either heavy rain or sharp frost, so that extreme variations of
temperature may inflict the least possible injury in the garden. Let
the work be ordered with reference to the weather, that there may be no
‘poaching’ on wet ground, or absurd conflict with frost. Accept every
opportunity of wheeling out manure; and as long as the ground can be
dug without waste of labour, proceed to open trenches, make drains, and
mend walks, because this is the period for improving, and the place
must be very perfect which affords no work for winter weather. Dispose
of all rubbish by the simple process of putting it in trenches when
digging plots for early seeds. In sheds and outhouses many tasks may be
found, such as making large substantial tallies for the garden; the
little paltry things commonly used being simply delusive, for they are
generally missing when wanted, from their liability to be trodden into
the ground or kicked anywhere by a heedless foot. Make ready
pea-sticks, stakes of sizes, and at odd times gather up all the dry
stuff that is adapted for a grand ‘smother.’ A careful forecasting of
the next year’s cropping will show that even now many arrangements may
be made to increase the chances of success.
Warm Border to be prepared for early work by digging and manuring. All
the refuse turf and leaf-mould from the potting-shed and the soil
knocked out of pots may be usefully disposed of by adding it to this
border, which cannot be too light or too rich, and a good dressing of
manure will give it strength to perform its duties.
Beans, Broad, to be earthed up for protection and support.
Celery to be earthed up for the last time. In case of severe weather,
have protecting material at hand in the shape of dry litter or mats.
Pea-sticks make a capital foundation on which to throw long litter,
mats, &c., for quickly covering Celery, the protection being as quickly
removed when the frost is over, and costing next to nothing.
Endive will be valued now, and must be blanched as required. Place a
few in frames and other protected spots. In the unused corners of sheds
and outhouses they may be safer than out of doors.
Parsley.—In all cold districts it is wise to secure a bed of Parsley,
in a frame or pit, or if a few plants were potted in September, they
may be wintered in any place where they can have light and air freely.
It is so important to have Parsley at command as wanted, that it may be
worth while to put a frame over a few rows as they stand in the open
quarter, rather than risk the loss of all in the event of severe
weather.
Radish.—Sow one of the long sorts for a first supply in some warm spot,
to secure quick growth.
Underground Onions to be planted in rows one foot apart. They should
not be earthed up, for the young bulbs form round the stems in full
daylight.
THE ROTATION OF CROPS IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN
This is a subject worthy the attention of those who aim at the largest
possible production and the highest possible quality of every kind of
kitchen-garden crop, for it concerns the natural relations of the plant
and the soil as to their several chemical constituents. The principle
may be illustrated by considering the demands of two of the most common
kitchen-garden crops. If we submit a Cabbage to the destructive agency
of fire, and analyse the ashes that remain, we shall find in them, in
round numbers, eight per cent. of sulphuric acid, sixteen per cent. of
phosphoric acid, four per cent. of soda, forty-eight per cent. of
potash, and fifteen per cent. of lime. It is evident that we cannot
expect to grow a Cabbage on a soil which is destitute of these
ingredients, to say nothing of others. The obnoxious odour of sulphur
emitted by decaying Cabbages might indicate, to anyone accustomed to
reflect on ordinary occurrences, that sulphur is an important
constituent of Cabbage. If we submit a Potato tuber to a similar
process, the result will be to find in the ashes fifty-nine per cent.
