Note 5 — INTRODUCTION.

Cabbages are ready for the table as early as February; Turnips before the end of March; Broccoli, against Christmas; Green Peas are generally ready by the middle of May. But the most remarkable exception, perhaps, to the ordinary routine of the culinary calendar is to be found in the growth of the potatoe. It is customary for the gardeners in the vicinity of Penzance to raise two crops in one year. The first being planted in November is gathered in April, May, and June; the second crop is planted immediately on taking up the first, and as late as to the middle of July. The first or spring crop has, in general, no other defence from the cold of winter than the stable dung used as manure, and it is rarely injured by the frost! Such is the ordinary practice of the market-gardener; but Mr. Bolitho of Chyandour, has constantly new potatoes at Christmas, and through the whole of January and part of February, raised in the open garden, with no other shelter than that afforded by some matting during the coldest nights.