46 THE FLOBAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



leaving the beds. Gardeners are sometimes provokingly careless in 

 reference to these minor matters, and in winter will come off a 

 cabbage compartment with their shoes as heavy with mould as a 

 ploughman's. This mould is scattered on to the paths, spoiling the 

 gravel and offending the eye. If there is a sufficiency of scrapers 

 they have no excuse for this neglect, and you may reprove offenders 

 without fear of the retort, " Sir, how are we to help it ? " For the 

 same reasons, see that you allow no clayey or chalky gravel to be 

 introduced to your premises. It may be difficult to get the right 

 kind, but you had better pay six times as much for it than put up 

 with an inferior article. Common stuff, not half sifted, may look 

 well in fine weather, but wait till winter, and you will repent your 

 bargain. 



Box does as well as anything else for edgings in a kitchen 

 garden. I have box in some parts and large flint stones in others; 

 but I prefer the box. It is charged against it that it harbours snails 

 and other vermin ; but so will anything you use as a bordering. 

 Under and round about my stones I find as many slugs as in the 

 box. In reference to the mode of planting Gooseberry and Currant 

 trees, whether in clumps or singly, round the borders, no rule can 

 be laid down. Both plans have their conveniences and incon- 

 veniences. It must be observed, however, that, if planted together, 

 a considerable space should be left between each bush. The clump 

 system has this advantage, that birds can be more easily kept from 

 the fruit in summer and from buds in the winter. An idea is preva- 

 lent that Raspberries do best in damp, shady situations, hut it is a 

 false one. The plants like a deep, rich soil, but they cannot have 

 too much sun, if fruit of fine flavour is desired. 



OUT-DOOR PLANTING. 



I HE first thing to attend to in out-door planting is, 

 trenching the land. This must be done to a consider- 

 able depth ; say about two feet or thirty inches. If an 

 orchard or flower-garden is being laid out for the first 

 time, the general drainage must be looked to before 

 success can be hoped for. But if a new bed only is contemplated, 

 or the planting of a single tree, the soil must be well disturbed ; 

 and if the subsoil is inclined to retain wet, an artificial drainage of 

 bricks and stones is desirable. The digging must also extend much 

 beyond the hole necessary for admitting the roots of the tree ; the 

 further this is done the better, as it is often the case that the 

 surrounding soil has not been disturbed for centuries, and roots 

 placed in a hole encompassed by such a hard mass, will not ramify, 

 but will be similarly situated with those in pots. 



Trees and shrubs should always be planted high, to counteract 

 the evils arising from unsuitable subsoils, and also to allow the air 

 to get at the roots. People seem to think that, provided the stem 

 appears above ground, it matters nothing where the roots are, and 



