HORTICULTURE.

roots are much too fine to be seen with the naked eye. Upon pulling up a common turnip, who would image that the side or horizontal roots extend to several feet? Yet they may be traced to the length of four feet. But, though the roots should not extend nearly to the bottom of the moved ground, the plants are affected by the unmoved ground near at hand. Plants require a communication with, and an assistance from, beneath as well as from above, in order to give them vigor and fecundity.

Thus will the ground be prepared, but it seems necessary to add a few words on the subject of manures, as adapted to a garden. It is generally thought, and truly, that dung of any sort, is not what ought to be used, in the raising of garden vegetables. It is very certain, that they are coarse and gross when produced with the aid of that sort of manure, compared with what they are when raised with the aid of ashes, lime, rags, and composts. And besides, dung in hot soils and hot climates, adds to the heat: while ashes, lime, rags and composts do not, but on the contrary, they attract and cause the earth to retain moisture. All the ground in a garden ought always to be good ; and it will be kept in this state if it be well manured once every year.

FENCING. The fence of a garden is an important matter; for we have to view it not only as giving protection against intruders, twolegged as well as four legged, but as affording shelter in cold weather and shade in hot. With regard to shelter; this is of very great consequence, for it is well known that on the south side of a good high fence, you can have peas, lettuce, radishes, and many other things, full ten days earlier in the spring than you could have them in the unsheltered ground. The shade, during the summer, is also valuable. Peas will thrive in the shade long after they will no longer produce in the sun. Currant trees and goosberry trees will not do well in this climate, unless they be in the shade. Raspberries aiso are best in the shade; and during the heat of summer, lettuce, radishes and many other things thrive best in the shade. It will be presently seen, when I come to speak of the form of a garden, that I have fixed on an oblong square, twice as long as it is wide. This gives me a long fence on the north side, and also on the south side. The former gives me a fine, warm extensive border in the spring, and the latter a border equally extensive and as cool as I can get it, in the heat of summer.

I am aware of the difficulty of overcoming long habit, and of introducing any thing that is new. Yet, amongst a sensible people, such as those for whom this work is intended, one need not be afraid of ultinate success; and I, above all men, ought not to entertain such fear, after what I have seen with regard to the ruta baga. Yet I proceed with hesitation to propose, even for a garden, a line fence. In England it is called a quick set hedge. The truth is, however, that it ought rather to be called an everlasting hedge; for it is not so quickly set, or, at least, so very quickly raised. The plants are those of the white thorn. It bears white flowers in great abundance, of a very fragrant smell, which are succeeded by a little red berry. Within the red pulp is a small stone; and this stone, being put in the ground, produces a plant or tree in the same manner a cherry stone does. The red berries are called haws, whence this thorn is sometimes called hawthorn.

HORTICULTURE.

The haws are sown in drills, like peas, and they are taken from that situation and planted very thick in rows, in a nursery, where they stand a year or two, if they are not wanted the first year. Then they are ready to be planted to become a hedge.

The ground for the Garden being prepared, in the manner described under the head of Soil, take up your plants, prune their roots to within four inches of the part that was at the top of the ground, taking care to cut away all the fibres. Work the ground well all around the edges of the piece intended for the garden, and make it very fine with a spade. Then place a line along very truly; for, observe you are planting for generations to come. Take the spade, put the edge of it against the line, drive it down eight or ten inches deep; pull the eye of the spade towards you, and thus you make all along a little open cut to receive the roots of the plant, which you will then put into the cut, very upright, and then put the earth against them with your hand; taking care not to plant them deeper in the ground, than they stood before you took them from the nursery. The distance between the plants is twelve inches. When this line is done, plant another line all along by the side of it, and at six inches from it, in exactly the same manner; taking care, in this second line, to place the plants opposite the middles of the intervals. When both lines are planted, tread gently between them and also on the outside of them.

This work should be done in the first or second week of October. But if you cannot do it in the fall, do it the moment the ground is fit in the spring. In both cases the plants must be cut down close to the ground. If you plant in the fall, cut them down as soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring, and before the buds begin to swell: and, if you plant in the spring, cut down as soon as you have planted. This operation is of indispensable necessity; for, without it, you will have no hedge. Keep the ground between them and all around them very clean, and frequently hoed. Some people cut down again the next spring; but this is not the best way. Let the plants stand two summers and three winters, and cut them all close down to the ground as you can in the spring, and the shoots will come out so thick and so strong, that you never need cut down any more. But you must this year begin to clip. About the middle of July you must clip off the top a little, and the sides near the top, leaving the bottom not much clipped, so that the sides of the hedge may slope like the sides of a pyramid. The hedge will shoot again immediately and will have shoots, perhaps, six inches long by October. Then, before winter, you must clip it again, not cutting down to your last cut, but keeping your side always in a pyramidical slope, so that the hedge may always be wide at bottom and sharp at the top. And thus the hedge will go on getting higher and higher, and wider and wider, till you have it at the height and thickness that you wish, and when it arrives at that point there you may keep it. A hedge five clear feet high may be got in six years from the day of planting.

LAYING OUT. The laying out of a garden consists in the division of it into several parts, and in the allotting of those several parts to the several purposes for which a garden is made. These parts consist of Walks, Paths, Plats, Borders and a Hot-Bed-Ground. To render the directions more clear, a plan of the proposed garden is here given.

