishnets 
 thrown over the trees, clapboards, scarecro'w^s, and 
 fusees. 
 
 The Peach-tree {Amygdalus Persica) is a native 
 of Asia, and was first brought to Rome during the 
 reign of the Emperor Claudius. f A circumstance 
 worth remarking in even our short notice of its his- 
 
 * Caledonian Memoirs, vol. i, p. 427. 
 
 t Mentioned by Columella (in his work on Gardens), and also 
 y Pliny. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 253 
 
 tory is, that the 4)roduct of the species or variety 
 then irUroduced was believed to be poisonous, and 
 gave to the tree a very bad reputation, which yield- 
 ed, however, to experiments more carefully made, 
 and to the acknowledged fact that in Egypt, where 
 also it had become an object of culture, the fruit 
 was equally wholesome and delicious.* 
 
 The early botanists divided this family into two 
 classes : the one giving a fruit with a downy skin, 
 which they called a peach ; the other a fruit with a 
 smooth skin, to which they gave the name of nec- 
 tarine. But as it was soon ascertained that the same 
 tree did occasionally produce both sorts at the same 
 time,t later writers have rejected the distinction, and 
 considering them as the same fruit, have arranged 
 them simply into the downy and the smooth with 
 a free-stone, and the downy and the smooth with 
 a cling-stone. 
 
 The sub-varieties of both classes are numerous ; 
 and, as they afford much choice, the selection be- 
 tween them ought to be made with care, and under 
 two leading views : 1st, to secure a succession of 
 fruit throughout the season ; and, 2d, to do this by 
 employing the sorts which will best adapt them- 
 selves to the climate. In making up the following 
 list, we have, therefore, taken only those sub-varie- 
 ties which, under different modes of cultivation, have 
 succeeded in latitudes even higher than our own. 
 1st, the Early Purple (Pourpre hative of Du Ha- 
 mel) ; 2d, Grosse Mignone ; 3d, Belle Chevreuse ; 4th, 
 Royal Chariot ; 5th, Double Mountain ; 6th, Bellegarde 
 
 * Knight conjectures, and with great probabihty, that this 
 first importation to Rome was the Swollen Almond, which is 
 known to contain much prussic acid. OUvier brought the Wild 
 Peach of Persia to Paris ; where, on cultivation, it gave fruit 
 much resembling the Avant Peche Blanche, or what the English 
 call the White Nutmeg. 
 
 t See Salisbury's short account of nectarines and peaches 
 produced on the same branch, in vol. i., p. 103 of the Hort 
 Trans. 
 
254 GARDENING. 
 
 or Galande; IWi^Late Violet; Sih, Boy al Kensington; 
 9th, the Incomparable, or Pavie Admirable ; 10th, the 
 Pavie Rouge de Pomponne ; 11th, the Yellow Admira- 
 ble, or peach having the apricot flavour : and (of the 
 nectarine tribe), 12th, the Elriige ; 13th, Fairchild's 
 White; 14th, Temple's; 15th, the Scarlet; 16th, the 
 Early Ne wing ton ; 17th, the Late Newington; 18th, 
 the Golden; 19th, the Red Roman; and, 20th, the 
 Brugnon d'' Italic. * 
 
 All these varieties are continued by budding, and, 
 as in other cases, new ones are obtained by sowing 
 the stones ; in doing which, we ought not to forget 
 that, like oil-giving seeds in general, those of the 
 peach require to be earthed as soon as they are 
 separated from the pulp. In their second year (if 
 wall trees be required), such of them as are des- 
 tined for stems are budded close to the earth ; and if 
 riders or standards be wanted, three, four, or six feet 
 higher. In the spring following, the first shoots 
 from these buds should be headed down to four, 
 five, or six eyes, for the purpose of producing two 
 upright and leading branches, and as many laterals, 
 with which you be^in to give to the head the form 
 you intend it shall ultimately take. We need scarce- 
 ly remark that, on this point, the doctors in horti- 
 culture are nearly as far apart from each other as 
 are those of medicine in relation to the origin and 
 contagiousness of yellow fever. But believing, as 
 we do, that our object will be best fulfilled by turn- 
 ing aside from these discussions, we shall content 
 ourselves with a brief notice of two forms, which 
 in our opinion are at once the simplest and most 
 scientific. The first of these (the standard), as we 
 have already observed, is nearly the natural form of 
 the tree : requiring no interposition of art, if we ex- 
 cept the removal of dead, or dying, or superfluous 
 
 * We have excluded from this list the White ^nd the Red 
 Nutmeg, and the Early Ann, because recommended only by 
 their precocity. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 255 
 
 limbs, and an occasional supply of wood (if this be 
 wanted) to keep up a well-balanced head. It is also 
 that form in which the tree succeeds best in hot cli- 
 mates ; and in such it ought always to be employed. 
 But in northern latitudes (where the heat is neither 
 long-continued nor great), the fruit of the standard 
 peach-tree is rarely seen in perfection : it may be 
 large, and juicy, and well coloured, but it will always 
 be deficient in that peculiar flavour, that aroma which 
 is its true characteristic, and without which it is but 
 an ordinary fruit.* To supply, therefore, as far as 
 may be possible, without the aid of fire or glass, that 
 high temperature in which the peach delights, we 
 must resort, first, to the use of walls, which, be- 
 sides protecting the tree from high and cold winds, 
 concentrate the rays of the sun on its stem and 
 branches, and on the earth which surrounds and 
 nourishes its roots ; secondly, to the amelioration 
 of the soil, by giving to it boin warmth and dryness, 
 should it be deficient in these qualities ; and, thirdly, 
 to that mode of training " which exposes to the 
 light the greatest surface of leaf in the shortest 
 space of time,t and, consequently, best promotes an 
 equal distribution of the sap." For accomplishing 
 these three objects, the rules are to construct your 
 walls of stone, or brick, or wood, and of a height 
 from 12 to 15 feet ; to lay out, on the eastern and 
 southern sides of them, a border 10 feet wide, work- 
 ed to the depth of three feet, and manured with a 
 mixture of ashes and peat, or bog earth ;J to plant 
 in this (2 1-2 feet distant from the wall) your young 
 trees, furnished with two leading branches, and pre- 
 senting a figure not unlike the letter Y ; to bring 
 down these branches to a position nearly horizon- 
 
 * To show the effect of climate on this fruit, Bosc says that 
 he has eaten peaches at Verona, compared with which " the 
 celebrated Clingstone of Montreuil (the Pomponne) would be 
 regarded as an abortion." 
 
 t Knight. ; Loudon. 
 
