Part 34
This is the first operation of rearing. Where seeds are deposited singly, as in rows of beans, or large ruts, they are said to be planted; where dropt in numbers together, to be sown. The operation of sowing is either performed in drills, patches, or broadcast. Drills are small excavations formed with the draw-hoe, generally in straight lines parallel to each other, and in depth and distance apart, varying according to the size of the seeds. In these drills, the seeds are strewed from the hand of the operator, who, taking a small quantity in the palm of his hand and fingers, regulates its emission by the thumb. Some seeds are very thinly sown, as the pea, and spinage; others thick, as the cress, and small salad.
Patches are small circular excavations made with the trowel; in these seeds are either sown or planted, thicker or thinner, and covered more or less, according to their nature. This is the mode adopted in sowing in pots, and generally in flower-borders.
In broad-cast sowing, the operator scatters the seed over a considerable breadth of surface, previously prepared by digging, or otherwise being minutely pulverized. The seed is taken up in portions in the hand, and dispersed by a horizontal movement of the arm, to the extent of a semi-circle, opening the hand at the same time, and scattering the seeds in the air, so as they may fall as equally as possible over the breadth taken in by the sower at once, and which is generally six feet; that being the diameter of the circle in which his hand moves through half the circumference. In sowing broad-cast on beds, and narrow’ strips or borders, the seeds are dispersed between the thumb and fingers, by horizontal movements of the hand in segments of smaller circles.
Dry weather is essentially requisite for sowing, and more especially for the operation of covering in the seed, which in broad-cast sowing, is done by treading or gently rolling the surface, and then raking it; and in drill-sowing, by treading in the larger seeds, as peas, and covering with the rake; smaller seeds, sown in drills, are covered with the same implement, without treading.
TO PLANT SHRUBS AND TREES.
Planting, as applied to seeds, or seed-like roots, as potatoes, bulbs, &c. is most frequently performed in drills, or in separate holes made with the dibber; in these, the seed or bulb is dropped from the hand, and covered with or without treading, according to its nature. Sometimes planting is performed in patches, as in pots or borders, in which case, the trowel is the chief instrument used.
Quincunx is a mode of planting in rows, by which the plants in one row are always opposed to the blanks in the other, so that when a plot of ground is planted in this way, the plants appear in rows in four directions.
Planting, as applied to plants already originated, consists generally in inserting them in the soil of the same depth, and in the same position as they were before removal, but with various exceptions. The principal object is to preserve the fibrous roots entire; to distribute them equally around the stem among the mould or finer soil, and to preserve the plant upright. The plant should not be planted deeper than it stood in the soil before removal, and commonly the same side should be kept towards the sun. Planting should, as much as possible, be accompanied by abundant watering, in order to consolidate the soil about the roots; and where the soil is dry, or not a stiff clay, it may be performed in the beginning of wet weather, in gardens; and in forest planting, on dry soils, in all open weather during autumn, winter, and spring.
TO WATER GARDENS.
Watering becomes requisite in gardens for various purposes, as aliment to plants in a growing state, to support newly transplanted plants, for keeping under insects, and keeping clean the leaves of vegetables. One general rule must be ever kept in mind during the employment of watering a garden; that is, never to water the top or leaves of a plant when the sun shines. All watering should be carried on in the evening or early in the morning, unless it be confined to watering the roots, in which case, transplanted plants, and others in a growing state, may be watered at any time; and if they are shaded from the sun, they may also be watered over their tops. Watering over the tops is performed with the _rose_, or dispenser attached to the spout of the watering-pot, or by the syringe or engine. Watering the roots is best done with the rose; but in the case of watering-pots in haste, and where the earth is hardened, it is done with the naked spout.
Many kitchen-crops are lost, or produced of very inferior quality, for want of watering. Lettuces and cabbages are often hard and stringy; turnips and radishes do not swell, onions decay, cauliflowers die off, and, in general, in dry soils. Copious waterings in the evenings, during the dry season, would produce that fulness of succulency, which are found in the vegetables produced in the low countries, and in the Marsh Gardens at Paris; and in this country at the beginning and latter end of the season.
Watering the foliage of small trees to prevent the insects, and of strawberries, and fruit shrubs, to swell the fruit, is also of importance.
