will require two hours' boiling in soft water, and then pulp with ease through a cullender.

Rice is not half enough used; it is both cheap and nourishing; with or without milk, it will make a good dish for breakfast, dinner, or supper, especially for children. One pound of rice, boiled in a bag until tender, will make four or five pounds of pudding*. If rice be soaked in milk or water four or five hours before it is used, it will require but a short time to boil, which will save fire and pains.-Magazine of Domestic Economy.

Summer Cabbages and Bacon.-Cut a pound of bacon into bits an inch and half long and half an inch wide, put these into the saucepan with an onion, quartered, and let them fry together a minute or two, tossing and shaking the saucepan. Then put in the cabbages freshly washed, which will carry with them enough water to stew them. Let them simmer very slowly, keeping the saucepan closed. When nearly done, add any seasoning that may be necessary; and when tender enough to eat, add a lump of butter rolled in flour before you take them from the fire, and when it is properly mixed with the sauce, and has had a boil or two, the cabbage and bacon are ready.

ESSAY ON COTTAGE GARDENING.

BY JAMES BRADY.

As the following essay, which is taken from the Gardeners' Gazette, shows great knowledge of the subject, we have much pleasure in giving it insertion, premising only that it relates to vegetables alone; whereas we think it always desirable that allotment tenants should be encouraged to grow corn as well as vegetables.

"In the following short essay, founded on experience and observation, I would simply propose the subjoined plan:

With a little treacle, or even a little grated cheese and salt, it is good, and makes a variety.

"First-To show how one rood of ground may be most profitably cropped as a garden.

"Second-How another rood of ground may be managed, so as to produce (along with the refuse of the garden) sufficient material to feed a cow.

"To produce two crops annually out of the same ground, in rotation, let the garden if possible, be in a south aspect, enclosed by a paling or hedge, and previously prepared for cropping, by draining, trenching, &c., and ready to commence with by the 1st of October. Let the figure be a square, or an oblong, containing one rood, to be divided into eight plots, or beds, of five perches each, as under:

"System of cropping bed No. 1.-First crop-Early dwarf York cabbage, planted in October, and off in May; also brown Dutch lettuce, interlined between the cabbage in October, and off in February and March. Second crop-Potatoes, planted in May, and ripe in October.

66

"No 2.-First crop-Early Mazagan beans, planted in November, and off in June.

"Second crop-Potatoes interlined in May, and off in November.

"No. 3.-First crop-Large York cabbage, planted in February, and off in June.

"Second crop-Dutch cabbage, plantea in June, and off in November.

"No 4.-First crop-Early onions, transplanted in February, and ripe in June.

D

"Second crop-Drumhead or Dutch cabbage, planted in July, and off in December.

"No. 5. First crop-Long pod. beans, planted in March, and off in August.

"Second crop-Savoy cabbage and celery, interlined in June, and off in February; coss lettuce may also be interlined between the celery in June, and off in August. "No. 6.-First crop-Early potatoes, planted in March, and off in the latter end of July.

"Second crop-Savoy cabbage, interlined in the beginning of July, and off in March.

"No. 7-First crop-Onions, parsnips, carrots, (as a general crop).

"Second crop-Turnips, salads, &c., in succession, and small seeds.

"No. 8.-First crop-Large York cabbage, planted in April, and off in August.

"Second crop-Turnips and leeks interlined in July; they will be fit for use in the spring.

"By proper management, the labour requisite for this system of cropping may be accomplished by the cottager during the long evenings of summer, without infringing on the avocations of the day. In the winter, a day must be sacrificed now and again.

66

Interlining Crops. By interlining is meant, when the early or first crop is ripe, and not sufficient consumption for it, or cannot be disposed of to advantage, in time to have the ground prepared for a second crop; in such cases, the second crop may be planted in the intermediate space between the lines of the first. Thus the early or first crop is brought forward, for a month or five weeks, without the least injury to either.

"Seeds.-Early York, Savoy, and Dutch cabbage seeds, which are sown in March, the plants may be transplanted in May; York and Savoy seeds, sown in May, may be transplanted in July; York cabbage seeds, sown in July, may be planted in October, and York Savoy; and Dutch cabbage seeds, sown in August, may

be planted at any time from the beginning of February, until May. When the leaves on the young plants are: the breadth of half a crown or so, let them be thinned. out and put into a nursery bed; this not only affords. more space to the weaker plants, but checks the too vigorous growth of the stronger plants, and prevents, them from starting. In final transplanting, it is a good plan to make a puddle of fresh cowdung to dip the roots into. Celery seed may be sown in February; the plants thinned and pricked out in April; and finally trans planted in June. When the ground is prepared for final transplanting of cabbage, the best way to manage is to have drills opened with a common drawing hoe, about four inches deep. In these lines let the plants be carefully put in with a dibber. The reason for planting them in the deep lines or drills is, that the plants are partially shaded from the hot sun in summer, and sheltered from the cold blasts in winter; besides, cabbage planted in, this way needs no second moulding. In gathering the crops, particularly the earlier ones, when interlining is not necessary, and more especially the cabbage tribe,. the best way is to begin at one end of the plot, and when a few lines are gathered, that part of the ground to be. dug up, and the second crop so far commenced being put in; and so on until the first crop is entirely cleared, away. By the time the last part of the first is away, the last part of the second, or last crop, will have been planted, and the first part of it almost ripe. This method is much better than cutting here and there, &c. In all cases, I would recommend, as soon as the late crop is cleared away, to have the ground trenched, or laid up. in ridges with the spade, so that as large a surface of it as possible may be exposed to the action of the weather.

66

Early Onions.-Let the seeds be sown about the middle of August; about three square yards of ground will be sufficient, and about a quarter of an ounce of seed. The plants are to remain in the seed-bed until

the middle of February, when they are to be transplanted in the following manner:- -Let the ground be dug on the same day the young onions are to be planted. When the ground is ready, open drills, six inches apart and three inches deep; let the plants be carefully taken from the seed-bed, and laid into the drills, at about four inches asunder. Let each drill, as it is planted, be neatly covered in with the back of a garden rake, and the soil about the roots carefully settled with a little water. About the middle of May some of them will start, that is, show their flower-stem. As soon as this appears, let it be pinched off. Let them be well supplied with water in dry weather, and the bulbs will swell to a great size. By the latter end of June they will be ripe. Onions grown in this way will be ripe six weeks earlier than the onions of the spring sowing, and grow to a much larger size. The globe and Tripoli varieties are the best for early sowing.

Management of Leeks.-Let the seeds be sown in March; in July let them be transplanted in drills, at six inches apart and six inches deep; let there be four inches from plant to plant in the rows. Let them remain so until spring, and they will grow to a large size. Gooseberry quicks may be planted round the borders, at four feet distance from the edge of the walks, and six feet asunder. They can be trained perpendicularly in a conical form to any convenient height, from four to eight feet, from one stem below; by training them in this way, they occupy but little surface, and produce the most abundant crop; and by watering them occasionally with liquid manure, they will, at the end of three years, yield from two to four gallons of gooseberries each. Strawberries may be planted, as edgings, along the walk, at about one foot from plant to plant. Let them be well watered in dry weather, until the fruit begins to colour, and no longer. The runners should be carefully cut away as they appear, and they will bear abundantly. They will require to be renewed every fourth year. It