of potash, two per cent. of soda, six per cent. of sulphuric acid,
nineteen per cent. of phosphoric acid, and two per cent. of lime. The
lesson for the cultivator is, that to prepare a soil for Cabbage it is
of the utmost importance to employ a manure containing sulphates,
phosphates, and potash salts in considerable quantity; as for the lime,
that can be supplied separately, but the Cabbage must have it. On the
other hand, to prepare a soil for Potatoes it is necessary to employ a
manure strongly charged with salts of potash and phosphates, but it
need not be highly charged with soda or lime, for we find but a small
proportion of these ingredients in the Potato. There are soils so
naturally rich in all that crops require, that they may be tilled for
years without the aid of manures, and will not cease to yield an
abundant return. But such soils are exceptional, and those that need
constant manuring are the rule. One point more, ere we proceed to apply
to practice these elementary considerations. In almost every soil,
whether strong clay, mellow loam, poor sand, or even chalk, there are
comminglings of all the minerals required by plants, and, indeed, if
there were not, we should see no herbage on the downs, and no Ivies
climbing, as they do, to the topmost heights of limestone rocks. But
usually a considerable proportion of those mineral constituents on
which plants feed are locked up in the staple, and are only dissolved
out slowly as the rain, the dew, the ever-moving air, and the sunshine
operate upon them and make them available. As the rock slowly yields up
its phosphates, alkalies and silica to the wild vegetation that runs
riot upon it, so the cultivated field (which is but rock in a state of
decay) yields up its phosphates, alkalies and silica for the service of
plants the more quickly because it is the practice of the cultivator to
stir the soil and continually expose fresh surfaces to the transforming
power of the atmosphere. It has been said that the air we breathe is a
powerful manure. So it is, but not in the sense that is applicable to
stable manure or guano. The air may and does afford to plants much of
their food, but it can only help them to the minerals they require by
dissolving these out of pebbles, flints, nodules of chalk, sandstone,
and other substances in the soil which contain them in what may be
termed a locked-up condition. Every fresh exposure of the soil to the
air, and especially to frost and snow, is as the opening of a new mine
of fertilisers for the service of those plants on which man depends for
his subsistence.
The application to practice of these considerations is an extremely
simple matter in the first instance, but it may become very complicated
if followed far enough. Here we can only touch the surface of the
subject, yet we hope to do so usefully. Suppose, then, that we grow
Cabbage, or Cauliflower, or Broccoli, on the same plot of ground, one
crop following the other for a long series of years, and never refresh
the soil with manure, it must be evident that we shall, some day or
other, find the crop fail through the exhaustion of the soil of its
available sulphur, phosphates, lime, or potash. But if this soil were
allowed to lie fallow for some time, it would again produce a crop of
Cabbage, owing to the liberation of mineral matters which, when the
crops were failing, were not released fast enough, but which, during
the rest allowed to the soil, accumulated sufficiently to sustain a
crop. Obviously this mode of procedure is unprofitable and tends of
necessity to exhaustion, although it must be confessed that utter
exhaustion of any soil is a thing at present almost unknown. But,
instead of following a practice which impoverishes, let us enrich the
soil with manure, and change the crops on the same plot, so that when
one crop has largely taxed it for one class of minerals, a different
crop is grown which will tax it for another class of minerals. Take for
a moment’s consideration one of the necessary constituents of a fertile
soil, common salt (chloride of sodium). In the ash of a Cabbage there
is about six per cent. of this mineral, in the Turnip about ten per
cent., in the Potato two to three per cent., in the Beet eighteen to
twenty per cent. On the other hand the Beet contains very little
sulphur, but both Turnip and Beet agree in being strongly charged with
potash and soda. It follows that if we crop a piece of ground with
Cabbage, and wish to avoid the failure that may occur if we continue to
crop with Cabbage, we may expect to do well by giving the ground a
dressing of common salt and potash salts, and then crop it with Beet.
The whole subject is not exhausted by this mode of viewing it, for all
the facts are not yet fully understood by the ablest of our chemists
and physiologists, and crops differ in their methods of seeking
nourishment. We might find two distinct plants nearly agreeing in
chemical constitution, and yet one might fail where the other would
succeed. Suppose, for instance, we have grown Cabbage and other
surface-rooting crops until the soil begins to fail, even then we might
obtain from it a good crop of Parsnips or Carrots, for the simple
reason that these send their roots down to a stratum that the Cabbage
never reached; and it is most instructive to bear in mind that although
the Parsnip will grow on poor land, and pay on land that has been badly
tilled for years, yet the ashes of the Parsnip contain thirty-six per
cent. of potash, eleven per cent. of lime, eighteen per cent. of
phosphoric acid, six per cent. of sulphuric acid, three per cent. of
phosphate of iron, and five per cent. of common salt. How does the
Parsnip obtain its mineral food in a soil which for other crops appears
to be exhausted? Simply by pushing down for it into a mine that has
hitherto been but little worked, though Cabbage might fail on the same
plot because the superficial stratum has been overtaxed.