The principal tools used by gardeners are, a light handy spade, a shovel, rake, with iron teeth, hoe, three-pronged fork, dibber, or setting-stick, line and reel, usually called a skillet, wheelbarrow, baskets, trowel, a pair of shears, scythe, hay-rake, hook, ladder, besom, or broom, beater, garden-roller, turfing-iron, hatchet, and hammer. The gardener usually wears a blue woollen apron, which, when he is pruning, he ties up before him, and then serves to hold his nails, shreds, scissors, hammer, and pruning-knife. He should also be provided with a light measuring rod, flat and narrow, painted and divided on one side into feet and half feet, and on the other into yards and half yards; with this he will be able to measure distances, to lay out his beds for sowing and planting, and to measure and lay down his gravel-walks, grass-plats, &c. A table, that will be very useful to him in laying out beds, or any quantity of ground, large or small, will be found in the APPENDIX.
THE GARDENER’S CALENDAR.
_Containing useful Information for every Month in the Year._
_January._ If the weather be open and dry, sow, upon warm compartments, small portions of peas, beans, cabbage, spinage, carrots, parsley, radish, lettuce, and onions, and preserve them from the cold by mats. Also, in hot-beds, cucumbers, melons, small salading, best early and red cabbage, kidney beans, and cauliflowers. Plant cabbages, horse-radish, beans, and mint roots. The cucumbers and melons this month require particular attention. They ought to receive air by small degrees, as often as possible.
_February._ Sow small salading, radishes, onions, parsley, spinage, lettuce, peas, beans, cabbage, cauliflowers, carrots, parsnips, fennel, &c. Plant cabbages, &c. as last month. The cucumber and melon plants raised last month, should be transplanted about the middle of this into new hot-beds. The ground should be prepared for planting asparagus next month.
_March._ Sow, in this month, principal crops of carrots, early turnips, radishes, onions, cabbage, celery, cauliflowers, spinage, lettuce, asparagus, peas, and beans. Sow asparagus for the new plantations of the next year. Make new asparagus beds, and fork the old ones.
_April._ Sow and plant, as in the former month, for a later crop. Towards the middle of the month dung should be prepared for ridges of melons and cucumbers. Snails and slugs ought to be killed, and weeds kept down; otherwise they will increase so fast as to render their destruction difficult.
_May._ The principal crops sowed and planted in the spring will now require weeding, hoeing, and thinning, and some transplanting. The melon beds require an equal degree of heat; and the glasses must be covered every night through the month with mats; but in the middle of the day they must be raised to the breadth of two or three fingers. Cucumbers in frames must receive a moderate supply of water, and be planted out under hand-glasses.
_June._ Particular attention is now required in weeding, hoeing, thinning, and watering the principal crops, and pricking out and transplanting for autumn and winter. Sow savoys, brocoli, borecole, cabbages, turnips, carrots, spinage, coleworts, kidney beans, lettuce, endive, celery, cucumbers, radishes, peas, beans, and small salading. Plant cabbages, colewort, savoys, brocoli, borecole, leeks, beans, lettuce, endive, celery, cucumbers, radishes, peas, and beans. Melon plants must be shaded in the heat of the day, and receive a large portion of fresh air. Transplant endive for blanching, and prick out young brocoli plants, which were sown in April or May.
_July._ Prepare ground for the reception of succession crops, and some main crops for autumn and winter, and sow turnips, &c. as at the beginning of the year. The common radishes sown now will be fit to draw the beginning of September; and the cauliflowers sown in May must be planted out in spots where they are to remain. The beds of carrots sown now will be fit to draw early in April. Spinage for winter may now be sown, and onions taken up if the leaves wither.
_August._ Asparagus beds planted in March must now be cleared; celery transplanted and earthed, and the heads or suckers taken from the March artichokes. The early cabbage seed must not be sown later than the 12th of this month; but lettuce seed may be put in as late as the 24th. The cauliflower seed will not do without covering, and the spinage sown last month will require hoeing.
_September._ Sow spinage, lettuce, onions, radishes, cabbages, colewort, chervil, corn-salad, borage, coriander, turnips, and successions of small salading. Plant savoys, cabbages, coleworts, brocoli, borecole, lettuces, leeks, celery, endive, and perennial, aromatic, and pot-herbs. Make mushroom beds, and cut down the haulm of asparagus, clean the beds and dung them if necessary. Hoe your turnips, and weed onions. The cauliflowers of last month must be weeded out, and cabbage-plants pricked. Of the lettuces sown last month some may be put into warm borders for spring use, and others planted under frames for pulling in December and January. The different seeds must be gathered as they ripen.
_October._ Sow a small crop of radishes and lettuces, successions of small salading, and a few early peas to come in next summer. Plant crops of cabbage, cauliflowers, late brocoli, celery, lettuce, early beans. Keep uncovered night and day, for the greater part of this month, such cauliflowers as are planted in frames. All spare ground should be dunged and trenched.
