OUR KITCHEN-GARDEN.
As I wish to make this little work a complete manual to the "farm of
four acres," I must insert a few remarks on the management of the
kitchen-garden. Ours consisted of an acre; and, large as our family
was, we did not require more than half of it to supply us with
vegetables, independent of potatoes.
We strongly advise any one who may have more garden than they may want
for vegetables, to plant the surplus with potatoes. Even if the
"disease" does affect part of the crop, the gain will still be great,
providing you keep animals to consume them; for they must indeed be
bad if the pigs will not thrive on them when boiled. Poultry,
likewise, will eat them in preference to any other food.
We had something more than half an acre planted one year when the
disease was very prevalent; the crop suffered from it to a
considerable extent, but the yield was so large that we stored
sufficient to supply the family from September till the end of April,
and had enough of those but slightly affected to fatten four pigs,
beside having a large bowlful boiled daily for the poultry. The worst
parts were always cut out before they were boiled, and neither pigs
nor poultry were allowed to touch them raw.
It is much the best plan to consume all the potatoes you may grow,
rather than save any of them for seed. It will be but a slight
additional expense to have fresh kinds sent from quite a different
locality, and they will thrive better, and not be so liable to the
disease.
They should always be dug before the slightest appearance of frost,
and place on straw in a dry place, where they can be conveniently
looked over once a fortnight, when any that show symptoms of decay
should be removed and boiled at once for the pigs. By this method very
few will be wholly wasted; instead of eating potatoes you will eat
pork, that is, if you have plenty of skim-milk. I do not at all know
how pigs would like them without they were mixed up with that fluid.
We have tried, with great success, planting them in rows alternately
with other vegetables. When they are all together, the haulms in wet
seasons grow so rankly that they become matted together; and then, as
the air is excluded from the roots, it renders them liable to disease.
We have tried cutting the haulm off to within a few inches of the
ground; but this, the gardener said, proved detrimental to the roots.
We afterwards tried a row of potatoes, then cabbages, then carrots,
and then again came the potatoes. We once planted them between the
currant and gooseberry bushes, but it was as bad, or worse, than when
a quantity of them were by themselves; for when the trees made their
midsummer shoots the leaves quite shut out air and light from the
potatoes, and when dug they proved worse than any other portions of
the crop.
We always found that the deeper the sets were placed in the ground the
sounder were the roots: We tried every experiment with them; and as
our gardener was both skilful and industrious, we were usually much
more fortunate with our produce than our neighbors.
Carrots rank to the "small farmer" next in value to the potatoes; not
only pigs and cows are fond of them, but likewise horses. The pony
always improved in condition when he was allowed to have a few daily.
Our arable acre was a model farm on a very small scale. We grow in it
maize for the poultry, tares for the pigeons, lucerne for the cows,
and talked of oats for the pony. This our gardener objected to, so the
surplus bit of ground was sown with parsnips, which turned out very
profitable, as both pigs and cows liked them.
We have told the reader that we reared the calf of the Strawberry cow,
and it cost us hardly anything to do so, for it was fed in the winter
with the roots we had to spare. The first winter it had to consume the
greater part of the ton of mangel-wurzel we had bought "to keep our
cows together." Some we had boiled with potatoes for the pigs, and
they liked it very well.
An acre of land may appear a laughably small piece of ground to
produce such a variety of articles, but if well attended to the yield
will astonish those who are ignorant of gardening. The one important
thing to be attended to is, to see that all seed-crops are well
thinned out as soon as they are an inch above the surface. In very few
kitchen-gardens is this attended to, and for want of this care a dozen
carrots, parsnips, or turnips, are allowed to stand where one would be
sufficient. The one would prove a fine root; the dozen are not worth
the trouble of pulling, as they can get neither air nor room to grow.
To be well done they should be thinned by hand, and that being a
tedious "job," gardeners seldom can be induced to perform the work
properly.
As our ground became productive we added another cow, and more pigs
and poultry, but I shall not now say with what success. This little
book in only intended for the novice in farming, and details only the
results of the first six months of our "farm of four acres."
Perhaps I should have called it _five_ acres, as nearly the whole of
the acre of kitchen-garden was devoted to the cultivation of food for
our "stock."
We had a very broad sunny border at the back of the flower-garden,
which grew nearly all the spring and summer vegetables we required:
such as seakale, early potatoes, peas cauliflowers, and salads.
We have not yet said anything of the money we saved by our
kitchen-garden, but we must add to the profits of our six months'
farming the average amount we should have paid to a green-grocer for
fruit and vegetables.
Twenty-five cents a day to supply thirteen persons with these
necessary articles is certainly not more than must have been expended.
Still, $90 per annum is a considerable item of household expenditure,
and scanty would have been the supply it would have furnished; as it
was we had a profusion of fruit of all kinds, from the humble
gooseberry and currant to the finest peaches, nectarines, and hothouse
grapes, as well as an abundant supply of walnuts and filberts.
Had we bought all the produce of our garden, the value would have more
than paid our gardener's wages.
Nor must I omit the luxury of having beautiful flowers from the
greenhouse throughout the winter; these superfluous items did not
figure in our accounts. We should have purchased but bare necessaries,
and therefore entered but twenty-five cents a day for "garden stuff"
in our housekeeping book.
Those only who have lived in the country can appreciate the luxury of
not only having fruit and vegetables in abundance, but of having them
fresh. Early potatoes fresh dug, peas fresh gathered, salad fresh cut,
and fruit plucked just before it makes its appearance at table, are
things which cannot be purchased by the wealthiest residents in a
great city.
Not far from our residence there were large grounds, which were
cultivated with fruit and vegetables for the London market. I have
frequently seen the wagons packed for Covent Garden. The freshest that
can be procured there would be considered "stale" in the neighborhood
in which they were grown. Any fruit or vegetables in that far-famed
market must have been gathered twenty-four hours before they could
find their way into the kitchen of the consumer; and it is not only
the time which has elapsed, but the manner in which they are packed,
which so much deteriorates their quality.
Have any of our readers ever seen the densely-loaded wagons which
enter that market? The vegetables are wedged as closely together as
they can be pressed, which very soon causes, in warm weather,
cabbages, greens, &c., to ferment and become unwholesome. I have often
seen them so loaded in the middle of the day before they reached
London. They are left in the hot sun till the time arrives, when the
horses are placed in them, and they begin their slow journey towards
town. This is seldom till late at night when the distance does not
exceed a dozen miles.
The finer kinds of fruit such as peaches, grapes, etc., do not injure
so much by being kept a few days before the are eaten; indeed, _ripe_
peaches and nectarines are seldom gathered for sale: they would spoil
too quickly to enable the fruiterer to realize much profit. They are
plucked when quite hard, and then placed in boxes till they gradually
_soften_; but the flavor of fruit thus treated is very inferior to
that of a peach or nectarine ripened by the sun. Seed-fruits, such as
strawberries, come very vapid in four or five hours after they have
been picked, if they were then quite ripe.
I know that the last few pages have nothing to do with "the money we
made" by our farm, but I wish to show the reader all the advantages
which a country residence possess over a town one. Some persons, who
cannot live without excitement, think that nothing can compensate for
the want of amusement and society.
I was once speaking of the pleasure I experienced from residing in the
country, and placed _health_ among its many advantages, when I was
answered, "It is better to die in London than live in the country!"
I think I have said enough to cause my lady readers to wish that the
time may not be far distant when they may, like ourselves,--for we did
all sorts of "odd jobs" in our garden,--cut their own asparagus, and
assist in gathering their own peas.
It is indeed impossible to over-estimate the value of a kitchen-garden
in a large family which numbers many children among its members.