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HOP. Any bit of a root will grow and become a plant. The young plants should be planted in the fall, three or four together, in a clump, or hill, and the hills should be seven to ten feet apart. The first year of planting, put four rods, or little poles to each hill, and let two vines go up each pole, treading the rest of the vines down to creep about the ground. In a month after the vines begin to mount the poles, cut off all the creeping vines, and draw up a hill of earth around the poles, a foot high, covering all the crowns of the plant. At the end of another month, draw some more earth up, making the hill higher and higher. When the fall comes, cut off all the vines, that have gone up the poles, a foot from the ground; take down the poles, dig down the hills, and open the ground, all round the crowns of the plants; and before winter sets in, cut all down to the very crowns, and then cover over the crowns with earth three or four inches thick. Through this earth, the hop-shoots will start in the spring. You will want but eight of them to go up your four poles; and the rest, when three inches long, you may cut, and eat as asparagus. This year, you put poles 20 feet long to your hops. Proceed the same as before, only make your hills larger; and this year you will have plenty of hops to gather for use. Be sure to open the ground every fall, and cut all off close down to the crown of the plants. They are fit to gather, when you see, upon opening the leaves of the hop, a good deal of yellow dust, and when the seeds which you will find at the socket of the leaves of the hop, begin to be plump. Gather them nicely, and let no leaves or stocks be among them, and lay them out on a cloth to dry in the sun, taking care that no rain or dew fall on them. When perfectly dry, put them, very hardly and closely pressed, into a new bag, made of thick Russia linen; and in this state they will keep good, and fit for use, for twenty, or perhaps, three times twenty years.

HORSE-RADISH. Like every other plant, this bears seed; but it is best propagated by cutting bits of the root into lengths of two inches, and putting them, spring or fall into ground about a foot deep, with a setting stick. They will find their way up the first year, and the second they will be fine large roots, if the ground be trenched deeply, and made pretty good. Though a very valuable and wholesome article of diet, it is a most pernicious weed.

LAVENDER. A beautiful little well-known shrub, of uses equally well known. Hundreds of acres are cultivated in England, for the flowers to be used in distillation. It may be propagated from seed, but is easiest propagated from slips, taken off in the spring, and planted in good moist ground in the shade. When planted out, it should be in rows, three feet apart, and two feet apart in the rows. If the flowers are to be preserved, the flower stalks should be cut off before the blossoms begin to fade at all.

LEEK. There are two sorts; the narrow leaved, and the flag-leek, the latter of which is much the best. Some people like leeks better than onions; and they are better in soup. Sow in the fall, or as early in the spring as you can. About four yards square is enough. Put the rows eight inches asunder, and thin the plants to three inches apart in the row. Hoe deeply and frequently between the plants till the middle of July, and then take the plants up, cut their roots off to an inch long, and cut off the leaves a good way down. Make trenches

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like those for celery, only not more than half as deep and half as wide, and proceed in the same manner as in the case of celery.

LETTUCE. There are, I believe, twenty sorts, two of which only it will be enough to mention, green coss, white coss, the former of which is a darker green than the latter, is rather hardier, and not quite so good. These when true to their kind, and in a proper situation, rise up and fold in their leaves to a solid loaf, like the sugar loaf cabbage; and, in rich ground, with good management, will become nearly as large. When you cut one of these from the stem, and pull off its outside leaves, you have a large lump, enough for a salad for ten people. You must raise them in the spring, in precisely the same manner as the very earliest cabbage plants, (which see.) Put the plants out into the natural ground, about a fortnight before the general corn planting time. Do not put them in a place full to the sun. Make the ground quite rich, break it well, and, in transplanting, keep as much earth about the roots as you can, and give as little water; and transplant in the evening. Let one plant, (a very fine one,) stand for seed, and it will give you plenty of seed for a year or two.

MELONS. There are, all the world knows, two distinct tribes; the Musk and the Water. Of the former, the sorts are endless, and indeed, of the latter also. In this fine country, where they all come to perfection in the natural ground, no distinction is made as to earliness, or lateness in sorts. Amongst the Musk, the Citron is, according to my taste, the finest by far; and the finest Water melons that I have ever tasted, were raised from the seed that came from a melon raised in Georgia. As to the manner of propagating, cultivating, and sowing the seed of melons, see cucumber; and only observe that all that is there said, applies to melons as well as to cucumbers. The scil should be rich for melons, but it ought not to be freshly dunged. They like a light and rather sandy soil. Melons should be cultivated well.

