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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



berries he would try another season, 

 and still hope for the best. In small 

 gardens this crowding and overdoing 

 of the soil is frequently the cause of 

 a general failure ; nothing thrives, 

 because the roots of the plants are 

 all scratching and tearing each other 

 to pieces, and above ground the ex- 

 clusion of the atmosphere causes 

 mildew, and the growth, such as it is, 

 is drawn and weak, and the cultivator 

 has only vexation for his pains. It is 

 particularly important to give trees 

 and bushes room enough ; they send 

 their roots far and wide, and they for 

 the most part require a considerable 

 amount of nourishment. They want 

 also a reasonable share of sunshine, 

 and a circulation of air amongst their 

 branches ; the system of overcrowd- 

 ing is as fatal to them as to human 

 beings pent up in courts and alleys. 

 Now that people are planting, this 

 brief word on the subject may be of 



Borne service, especially to beginners, 

 who are too apt to under-estimate the 

 needs of vegetation, and expect from 

 the soil more than it is capable of 

 affording. The most instructive, per- 

 haps, of all the instances of losing the 

 substance for the sake of a shadow is 

 the way in which people crop their 

 fruit borders, so that when ten feet of 

 space has been left for the roots of 

 peach, pear, and plum trees, they must 

 rob the roots of their proper nourish- 

 ment for ten feet of vegetables — a 

 sort of having the cake aud eating it 

 too. It never answers in the long 

 run ; there is a present small gain of 

 vegetables, and a certain loss of the 

 fruit for which the walls were built in 

 the first instance. When next you 

 think of planting cabbages, cauli- 

 flowers, etc., etc., between the straw- 

 berries and the bush fruits, think of 

 the dog, the two men, the donkey, the 

 shadow, and the auriferous goose. 



WALL TREES IN SUBURBAN GARDENS. 



Neglect of trees tends in a great 

 measure to destroy the pleasure and 

 profit or" the walls of a garden, how- 

 ever small ; while, on the other hand, 

 well-trained and fruitful trees are a 

 source of pleasure at all seasons, and 

 more especially in the season when 

 their fruits come to perfection. It 

 appears to me that, after all that has 

 been written in various works on 

 gardening respecting the making of 

 fruit-tree borders and the general 

 management of the trees, very little 

 progress has been made of late by 

 men calling themselves gardeners. 

 ^ ne y £ e t their employers to purchase 

 them trained trees at some consider- 

 able expense ; and in a great many 

 instances I have found they dig a 

 hole and plant the tree, and nail the 

 branches up to the wall— fancying, I 

 suppose, the first object to attain is 

 to get the tree to the top, not study- 

 ing the distribution of sap into the 

 lower as well as the upper branches ; 

 and supposing that by so doing they 

 will get a well-trained fruitful tree. 

 Now I wish to state my method, 



which I have practised for many 

 years, as to the management of fruit 

 trees in general. Although not new, 

 the few hints which I shall offer 

 may, very likely, prove useful to our 

 amateur friends. In planting wall- 

 trees, I dig out a trench, say four feet 

 wide and two feet deep, taking care 

 to concrete the bottom to the depth 

 of nine inches, and at the same time 

 that it is so formed that water sup- 

 plied either by rain or artificial means 

 shall readily flow away, so that the 

 soil does not become sour by the 

 accumulation of an excess of moisture. 

 I keep the roots of the trees as near 

 the surface as I possibly can, so that 

 they may have the benefit of the 

 atmosphere ; and in speaking of the 

 four-feet trench that I make, my 

 system is that when I find the roots 

 have extended themselves to that dis- 

 tance I dig out another trench in the 

 same way. I find by that process 

 that it gives new vigour to the tree, 

 and the method I believe to be much 

 better than the old one of making all 

 the border at one time. I also find 



