A regular rotation in the kitchen-garden of crops of vegetables of distinctly different botanical character, is usually enjoined by all writers who casually touch on the subject, as being profitable and practically judicious, and some would even say necessary to the production of good crops. Soil is sometimes supposed to get sick of a crop of long standing, or often repeated - a saying in which there is some truth, only it is the crop which gets sick of the soil. Most good gardeners, whose operations are on an extended scale, do endeavour to carry out a compensatory rotation as far as possible. We are far from thinking that such is absolutely necessary for the production of good vegetables, or even developing the capabilities of a garden, as the soil and subsoil of a garden may vary very much, some parts being more suitable than others for particular crops. But even if considered necessary to vary the crop, it is found practically very difficult to do so, seeing there are such a variety of vegetables which occupy but a comparatively small space - while others, and notably the Cabbage family, may sometimes monopolise three-quarters of the whole.

Farmers who farm under a lease, are, as a rule, bound down to adhere to an imposed rotation, but we do not find that the rule is imposed for the farmer's benefit, to make him grow better crops than he otherwise would; but, under the half-tillage that the great bulk of land receives, the rule is necessary in the interest of the landowner. We hear of many enterprising men who farm their own property, who take many crops of corn off the same land in successive years without injury, but then the tillage is thorough. We do not hear that the large market-gardeners around our great cities are restricted in any way with regard to their mode of cropping the land, and yet the land in their occupation might in many instances be called garden-farms. It emphatically would not pay the market-gardener to starve his land. Rotation of crops is the hungry mode of farming: it is like working the horse to within an inch of his life, just giving him enough to eat, and no more, to keep him up to a certain amount of work.

Kitchen-garden land, to produce good, crisp, and tender vegetables, must be fit, by deep cultivation and plenty of manure, to bear any crop, and if it is not in that condition, no rotation that we can propose can make up the difference. - [This is the road to success. - Ed].

The crop of the largest spring-sown Onions we ever saw, and for samples of which the grower lately received honours in London, was grown on land which has borne the Onion crop for 20 years. We have known a patch of ground which also bore Onions for 20 years, which was annually manured with the clearings of a large pigeon-house. We have grown Potatoes on the same land for many years running without any diminution of the crop, and no doubt many thousands of cottage-gardeners could say the same. We have also known even Brussels Sprouts on the same ground for many years running. So far as the necessities of a crop are concerned, the same vegetable might be grown on the same land for any number of years with deep cultivation and manure.

But while we think that a change of position is not materially necessary to such transient crops as Peas, Cauliflowers, or Onions, still it could be shown to be necessary to crops of a more permanent nature. For instance, a quarter which has been under Strawberries or Asparagus for years; it would be bad management to trench, manure, and plant again with the same unless unavoidable - and yet we have seen even this done. Having said thus much, we hope we shall not be thought to favour no rotation of crops at all for the kitchen-garden, or that we adopt a haphazard system of cropping. We believe in and practise a rotation of crops for various reasons. One reason is, that the land gets more thoroughly cultivated, and with greater certainty; another reason is, that certain crops follow certain other crops more conveniently from the management the soil has received. Another reason is, and not a small one, that there is system in it. It simplifies labour, and men anticipate their work; their interest gets fixed in the matter as well as the masters'. We once lived in a very large ducal garden in the far north, where it was the duty of the kitchen-garden foreman to make out a fresh plan of the garden every year, with the crops for the various quarters mapped down to succeed those of the previous year, according to a given system of rotation.

We dismiss the proposition that a previous crop may rob the soil of the constituents necessary to the wellbeing of the succeeding one, as not to be entertained in kitchen-gardening. If a crop of Cabbage impoverish the soil too much to be followed by another crop of the same, that soil is also too poor for Peas, Cauliflower, or Spinage. Vegetables, to be worth the name, must be, we repeat, crisp and succu-leut: 60 per cent of their weight will be water, not tough and woody, as if seed was the object for which they were grown, and the stems of the winter Greens suited for Jersey walking-sticks. Such being the case, recourse must again be made to the manure-heap, the spade, and water-pot as the talisman. We proceed to detail in a general way our own mode of rotation. Celery with us is considered a sort of leading-off crop: the Celery quarter is chosen from ground which has been occupied probably more than one year with Sprouts, Brocolis, and winter Greens. Ridges for single rows are thrown out 5 feet apart; this, with the earthing-up, amounts almost to a trenching. "When the Celery is gone, or it may be when only a part is cleared, an opening is made at one end of the quarter, crosswise to the ridges, the soil is turned over to the depth of the ridges and levelled, then rotten manure thrown on the surface as the work proceeds.

