procured; thus it is easy to form a good
friable, retentive loam, adapted to every variety of soil-culture.
Decayed wood and forest-leaves are excellent for garden-soils. Manure
well; but remember that it is possible to overfeed the soil of a garden,
so as to render it unproductive. Deep plowing or spading is very
important; it is the best possible remedy for excessive drought or
unusual rains. The water will not stand on the surface when it first
falls, and will be retained long in the soil for the use of the plants.
The soil should be very mellow. Plowing or spading too early, in hope of
getting earlier vegetables, is often a failure. The earlier the better,
if you can pulverize the soil; otherwise not. Plowing when covered with
a heavy dew, or when it rains gently, is equal to a good coat of manure.
A garden should be on level land well drained; if much inclined, rains
will wash off the best of the soil, and destroy many seeds and plants.
No weeds should be allowed to grow to any considerable size in a garden.
Early and frequent hoeings are important to success. Directions for the
cultivation of each garden vegetable and fruit are given under each of
those articles respectively. Methods of gardening at the South and the
North vary but little in the main articles. At the North we have to
guard against too much cool weather, and at the South against too much
heat. Some vegetables that need planting on ridges in the North, to
obtain more sun and heat, should be planted on level land at the South,
to guard against too much heat and drought. Besides this, the main
difference is in the time of planting, which varies more or less with
every degree of latitude, or every five hundred feet of elevation. Have
no fruit-trees in your vegetable or fruit garden, unless it may be a few
dwarf-pears on the quince-stock, and these had better be by themselves.

The plan of a garden is a matter of taste, and depends much upon its
size and necessary situation. We prefer ornamental shrubs in front of
the house, the flowers adjoining it and passing the windows of those
rooms that are constantly occupied, and the fruit-department in the
rear of the flowers, while the vegetable-garden should be at the right
or left of the fruit, and in the rear of the kitchen. On the other side
of the house should be the larger fruit-trees, extending back as far as
the fruit and vegetable garden, and in the rear of it, the
carriage-house and other out-building