256 GARDENING. 
 
 tal, and subsequently to train them upward, paral- 
 lel to each other, as high as the top of the wall, and 
 directly against its side, to which, throughout their 
 whole length, they are to be securely fastened by 
 woollen straps ; and, lastly, to encourage side-shoots 
 from these leaders, so as to fill up with bearing wood 
 the intermediate space between them, and such ex- 
 terior space on the wall as may be thought proper 
 and practicable. To this form is given the techni- 
 cal name of the Wavy or Curvilinear Fan ; and it is 
 obvious that, in preserving as well as in producing 
 it, the use of the knife cannot be dispensed with. 
 Be careful, therefore, in May and June, and occa- 
 sionally in the succeeding months, to remove water 
 shoots, and all ill-placed, redundant, or diseased 
 buds ; and again, at the fall of the leaf, to cut away 
 with a sharp knife, and close to the branches on 
 which they grow, such new shoots as will not read- 
 ily accommodate themselves to your design, or as 
 may be unnecessary to it, and also all such old wood 
 as may be useless or troublesome.* 
 
 The general rules for thinning leaves and fruit 
 (prescribed under a preceding article) must be care- 
 fully observed in the treatment of peach-trees and 
 nectarines, as they are known to have an uncom- 
 mon degree of proneness to overbearing, and as the 
 discipline we recommend will, besides giving an 
 improved fruit, tend directly and greatly to fortify 
 
 * Knight's method of pruning, in "high, cold, and wet situa- 
 tions," and by which he secures good crops whpn even the sea- 
 son is unpropitious, may be found uselul in our climate. " In- 
 stead," he says, "of takmg off a large portion of the young 
 shoots in the spring, and training a few only to a considerable 
 length, as is the general practice, I retain a large number of the 
 shoots, and pinch ofif the minute and succulent points to the 
 length of one or two inches. By these means I obtain spurs 
 which lie close to the wall, and give as strong and vigorous blos- 
 soms, in even cold and wet situations and weather, as are pro- 
 duced by the old method under circumstances the most favour- 
 able."— Encyclopaedia of Gardening, p. 456. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 25* 
 
 the trees against the attacks of their numerous en 
 emies. Of these the Acarus, Cherines, Aphis, anu 
 Thrips (an insect hardly perceptible to the naked 
 eye), are the most common, and are best expelled 
 by water and tobacco smoke. It is, however, the 
 curculio, or grub (as we call it), that may, from its 
 pre-eminence in mischief, be regarded as the de 
 stroyer of the peach. Its attacks ordinarily begin 
 in the stem near the surface of the earth ; and, if not 
 arrested, will soon terminate in the roots, where it 
 riots on the gum exuding from the many wounds i 
 inflicts. The remedies resorted to in this case are, 
 first, the application of boiling water to the roots ; 
 secondly, a similar application of unslacked lime, 
 in the proportion of one quart to a tree ; thirdly, re- 
 moving the surface earth, and substituting foj it tan- 
 ner's bark ; fourthly, removing the earth, as in the 
 preceding case, in the month of November, and ex- 
 posing the roots to the action of the frost during 
 the winter ; and, lastly, encircling the lower part of 
 the stem with straw, and thus compelhng the insect 
 to begin his attack so far from the ground, that he 
 will be unable to avail himself of its shelter before 
 the coming on of winter. 
 
 The diseases of the peach-tree are as numerous, 
 and often as fatal, as the depredators just mention- 
 ed; and are known to horticulturists under the 
 names of the honey-dew, mildew, canker, spots, &c. 
 The first of these yields to the flower of sulphur 
 sprinkled over the tree ; but the most efllcient cure 
 for all of them is the removal of the soil about their 
 roots.* 
 
 The Plum-tree [Prunus domestica) is a native of 
 different parts of Europe, has been long cultivated, 
 and has, of course, many varieties. Of these, the 
 
 * Kinment's experiments, made in 1811, 12, and 13, show that 
 the last of these diseases is the effect of too much vegetable 
 food, and that, by reducing the quantity of this, the diseased 
 trees will recover. 
 
258 GARDENING. 
 
 best recommended are the Precoce of Tours, the 
 Early Dmnson of Provence, the Green Mirahelip of 
 Italy, the St. Catharine, the White Perdrigon, the 
 Imperatrice, and all the Gages, blue, violet, and 
 green. 
 
 The St. Catharine, the white Perdigon, and the 
 gages, are propagated by seeds, the products of 
 which never fail to give plants differing in nothing 
 from the parent stem;* while the other varieties 
 can only be kept up by budding or grafting-! Where 
 trees are of more than four years' growth, the latter 
 of these operations is preferred ; and on all under 
 that age, the former is thought best. 
 
 Argillaceous soils, neither habitually wet nor oc- 
 casionally inundated, and of medium quality, are 
 those which best agree with the plum-tree. Where, 
 from previous culture or accidental causes, the earth 
 has become either very rich or very poor, the tree 
 does not succeed. In the one case, its vigour is di- 
 rected only to the production of wood and foliage ; 
 and in the other, its growth is feeble and its life 
 short. In favourable climates it should always be 
 cultivated as a standard, and will then require only 
 a little annual labour about the roots, and the re- 
 moval from the head of dead or dying branches ; but 
 
 * Tnis is, at least, a doubtful conclusion. Plants, like ani- 
 mals of the same genus, will mix and produce new varieties, as 
 is amply proved by artificial fecundation ; and the gages, we be- 
 lieve, form no exception to the general law. We have, in sev 
 eral instances, seen and tasted fruits, grown from the pits of the 
 gage ; but we have never seen in any of these fruits an exact 
 resemblance to the female parent. They have been of various 
 colours, shapes, size, and flavour, although grown from pits 
 coming from the same tree, according, as we supposed, to the 
 character of the male parent. — J. B. 
 
 t The Muscle, the St. Julian, and the Cerisette, are varieties 
 raised from seeds or suckers, as stems on which to bud and graft 
 other plums, &c. With this exception, all other suckers should 
 be removed as soon as they appear. If you postpone this busi 
 ness till winter, the wounds you then inflict will ensure you a 
 double crop in the spring. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 259 
 
 in northern latitudes and cold situations, the espa- 
 lier form (as practised near Paris) may be not only 
 useful, but indispensable. This differs in nothing 
 from the ordinary mode but in pruning less severely. 
 The cultivators at Montreuil, instead of shortening 
 the branches to three or four eyes, leave them fif- 
 teen or twenty feet long, and lay them down in such 
 way as shall soonest and most completely enable 
 them to cover the frame to which they are at- 
 tached. 
 
 With regard to product, ^^few and fine'''' is the 
 general maxim. The thinning discipline must not, 
 therefore, be omitted ; because it is that which will 
 best fulfil both parts of the rule. (See on this head, 
 article Apple-tree.) 
 
 The gum and canker are the diseases most com- 
 mon to the plum-tree, for which heading down is 
 the best remedy.* When wasps attack the fruit 
 they are most effectually kept oflT by nettings. 
 
 The Cranberry ( Vaccmmm macrocarpum) . — This 
 plant is a native of our own country, and merits 
 more attention than has been given to it, as the ex- 
 periments of the late Sir Joseph Banks prove at 
 once the facility and the profit of making it an ob- 
 ject of garden culture. f 
 
 Growing naturally in swamps and bogs, it has 
 been too hastily concluded that it would not succeed 
 but in grounds " often inundated and always wet." 
 But that this belief is erroneous can no longer be 
 doubted, as we learn from Loudon, an eminent 
 practical writer, that " the cranberry can always 
 be made to thrive on the margin of a pond ;"" while 
 the experiments of Salisbury (an amateur of the art) 
 demonstrate tiiat " it will even bear abundantly in 
 pots filled with bog earth, and placed under the 
 
 * Abercrombie. 
 
 f On a bed eighteen feet square, he raised three and a half 
 bushels, Winchester measure. — See Hort. Trans., vol. i.,p. 71. 
 
