Page:Vegetables and their Cultivation.djvu/15



the practical suggestions given further on in this work in regard to the culture of the various crops can be carried out, it is imperative that a suitable site should be selected, and the same be laid out to meet the requirements of a vegetable garden. We shall therefore devote the opening chapter of this book to the subject of the formation of a vegetable garden.

It will be observed that we use the term vegetable garden instead of the older one, kitchen garden. We do so because in this work we deal with vegetable culture only, and it seemed to us a more appropriate term to use. Strictly speaking, the department of a modern garden set apart for vegetable culture might more appropriately be termed the "utility garden," since it is generally utilised for growing fruit and flowers for cutting, as well as vegetables ; in other words, it is a department of a garden devoted to crops grown for their utilitarian value rather than for ornament.

In olden days the kitchen garden was the most important department of the garden, and large sums were spent in its construction. The garden was bounded by substantially- built lofty walls, costing a small fortune to erect. Now-a-days, this department of a garden is a much simpler and less expensive