HORTICULTURE. Obs. 1. The cirrus or curl cloud, Fig. 1, derives its name from its curling form, which often assumes the appearance of a bunch of wool drawn out into fine pointed ends. A variety of this cloud is known by farmers under the name of mare's tail, and is an accompaniment of variable weather, and prognosticates wind and rain. 2. The Cirrocumulus or sonder cloud, Fig. 2, consists of beds of small, well defined masses of clouds which lie in the neighborhood of each other, yet are separated from each other and distinct, as the word sonder or sunder indicates. The prevalence of this cloud in summer forebodes a higher temperature; in winter, it indicates warm and wet weather. When these clouds are very dense, and quite round in their form, they are a forerunner of storms. 3. Cirrostratus or wane cloud. always followed by rain or snow. change which it undergoes in its sent the varieties of this cloud. The prevalence of this cloud is almost It derives its name from the frequent appearance. Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, repre 4. Cumulostratus and Cumulus are represented by Fig. 9, the Cumulus having the appearance of a heap or stack of clouds, and the Cumulostratus being the base or foundation of the Cumulus. It is called twain cloud from the frequent coalescense or juncture of two other modifications or clouds, as the cirrus and the cumulus. The cumulostratus is an indication of rain or snow; but if it ends in either, it previously assumes the form of Nimbus, as in Fig. 11. 5. Nimbus, Fig. 11, is always followed by either snow or rain. PART VI. ART OF GARDENING OR HORTICULTURE. ON THE SITUATION, SOIL, FENCING, AND LAYING OUT OF GARDENS. SITUATION. The ground should be as nearly on a level as possible; but as it is not always in our power to choose a level spot, the slope in the ground should, if possible, be towards the South. In a Kitchen Garden all large trees ought to be kept at the distance of thirty or forty feet. For, the shade of them is injurious, and their roots a great deal more injurious to every plant growing within the influence of those roots. Grass, which mats the ground over with its roots and does not demand much food from any depth, does not suffer much from the roots of trees; but every other plant does. A kitchen garden should, therefore, have no large trees near it. If it be practicable, without sacrificing too much in other respects, to make a garden near to running water, and especially to water that may be turned into the garden, such an advantage ought not to be lost; but as to watering with a watering pot, it is seldom of much use, and it cannot be practised upon a large scale. It is better to trust to judicious tillage, and to the dews and rains. A man will raise more moisture, with a hoe or a spade, in a day, thạn HORTICULTURE. he can pour on the earth out of a watering pot in the same time; or, at least to greater purpose. SOIL. The plants which grow in a garden, prefer, like most other plants, the best soil that is to be found. The best is loam of several feet deep, with a bed of lime-stone, or sand below. Oak trees love clay, and the finest and heaviest wheat grows in land with a bottom of clay; but if there be clay within even six feet of the surface there will be a coldness in the land, which will, in spite of all you can do, keep your spring crop a week or ten days behind those upon land which has not a bottom of clay. Having fixed upon a spot for a garden, the next thing is to prepare the ground. This may be done by ploughing and harrowing, until the ground at top be perfectly clean; and then by double ploughing; that is to say, by going with a strong plough, that turns a large furrow, and turns it cleanly, twice in the same place, and thus moving the ground to the depth of fourteen or sixteen inches, for the advantage of deeply moving the ground is very great indeed. When this has been done in one direction, it ought to be done across, and then the ground will have been well and deeply moved. This is as much as I shall, probably, be able to persuade any body to do in the way of preparing the ground. But this is not all that ought to be done; and it is proper to give directions for the best way of doing this and every thing else. The best way is, then, to trench the ground; which is performed in this manner. At one end of the piece of ground, intended for the garden, you make with a spade, a trench, all along, two feet wide and two feet deep. You throw the earth out on the side away from the garden that is to be. You shovel out the bottom clean, and make the sides of the trench as nearly perpendicular as possible. You then take another piece, all along, two feet wide, and put the earth that this new piece contains into the trench, taking off the top of the new two feet wide, and turning that top down into the bottom of the trench, and then taking the remainder of the earth of the new two feet and place it on the top of the earth just turned into the bottom of the trench. Thus proceed, till the whole of your garden ground be trenched; and it will have been cleanly turned over to the depth of two feet. There is no point of greater importance than this. Poor ground deeply moved is preferable, in many cases, to rich ground with shallow tillage; and when the ground has been deeply moved once, it feels the benefit forever after. It is well known to all who have had experience on the subject, that of two plants of almost any kind that stand for the space of three months in top soil of the same quality, one being on ground deeply moved, and the other on ground moved no deeper than is usual, the former will exceed the latter one half in bulk. And, as to trees of all descriptions, from the pear tree down to the currant bush, a similar difference might be seen. It is a notion with some persons, that it is no use to move the ground deeper than the roots of the plant penetrate. But, in the first place the roots go much deeper than we generally suppose. When we pull up a cabbage, for instance, we see no roots more than a foot long, but if we were carefully to pursue the roots to their utmost point, even as far as the eye would assist us, we should find the roots a great deal longer, and the extremities of the HORTICULTURE. roots are much too fine to be seen with the naked eye. Upon pulling up a common turnip, who would imagine 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 of 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 gooseberry trees will not do well in this climate, unless they be in the shade. Raspberries are also 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 ultimate 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 fine, 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 it 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 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 |