206 MANAGEMENT OF FUUIT-TEEE BOUDERS. 



XXIII. — Hints on the proper Management of Fruit- Tree Bor- 

 ders, liavinc/ for their object the attainment of early and per- 

 manent productiveness. By Henry Bailey, Nuneliam. 



(Communicated February Ifi, 1849.) 



In making a conimiinication to the Society upon a subject of so 

 mncli interest to every lover of a garden, I may be allowed to say 

 that I do so with great deference to the opinions of others. In 

 treating the subject it Avill be my endeavour to advance nothing 

 in practice wliich cannot be accounted for by science, being well 

 assured that no dissertations, in this enlightened age, can be really 

 valuable to the community which do not unite theory with 

 practice. 



The walls of a garden are amongst the largest items of expense 

 in its first formation, but we may travel long distances without 

 seeing (however complete in other respects gardens may be) these 

 expensive provisions adequately furnished with well-trained and 

 fructiferous trees, or if we see them noio, in a few years they will 

 have vanished. How often do we see trees growing in the wildest 

 luxuriance during one season (perhaps a wet and sunless one), 

 doomed to perish the next from their crude and immatured con- 

 dition ! 



Various have been the suggestions of modern gardeners con- 

 versant with horticulture as a science, to control the vigour of 

 their trees within certain limits, and to establish that desirable 

 balance in them which, while they possess all reasonable strength 

 of groAvth, does not prevent their producing abundantly. In old 

 times it was said, 



" He who plants peai-s, 

 Plants for his heirs ;" 



but in these days, thanks to Mr. Elvers, root-pruning, shallow 

 planting, and the quince stock, where it flourishes, every lover 

 of this valuable fruit can now look for and have immediate 

 results. 



Equally diverse have been the modes of planting trees on 

 ■walls. In former times, when the importance of drainage Avas 

 less understood — when the revivifying powers of atmospheric air 

 in penetrating soils were chemically unappreciated — deep exca- 

 vations were dug out, without provision for the water to escape, 

 and filled with soil ; the trees were planted, and left uncontrolled, 

 save by the periodical prunings, till nature caused them to fruit, 

 Avhich they generally did in the most sparing and uncertain man- 

 ner. It seems to have been an established principle in old times 

 that the roots should penetrate deeply into the earth, no one re- 

 flecting that from this cause proceed late and immature growths, 

 the sure preludes to decay and death. 