MINT. There are two sorts; one is of a darker green than the other; the former is called peppermint, and is generally used for distilling to make mint water: the latter, which is called spearmint, is used for the table in many ways. The French snip a little into their salads: we boil a bunch amongst green peas, to which it gives a pleasant flavor; chopped up small, and put, along with sugar, into vinegar, we use it as sauce for roasted lamb; and a very pleasant sauce it is. Mint may be propagated from seed; but a few bits of its root will spread into a bed in a year.

MUSTARD. There is a white seeded sort, and a brown seeded. The white mustard is used in salads along with cress, and is sown and cultivated in the same way. The black is that which table mustard is made of. It is sown in rows, two feet apart, early in the spring. The plants ought to be thinned to four or five inches apart. Good tillage between the rows. The seed will be ripe in July, and then the stalks should be cut off, and when quite dry, the seed should be threshed out, and put by for use. Why should any man who has a garden, want to buy mustard? Why should he want the English to send him out, in a bottle, and sell him for a quarter of a dollar, less and worse mustard, than he can raise in his garden for a penny? The plants do not occupy the ground more than fourteen weeks, and may be followed by another crop

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of any plant, and even of mustard, if you like. This, therefore, is a very useful plant, and ought to be cultivated by every farmer, and every man who has a garden.

use.

ONION. This is one of the main vegetables. Its uses are many, and they are all well known. The modes of cultivation for a crop are various. Three I shall mention, and by either, a good crop may be raised. Sow in the fall or spring; let the ground be rich, but not from fresh dung. Make the ground very fine; mark the rows a foot apart and scatter the seed thinly along a drill two inches deep. Then fill the drills; and press the earth down upon the seed by treading the ground all over. Then give it a very slight smoothing with the rake. When the plants get to be three inches high, then thin them to four inches. Keep the ground clear of weeds by hoeing, but do not hoe deep, nor raise earth about the plants; for these make them run to neck and not to bulk. When the tip of the leaves begin to be brown, bend down the necks, so that the leaves lie flat with the ground. When the leaves are nearly dead, pull up the onions, and lay them to dry, in order to put away for winter Some persons, instead of sowing the onions all along the drill, drop four or five seeds at every six or seven inches distance, and leave the onions to grow in clumps; and this is not a bad way; for they will squeeze each other out. They will not be large; but they will ripen earlier, and will not run to neck. The third mode of cultivation is as follows:-Sow the onions any time between April and the middle of June, in drills six inches apart, and put the seed very thick along the drills. Let all the plants stand, and they will get to be about as big round as the top of your little finger. Then the leaves will get yellow; and when that is the case, pull up the onions, and lay them on a board till the sun has withered up the leaves. Then put them in a bag, and lay them up in a dry place till spring. As soon as the frost is out, and the ground dry, plant out these onions in good, fine ground, in rows a foot apart. Do not cover them with earth; but just press them down with your thumb and fore finger. Proceed after this as with sown onions; only observe, should any be running up to seed, twist down the neck at once. Preserving onions is an easy matter. Any dry, airy place, will do, for frosts never hurt them, if not moved while frozen.

PARSLEY. This, it is well known, bears its seed the second year, and then dies away. It may be sown at any season, when the frost is out of the ground. The best way is to sow it in the spring, and in very clean ground; because the seed lies long in the ground, and, if the ground be foul, the weeds choak the plants at their coming up. A bed six feet long, and four feet wide, the seed sown in drills at eight inches apart, is enough for any family.

PARSNIP. As to the season for sowing, sort of land, preparation of ground, distance, cultivation and tillage, precisely the same as the Carrot, which see. But as to preservation during winter, and for spring use, the Parsnip stands all frost without injury, and even with benefit.

PEA. This is one of those vegetables which all men most like. Its culture is universal where people have the means of growing it. The soil should be good, and fresh dung is good manure for them. Ashes, and compost, very good; but peas, like corn, will bear to be actually sown upon dung. The sorts are numerous, one class is of a small size,

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and the other large. The latter grow taller, and are longer in coming to perfection, than the former. The earliest of all is the little white pea, called, on Long Island, the May pea, in England, the early frame pea. Then come the early Charlton, the Hotspur, the Blue pea, the Dwarf and Tall Marrowfat: and several others. All the sorts may be grown in America, without sticks, and even better than with. I have this year the finest peas I ever saw, and the crop the most abundant. And this is the manner in which I have sown and cultivated them. I plough the ground into ridges, the tops of which (for the dwarf) were four feet apart. I then put a good parcel of yard manure into the furrows, and ploughed the earth back upon the dung; I then levelled the top of the ridge a little, and drew two drills upon it, at six inches distance from each other. In these I sowed the peas. When the peas were about three inches high, I hoed the ground deep and well between the rows, and on each outside of them. I then ploughed the ground from them, and to them again, in the same way, as in the case of the Swedish Turnip. In a week or two afterwards, they had another ploughing, and soon after this they fell, and lay down the side of the ridges. This was the way in which I managed all the sorts. This was of every sort the finest crop I ever saw in my life. The culture in the garden may be the same, except that the work which was done with the plough, must be done with the spade.

