CHAP. VI VILLA GAKDEXING 345 



important that we start rightly. The trees should not be too okl. 

 Trees of several years of age have often been cut back too severely 

 in the trade-grower's hands. There is no question, I think, that 

 there is more cutting back of young fruit-trees in the nursery than 

 is good for them. Therefore, if we have time enough, and can 

 afford to wait, I should recommend maiden trees, — great care being 

 used in the selection to ensure that they are budded on healthy 

 stocks, and that the union is a perfect and successful one. Having 

 secured early in autimm a sufficient number of healthy maiden 

 trees, they should be potted in turfy loam, in which a few crushed 

 bones and a little Standen's, or Clay's, or Aimes' artificial manure, 

 lias been incorporated, with just a little lime or old plaster. Cal- 

 cined oyster shells are good for the lime they contain. I do not 

 like yard mamu-e, as its tendency is to clog up the pores of the 

 soil, and a better result can be obtained with a concentrated 

 manure. As instructions for the use of each manure are usually 

 enclosed in the packets, the novice can easily follow them. Ten- 

 inch pots will be large enough to begin with. 



Drainage. — ^This should be as perfect as it is possible to make 

 it, for at times in hot weather a good deal of water is needed, and 

 the drainage is a very important link in the chain of success. Too 

 often tlie man wielding the waterpot is heavily handicapped by 

 the boy who arranged the drainage. The large hole in the bottom 

 of the pot should be covered with one large piece of crock. It 

 should not lie quite flat on the bottom, or some day the plant may 

 become water-logged. On the large crock should be placed a 

 layer from 1 to 1^ inch thick of a size smaller. On these should 

 come a layer of small pieces. I may say, in passing, that these 

 various sizes of crocks, where much potting has to be done, should 

 always be kept in stock, being prepared by the boys in bad 

 weather. The drainage for a 10-inch pot may be about 2i inches 

 thick — at any rate it should not exceed that. On the drainage 

 ])lace a layer of chopped turf taken from the heap used in potting. 

 Place the tree in the centre of the pot, keeping the collar in the 

 same position as to insertion in the soil which it formerly occupied, 

 and ram the soil in firmly, but take care that none of the roots are 

 injured with the potting stick. I need hardly say that any long 

 straggling roots should be shortened, and all lacerations of the 

 roots received in removal from the nursery should be smoothed 

 with a sharp knife. When the trees are potted they should 

 stand on a bed of coal-ashes or some impervious bottom till after 

 Christmas, sheltering the pots with litter ; and if a hard frost sets 

 in scatter a little litter loosely over the tops of the pots also. I 

 have already spoken of their removal to the house in January, and 



