38 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



whether it has been demonstrated or not that the temperature 

 of the branches is affected by the heat being taken away by the 

 cold soil ; but it has been satisfactorily demonstrated that the heat 

 of the surrounding air is appreciably lowered by the evaporation of 

 water from the leaves. This is one reason why trees with long fleshy 

 roots in a humid subsoil do not ripen so well as those whose roots 

 are in a drier and warmer soil, and are, when near the surface, warmed 

 by the sun's rays into the bargain. And another reason is, as we said, 

 because when the latter conditions exist the growth is sooner finished, 

 and therefore there is more time to ripen it. In addition to what has 

 been said, it may be remarked that solidity of soil favours earliness 

 and fruitfulness. 



We once had a hand in planting a quantity of fruit-trees — chiefly 

 Plums — all of which were planted in good turfy loam. Some of 

 these were planted in the ordinary wall -border, and others in a 

 border having a walk over it close up to the wall. As this walk was 

 subjected to a good deal of traffic the soil soon became very solid. 

 The latter although they scarcely filled their places as rapidly 

 as the others, are now much better furnished with fruit -buds 

 than the former, and have borne much more fruit. Roses, 

 planted under similar conditions, have given similar results, — harder, 

 stouter, and more floriferous growth. Were it not for the trouble 

 consequent on breaking up the walks when trees require removal, 

 our idea is that, with a well-made border underneath, it would give 

 better results to run our walks close to the walls all round than to crop 

 the borders. But the question we wish to ask, and partly to answer 

 here, is — Do we cultivate our soils with an eye to maintaining the trees 

 in the best condition possible 1 We think that, speaking in a general 

 way, we do not. The one idea generally prevalent in preparing 

 kitchen-garden ground is to keep it in the best condition possible by 

 adding annually quantities of stable- yard manure. ISTow the idea 

 systematically carried out for a number of years ends in turning 

 what may have been the finest brown or yellow loam into black 

 garden-earth — rich, certainly, but pasty as putty if the soil is wet, and 

 puddled into a most unsuitable state for fruit-trees by swarms of earth- 

 worms, to say nothing of the other insect-pests engendered by gar- 

 den soil of this description. When the soil is in this state, wall- 

 trees do not bear as they do in good loam. The cure is repeated 

 yearly in our calendars : " Lift, root-prune, and replant into well- 

 firmed loam." And the advice is good ; but the practice which con- 

 verts good loam into black garden-earth is not good practice. Of 

 late years our kitchen-garden and our hardy fruits have not had the 

 attention that "the houses" and the parterre have had [too true. — Ed.], 