260 GARDENING. 
 
 shade of a hedge or fence."* In the first of these 
 
 cases, enclose a portion of the pond by stakes, fill 
 the bottom with stones, and on these place a stra- 
 tum of bog earth, raised to the ordinary level of the 
 pond, and upon Lhis plant a few cranberries. The 
 runners will soon and completely cover the bed, and 
 your harvests will be both abundant and regular, 
 never suffering either from weather or insects. In 
 the other case, select or make a hollow^ and within 
 it form a bed of bog earth, set your plants upon 
 this, and shade them on the south and east with 
 some quick growers, as Indian corn, or the butter 
 bean, &c. 
 
 The Currant {Rihes ruhrum). — It is only of this 
 sort and its varieties that we shall speak', as the 
 fruits of the other species are rarely, if ever, admit- 
 ted to the table. This plant is evidently of north- 
 ern origin and habits, very indifferent to soil or sit- 
 uation, and regardless of weather ; growing wher- 
 ever planted, and never failing, when tolerably cul- 
 tivated, to give a plentiful crop. The varieties of it 
 are principally distinguished by colour, as the White, 
 the Neio W/n7e,-and the While Crystal, the Large Red, 
 the Cluster Red, the Champagne Pale Red, and the 
 Dutch Pale Red. These are all propagated alike by 
 seeds, roots, and cuttings, but generally by the last 
 mode, which does not at all differ from that pre- 
 scribed (in the next article) for the gooseberry. 
 The only farther object of art in the management 
 of this plant, is to keep the head (which is much 
 disposed to become bushy) pervious to the sun and 
 air, the stem clean, and the roots unencumbered 
 with suckers. 
 
 The Gooseberry {Ribes grossularia). — Though're- 
 ally a native of Piedmont, this plant maybe regard- 
 ed as a British production, as it is only in England 
 and Scotland where its cultivation is well under- 
 
 * See Hort. Trans., vol. ii., p. 90. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 261 
 
 Stood and attended to, and where the fruit is held in 
 high estimation, or deserves to bo so.*t ■ 
 
 Its varieties are very numerous. In the London 
 nurserie-s are no less than one hundred different 
 sorts, and in those of Lancashire (where the cul- 
 ture is most general) three hundred ; some of which 
 are early, others late ; some large, and others small ; 
 some abounding in flavour, and others entirely des- 
 titute of it. In our brief catalogue we shall be gov- 
 erned altogether by the uses to which the fruit is 
 destined, and shall therefore indicate only three 
 sorts, the Warrington or Manchester Red, employed 
 for the dessert ; the Earhj Wilmot Red, famous for 
 tarts and sauces ; and the Walnut Red, recommend- 
 ed by its quality of keeping or preserving better 
 than any other variety of the family.J 
 
 Liiie other fruit-trees, the gooseberry may be 
 propagated by seeds, suckers, cuttings, &c., but the 
 last is the mode generally adopted. In this case 
 the cuttings are taken from bearing shoots, placed in 
 the nursery eight or ten inches apart, and trained 
 to the height of a foot with a clear stem, excepting 
 three or four buds at the top, which must be left to 
 form the future head, and which, when they have 
 pushed a few inches, must be radiated at an angle 
 between forty and forty-five degrees. When the 
 roots are sufficiently formed, the plants may be 
 taken up and placed in rows in the border or square 
 intended for them, at the distance of six feet be- 
 tween the rows, and four feet from plant to plant. 
 An annual labour about the roots is necessary, and, 
 
 * This fruit is also of very large size and fine flavour in some 
 parts of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. 
 
 t In Italy, France, and Spain, the plant is scarcely known, 
 and very little esteemed ; nor does it attract much attention in 
 Holland and Germany. 
 
 X If a. larger collection be thought desirable, it may be had 
 on good terms and in excellent order from J. Whalley of Liver- 
 pool. 
 
262 GARDENING. 
 
 unless the soil be uncommonly rich, a yearly dress- 
 ing also of stable manure or peat earth. Too 
 much shade is oppressive to the plant and injurious 
 to the fruit, but a degree of it is useful to both, and 
 is best obtained by sowing rows of the Jerusalem 
 artichoke between those of the gooseberry. When 
 the heads become crowded, all cross and water 
 shoots growing in their centres must be pinched or 
 cut off; and if the smaller berries also be removed 
 early in the season, the result to the crop will be 
 favourable ; but, in performing the first of these op- 
 erations, we must remember that the summer 
 shoots in general must not be touched. 
 
 Caterpillars of different names, the white, black, 
 and green (larva of the Tenthrendinida), are the 
 worst enemies of the gooseberry. Most of these, 
 when full grown, descend into the earth, and remain 
 there for the winter. This habit suggests the most 
 probable mode of destroying them. Some horti- 
 culturists accordingly lay hot lime around the roots 
 of the plants ; others saturate the surrounding earth 
 with boiling water; others with the urine of cows; 
 others dig into the earth seaweed or grass, sprinkled 
 with a solution of salt and water; and J. Tweedie 
 " pares off three inches of the surface earth, which 
 generally includes the eggs of the caterpillar, makes 
 a deep trench, and places this at the bottom, where 
 the temperature is such as to prevent the eggs from 
 hatching." Various washes have also been devised 
 for destroying the larva while above ground and on 
 the plants ; but, in the opinion of Loudon, with lit- 
 tle if any success. " Hand-picking," he says, " how- 
 ever tedious it may seem, will in the end be found 
 more certain and cheap than any other mode." 
 
 The Grape-vine (Vitis vinifera). — This species of 
 the vine (the only one of which we mean to speak) 
 is believed to be a native of Persia,* whence it has 
 
 * See Michaux, Olivier, and Sickler. The last of these wri- 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 263 
 
 been spread over many different regions. Indeed, 
 climate alone appears to have prescribed boundaries 
 to its diffusion ; as in Europe we find it successfully 
 cultivated between the 25th and 52d degrees of north 
 latitude, and rarely, if ever, with much advantage 
 beyond these limits. Under favourable circumstan- 
 ces, it attains to a great sr/.c ;ind age.* 
 
 Having been cultivated ai least from the time of 
 Noah, its varieties are so multiplied as to set even 
 enumeration at defiance if a fact, after all, of little 
 importance to our present object, as it is only a 
 very small class of these varieties, and a still smaller 
 proportion of this class, that comes within the scope 
 of the present work. The following is a list of the 
 sorts which, in our opinion, are best adapted to the 
 climate, and fittest for the only use we mean to make 
 of them, that of the dessert : the Chasselas of Fon- 
 tainebleau, the White do., the Violet do., the Black Mus- 
 cat of Jura, the Black do. of the Po, the While do. of 
 do., the Muscat of Alexandria, the Malvoisie of the 
 Po, the Red Hamburg, and the Sweetwater. 
 
 ters has given a very curious and learned account of the progress 
 of the Grape-vine from Persia to Sicily, by the way of Egypt 
 and Greece, in his work entitled Geschichte der Obs. Cult., vol. i. 
 