This is not, strictly speaking a plan, because it exhibits trees in elevation, but it will answer the purpose. The length of the garden is 100 yards, the breadth 50 yards. Before, however, I proceed further, let me give my reasons for choosing an oblong square. It will be seen that the length of my garden is from East to West. By leaving a greater

HORTICULTURE.

length in this direction, than from North to South, three important advantages are secured. First, we get a long and warm border under the North fence for the rearing of things early in the spring. Second, we get a long and cool border under the South fence, for shading during the great heats, things, to which a burning sun is injurious. Third, by this shape of the area of the garden a larger portion of the whole is sheltered during winter and spring, from the bleak winds.

Having such a spot before us, little difficulty can arise in laying it out. Indeed it is only necessary to state the dimensions. The several parts are distinguished by numbers. The long walk running from East to West is six feet wide, as is also the cross walk, in the middle. All the paths are three feet wide. The borders No. 2 and 3, are nine feet wide. The dimensions of the Plats, Nos. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, are each 70 feet from East to West, and 56 from North to South. Plat No. 6, is 56 feet by 50. Plat No. 4, is 60 by 36. The Hot bed ground No. 1, is 70 by 36. I leave trifling fractions unnoticed. It will be seen that about a third part of the ground is appropriated to Fruit-Trees. The reason for this, and the uses of the other parts of the ground, will be fully stated under the head Cultivation.

HOT BEDS. The materials of which the bed is to be composed, and the manner of preparing those materials, are first to be spoken of. Dung of horses, cattle, sheep, or pigs, is used to make the bed. Either may be made to do, with a greater or less degree of care and trouble; but, the best possible thing is dung from the stable, taken away before it has been rotted; short and long promiscuously, but rather long than short. In making the bed you will proceed as directed below, but I must first describe the Frame and the Lights. As there are few American Farmers who are not able to make both with their own hands, it will be necessary for me merely to say, that the frame is of the best shape when it is eighteen inches deep at the back and nine inches deep at the front. This will give slope enough. The Frame is the wood work on which the Lights, or glass-work, are laid. And, as it is useless to make a hot-bed without a frame and lights ready, I shall suppose them prepared. I suppose a three-light Frame, four feet wide and nine feet long, which will, of course, make every Light three feet wide, and four feet long, because the long way of the light, fits the cross way of the Frame.

Of making the bed. The front of the bed is, of course, to be full south, so that the noon sun may come right upon the glass. The length and width of the bed must be those of the Frame: therefore take the frame Make a and place it upon the spot you mean the bed to stand on. mark in the ground all round the outside of the frame. Then take some sharp pointed straight stakes and drive them in the ground at each corner of the marked out place for the bed, and one or two on the back and front side. Let these be about four feet high. Thus all being ready, begin taking the dung on the side of your heap nearest the spot where you are building the bed. Take long and short fairly, and mix them as you put them in. Shake the stuff in such a way as not to leave any lumps. Let the bed rise in all parts together as nearly as possible. Beat the whole down with a fork as you proceed. When you have shaken on dung to the thickness of four or five inches, beat all over well again; and so on, till the work be finished. But mind, you

HORTICULTURE.

must be very careful to keep the edges of the bed well beaten, else they will sink more than the rest, and thus the earth on the bed will crack in the middle. At last, shovel and sweep up all the short earthy stuff round the bed where your dung-heap was, and lay it very smoothly on the top of the bed; and make all as smooth and level as a die with the back of your shovel. Thus the bed is made. Then put on the frame, and the lights upon the frame. If you finish your bed by noon, the heat will begin to rise by the next morning, and by noon of the second day, the heat will be up. Poke your finger as deep as you can into the middle of the bed; if the heat be so great that you cannot endure it, then it is too great to receive the earth; but if not, put on the earth all over the bed. If the heat be too great, give the bed a little air, and wait till a little of the heat be gone off. The earth should be dry, not like dust, but not wet. I made provision for my bed, by putting earth in my cellar in November. The bed is to be covered all over, about six inches deep. When the earth has been on twenty-four hours, take off the lights, and stir the earth well with your hands. When you have stirred the earth well, and made the earth level and smooth, sow your seed, if you do not find the earth too hot.

Of the act of sowing. The more handsomely this is done, the better it is done. A handsome dress is better than an ugly one, not because it is warmer or cooler; but, because, liking it better, we take more care of it. Those who have seen two or three women together, crossing dirty streets, or in danger from horses and carriages, cannot have failed to discover, that humanity, like smoke, is very apt to fly to the fairest.

Seeds are great tell-tales; for, when they come up, we discover all the carelessness that may have prevailed at the sowing of them.

Of the management of a hot-bed. Observe that the main principle is, always to give the plants as much air as they will endure. I suppose the hot bed made as above, to be four feet high when just finished. It will sink as it heats, and will, at last, come to about one foot and a half. Its heat will gradually diminish; but it will give a great heat for about six weeks, and some heat for four months. It is this bottom heat that makes things grow. The sun is often hot in May; but it is not till the earth is warm, that vegetation advances with rapidity. Having secured the bottom heat, make free with the air. Even before the seeds begin to appear, give air to the bed every day, unless it be very cold weather. When the plants come up, they will soon tell you all about air; for, if they have not enough, they will draw up long legged, and will have small seed leaves, and, indeed, if too much deprived of air, will droop and die. Take care in time to prevent this. Let them grow strong, rather than tall. Short stems, broad seed leaves, very green, these are the signs of good plants and proper management. It will be necessary to water. Take off a light at a time, and water with a watering pot, that does not pour out heavily. Water just about sun-set, and then shut down the light; and the heat will then rise, and make the plants grow rapidly. Of the management of the different sorts of plants in a hot-bed, I shall speak under their respective names.

ON PROPAGATION AND CULTIVATION. In order to have good vegetables, herbs and fruits, we must be careful and diligent in the Propagation and Cultivation of the several plants; for, though nature does