THE SECOND YEAR.
We now come to the second year. The house had been finished. It occupied
a commanding position on the beautiful square that constituted my
possessions, and, with the wind whistling through the innumerable
ornaments that covered the edges of its high peaks, brought to mind its
original seafaring owner. The land had been well plowed, at last, and
was no longer impervious to spade and pick; the strawberries, whose
untimely fate has already been described in anticipation, had been
planted, and the asparagus-bed was in a promising state of preparation.
Fruit-trees, and raspberry bushes, and the “great Lawton
blackberry”--which, having originally been discovered by Mr. Seaton, was
called by my intelligent fellow-farmers after Mr. Lawton, because both
names ended with “ton”--were set out; my accounts for the year were made
up, and I determined to go to Europe.
My trip was principally undertaken--apart from some business claims
which importunate clients insisted on pressing upon me--to study the
European mode of agriculture. With that view I spent most of my time in
Paris, and went steadily to the Jardin des Plantes, Jardin
d’Acclimitation, Jardin Mobille, Château de Vincennes, Château des
Fleurs, the Lilac Festival, Bois des Boulogne, Pare Monceau, and all
such places where there was a chance to learn any thing I did not know
before. The information I acquired was very valuable, and if the reader
perceives its effect in the future pages he need not be surprised.
This threw the garden pretty much upon Patrick’s shoulders, and he
bought me a new lot of forty chickens, two watch-dogs, and four cats--as
the rats had almost taken possession of my house and barn, thinking,
apparently, that it was built for their convenience--and put into the
ground the most enormous quantity of manure. He seemed to have imbibed
the scientific agriculturist’s admiration for fertilizers, or else felt
an interest in the welfare of his numerous friends and compatriots in
the neighborhood who kept pigs and cattle, and raised what the books
politely term compost. He spread seven hundred loads of it on my five
acres, and when he was through there was not a load of compost to be had
in Flushing for love--although I do not believe that ever bought a load
of compost any where--or money.
Of course, I did not know exactly what seeds Patrick had put in, and if
I asked him, during the spring, whether he had this or that vegetable,
his answer always was, “Shure and he had lashings ov it;” but I feared
he had a sneaking weakness for onions and cabbages. My first question on
my return, which was after a flying visit of a few months, in which I
had learned all that was essential, was about the success of the
asparagus-bed.
“Faith, nothing has iver come up,” was the heart-rending response.
“There was a most beautiful pond of water standing on the spot all
winter, and I consaited that the roots was rotted out intirely; so, as
the bed was ilegantly manured, I jist put in a fine crop o’ turnips, as
I thought that would be the doin’ ov it.”
This was the end of my asparagus--a bed that requires three years to
mature, and which could not be started till another fall; a bed that had
been trenched and fertilized, and on which so much brain-work and
back-work had been expended; a bed in which the roots ought to have
slept comfortably and safely during their sleepy season. One or two
spears struggled up through the second planting, but even they were
feeble, and barely exhibited that delicate fringe that mature asparagus
assumes by contrast to its earlier state. My disgust can be imagined--to
plant asparagus and reap turnips, which I never eat, and yet have
Patrick inform me that this was “the doing of it!” To have, in place of
the most aristocratic and delicate of vegetables, the most vulgar and
indigestible one; to have the favorite plant of refined gourmets
supplanted by the food of cattle! I felt as though the only thing “done”
was myself.
Although my return to farming was a little late in the season, I went to
work in earnest, undismayed by this deplorable failure, planting every
spot that Patrick had neglected, and, as his memory was not very
accurate, occasionally putting a second sowing where he had already
planted a different seed. I felt I must make the most of my ground in
its present productive condition, and filled up every hole and corner.
The weather was propitious, and every thing grew in grand style. The
peas climbed up the bushes that were set round them and out over the
top; the beans went to the summit of their poles, and then waved their
heads round in the wind like measuring-worms on the end of a stick; and
the squashes covered the ground with enormous leaves.
The first that came to bearing were our peas--Daniel O’Rourkes, of
course. They rather went to stalk, being some seven feet high--about
twice their proper height, as laid down in agricultural works, and
almost out of reach. There were not many pods, and Patrick said “he
’most broke his back laining up to reach ’em;” but the flavor fully
justified Weeville’s enthusiasm. Unfortunately, only two rows had been
planted, and they furnished but a few meals--we had moved out of town
early to enjoy the full benefit of our fresh vegetables--and our next
planting consisted of a quantity of dwarf marrowfats. Now dwarf peas
have some advantages; they are easy to plant and easier to take care of;
they grow luxuriantly and bear abundantly; they are what farmers call a
“sure crop,” but as for eating them, that is another question. In a
religious and penitential point of view they would be invaluable, as no
amount of boiling would ever soften them. It is said they are a
profitable crop, and good, when plowed under, to enrich the land. It
would seem as though they were excellent in every way but on the table,
and it so happened that it was just for this especial purpose that I
wanted them. My land needed no farther enriching--Patrick’s compost had
done that effectually. Piety, of course, is desirable in its way, and
penitence is necessary, but mine never ran in the pea line; and
pilgrimages in tight boots was as much as ever I could endure and
retain a pious frame of mind, without adding the torture of dwarf peas.