 * Pliny speaks of a vine 600 years old. Bosc says there are 
 several in Burgundy 400 years old ; and Millar, that "a vineyard 
 is young at 100 years." A vine at North AUerton (in England) 
 covered one hundred and thirty-seven square yards ; another at 
 Hampton Court, one hundred and sixteen ; and a third at Val- 
 entines (in Essex) one hundred and forty-seven. " The Hamp- 
 ton vine ordinarily produces 2200 bunches, averaging a pound 
 each; and one of its branches measures one hundred and foui- 
 teen feet in length." — Encyclopaedia of Gardening, p. 843. 
 
 t The most successful attempt yet made at an enumeration 
 of the varieties of the vine may be found in a Spanish work by 
 Don S. Roxas Clemente, Librarian of the Botanic Garden at 
 Madrid. Among the many good things done, or attempted by 
 Bonaparte in France, was the bringing together in a single gar- 
 den (that of the Luxembourg) all the varieties of the vine to be 
 found in that country. The work began in 1801, under the par- 
 ticular directions of Chaptal and Bosc ; and in 1809 three hun- 
 dred sorts had been collected, cultivated, and classed. We have 
 heard with regret that the work was not completed. 
 
264 GARDENING. 
 
 Like many other plants, the vine is propagated : 
 
 1st, By Seeds, when now variv^ues are wanted, 
 and most generally by two processes, one of which 
 consists " in approaching iwo or more sorts so near- 
 ly together as to produce a promiscuous impregna- 
 tion ;"* the other " in cutting out the stamen from 
 the flower of the variety to be impregnated, intro- 
 ducing the pollen of that with which the cross is to 
 be made, and, finally, by dusting the stigma with the 
 ripe anthers." The former is the method of Speech- 
 ley, and the latter that of Knight. 
 
 2d, By Layers. — This method is little practised, 
 because, though plants so raised give their fruit most 
 promptly, they are both feeble and short-lived. 
 
 3d, By Scions. — These are never resorted to but 
 to correct errors. When the varieties originally 
 planted are bad or unfruitful, grafting is the remedy ; 
 and though the operation be not uniformly success- 
 ful, still it succeeds often enough to recommend the 
 experiment. And, 
 
 4th, By Cuttings. — This is the mode generally 
 employed, and that which best deserves to be so. 
 The cuttings are of three kinds : the long (12 to 18 
 inches), the short (about half the length of the pre- 
 ceding), and the single eye.^ The first and second 
 have each a portion of the wood of two years ; and 
 the third has but wood enough of the last year to fur- 
 nish the germe of a single bud. The first of these 
 methods is that of the Continent of Europe, and has 
 much and long experience to support it ; the last is 
 an English novelty, with little to recommend it, and 
 probably growing out of the easier management of 
 short sets when raised in pots and hotbeds, according 
 to their system. One quality is, however, indispen- 
 sable to cuttings of all kinds, whether long or short; 
 and that is, that " the wood composing them be solid 
 
 * See Treatise on the Vine. 
 
 + Mitchell suggested, and Speechley recommends this spe- 
 cies of cutting. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 265 
 
 and compact, round and short-jointed, and that the 
 eyes or buds be large and prominent.* Cut in the 
 autumn, they must be carefully buried until the en- 
 suing spring, when they may be taken up and plant- 
 ed where it is intended they shall permanently re- 
 main. 
 
 Many appearances indicate that the vine is indif- 
 ferent to the nature of the soil in which it grows, 
 as it is found to live and thrive in limestone clay, 
 in chalk, in gravel, in granite, in schist, in earths 
 charged with the oxyde of iron, in the rubbish of old 
 foundations, and even in the midst of brick pave- 
 ments and castle walls. f Nor, judging from a first 
 and cursory view, should we suppose it to be more 
 nice with regard to exposition, as it may be found 
 growing under many different aspects, and on every 
 possible variety of surface. Still these appearan- 
 ces are deceptive, and yield to the evidence of many 
 facts, carefully collected by horticulturists, which 
 prove that, notwithstanding this general power of 
 adaptation, the vine is particularly sensible to the 
 influences of soil and exposure, and that, under even 
 shght changes or modifications of these, it becomes 
 more or less fertile, and gives its products earher 
 or later, or with juices more or less abundant, sac- 
 charine, and well-flavoured. In strong, rich soils, 
 its growth in wood and foliage is vigorous ; but the 
 fruit ripens slowly, and is comparatively tasteless. | 
 
 * The soils which in France are most generally assigned to 
 vineyards are, 1st, limestone clay ; 2d, gravelly clay, as at Nis- 
 mes, Montpelier, and Bourdeanx ; 3d, granitic soil, which gives 
 the wines called Cotes Rotis, Hermitage, and Taville, &c. ; and, 
 4th, chalk, as in Champagne. 
 
 t Sec Treatise on Fruit-trees by Hitt, and Laurence on the 
 Fruit tjarden. Rozier paved his vineyard at Bezieres. The 
 vine mentioned by Hitt grew in the foundations of Belvoir Cas- 
 tle, and that spoken of by Laurence grew out of the wall of an 
 old castle twenty feet from the ground. 
 
 :j: The Clovego estate, famous for the finest description of 
 Burgundy wine, changed masters during the revolution, and 
 was, out of mistaken kindness, or from a desire of doubling the 
 
266 GARDENING. 
 
 In soils, whether rich or poor, resting on a hard, 
 impervious subsoil of rock or of hardpan, or on 
 one often or habitually wet, the plant is feeble, diffi- 
 cult to rear, short-lived, and never productive ; and 
 on the north sides of hills, and in the neighbour- 
 hood of large masses of wood and water, it does 
 not thrive. It is only under southern and eastern 
 aspects, and in soils light and warm, and of a me- 
 dium quality as to strength, that the vine attains 
 that degree of perfection of which it is susceptible.* 
 
 It is this last-mentioned circumstance that directs 
 us in the choice and application of manures, and 
 which forbids those of a heating quality, or of any 
 quality in large quantities. The fresh mould of old 
 pasture land, the scrapings of streets, and composts 
 composed of stable litter; the leaves of trees, weeds 
 in a green state, and animal remains of all kinds (as 
 hair, skins, feathers, bones, &c., thoroughly rotted), 
 and applied in moderate doses every second year, 
 form the most approved practice on this head. 
 
 The vine, from the length and pliancy of its 
 Dranches, is subjected to very different forms, some 
 of which are no doubt dictated by mere fancy, and 
 others by a long experience of their usefulness. 
 Of the last we shall mention, 
 
 1st. The dwarf standard, which is that exclusively 
 employed in large vineyards in the northern parts 
 
 quantity of the crop, abundantly manured. The consequence, 
 as might be expected, was a larger produce, but a diminished 
 price. 
 
 * This delicacy of constitution alone enables us to explain 
 the cause of the great differences found in vines of the same 
 sort, cultivated in the same way, and growing even withifi sight 
 of each other. The Lafite wine is only found on a farm not 
 exceeding in size 300 acres. The Ostrian, &c., is the produce 
 of a tract not much larger. The Verdelho grape gives genume 
 Madeira only in the island of that name, &c., &c. An external 
 mark of a soil fitted for the vine is said by Switzer to be the 
 production of brambles. " Where," he says. " these grow, the 
 vine never fails." 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 267 
 
 of France and Germany, and which consists in re- 
 ducing the plant to a bush of two or three shoots, 
 and keeping these erect by a stake. The shoots 
 will each give two or three bunches within fifteen 
 or eighteen inches from the earth, and are naturally 
 succeeded by others, which in their turn become 
 bearers. 
 
 2d. The prostrate or creeping form, by which the 
 vine is trained over the ground like a melon or cu- 
 cumber. This was early noticed by Bacon, and has 
 been since recommended by Vispre, " as least ex- 
 pensive and troublesome, and best calculated for ri- 
 pening the fruit, by placing it within the sphere of that 
 heat which is emitted by the earth during the night." 
 