_November._ Most of the processes used last month will also be appropriate for this. Such as giving air to lettuce and cauliflower plants that are under frames. Cut down the leaves of artichokes and earth up the plants.
_December._ Forward the digging, manuring, or trenching vacant ground, preparing hot dung, making hot-beds, and earthing and tying up plants. Sow a few early peas and radishes on warm borders, and small salading and cucumbers in hot-beds. Plant early beans, strong cabbage-plants, and coleworts; and plant in hot-beds, cucumbers, mint, tarragon, and asparagus. The small salads may be sown every ten days, under frames; and such radish seed as may be put into the ground this month, should be covered on cold nights with fern, or long litter.
Salary from 50l. to 100l. a year,—a cottage, generally, and vegetables and fuel allowed.
THE UNDER GARDENERS.
These men are entirely under the controul and direction of the _head gardener_, and are employed by him, for the most part, in digging and trenching, wheeling, dunging, gravelling, hoeing, mowing, and other laborious work.
They are engaged as weekly servants, and are paid according to their abilities, from 16 to 20 or 21 shillings per week, and vegetables. Some _under gardeners_ have a cottage assigned for themselves and families, and others have also fuel allowed them for their fires.
THE SERVANTS’ HALL.
In large establishments, the housekeeper, the lady’s maid, and the men servants out of livery, usually take their meals by themselves, in the housekeeper’s or steward’s room; but when they take their dinner together, they preserve an order at table like the following:—The housekeeper usually takes her seat at the head, and the butler at the lower end of the table; the cook at the right of the housekeeper, and the lady’s maid on her left; the under butler on the right, and the coachman on the left of the butler; the house-maid next to the cook, and the kitchen-maid next to the lady’s-maid; and the men servants always occupying the lower end of the table. The dinner is set on the table by the cook, and the beer is drawn by the under butler.
The servants’ table is usually provided with solid dishes, and with ale and table beer; and it is the business of the superior servants to see that their accommodation is comfortable and in plenty, but without extravagance, or waste and riot. In well-regulated families, the servants’ hall is distinguished by its decorum, good order, and even good manners, which the servants who wait in the parlour imbibe, and convey to the kitchen. Servants of coarse manners, vulgar habits, or profane discourse, and malicious dispositions, are shunned by others, and never make good their footing or rise in first-rate families, where all the good and bad qualities which belong to the superior ranks of society operate as much to their advantage or disadvantage as in any station of life. In truth, the servants’ hall is a little world by itself, in which the passions, tempers, vices, and virtues, are brought into play, and contribute their full share in promoting that welfare and happiness, which it is the object of this work to fix and improve.
APPRENTICES.
When a youth in the City of London is bound apprentice he is presented to the Chamberlain, who puts into his hands for his guide, the following instructions, and as they proceed from such high authority, they are thought worthy of being preserved in this volume as a body of instruction to apprentices generally.
A COPY OF INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP.
_This Indenture witnesseth, That Son of late of , doth put himself Apprentice to Citizen and of_ London, _to learn his art, and with him (after the manner of an Apprentice) to serve from the day of the date hereof, unto the full end and term of seven years, from thence next following to be fully complete and ended; during which term the said Apprentice his said Master faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, his lawful commands every where gladly do. He shall do no damage to his said Master, nor see it to be done of others; but that he to his power shall let or forthwith give warning to his said Master of the same. He shall not waste the goods of his said Master, nor lend them unlawfully to any. He shall not commit fornication, nor contract matrimony within the said term. He shall not play at cards, dice, tables, or any other unlawful games, whereby his said Master may have any loss. With his own goods or others, during the said term, without licence of his said Master, he shall neither buy nor sell. He shall not haunt taverns nor play-houses, nor absent himself from his said Master’s service day or night unlawfully; but in all things, as a faithful Apprentice, he shall behave himself towards his said Master, and all his, during the said term. And the said Master in consideration, of his said Apprentice in the same art which he useth, by the best means that he can, shall teach and instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed, finding unto his said Apprentice, meat, drink, apparel, lodging, and all other necessaries, according to the custom, of the City of_ London, _during the said term. And for the true performance of all and every the said covenants and agreements, either of the said parties bindeth himself unto the other by these presents. In witness whereof, the above named to these Indentures, interchangeably have put their hands and seals, the day of , in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign, of the United Kingdom of_ Great Britain _and_ Ireland, _Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord, &c._
A FAMILIAR EXPLANATION OF AN INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP.
