inning Scheme for Harvesting]

Often the principal herbs--sage, savory, marjoram and thyme--are set
close together, both the rows and the plants in them being nearer than
recommended further on. The object of such practice is to get several
crops in the following way: When the plants in the rows commence to
crowd one another each alternate plant is removed and sold or cured.
This may perhaps be done a second time. Then when the rows begin to
crowd, each alternate row is removed and the remainder allowed to
develop more fully. The chief advantages of this practice are not only
that several crops may be gathered, but each plant, being supplied with
plenty of room and light, will have fewer yellow or dead leaves than
when crowded. In the diagram the numbers show which plants are removed
first, second, third and last.

HERB RELATIONSHIPS

Those readers who delight to delve among pedigrees, genealogies and
family connections, may perhaps be a little disappointed to learn that,
in spite of the odorous nature of the herbs, there are none whose
history reveals a skeleton in the closet. They are all harmless. Now and
then, to be sure, there occur records of a seemingly compromising
nature, such as the effects attributed to the eating or even the
handling of celery; but such accounts, harrowing as they may appear, are
insufficient to warrant a bar sinister. Indeed, not only is the mass of
evidence in favor of the defendant, but it casts a reflection upon the
credibility of the plaintiff, who may usually be shown to have indulged
immoderately, to have been frightened by hallucinations or even to have
arraigned the innocent for his own guilt. Certain it is that there is
not one of the sweet herbs mentioned in this volumes that has not long
enjoyed a more or less honored place in the cuisine of all the
continents, and this in spite of the occasional tootings of some
would-be detractor.

Like those classes of society that cannot move with "the four hundred,"
the herbs are very exclusive, more exclusive indeed, than their
superiors, the other vegetables. Very few members have they admitted
that do not belong to two approved families, and such unrelated ones as
do reach the charmed circles must first prove their worthiness and then
hold their places by intrinsic merit.

[Illustration: Center Row Hand Cultivator]

These two coteries are known as the Labiatae and the Umbelliferae, the
former including the sages, mints and their