 3d. The espalier form^ by which the leading and 
 lateral branches are trained against an open frame 
 or trellis, and in such way " as to expose the lar- 
 gest surface to the action of the sun in the shortest 
 space of time." And, 
 
 4th. The wall espalier, which differs in nothing 
 from the preceding but in having behind it a solid 
 structure, and the additional heat reflected by it. 
 This form is often met with in Europe, where the 
 southern, eastern, and western sides of farmhouses 
 and cottages are made to supply the walls, and do 
 it very completely. In gardens, the structures in- 
 tended to produce the same effect are of two kinds : 
 the one rising to the height of fifteen and even 
 twenty feet, made of stone or wood, and meant to 
 protect the taller kinds of fruit-trees ; and the other, 
 of similar materials, but not exceeding six feet in 
 height, and calculated for bushes and dwarfs. 
 Speechley says the vine does well on the latter; 
 and we are instructed by Williams, of Pitmaison> 
 how best to derive advantage from the former. 
 " To fill up," he say^, " the intervals between the 
 trees, plant vines, train them horizontally under the 
 coping of the wall, and, by inverting and inarching 
 their branches, find means to occupy every vacant 
 21 
 
268 GARDENING. 
 
 past, gradually trained bearing branches of a small 
 black cluster grape to the distance of near fifty feet 
 from the root, and I find the bunches every year 
 grow larger and ripen earlier, as the shoots con- 
 tinue to advance ; for, according to Knight's theory 
 of the circulation of the sap, the juices become 
 richer the farther they pass through the alburnum : 
 whence it follows that trees and vines give blos- 
 som-buds in greater quantity and perfection in pro- 
 portion as the branches are long, and that even the 
 extremities of these are best furnished with flow- 
 ers and fruit." 
 
 As pruning is essential to all these forms, though 
 not in the same degree, it may be proper to make a 
 few remarks on this subject. And, first, the knife, 
 in its application to the grape-vine, is not used till 
 the second year, when the plant has pushed three 
 or four shoots. Two of these (generally the low- 
 est) are selected for bearers, and shortened down 
 to the fourth, fifth, or sixth eye from the root, while 
 all others are entirely removed. This is done in 
 the autumn after vegetation is over, and forms the 
 whole of the first year's pruning. In the subse- 
 quent spring, and so soon as the buds have pushed, 
 follows what the French call enhourgeonement, and 
 the English disbudding; and which consists " in rub- 
 bing off all fore-right and lateral shoots, which, if 
 retained, might crowd or cross the bearing branch- 
 es, or otherwise obstruct the form intended to be 
 given to the vine." Suckers are also to be care- 
 fully removed, and with them axillary buds and 
 curls, and such of the roots as may run within eight 
 inches of the surface. The third year's pruning 
 will be the result of a careful examination, 1st, of 
 the two leading branches, and the young wood they 
 have respectively produced ; and, 2d, of the surface 
 (whether of wall or of trellis) which it is your in- 
 tention to cover. If these be in just proportion to 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 269 
 
 each other, the knife is unnecessary but to remove 
 dead or diseased branches ; but if the growth of the 
 shoots be feeble, or if some be feeble and others 
 vigorous, in both cases the knife is the remedy; 
 shortening all, in the first case, to five or six eyes 
 each ; and in the other, the feeblest only. Future 
 prunings will but be repetitions of this ; and, as a 
 general rule, every pruning must be followed by a 
 thorough digging of the earth about the roots of the 
 plant. 
 
 The insects most injurious to the grape-vine are 
 the red spider, which is best expelled by frequent 
 waterings ; and the thrips, and one or two sorts of 
 the cocci,* which may be destroyed by smoke. 
 The best protection against the blue fly is furnished 
 by bottles filled with any kind of sweet liquor, and 
 hung up among the vines ; and horsehair bags will 
 completely defend the fruit against the attacks of 
 wasps and garden birds. 
 
 The Fig-tree {Ficus), (classed by horticulturists 
 among the berries),! is a native of Asia; and in all 
 hot climates may be made an important object of 
 cultivation. In Greece and in the Ionian Isles it at- 
 tains to the size of an apple-tree, bears its foliage 
 throughout the year, and is remarkable for hardi- 
 ness and longevity. Even in climates less propi- 
 tious to it, it retains the last of these qualities. One 
 brought to England, from Aleppo in 1643, by Dr. 
 Pocock, is yet hving and vigorous ; and another, in- 
 troduced by Cardinal Pole more than a century 
 earlier (1525), is said to be in the same condition. J 
 
 The species of it are very numerous ; but of this 
 long list we shall speak only of the Ficus Carica, or 
 common fig, because it is only from the cultivation 
 of this that we may have anything to hope. Nor of 
 its varieties do we know more than six that can 
 probably be acclimated on the banks of the Hudson. 
 
 * Hespeiiduin and Adonidutn. 
 
 t Loudon. X Idem 
 
270 GARDENING. 
 
 These are, the Long White, the Yellow or Angelica, 
 and the Violet, cultivated near Paris ; and the Black 
 Ischia, and Black and White Genoa, which ripen in 
 England. 
 
 AH the varieties of the fig are propagated by 
 seeds,* suckers, buds, scions,! and layers ; nor is its 
 propagation by crossing unknown to the horticultu- 
 rist ; but this can only be effected by planting two 
 varieties near to each other, as no means have yet 
 been discovered for extracting the male organ of 
 the fig without destroying the female. Of these 
 different modes, however, those by cuttings and lay- 
 ers are most frequently employed and best recom- 
 mended. In the first case, select in the autumn 
 eight or ten inches of young wood, with one or two 
 of old attached to it, from the shortest jointed and 
 most fruitful boughs ; bury these during the winter 
 in a bed of sand ; and in the spring, plant them in 
 a border of fresh and warm loam, against the south- 
 ern or eastern side of a ten-foot wall. J Layering 
 here does not differ from the process of the same 
 name employed in other cases : shoots of two or 
 three years are laid down in the spring, and a single* 
 summer will be sufficient for the formation of roots ; 
 after which, sever the young plant from the old, and 
 set it out as directed for cuttings. 
 
 In hot climates, as in the case of the peach, the 
 standard is the form most approved ; but in climates 
 like ours, the stellate fan is that which offers the 
 strongest assurance of success.^ It is produced by 
 training to a single stem, encouraging lateral shoots, 
 and bringing these down in succession, so as to pre- 
 sent a figure nearly circular, and so low as to give 
 it the benefit of a reflected as well as a direct heat.|| 
 
 * Loudon. t Idem. % Idem. 
 
 ^ " Fan training from two branches is bad, gives only wood 
 and leaves." — Idem. Kosc says, "Keep the branches short, 
 low, and spreading." See also Hort. Trans., vol. iii., p. 307. 
 