This _Indenture witnesseth, That_ R. B. _Son of_ J. B. , _Citizen of_ London, _doth put himself_ (that is, by his own free and voluntary choice) _apprentice to_ A. A. _Citizen and of_ London, _to learn his Art, and with him after the manner of an Apprentice to serve_ (that is, to live with him in the capacity of a learner and servant, doing all such work as belongs to his trade, and as Apprentices by custom are obliged to do) _from the date hereof, unto the full end and term of years from thence next following to be fully complete and ended;_ that is, not at the beginning only, or for part of the time, but so long as his Indenture shall continue in force, which must be for seven years at least.
_During which term the said Apprentice his said Master faithfully shall serve;_ that is, he shall be true and just to his Master in all his dealings, both in word and deed; he must not only keep his hands from picking and stealing, and his tongue from lying and slandering; he must not only abstain from doing him any manner of injury, by idleness, negligence, or carelessness; by deceiving, defaming, or any kind of evil speaking: but, he must learn and labour to do him true and real service.
Ye must be faithful in all things. 1 Tim. i.
In all your labours let no iniquity be found. Hosea xii. 8.
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Lev. xix. 11.
Speak every man truth to his neighbour. Eph. iv. 25.
All that do unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord thy God. Deut. xxv. 16.
He that uttereth a slander is a fool. Prov. x. 18.
The lip of truth shall be established for ever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment; for the mouth of them who speak lies shall be stopped. Chap. xii. 19.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice; (for) they who deal truly are his delight. Chap. xxi. 3, chap. xii. 22.
_His secrets keep;_ that is, conceal the particular secrets of his art, trade, or science, without divulging or making any one privy to them to the detriment of his Master, whose interest may very much depend on a peculiar management and knowledge of his business. To behave thus, is to serve faithfully; and fidelity is the glory and perfection of a Servant, as his want of it is his greatest discredit and reproach.
Discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it putteth thee to shame, and the infamy turn not away. Prov. xxv. 9, 10.
_His lawful commands every where gladly do;_ that is, he shall readily and cheerfully obey him in all things lawful, without murmuring, hesitation, or reluctance; for obedience from a Servant to his Master, is a duty established by all laws, human and divine; and is founded likewise in the very nature of things; it being impossible to preserve any superiority in the one over the other, unless the inferior submits himself to the direction of his superior in all such things as he has a right to command him to do; that is, all things lawful: he is indeed, properly speaking, no longer a Servant than while he obeys his Master’s commands; so that the covenanted obedience of an Apprentice is on all accounts indispensably necessary; and the more cheerfully he performs it, the more perfectly he fulfils his duty, and the greater will be the reward as well as pleasure of his obedience; for his Master will doubtless take all opportunities of encouraging him on account of his willingness; he will contrive to make his work as easy to him as he can; he will treat him with all the kindness, and shew him all the favour that is consistent with the relation between them; whereby his servitude will be rendered a kind of freedom; the necessary labours of it a delight; and the time of its duration short and pleasant: he will beside gain the advantage of being trusted and confided in by his Master, which must necessarily give him a quick and thorough insight into his trade, whereby he will become duly qualified for the power and dignity of a Master himself, and establish such a reputation and character as will gain him the esteem and friendship of all who know him; and can therefore have no other than a comfortable prospect of advancing his station and fortune in the world. The quite contrary of all which must be the lot of the disobedient, churlish, and murmuring Servant; who will, in all probability, end his days as a Master (if ever he arrives at that honour) in the same discontented, uneasy, and disregarded manner, in which he lived as a Servant; feared by very few, beloved by none.
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own Masters, and to please them well in all things, _not answering again_. Titus ii. 9.
His servants ye are whom ye obey. Rom. vi. 16.
Servants, obey in all things your Masters, according to the flesh; not only to the good and gentle, but also the froward. Col. iii. 22.
And when ye be buffeted for well-doing, take it patiently; for this is thank-worthy and acceptable with God. 1 Pet. ii. 20.
With good-will doing service. Ephes. vi. 7.
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Col. iii. 22.
If any would not work, neither should he eat. 2 Thes. iii. 10.
In all labour there is profit; and the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness. Prov. xiv. 23.
The hand of the diligent maketh rich.—An idle soul shall suffer hunger. Chap. x. 4.—Chap. xix. 15.
Seest thou a man diligent, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men. A slothful man is compared to a filthy stone, and every one will hiss him out to his disgrace. Chap. xxii. 29. Eccl. xxii. 1.
They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same. Job iv. 8.
The Lord will make them contemptible and base, before all the people, according as they have not kept his ways. Malachi ii. 9.