Having attempted a general, we now proceed to a particular application.
In the first place, good land, well tilled and abundantly manured,
cannot be soon exhausted; but even in this case a rotation of crops is
advisable. It is less easy to say why than to insist that in practice
we find it to be so. The question then arises—What is a rotation of
crops? It is the ordering of a succession in such a manner that the
crops will tax the soil for mineral aliments in a different manner. A
good rotation will include both chemical and mechanical differences,
and place tap-roots in a course between surface roots, as, for example,
Carrot, Parsnip, and Beet, after Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli;
and light, quick surface crops, such as Spinach, to serve as
substitutes for fallows. The cropping of the kitchen garden should be,
as far as possible, so ordered that plants of the same natural families
never immediately succeed one another; and, above all things, it is
important to shift from place to place, year after year, the Cabbages
and the Potatoes, because these are the most exhaustive crops we grow.
In a ton of Potatoes there are about twelve pounds of potash, four
pounds of sulphuric acid, four pounds of phosphoric acid, and one pound
of magnesia. We may replace these substances by abundant manuring, and
we are bound to say that the best rotation will not obviate the
necessity for manuring; but even then it is well to crop the plot with
Peas, Spinach, Lettuce, and other plants that occupy it for a
comparatively brief space of time, and necessitate much digging and
stirring; for these mechanical agencies combine with the manure in
preparing the plot to grow Potatoes again much better than if the land
were kept to this crop only from year to year. If we could mark out a
plot of ground into four parts, we should devote one plot to permanent
crops—such as Asparagus, Sea Kale, and Rhubarb—and on the other three
keep the crops revolving in some such order as this: No. 1, Potatoes,
Celery, Leek, Carrot, Parsnip, Beet, &c. No. 2, Peas, Beans, Onions,
Summer Spinach, &c., followed by Turnips for winter use, Cabbage for
spring use, and Winter Spinach. No. 3, Brassicas, including Broccoli,
Brussels Sprouts, Kale, &c. In the following year the original No. 1
would be cropped as No. 2, and No. 2 as No. 3. In the third season
corresponding changes would be made, constituting a three-course
system. The cultivator must use discretion in cropping vacant ground.
As an example it will be obvious that land cleared of Early Potatoes
will be very suitable for planting Strawberries. Another point is worth
attention: Peas sown on the lines where Celery has been grown will
thrive without any preparation beyond levelling the ground and drawing
the necessary drills. This is a West of England custom, and it answers
exceedingly well.
THE CHEMISTRY OF GARDEN CROPS
A Consideration of the chemistry of the crops that engage attention in
this country will afford an explanation of one great difference between
farming and gardening. And this difference should be kept in mind by
all classes of cultivators as the basis of operations in tillage,
cropping, and the order and character of rotations. The first thing to
discover in the cropping of a farm is the kind of vegetation for which
the land is best adapted to insure, in a run of seasons, fairly
profitable results. If the soil is unfit for cereals, then it is sheer
folly to sow any more corn than may be needful for convenience, as, for
example, to supply straw for thatching and litter, and oats for horses,
to save cost of carriage, &c. On large farms that are far removed from
markets it is often necessary to risk a few crops that the land is ill
fitted for, in order to satisfy the requirements of the homestead, and
to save the outlay of money and the inconvenience of hauling from
distant markets. But everywhere the cropping must be adapted to the
soil and the climate as nearly as possible, both to simplify operations
and enlarge to the utmost the chances of success. In the cropping of a
garden this plain procedure cannot be followed. We are compelled
certainly to consider what the soil and climate will especially favour
amongst garden crops, but, notwithstanding this, the gardener must grow
whatever the household requires. He may have to grow Peas on a hot
shallow sand; and Potatoes and Carrots on a cold clay; and Asparagus on
a shallow bed of pebbles and potsherds. To the gardener the chemistry
of crops is a matter of great importance, because he cannot restrict
his operations to such crops as the land is particularly adapted for,
but must endeavour to make the land capable of carrying more or less of
all the vegetables and fruits that find a place in the catalogue of
domestic wants. That he must fail at certain points is inevitable;
nevertheless his aim will be, and must be, of a somewhat universal
kind, and a clear idea of the relations of plants to the soil in which
they grow will be of constant and incalculable value to him.
