508 THE GARDENER. [Nov. 



and fair crops of fruit obtained, and the value of tlie space increased 

 two-fold or more, by taking early and late crops of vegetables off tbe 

 borders, would we be warranted in discontinuing the practice 1 That's 

 the question : and herein, as Thomas Carlyle would say, lieth the true 

 kernel of the matter. Once prove the fact that the cropping system 

 is injurious, and then a little eloquence might perhaps be beneficially 

 expended by those who are brimful of that commodity ; but mere 

 sanguine enthusiasm, unsupported by practical testimony, is utterly 

 worthless, and only calculated to mislead. If it was only a question 

 of Pears, Plums, and Peaches, it would be different ; but gardening 

 generally has to be studied pretty much in the aggregate. There are 

 few establishments where early Pease, Potatoes, Cauliflowers, &c., are not 

 prized as much as Peaches or Pears are in autumn ; and so the gardener 

 has to work on the compromising system, and eke out, as it were, at 

 both ends. 



That the condition of the fruit-trees in many gardens is bad enough, 

 I admit, but it would be pure assumption to attribute failure generally 

 to cropping the borders. In nine cases out of ten it is a question of 

 labour. Sterility and failure of crops are much oftener due to over- 

 luxuriance, caused through want of the necessary attention to root-prun- 

 ing, than to damage done by the spade, which, when borders are dug 

 regularly, is not appreciable. Wall-trees in our comparatively sunless 

 climate are always more disposed to expend their energies in the growth 

 of wood than in fruit ; and as they are annually denuded of their 

 season's growth, they will, unless checked at the root also, continue to 

 produce only a thicket of spray, or, when the roots get down into a 

 bad subsoil, perish of canker or some other disease. These are by far 

 the most common faults of root-culture, and they are faults which the 

 non-cropping system would not remove ; but it would be wrong to 

 attribute their existence in every case to ignorance. Had we time to 

 attend as systematically to the roots as to the pruning and training 

 of the branches, good crops of fruit — putting accidents of weather, 

 &c., aside — might be calculated upon to a certainty; but it is seldom, 

 indeed, that the gardener has the means of accomplishing all that he 

 knows to be necessary in this respect. 



But let us look more particularly at the objections themselves which 

 have been raised by different writers to cropping the borders, and see 

 what real weight is attached to them. There are only two of import- 

 ance. The first is, that the roots of the fruit-trees are mutilated by 

 the spade in digging the border ; and the second, that they suffer in- 

 juriously from cold in winter, and heat and drought in summer. The 

 first objection may be disposed of by saying that, when digging is done 

 regularly, the tearing and cutting asunder is a myth, as every ex^^eri- 



