CHAP. II VILLA GARDENING 235 



needed, but I have often met with gardens badly chosen when 

 as good a site and much better soil was close at hand, and 

 might have been had. If it requires draining, that will be the 

 first essential, and a good deal of money has been uselessly spent 

 upon such work by laying down hard and fast lines as regards 

 depth, without taking into consideration the nature of the soil. 

 In springy land a few drains deep enough to tap the springs will 

 be of more use than a larger munber of equal depth. In draining 

 it is necessary that a knowledge of the district should be acquired 

 before much work is done or money spent by the engineer or who- 

 ever has the direction of the work. In any case the drains should 

 be deep enough to escape the roots of the trees. Speaking gene- 

 rally, an average of 4 feet will be a suitable depth. Various 

 materials have been used in the formation of drains in different 

 districts, but there is nothing better than pipes or tiles of pro- 

 portionate bore to the work required. When the pipes are well 

 and truly laid with the proper inclination to the outfall, 6 inches 

 of stones, if available, may be laid on the pipes before the earth is 

 filled in. This is perhaps not absolutely necessary, but in wet 

 districts it has much value. 



CHAPTER II 



The Orchard. — The definition of the term " Orchard," as gene- 

 rally understood now, is a collection of fruit trees (chiefly Apple) 

 planted in parallel lines a certain distance apart. It is usually 

 placed in the background in the neighbourhood of the kitchen 

 garden, and laid down in Grass, the latter being fed oft' with 

 sheep. In old times it is probable that the orchard was, more 

 strictly speaking, a fruit garden, containing fruit trees of vari- 

 ous kinds ; and though I do not object to Apple trees anywhere, 

 yet I cannot help thinking that the old idea of a fniit garden, 

 where the Apple, Pear, Plum, Mulberry, Filbert, and all other 

 kinds of hardy fruits, may be planted, is a pleasant thought, and 

 more profitable withal than the orchard on Grass. In practice I 

 have always found the modern orchard a wasteful system of fruit 

 growing. In the first place, to do the trees justice the whole of 

 the ground shoidd be broken up deeply and the surfoce cultivated 

 for a few years, till the trees are established. This, however, 

 is seldom done, so the trees are started mider difiiculties • for simply 

 digging a hole and thrusting a tree into it is only an enlarged 

 system of pot culture ; then these holes of loose soil in very 

 wet times are apt to collect all the water near, and under its 



