74 PRACTICAL GARDENING 



It may do well to get up all the small early spring crops on y 

 that is, turn it into culinary purposes. Eadishes, onions, 

 lettuces, are protected all winter by straw or litter. These 

 cannot hurt, for while the crops have all the sun, they are not 

 large enough to keep the heat from the border. For the sorts 

 of fruit best adapted for the orchard, and the proportions of 

 each, see the Appendix. Much depends upon the fancy of 

 the owner. There are, however, some fruits of which it is 

 almost impossible to have too many. Green-gage plums are 

 not only the finest luxury in the world, as a fruit, weU ripened, 

 but are unrivalled as a preserve, and good in all their stages 

 as a tart-fruit. Morello cherries not only hang a long while 

 on a tree, but they are also excellent as a preserve, and make 

 a splendid wine ; whereas, the more delicate kinds of fruit, 

 such as the peach, apricot, and nectarine, though delicious 

 when in perfection, are not so useful as cherries and green- 

 gage plums when abundant. 



Preparing Poor Ground. — Supposing the space devoted 

 to an orchard is poor all over, and requires the holes and 

 borders to be prepared as we have directed, the work will be 

 simplified by driving Hues, and marking spaces four feet wide 

 the whole line of the trees, and at once digging off the good 

 soil the whole length, and throwing the stuff outside. Then, 

 as you dig the holes, a rod apart, and four feet in diameter, 

 you can throw out all the bad stuff on to the line you have 

 cleared the good from, and fill up the holes with the good soil 

 on the sides to the height of the old surface, and as much 

 higher as will aUow of its setthng down to the original height 

 of the surface. When all the bad soil has been equally dis- 

 tributed along the hue which has been denuded of the good 

 soil, the remainder of the good may be equally distributed 

 over the surface, and thus form an excellent top for solving 

 grass. If the orchard is to be used for crops while the trees 

 are grooving robust, it is obvious there need be nothing placed 

 on the four-feet width on which the trees are planted. But in 

 the width of one rod taken from the centre between two rows of 

 trees, there may be gooseberries, currants, raspberries in their 

 best varieties, giving them ample room, — gooseberries and 

 currants six feet apart, raspberries in rows six feet asunder, 

 and four feet from plant to plant in the row. These three 

 fruits are always useful, in whatever abundance they may be 

 grown : as tart-fruit, preserves, or for wme they are equally 