As to seasons, the early peas may be sown in the fall, but care must be taken to guard against the mice. Sow about four inches deep, and tread the ground well down. When the frost sets in, all is safe till winter breaks up. These peas will be earlier by ten or fifteen days, than any you can sow in the spring. If you sow in the spring do it as soon as the ground is dry enough to go upon. Sow the May pea, some Charltons, some Hotspurs, some Blue peas, and some Marrowfats, they will come one after another, till nearly August. In June (about the middle) sow some early peas again, and also some marrow fats; these will give you peas until September. Sow some of each sort middle of August, and they will give you green peas till the hardish frosts come. But these two last sowings ought to be under the south fence, so as to get as much coolness as possible.

PENNYROYAL. A medicinal herb. It is perennial. A little patch a foot square, is enough.

PEPPERS, (or Capsicum.) An annual plant, sown early in fine earth, in drills a foot apart, and at six inches apart in the drills. It is handsome as a flower, and its pods are used as a pickle.

PUMPKINS. See Cucumber. The cultivation is the same, and every body knows the different qualities and the different sorts, and how to preserve and use them.

RADISH. A great variety of sorts. Sown thin, in little drills six inches asunder. Sown as early as possible in the spring, and a little bed every three weeks all summer long. The early scarlet is the best. Radishes may be raised early in a hot bed precisely as cabbage plants

are.

RHUBARB. This is one dock is the wild Rhubarb. very early in the spring.

of the capital articles of the garden. The Rhubarb plant comes forth, like the dock, When its leaves are pretty large, you cut

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them off close to the stem, and if the plant be fine, the stalk of the leaf will be from eight inches to a foot long. You peel the outside skin from the stalk, and then cut the stalks up into bits about as large as the first joint of a lady's third finger. You put these into puddings, pies, and tarts, just as you would green currants. This plant is very hardy, and is raised from seed, from roots, and will grow in any ground, and the same plants will last for an age. It is a very valuable plant, and no garden ought to be without it.

ROSEMARY, is a beautiful little shrub. One of them may be enough in a garden. It is propagated from slips taken off in the spring, and planted in a cool place.

SAGE is raised from seed, or from slips. To have it on hand for winter, it is necessary to dry it; and it ought to be cut for this purpose, before it comes into bloom, as indeed is the case with all other herbs.

SPINACH. To have spinach very early in the spring, sow on or about the first week in September, in drills a foot apart, and when the plants are well up, thin them to six inches. They will be fine and strong by the time the winter sets in; and, as soon as that comes, cover them over well with straw, and keep it on till the breaking up of frost. Sow more as soon as the frost is out of the ground; and this will be in perfection in June. If you save seed, save it from plants that have stood the winter.

see.

SQUASH is, in all its varieties, cultivated like the cucumber, which

TANSY, a perennial, culinary, and medicinal herb, propagated from seeds or offsets. One root in a garden is enough.

THYME. There are two distinct kinds; both are perennial, and both may be propagated either from seeds, or by offsets.

TURNIP. The sorts of turnip are numerous, but, for a garden, it is quite sufficient to notice three; the early white, the flat yellow, and the Swedish or Ruta baga, which is a very different plant from the two. The two former sorts should be sown about the end of July, in rows (in a garden) two feet apart, and thinned out to a foot distance in the rows. Good and deep hoeing, and one digging, should take place while they are growing; for a large turnip is better, of the same age, weight for weight, than a small one. The Swedish turnip, so generally preferred for table use, ought to be sown early in June, in rows at a foot apart and thinned to three inches in the rows. About the middle of July, they ought to be transplanted (in a garden) upon ridges three feet apart, and during their growth, kept clean, and be dug between, twice at least, as deep as a good spade can be made to go.

PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF FRUITS.

PROPAGATION. All the fruits to be treated of here, except the strawberry, are the produce of trees or of woody plants. All these may be propagated from seed, and some are so propagated. But others are usually propagated by cuttings, slips, layers, or suckers; or by budding or grafting upon stocks. When the propagation is from seed, the sowing should be in good ground, finely broken, and the seed should by no means be sown too thick.