1873.] PLANTING FRUIT-TREES. 43^ 



larly to take off his coat and tuck his sleeves up, but there are certain 

 things to be done in a garden which few eminent cultivators ever dele- 

 gate to others. Indeed, so far as the principle now under consideration 

 is concerned, true life in any sphere is inseparable from effort and exer- 

 tion, and the life of a true and successful horticulturist is particularly 

 so. We are not now speaking of those make-believe powers which 

 would like to have gardeners revolving round them as satellites to 

 reflect only their own borrowed light, but of those who, with wearied 

 limbs and throbbing brows, have brought horticulture to what it is. 



Sorry we are that, while we thus comment on the Derby text and 

 impress its imprint on the minds of gardening aspirants, we cannot 

 point to a more remunerative goal within the reach of even the most 

 successful. And while we challenge any one to contradict what we 

 have advanced as being the necessary elements of success in a gar- 

 dener^s character, we avow it is grievous and passing strange to think 

 how gardeners are rewarded for their intelligence, character, and 

 energy as compared with a valet or a footman. It would be well if 

 employers would institute a careful comparison between what a valet 

 or a footman costs them and what a head-gardener is paid, and if the 

 comparison resulted in their making a careful selection of their 

 gardeners, and paying them much better, none concerned would profit 

 so much as employers themselves. 



PLANTING FRUIT-TREES. 



Out of the window I can see an Apple orchard, every tree in which is 

 like a good-sized Chestnut-tree; they bear fruit in cart-loads. At the 

 time when those trees were planted, planting was considered a very 

 simple affair — good deep holes were dug in the turf, the trees put in 

 in rows, and plenty of soil packed around them to keep them steady, and 

 the work was finished. It must be owned that many a fine Plum and 

 Apple tree has been grown, from which many bushels of fruit have been 

 gathered almost annually, with very simple planting, and no manage- 

 ment whatever afterwards. That style of planting is not to be recom- 

 mended nowadays ; there are better modes, as well as the best mode, 

 for every particular tree. 



Certain sorts of fruit-trees are found from experience to do best on 

 particular qualities of soils, and when the natural soil happens to be of 

 the right nature the tree will thrive with very little trouble ; but where 

 the natural soil is unsuitable the wants of the trees must be studied, 

 else comparative failure will be the result sooner or later. 



Again, the finer varieties of fruit, for instance of Apples, which are 



