174 THE GARDENER. [April 



When carted in, stack it into something like large potato - pits ; 

 and if it can be allowed to lie for eight or nine months before being 

 used, all the better. "When it cannot be so arranged, it can be used as 

 it comes from the field. Before it is wheeled into the border it should 

 be roughly chopped up with a spade. Then add to every twelve cart- 

 loads one of old lime-rubbish, one of charred wood, and 2 cwt. of half- 

 inch boiled bones. Where neither lime-rubbish nor charcoal are pro- 

 curable, an equal proportion of charred soil can be substituted. These 

 should all be well mixed together and wheeled into the border when 

 in a dry state, making it rather firm by beating it with the back of a 

 fork, and allowing 2 or 3 inches for subsiding. As in the case of Yine- 

 borders, I recommend that only part of the border be made at first, 

 the rest to be added in 3 or 4 feet widths, as the roots of the trees ex- 

 tend. In thus making a Peach-border with fresh, turfy, strong loam, 

 I do not advise the use of any manure except the few bones, which 

 stimulate slightly over a long series of years. Common manure, either 

 from the stable or cow-house, is undesirable at first, on account of the 

 natural tendency of young Peach-trees to make rank, unfruitful growths. 

 The borders can be enriched in after-years, when the trees require it, 

 by top-dressing and watering with manure-water. 



I would be sorry to convey, by these directions, the idea that very 

 considerable success in Peach-culture is not attainable except when fine 

 fibry calcareous loam can be had from an old pasture. ISTo doubt the 

 character of the soil in some gardens demands that all, or nearly all, 

 the soil for the Peach-border should be exchanged for some of a very 

 different character. Where the natural soil is very sandy or gravelly, 

 and shallow, satisfactory results need not be expected unless fresh soil 

 to some considerable extent be added to it, or wholly substituted for it. 

 In this case, and when strong loam cannot be had, some strong soil, of a 

 sound clayey nature, should be mixed with the light soil ; and the 

 parings of roadsides, with the herbage and roots, will also assist in 

 making the soil more suitable. Where, on the other hand, the natural 

 soil is a very strong, adhesive clay, its unsuitableness in that respect 

 can be greatly remedied by burning a third of it and mixing it with 

 the original, and by also adding to it a portion of road-scrapings. 

 Where the natural soil of a garden, however old, is of a loamy nature, 

 tolerably deep, and resting on a dry healthy subsoil, and where the 

 fine loam I have described cannot be had without great expense, I do 

 not hesitate to say that very fair success in Peach-culture is attainable 

 by merely trenching it, and mixing in a few bones and a little lime- 

 rubbish. These remarks are intended to encourage those who cannot 

 get the turfy soil that may be considered first-rate, but without which 

 comparatively good crops of Peaches can be produced. D. T. 