 II Knight's method does not materially differ from this. He 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 271 
 
 We have already, suggested, in relation to other 
 trees, that their mode of bearing ought, in a great 
 degree, to regulate our method of pruning them; 
 nor is the remark more applicable to the apple or 
 the peach than to the fig tree. We need hardly in- 
 form the reader that this last blossoms twice in the 
 year ; first under the spring, and again under the 
 summer flow of the sap ; and, where the climate, 
 &c., is favourable, matures two crops in the season, 
 071 two distinct sets of young shoots. Whence it fol- 
 lows that the management which shall tend most 
 directly to multiply shoots or bearers, is, in rela- 
 tion to this tree, that which is best. Now many 
 experiments show that, if you shorten a branch of 
 the fig-tree with a knife, the tree will exert itself 
 only to recover what it has lost ; and, of course, 
 that you will but have a single shoot instead of the 
 one you have removed : whereas, if you substitute 
 breaking for cutting, you will, instead of one, have 
 several shoots, and, consequently, a larger propor- 
 tion of fruit. Hence the rule, " to cut when you 
 want to lessen the bulk of the head, and to break at 
 ten, twelve, or fifteen inches from the stem, when 
 an increased quantity either of wood or of fruit is 
 your object." These remarks do not, however, su- 
 persede the more general rules for removing dead, 
 or diseased, or redundant branches, or for such 
 other use of the knife as may be necessary in giv- 
 ing form to the head ; and the less so, as the plant 
 is among those which bear cutting without injury. 
 
 Any soil not positively wet, provided it be annu- 
 ally dug and triannually manured with stable litter, 
 will suit the fig-tree. But a more laborious and ex- 
 pensive operation is necessary to protect it against 
 hard and frosty weather With this view, the prac- 
 
 encourages lateral shoots from a single stem, and trains them 
 horizontally, or even downward, close to the wall; by which 
 he avoids a too great abundance of wood, matures that which 
 he retains, and escapes injury from frost. — Hort. Trans., vol. 
 iii., p. 307. 
 
272 GARDENING. 
 
 tice in France is to bury in the earth all such limbs 
 or parts of limbs as can be brought sufficiently low ; 
 while in England they cover the tree with matting, 
 or straw, or branches of evergreens. Either method 
 may be usefully adopted here, remembering, as a 
 general principle, to make the covering as light as 
 may be at all consistent with the object. 
 
 We have said above that the natural habit of the 
 fig is to give two crops in the year; the latter of 
 which, in hot climates, is found to be the best : but 
 the result with us will be different. The spring 
 shoots only will give' fruit here, and must be retain- 
 ed ; while all embryos showing themselves after 
 midsummer should be carefully rubbed off. The 
 effect of this will be, not merely to disencumber the 
 tree of fruit that would not ripen, but to turn the 
 surplus energy wasted upon it to the preparation of 
 new embryo figs for the succeeding year.* 
 
 We cannot dismiss this article without saying 
 something on the artificial method employed, even 
 in hot climates, of improving and ripening the fig, 
 and to which has been given the name of caprifica- 
 tion. This process consists in placing on the trees 
 a few spring figs, in which the Cynips has depos- 
 ited its eggs. From these multitudes of gnats will 
 issue, and in their turn puncture the crop of fall 
 figs, and thus increase their flavour, and quicken, 
 as is believed, their maturity. Such was former- 
 ly the practice in the Levant; while in France 
 they pricked the fruit with a quill or straw dipped 
 in olive oil or brandy, and in Italy with the point 
 of a knife medicated in the same way, on the sup- 
 position that any small wound inflicted on the fruit 
 would have an effect similar to that of the sting of 
 a gnat. These practices are, however, no longer 
 as general as they have been, and, like others 
 founded on, doubtful principles, are fast yielding to 
 
 * Swayne on the management of the fig in the open air. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 273 
 
 a better philosophy. " How," says Bosc, " can the 
 larva of the Cynips improve the fig, otherwise than 
 the larva of the PhalcEua improves the applet And 
 who would be desirous of having a crop of worm- 
 eaten apples, merely for the pleasure of eating them 
 a week or a fortnight earlier"!* 
 
 The fig-tree is liable to few diseases, nor is. the 
 fruit much injured by the attacks of insects. In 
 England the red spider, and in France a species of 
 Coccus, to which is given the name of ihe Jig-louse^ 
 are regarded as its worst enemies. The first is got 
 rid of by watering and smoking the tree ; and the 
 last by rubbing the stem, branches, &c., with a 
 coarse cloth. 
 
 The Mulberry (Morus). — The species are two, 
 the White, cultivated for its leaves only (vi'liich form 
 the food of the silkworm), and the Black, a native 
 of our own forests, and well meriting our attention 
 for its fruit, recommended as it is by its highly aro- 
 matic flavour and cooling subacid juices, which, 
 like those of the strawberry, are not susceptible of 
 the acetous fermentation, and, of course, particu- 
 larly proper and useful for rheumatic and gouty pa- 
 tients. f 
 
 This tree is propagated by seeds, suckers, layers, 
 cuttings, and scions. Those from seeds are suppo- 
 sed to give the largest berries, but at such an ex- 
 pense both of time and patience as to deter most 
 cultivators from the experiment. Suckers are liable 
 to the same objection, though in a somewhat less 
 degree ; and grafting, except by approach, rarely 
 succeeds. J Layers and cuttings are, therefore, the 
 modes generally employed ; of each of which we 
 shall say a few words : and, 
 
 * Olivier, speaking of caprification, says, " It is a tribute paid 
 by man to ignorance and prejudice ;" adding, that the practice 
 is going fast into disuse, even in the Ionian Isles. — Travels in 
 the Ottoman Empire. 
 
 t Encyclopaedia of Gardening, t Hort. Trans., vol. i., p. GO. 
 
274 GARDENING. 
 
 1. Of Layers. — To obtain these, erect a scaffold 
 under any fruit-bearing tree, and on this place pots 
 or boxes filled with earth, to receive the branches. *" 
 These will root sufficiently the first summer ; after 
 which, they may be transplanted to the nursery, and 
 trained to a single stem. When four years old, take 
 them up and place them where they are permanent- 
 ly to stand. Plains thus managed will give fruit the 
 second or third year after the last planting.! 
 
 2. By Cuttings. — These may be eight or ten inches 
 long, with a small portion of the preceding year's 
 wood attached. Plant them in any mild weather 
 of the spring or autumn, in rows nine inches apart, 
 leaving only one or two buds above the ground ; 
 cover the bed with half rotten leaves ; give it a lit- 
 tle water if the weather be dry, and transplant the 
 next season into the nursery. Their future treat- 
 ment will be the same as that of layers. Millar 
 suggests the rearing of cuttings in pots plunged in 
 a hotbed ; but in this experiment Knight and others 
 have failed, and recommend, instead of it, to plant 
 the cuttings in autumn under a south wail, where 
 they remain till April, when they are to be taken up, 
 placed in pots, and transferred to the hotbed. " In 
 this situation," says Knight, "they will vegetate 
 strongly, and emit roots in such abundance, that 
 not one cutting in a hundred, with proper attention, 
 will fail." A mellow, fertile loam is the soil in which 
 the mulberry succeeds best, and the standard is the 
 form generally given to it; but the experiments of 
 Williams and Knight give reason to believe that the 
 fruit would be improved were we to train the tree 
 Against a south wall, in either the horizontal or stel- 
 late form. J 
 
 In pruning the mulberry we ought to aim at two 
 things : diminishing the luxuriant growth of the tree, 
 
 * Knight. t Idem. 
 
