Prepare
poles, stakes, pea-sticks, &c., for spring.

274. Kitchen Garden.

This is one of the most important parts of general domestic economy,
whenever the situation of a house and the size of the garden will
permit the members of a family to avail themselves of the advantages
it offers. It is, indeed, much to be regretted that small plots of
ground, in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis more especially,
are too often converted into flower gardens and shrubberies, or used
as mere play-grounds for children, when they might more usefully be
employed in raising vegetables for the family. With a little care and
attention, a kitchen garden, though small, might be rendered not only
useful, but, in fact, as ornamental as a modern grass lawn; and the
same expense incurred to make the ground a laboratory of sweets, might
suffice to render it agreeable to the palate as well as to the
olfactory nerves, and that even without offending the most delicate
optics. It is only in accordance with our plan to give the hint and to
put before the reader such novel points as may facilitate the proposed
arrangement. It is one objection to the formation of a kitchen garden
in front of the dwelling, or in sight of the drawing-room and parlour,
that its very nature makes it rather an eyesore than otherwise at all
seasons. This, however, may be readily got over by a little attention
to neatness and good order, for the vegetables themselves, if properly
attended to, may be made really ornamental; but then, in cutting the
plants for use, the business must be done neatly--all useless leaves
cleared from the ground, the roots no longer wanted taken up, and the
ravages of insects guarded against by sedulous extirpation. It will
also be found a great improvement, where space will admit of it, to
surround the larger plots of ground, in which the vegetables are
grown, with flower borders stocked with herbaceous plants and others,
such as annuals and bulbs in due order of succession, or with neat
espaliers, with fruit trees, or even gooseberry and currant bushes,
trained along them, instead of being suffered to grow in a state of
ragged wildness, as is too often the case.

[A WAITING APPETITE KINDLES MANY A SPITE.]

275. Artificial Mushroom Beds.

Mushrooms may be grown in pots, boxes, or hampers. Each box may be
about three feet long, one and