We are bound to say at the outset that a complete essay on the
chemistry of vegetation is not our purpose. We are anxious to convey
some useful information, and to kindle sufficient interest to induce
those who have hitherto given but slight attention to this question to
inquire further, with a view to get far beyond the point at which we
shall have to quit the subject.
Plants consist of two classes of constituents—the Inorganic, which may
be called the foundation; and the Organic, which may be considered the
superstructure. With the former of these we are principally concerned
here. A plant must derive from the soil certain proportions of silica,
lime, sulphur, phosphates, alkalies, and other mineral constituents, or
it cannot exist at all; but, given these, the manufacture of fibre,
starch, gum, sugar, and other organic products depends on the action of
light, heat, atmospheric air, and moisture, for the organic products
have to be created by chemical (or vital) action within the structure,
or, as we sometimes say, the tissues of the plant itself. To a very
great extent the agencies that conduce to the elaboration of organic
products are beyond our control (though not entirely so), whereas we
can directly, and to a considerable degree, provide the plant with the
minerals it more particularly requires; first, by choosing the ground
for it, and next by tilling and manuring in a suitable manner. A clay
soil, in which, in addition to the predominating alumina, there is a
fair proportion of lime, may be regarded as the most fertile for all
purposes; but we have few such in Britain, our clays being mostly of an
obdurate texture, retentive of moisture, and requiring much
cultivation, and containing, moreover, salts of iron in proportions and
forms almost poisonous to plants. But there are profound resources in
most clays, so that if it is difficult to tame them, it is also
difficult to exhaust them. Hence a clay that has been well cultivated
through several generations will generally produce a fair return for
whatever crop may be put upon it. Limestone soils are usually very
porous and deficient of clay, and therefore have no sustaining power.
Many of our great tracts of mountain limestone are mere sheep-walks,
and would be comparatively worthless except for the lime that may be
obtained by burning. On the other hand, chalk, which is a more recent
form of carbonate of lime, is often highly productive, more especially
where, through long cultivation, it has been much broken up, and has
become loamy through accumulation of humus. Between the oldest
limestone and the latest chalk there are many intermediate kinds of
calcareous soils, and they are mostly good, owing to their richness in
phosphates, the products of the marine organisms of which these rocks
in great part, and in some cases wholly, consist. For the growth of
cereals these calcareous soils need a certain proportion of silica, and
where they have this we see some of the finest crops of Wheat,
Trifolium, Peas and Beans in these islands. If we could mix some of our
obdurate clays with our barren limestones, the two comparatively
worthless staples would probably prove remarkably fertile. Although
this is impossible, a consideration of the chemistry of the imaginary
mixture may be useful, more especially to the gardener, who can in a
small way accomplish many things that are impracticable on a great
scale. Sandy soils are characterised by excess of silica, and
deficiency of alumina, phosphates and potash. Here the mechanical
texture is as serious a matter as it is in the case of clay. The sand
is too loose as the clay is too pasty, and it may be that we have to
prevent the estate from being blown away. It is especially worthy of
observation, however, that sandy soils are the most readily amenable of
any to the operation of tillage. If we cannot take much out of them, we
can put any amount into them, and it is always necessary to calculate
where the process of enrichment is to stop. It is not less worthy of
observation that sandy soils can be rendered capable of producing
almost every kind of crop, save cereals and pulse, and even these can
be secured where there is some basis of peat or loam or clay with the
sand. The parks and gardens of Paris, Versailles, and Haarlem are on
deep sands that drift before the wind when left exposed for any length
of time with no crop upon them; and not only do we see the finest of
Potatoes and the most nutritious of herbage produced on these soils,
but good Cauliflowers, Peas, Beans, Onions, fruits, and big trees of
sound timber.