 X Loudon. Hort. Trans,, vol. ii., p. 92, and vol. iii., p. G6. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 275 
 
 and increasing, at the same time, its disposition to 
 bear fruit. Fortunately, both objects are readily at- 
 tainable by partial decortication ; by tight and long- 
 continued ligatures round the branches ; by ringing, 
 as already described ; and with better effect and 
 greater facility, by training the branches perpen- 
 dicularly, or nearly so, downward.* The time for 
 pruning the mulberry is in the spring, because it is 
 then you can best distinguish the blossom buds from 
 others. Pinch off every barren shoot, and shorten 
 every bearing one (not wanted to cover the waH) at 
 the third or fourth leaf; it being well known that 
 the bud immediately below the point where the 
 branch is shortened will give fruit the following 
 year. 
 
 The Raspberry (Rubus). — Of this plant there are 
 two species, subjects of garden culture: the Ideus, 
 propagated for its fruit ; the Odoraius, for its per- 
 fume and its rose-coloured flowers. It is only of 
 the varieties of the former that we shall now speak. 
 These are, 1st, the Wood Raspberry, giving a fruit 
 small and sweet, increasing in size, but diminishing 
 in flavour, under cultivation. 2d, the large common 
 Raspberry (both red and white), giving good fruit, 
 and a great deal of it, if favourably situated and 
 well managed. In rich and shaded soils it loses 
 much of its flavour; and in those freely manured 
 with stable dung, becomes disagreeable to the taste. 
 3d, the Large Red and the Large White Antwerp, de- 
 cidedly superior to the preceding sorts, but more 
 troublesome, as they are not productive but when 
 laid down and protected from the winter frosts. 
 A.nd, 4th. the Cane Stock, regarded on the whole as 
 the fittest for the main crop. 
 
 This plant is a native of cold and mountainous 
 regions, and, of course, succeeds best when placed 
 on the north sides of hills, or in borders a little 
 
 *■ Hort. Trans., vol. iii., p. 63. No tree submits to this form 
 more readily, or to more advantage, than the mulberry. 
 
276 GARDENING. 
 
 shaded. A soil loose and moist (not wet), and oc- 
 casionally and lightly manured with the surface- 
 mould of old pasture land, is most favourable to it. 
 
 Like other plants which perpetuate themselves 
 by suckers, as the Annana, the Jasmin, the Bread 
 Fruit, &c., the raspberry soon becomes infertile; 
 and hence the rule for setting out new plantations 
 every seventh or eighth year. This is done by seeds 
 and cuttings, but better and more generally by suck- 
 ers, taken up in the fall or in the spring, and set out 
 in vvell-laboured trenches four feet asunder, and at 
 the distance in these of two and a half feet apart. 
 If placed nearer together, they crowd and injure 
 each other; and if farther removed, they lose the 
 advantage of the shade they would otherwise mu- 
 tually furnish. 
 
 The raspberry, when left to itself, remains long 
 barren, or productive only in leaves and wood ; but, 
 so soon as it acquires a sufficient number of lateral 
 branches, its fertility commences. To hasten this 
 effect, therefore, is the great desideratum in the cul- 
 ture of the plant ; and the knife is accordingly em- 
 ployed freely and annually, in removing the old 
 wood, and in shortening the young to one third of 
 its length. Of the retained and shortened shoots, 
 not more than five should be left to a bush ;* and if 
 they be either of the Antwerp races, they should be 
 carefully covered with earth on the approach of 
 winter, as otherwise the effect of the frost will 
 much impair, if it does not entirely destroy, their 
 fertility for the ensuing season. 
 
 We need scarcely add, that, though hardy, the 
 raspberry, to do well, must be kept from weeds. 
 
 ♦ Loudon. J. C. Kecht ( Versuch der Weinl^ti) produces ber- 
 ries at Berlin much larger tlian are known elsewhere, by train- 
 ing a single stem to the height of 8 or 10 feet, and vigorously re- 
 moving all suckers. This is directly opposed to the theory of 
 shortening the stems for the purpose of producingSide-shoots ; 
 without which, it has been generally thought that k he plant could 
 not be made productive. 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 277 
 
 The Strawberry {Fragaria). — Of this there are 
 several species, the principal of which are the Pine, 
 ihe Single-leaf or Monophy Ua, and the Chili, natives 
 of South America; the Carolina, the Scarlet or Vir- 
 ginian, and the Wood, natives of North America; 
 and the Hautboy, and Alpine or Prolific, natives of 
 Europe. Of these, the Alpine and the wood are 
 best propagated from seeds, as in this way they 
 never fail to reproduce themselves, and give fruit as 
 soon, and of a finer quality, than the offsets. The 
 other species are more readily multiplied by run- 
 ners ; which, as they take root at every joint, and 
 grow the more vigorously the more they are cut, 
 necessarily furnish a great abundance of plants. 
 
 When seeds are used, we must be careful to em- 
 ploy fresh and well-ripened fruit, mashed in the 
 hand, and mixed with a little mellow earth, and 
 sown in rows three feet apart. When, on the other 
 hand, runners are employed, they must be taken oif 
 near the ground, divided into sets, planted in rows 
 as in the other case, and occasionally lightly shaded 
 and watered, until they give evidence of having 
 taken root, wkicli they rarely fail to do very prompt- 
 ly. In both proceijses, the ground must be kept 
 loose and clean, and moderately manured with com- 
 post dung. 
 
 With regard either to general or special rules in 
 this case, we cannot do better th'an to make the read- 
 er acquainted with the method of Mr. Keans, of 
 Islesworth, an English fruit-gardener, who has cul- 
 tivated the strawberry with ujicommon success.- 
 *' In preparing the ground," says he, " if new and 
 stiff, trench it; but if the su-bsoil be of an inferior 
 kind, simply dig it, and place the dung at the bot- 
 tom : if, again, the soil be good to the full depth, 
 bring the bottom spit to the top, and the top spit to the 
 bottom, and place the dung between the two. The 
 month of March is the best time for planting either 
 seedlings or runners, and remember to make your 
 
2tS GARDENING. 
 
 plantations of these, and never from old plants. 
 Sow in beds of three or four rows, with alleys be- 
 tween the beds to walk and work in. When the 
 planting is finished, keep the bed free from weeds, 
 and permit no crops between the rows. When the 
 runners begin to show themselves, cut them away 
 at least three times in the season ; and at each cut- 
 ting dig the ground between the rows ; and as of- 
 ten, cover the surface with a sprinkling of clean 
 straw,* for the purpose, principally, ol" preventing 
 evaporation. One of these cuttings must be done a 
 short time before the fruit ripens, and will have a 
 powerful effect in strengthening the root ; and, at 
 the second digging, work into the rows a little half- 
 rotted dung." 
 
 To these remarks, which apply to all the varieties 
 alike, Mr. Keans subjoins a few specific notices as 
 follows : 
 
 " 1. For the Pine strawberry the best soil is a 
 light loam, though no other strawberry will bear a 
 strong loam better than this. This is the sort from 
 which it is most difficult to obtain a good crop. 
 Particular care must be taken that they are planted 
 in open ground; for in small gardens they grow 
 strong, but seldom bear fruit, in consequence of being 
 shaded by standard trees, and, under walnut-trees in 
 in particular, tltey run altogether to leaf. In planting 
 pines I keep the beds two feet apart, and put the 
 plants eighteen inches from each other in the rows, 
 leaving three feet alleys between the beds. The 
 first year of the pine is the best ; the second gives 
 a good crop, but the third gives less. 
 
