Kitchen Gardening from the 1800s

Here are three books on the subject of vegetable gardening from the middle 1800s.  Kitchen gardens of the age contained vegetables and herbs.  Fruits are covered in separate books dedicated to their cultivation with very little crossover.

The Kitchen Gardener's Instructor, Containing a Catalogue of Garden and Herb Seed with Practical Directions Under Each Head for the Cultivation of Culinary Vegetables and Herbs with a Calendar Showing the Work Necessary To Be Done in a Kitchen Garden Every Month Throughout the Season, Also Directions for Forcing or Forwarding Vegetables Out of the Ordinary Season, The Whole Adapted to the Climate of the United States - 1847.  They just don't title books like they used to.  Actually, the entire book is written in a similar vein.  Most of the book is dedicated to an alphabetical listing of every vegetable or herb anyone was likely to grow in the US in the 1800s.  The discussions of each vegetable are fairly short, as is the entire book when compared to other ones in this same time period and topic.

The American Gardener:  A Treatise on the Situation, Soil, and Laying Out of Gardens, on the Making and Managing of Hot-Beds and Green  Houses; and On the Propogation and Cultivation of the Several Sorts of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits and Flowers - 1856.  Every paragraph in this book is numbered, for easy reference.  For instance, from pragraph 135:  "There is, however, another way of ascertaining this important fact, the soundness, or unsoundness of seed ; and that is, by sowing them."  I am not sure if this book will actually be of practical use for modern life, as the author advocates preparing the ground with a team of four oxen, but it is an interesting read.

Garden Vegetables and How To Cultivate Them - 1866.  Now this title is short and to the point.  The book itself lists common vegetables in categories rather than alphabetically, so you have chapters on Esculent Roots (beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, etc.) and Aparaginous Plants (aparagus).  This writer is enclyclopedic in his knowledge, and gives a lot of useful information and advice on each variety of plant he discusses.  Of the three, I found this book to be the most informational and helpful.  Also, I did not fall asleep reading the title...

The Kitchen Gardener's Instructor, etc. - 1847

The American Gardener, etc. - 1856

Garden Vegetables and How To Cultivate Them - 1866