Garden soils usually consist of loam of some kind, the consequence of
long cultivation. Natural loams are the result of the decay and
admixture of various earths, and they are mostly of a mellow texture,
easily worked and highly productive. They are, as a rule, the best of
all soils, and their goodness is in part due to the fact that they
contain a little of everything, with no great predominance of any one
particular earth. Cultivation also produces loam. On a clay land we
find a top crust of clayey loam, and on a lime or chalk land a top
crust of calcareous loam. Where cultivation has been long pursued the
staple is broken and manures are put on, and the roots of plants assist
in disintegration and decomposition. Thus there is accumulation of
humus and a decomposition of the rock proceeding together, and a loam
of some sort is the result. Hence the necessity of caution in respect
of deep trenching, for if we bury the top soil and put in its place a
crude material that has not before seen daylight, we may lose ten years
in profitable cropping, because we must now begin to tame a savage soil
that we have been at great pains to bring up, to cover a stratum of a
good material prepared for us by the combined operations of Nature and
Art during, perhaps, several centuries. But deep and good garden soils
may be safely trenched and freely knocked about, because not only does
the process favour the deep rooting of the plants, but it favours also
that disintegration which is one of the causes of fertility. Every
pebble is capable of imparting to the soil a solution—infinitesimal,
perhaps, but not the less real—of silica, or lime, or potash, or
phosphates, or perhaps of all these; but it must be exposed to light
and air and moisture to enable it to part with a portion of its
substance, and thus it is that mechanical tillage is of the first
importance in all agricultural and horticultural operations.
The principal inorganic or mineral constituents of plants are potash,
soda, lime, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, and silica. Clays and
loams are generally rich in potash, sulphur, and phosphates, but
deficient in soluble silica and lime. Limestone and chalk are usually
rich in lime and phosphates, but deficient in humus, silica, sulphur,
and alkalies. Sandy soils are rich in silica, but are generally poor in
respect of phosphates and alkalies. Therefore, on a clay or loam,
farmyard manure is invaluable, because it contains ingredients that all
crops appreciate, and also because it is helpful in breaking up the
texture of the soil. The occasional application of lime also is
important for its almost magical effect on garden soil that has been
liberally manured and heavily cropped for a long term of years.
Calcareous soils are greatly benefited by a free application to them of
manure from the stable and cow-byre; but as a rule it would be like
carrying coals to Newcastle to dress these soils with lime. Clay may be
put on with advantage; and nothing benefits a hot chalky soil more than
a good dose of mud from ponds and ditches, which supplies at once
humus, alumina, and silicates, and gives ‘staple’ to the soil, while
preventing it also from ‘burning.’ In the manuring of sandy soils great
care is requisite, because of their absorbing power. In the
bulb-growing districts of Holland, manure from cowsheds is worth an
enormous price for digging into loose sand for a crop of Potatoes, to
be followed by bulbs. Sandy soils are generally deficient in phosphates
and alkalies; hence it will on such soils be frequently found that
kainit (a crude form of potash) and superphosphate of lime will
conjointly produce the best results, more especially in raising
Potatoes, Onions, and Carrots, which are particularly well adapted for
sandy soils. Probably one of the best fertilisers is genuine farmyard
manure from stall-fed cattle, for it contains phosphates, alkalies, and
silicates in available forms. For similar reasons Peruvian Guano is
often useful on such soils. Artificial manure should be selected with a
view to correct the deficiencies of the soil, and to satisfy the
requirements of the crops to be grown on it.