 " 2. The Scarlet must be. treated like the Pine, 
 excepting that the rows may be a little nearer to- 
 gether, and the alleys between them a little less. 
 
 " 3. The Hautboy thrives best in a light soil well 
 supplied with dung ; for excess of manure does not 
 
 ♦ It is from this practice that the plant derives its name 
 
FRUIT GARDEN- 279 
 
 drive it into leaf like the pine. In other respects, 
 the culture is the same as lor the pine. There are, 
 however, many different sorts of Hautboys : one 
 has the male and female organs in the same blos- 
 som, and bears freely ; but the sort I prefer is the 
 one which contains the male organs in one blossom 
 and the female in another. The fruit of this is of 
 the finest colour, and of far superior flavour. Care 
 must be taken that there are not too many male 
 plants in the bed ; for, as they bear no fruit, they make 
 more runners than the females. One male to ten fe- 
 males is the proper proportion for an abundant crop. 
 
 " 4. The Wood strawberry is best raised from seed 
 fresh gathered, sowing it immediately in a bed of 
 rich earth. When of proper size, I transfer the 
 plants to other beds, where they continue tiljl the 
 next March. They are then planted out in beds 
 and rows, and at the distances before described. 
 And, 
 
 " 5. The Alpine or Prolific must always be raised 
 from the seed, sown in a bed of rich earth. When 
 of proper size (which will be in July or August), 
 the plants are put out in rows, at the back of hedges 
 or of walls, in a rich, moist soil ; the rows two feet 
 apart, and the plants twelve inches from each other. 
 My Alpines this year, and thus managed, are bear- 
 ing most abundantly ; and so much so, that, in gath- 
 ering them, there is not room for the women to set 
 their feet without destroying many. In quickness 
 of bearing the Alpines are before all other sorts, as 
 they give their fruit within a single year ; whereas 
 the others do not bear under two years." 
 
 In gathering the fruit, employ only dry weather. 
 Berries taken early in the morning and late in the 
 evening keep the best, but those picked at midday 
 have the most perfume. Pinch off the calyx and 
 one quarter of an inch, of the peduncle with the 
 berry. 
 
 The Walnut {Juglans regia). — This tree is sup- 
 
280 GARDENING. 
 
 posed to be a native of Persia, and of the southern 
 side of Mount Caucasus, and yields a nut which 
 holds a considerable place among the dessert fruits, 
 and which has been recommended, as far back as 
 the time of Pliny, as a safe and powerful vermi- 
 fuge.* Its varieties are the Oval, the Large French,! 
 the Tender, and the Thick-shelled. 
 
 To obtain these, Millar and Forsyth recommend 
 sowing the nuts in a nursery, keeping them clean, 
 and leaving their maturity to time, without any in- 
 terposition of art to hasten their productiveness. 
 But Knight and others have succeeded so well by 
 inarching and budding, that these methods may be 
 considered as having nearly superseded ihe older 
 and slower modes of propagation. In employing 
 the former (inarching), your young plants, growing 
 in pots, are raised to some branch of an old bearing 
 tree, and grafted by approach. A union takes place 
 in the summer ; and in the fall you detach the scion 
 from the parent stem. In the other case, the pro- 
 cess is equally sure and less troublesome. Many 
 minute buds, almost concealed in the bark, will be 
 found near the base of the annual shoots. These 
 must be taken in preference to those which are 
 fuller and more prominent, and inserted near the 
 summit of the last year's wood, and, of course, near 
 the base of the annual shoots. " Thus managed," 
 says Knight, " they will be found to succeed with 
 nearly as much certainty as those of other fruit- 
 trees, provided the buds be in a more mature state 
 than those of the stock into which they are set." 
 
 The walnut-tree grows well in many different 
 soils, but does best in a deep, sandy loam, resting 
 on a dry subsoil. It is often employed as a screen 
 for other and more delicate fruit-trees, in which 
 case it is arranged on the northern and western side 
 
 * The Spaniards grate the nufinto their tarts, &c., probably 
 with a view to its supposed medicinal quality, 
 t Before 15G2 it was called the Gaul or French nut 
 
FRUIT GARDEN. 281 
 
 of the garden. Its diseases are generally the result 
 of accident, and it has few, if any, enemies among 
 the insect tribes. 
 
 The Chestnut {Fagus castanea) is a native of Sar- 
 dis, and, it is said, was first brought to Europe by Ti- 
 berius Caesar. Be this fact as it may, another, of 
 which we are better assured, is, that the tree has 
 been long naturalized in Italy and Spain, and that 
 in these countries it contributes an important article 
 to the food of man. 
 
 Like the walnut, it was long propagated by sow- 
 ing the nut; but the shorter process of grafting (as 
 already detailed under the preceding article) may 
 be advantageously substituted for this. The exper- 
 iments of the late Sir J. Banks and of Mr. Knight 
 demonstrate that " the Spanish chestnut succeeds 
 readily, when grafted in almost any of the usual 
 ways ; and that, when the grafts are taken from 
 bearing branches, the young trees blossom the suc- 
 ceeding year."* 
 
 The soil most proper for the chestnut'is a sandy 
 loam, on a dry subsoil. With regard to situation, 
 it does well in northern and western borders ; but, 
 as its shade is unfriendly to any vegetable growing 
 under it, the better method is to give it a square by 
 itself. 
 
 The Filbert {Corylus avellana). — This is the com- 
 mon hazelnut improved by cultivation. Its princi- 
 pal varieties are, the White, the Red, the Barcelona^ 
 the Cosford, and the Long Cob, all of which are prop- 
 agated alike by suckers, by layers, and by seeds. 
 When the last of these modes is employed, sow the 
 nuts in October or November, and keep the plants 
 in the nursery till they are two years old ; after 
 which, set them out, and manure and dress them 
 occasionally. But the better method of propagating 
 them is that by suckers^ These are taken up in 
 
 * Hort. Trans., vol. i., p. 61. 
 
282 GARDENING. 
 
 the fall or spring, and planted out in rows, at the 
 distance of ten or twelve feet from each other, 
 where tiiey undergo several sevi^r'e anti successive 
 prunings, for the purpose "of hollowing out the 
 head into the form of a punch-bowl, and of deter- 
 mining the whole nourishment of the tree to the 
 production of the fruit." Williamson is, however 
 of opinion, that the severity of this discipline de- 
 feats itself, and is, in fact, the reason why the plants 
 give no fruit three years out of five. Instead, there- 
 fore, of a rigid adherence to the Maidstone practice, 
 he recommends " that the trees be left in a great 
 degree to their natural growth and shape." 
 
 In some parts of England, the filbert forms an ob- 
 ject of very profitable culture, giving, per acre, on 
 an average produce of five years, five hundred 
 pounds' weight of nuts. 
 
 The maturity of the fruit is indicated by the 
 brown colour of the nut and the husk, and the readi- 
 ness with which these separate. Braddick's method 
 of preserving the fruit, by putting it up in airtight 
 casks, is no doubt the best. The filbert is neither 
 often nor seriously attacked by insects. The eggs 
 of the curculio kukans are sometimes deposited in 
 the germen, where, when matured, they subsist 
 upon the kernel. The only cure for this is to de- 
 stroy the nuts which are so attacked, and with them 
 the larvae, before they attain the fly state. 
 
 THE END.