OLD GARDENS AND THEIR RENEWAL. 387 



of the particular constituent of soils which is necessary for the further pro- 

 duction of that particular crop. The consequence is, the vegetables cease to 

 thrive ; the fruit-trees run to wood : peaches, nectarines, and apricots, canker 

 and die, branch by brancH ; plums refuse to bear ; apples are infested with 

 American blight ; pears make woody branches ; gooseberries and strawberries 

 produce large leaves and small fruit, or none. These evils prevail everywhere, 

 except in the best-cultivated gardens, or where the proprietor thinks for 

 himself : especially do they prevail in farm-gardens, the place where one would 

 expect d priori to find a better state of things ; in the suburbs of large towns, 

 where the gardens are secluded from light by overlooking buildings, where 

 the pure oxygen of the air is overloaded with carbon, the evils of indigestible 

 manure exist in great force. 



1 133. The remedy for these evils depends on a vast variety of circumstances. 

 Is the soil clay or loam ? or does sand, gravel, or chalk prevail ? — above all, is 

 the drainage perfect ? Few old gardens, unless they have been renovated 

 during the last thirty years, can boast of thorough drainage, and without it all 

 attempts at amelioration are vain. Let the proprietor, in this case — unless, 

 indeed, the soil and subsoil are both sufficiently porous for water to percolate 

 through readily — sacrifice his year's crop, thorough drain it at once, and 

 cither give a good coat of lime, trench and ridge it up for the season, or 

 trench and take a crop of turnips or carrots from it, and re-arrange it for 

 cropping in the autumn and spring. 



1 1 34. Where the drainage is in proper order, and the soil and subsoil such 

 a wet tenacious clay as that described by Mr. Laurence, two modes of 

 dealing with it present themselves. The most efficient would be to dig the 

 soil three feet deep and pile it up in heaps for burning, as described at page 

 45, taking care that the soil is only burnt sufficiently to crumble between 

 the finger and thumb on being rubbed. 



1135. When the soil is a porous one, the only remedy is to mix it with 

 a more tenacious soil while digging, thoroughly incorporating the two soils 

 together, and enriching them with a liberal supply of thoroughly-decomposed 

 dung or leaf-mould, in proportions suited to the intended crops. 



1 136. Eeturning for a moment to Mr. Laurence * and his thirty-two square 

 j'ards of wet clay full of noxious weeds. ^'The first care," he tells us, ''is 

 to destroy these, so that what is sown or planted may not perish by their 

 spreading luxuriant growth. For this purpose I have found no way so certain 

 and effectual as laying the whole ground fallow all the summer, by digging it 

 over two or three several times, always observing to do it during the greatest 

 heats and droughts. This not only kills all the weeds, but it mellows and 

 eni-iches the ground exceedingly, as all good farmers know very well. Most 

 are naturally desirous to improve their ground ; but if they sow with expecta- 

 tion of fruit while it is full of weeds, 'tis but labour lost, and they will repent 

 it." *' I do not speak thus with respect to planting fruit-trees," he says further 



* Pleasures and Profits of Gardening. Bell & Daldy. 

 2 C 2 