After a few weeks' exposure to the weather, the land is broken over with wooden rakes, which mixes the manure with the surface-soil, and Onions are sown in lines: this management, with a dusting of guano after the crop is thinned, is found sufficient, with attention to watering, for a fine crop of Onions. In September, after the Onions are gathered off, the ground receives a dressing of manure, and a portion of it is planted with Cabbages which have been once transplanted from the seed-bed, the remainder of the ground being filled up in spring. Unless part of the ground is wanted, the quarter remains under the Cabbages until winter again, a crop of good Cabbage-sprouts being got after the first cutting. The land is now trenched 2 feet deep, the leaves and stumps of the Cabbages thrown in the bottom, a dressing of manure given just over the first spit of soil. When the trench is turned over, the manure will be about 15 inches from the surface, and the quarter is ready for Carrots, Parsnips, Salsify, or Scorzonera. The quarter, it will be seen, has had two manurings at different depths - namely, the Cabbages at bottom, then the manure in trenching.

After the Carrots are removed, the ground is again manured on the surface, and only dug this time, and it is ready for Peas 5 feet apart, with rows of Spinage between; the Peas find depth and a good pasturage in this way, and ought to be watered abundantly. We forgot to remark above, that the best Spinage and Lettuces are grown on the tops of the Celery ridges, sometimes Turnips and Cauliflowers. It might be supposed that some seasons this would be too dry a position for any of these crops, but it is not so, the additional depth and warmth of the soil compensating for the seemingly disadvantageous position. After the Peas come winter stuff again - Savoys, late Brocolis, and winter Greens as cottagers' Kale and Borecoles.

The above is a course of rotation for some of the main crops in a garden, but, of course, it does not include all. The parts and crops of a garden are fragmentary and miscellaneous. A south border is generally chosen for early Peas. In the south the Peas are off in time for the second sowing of Kidney-beans: these are followed by Endive for winter use. In the following spring the ground will be available for early Cauliflowers, Turnips, or Lettuces. Breadths of early Potatoes on south borders are followed by autumn Cauliflowers or Snow's winter Brocolis. Turnips for winter, winter Spinage, and spring Brocolis, can always follow Potatoes as they are dug up.

A good patch of Asparagus is annually lifted for forcing; the ground with simple digging answers for a second planting of Cauliflowers, to be trenched on the removal with additional manure. Land which has been under Asparagus is not poor if the Asparagus has been very highly cultivated; it answers well for Strawberries after the Cauliflowers. We trench down annually, after the fruit is gone, a large piece of Strawberries; if these have been annually mulched with a good thickness of short grass to keep the fruit clean, and again in the autumn with manure, the ground will be by no means poor, though the Strawberry plants will be inadmissible after the third year. The trenched ground answers admirably for spring Brocolis and Coleworts, they being first transplanted for a week or two from the seed-bed; these will be gone in time for Beet without manure, and Scarlet-runner Beans, and a late planting of broad Beans with manure, to be followed again by the main crop of summer Cauliflowers.

North borders are generally well occupied in summer with Lettuces, Turnips, and Cauliflowers, a portion being under Red Currants and Raspberries: in winter it is the best position for late dwarf Brocolis to come in late in spring or early summer, to shake hands with the early Cauliflowers. We have a particularly fine strain of those not in the market. Between the rows of newly-planted Strawberries of 2½ feet apart, one row of Tripoli Onions may be planted in spring; it is an admirable position for the Onions, at least if space is limited, and does not injure the Strawberries. Winter Greens and Brocolis may also be grown between the rows of late Potatoes, if planted 3 feet apart. And Peas do splendidly between the rows of Celery; the Peas shade the Celery to some extent in the hot season, and do not interfere with the manure in the trench; but, on the whole, we dislike mixed crops. East and west borders are always in demand for Parsley, Coleworts, seed-beds, Lettuces, sweet herbs, Radishes, etc.

Seakale, Rhubarb, Globe and Jerusalem Artichokes, Horse-radish, and the various culinary herbs, do not work into a rotation of annual crops: indeed, one or two of them are troublesome weeds, and should have a territory of their own outside a kitchen-garden proper.

After all, the necessities of the time being and various circumstances influence every gardener in the choice of ground for his crops; and, as we have hinted, much depends on the soil of a garden. Part of it may lie low, with damp deep soil; another part may be high, dry, and thin. These considerations will compel him to localise many crops. Again, a soil may be strong adhesive clay, and will unite with very wet or very dry weather to thwart the gardener's plans, refusing to be dug at one time or broken at another. Time being inexorable, the gardener will have to yield his theory of rotation, and take practical necessity as his cue.

The Squire's Gardener.