384 VILLA GARDENING PAirr \- 



were circulatiug air, the tendency of which would be beneficial, 

 though its effect might not be visible externally. I have no doubt 

 in my own mind that there is a great future for vegetable culture. 

 The time is coming when vegetables will play a more important 

 part in feeding the people. With a growing intelligence in the 

 masses the effect of vegetables and fruit upon health will be better 

 understood. When this period arrives, if not sooner, vegetable 

 and fniit gardens will be separated, to the manifest advantage of 

 both. In the majority of situations the deep rooting of fruit trees 

 is a thing to be discouraged; but the average cultivator, who 

 mixes his fruit and vegetables together, if he digs his land at all, 

 must drive down the roots of the fruit trees. It would be more 

 profitable to keep the fruits and vegetables separate. There are 

 the bush fruits to form a bottom-gTowth if tall trees are planted. 

 Besides, to the thinking man who knows something of vegetable 

 physiology and the value of good leaves and roots, and how the 

 two work together harmoniously wdien not crossed by the disar- 

 ranging eftbrts of man, there must crop up in his mind tliis thought 

 — " How excessively absurd it is to plant vegetables, which delight 

 in an open sunny situation, beneath the shade of trees, and at the 

 same time destroy the liest roots of the trees — those roots upon 

 which continued fertility depends — by the frequent distm-bance of 

 the soil." The average Englishman delights in a compromise, but 

 there is no necessity for such a compromise as this ; neither has it 

 any value, except for those whose aspirations do not soar above a 

 very commonplace mediocrity. The Vegetable garden, then, if we 

 were making a new one, should be in an open situation, and no 

 fruit trees should be planted in the vegetable quarters. I should 

 prefer to work the fruits and vegetables as distinct features, and if 

 I yielded to compromise at all it should be only so far as to permit 

 a border for dwarf trees or pyramids on each side of the central 

 walk. There might be double rows on each side, but even then 

 the fruit trees should be near enough to each other to occupy all 

 the ground as they grow up, so that no digging with the spade 

 woidd be required amongst them to drive down the roots. On 

 deep warm soils deep-rooting does less injury, but even then roots 

 working away from the influence of tlie sunshine are not of much 

 value. 



Assuming, then, that we have a piece of land in an open field 

 which we wish to make into a vegetable garden. In the first 

 place, Does it require draining? If so, it should be drained at 

 once, and efliciently. The question may — has, in fact, often 

 been asked. How shall we know when land wants draining 1 

 The experienced man can often tell by the wild plants growing 