Patrick, however, had great faith in dwarf peas, because they required
no bushes, and had consequently planted little else, so that our taste
of Daniel O’Rourkes was tantalizing. After the latter were gone we
bought the peas for our table in the village, while I had the
satisfaction of feeding Patrick the dry, tasteless “dwarfs” all summer,
till he thought the “dwarf pays weren’t good at all, at all.”
[Illustration]
Our next crop was squashes. We had the earliest squashes in all
Flushing. Their broad leaves covered the ground and reached up like
hands toward heaven; their insinuating runners spread in every
direction; large yellow flowers, into which bumblebees retired for honey
till they were out of sight, appeared innumerably, and at last the
creamy, delicate fruit shone through the thick foliage. It was with no
little exultation that I handed a fine large ripe one to Weeville, whose
vines were not nearly so forward. I anticipated his surprise, and
watched for its manifestation with interest. He, however, thanked me
kindly, but said he never ate squashes. This was simply the effect of
envy. He was indignant that his scholar should have been ahead of him,
and pretended he was merely raising a few for the servants. The excuse
was a palpable evasion, and I did not allow it to depress me, although I
must confess that I do not eat squashes myself. Peas are fine,
especially Daniel O’Rourkes, and except dwarfs; but squashes are a
miserably watery vegetable, fit only to feed cattle, who will hardly eat
them--except always when one raises them one’s self, and has the
earliest in the neighborhood, then they must be eaten with a relish, and
I did my best to keep up appearances.
Our cucumbers were a marvel of success. The water and musk melons did
not do so well, although the squashes were placed on one side of them
and the cucumbers on the other. Unfortunately, I do not eat cucumbers
either. The onions succeeded admirably--almost too much so, for Patrick,
as I had dreaded, had planted about an acre of them. I should have eaten
these, but there is a popular prejudice against them, and I observed
that after indulging in them, if I paid a visit, my lady friends did not
care to hear me whisper sweet nothings into their ears. Our turnips and
cabbages were immense, but it was never expected that any one but the
servants and cattle would touch them. The cauliflowers and egg-plants
did not do so well. Patrick made an effort to sell our surplus
vegetables, but the market seemed to be supplied, or the price turned
out very different from what we were in the habit of paying when we
purchased. They mostly went to Cushy, Dandy Jim--who rather turned up
his nose at them--and the pigs, of which Patrick had purchased an entire
litter.
I am a great admirer of cauliflowers, with their creamy consistency and
delicate flavor, and when July arrived, as ours evinced no desire to
hold up their heads and “blossom like the rose,” it was clear “something
must be done, and that shortly.”
Fresh application was made to the books, but the information there
contained was not quite so full and satisfactory as had been expected.
Much was said about cold frames, and housing young plants for the
winter, but very little that seemed to meet the case in point. My plants
did not want any housing over winter; they were to be eaten at once, if
they would only come to the edible point. The sole difficulty was that
they presented to the eye nothing that in the least resembled what one
finds in market under the name of cauliflower--a delicious concentration
of vegetable cream. There were leaves and stalks, but no flower, and
what precisely the former were good for except to feed the cow, neither
Patrick nor myself could exactly tell. He had a very vague idea of the
cause of the difficulty, and all that the books seemed to suggest was a
return to that most useful nourishment, the liquid fertilizer.
Our kitchen sink having been exhausted on the strawberries, this had to
be manufactured from the refuse of the chicken coop. It was not a
refined idea to pour such a filthy compound over so absorbent a
substance--in fact, over any substance that was to be eaten--and the
necessity of success alone forced me to it. But the plants were
themselves evidently disgusted with such treatment, and only spread out
their leaves like umbrellas to shield themselves from the offensive
showers. We had a few heads, or what passed for heads; but they were
leafy and rather tough--quite different from the white full heads sold
in market--and we fancied tasted of their nourishment.
There seemed to be a spell on the garden; whatever we wanted failed, and
had to be purchased in the village, and whatever was useless grew
magnificently. One of our cucumbers measured two feet in length by one
in circumference, and took the prize--a certificate merely--at the
county fair; but, generally, our success was not in exact accordance
with our taste. This, of course, was due to my unfortunate absence early
in the season. It never does to leave such important matters to
unlettered ignorance. How Adam ever made out to earn his bread in early
days, without the aid of “Ten Acres Enough,” and “Bridgeman’s
Assistant,” is a puzzle. Science is our only salvation, and it was a
matter of congratulation that I returned in time to apply it to the
flower garden, if I was somewhat late for the coarser vegetables.