MAKING THE BORDERS. 33 



soil from getting into and choking the drainage. 

 A border of the dimensions indicated above, well 

 filled with fibry roots, is preferable to a border .of 

 twice the depth and width given and but sparsely 

 furnished with roots, as experience teaches us 

 such borders invariably are. What the cultivator 

 should aim at in the initial and every stage of 

 peach-growing is to secure a network of roots 

 in his peach borders and then to feed them well 

 by giving frequent surface-dressings of some ap- 

 proved artificial manure, such, for instance, as 

 Peruvian guano, during the period the trees are 

 swelling their crops, laying on the artificial manure 

 immediately before applying water, so that its 

 virtues may be washed down to the roots as soon 

 as possible. This very desirable state of things 

 is sure to be attained by making the borders as 

 advised above. 



In the case of span-roofed peach-houses, the base 

 of the borders on each side of the central pathway 

 should slope at the rate of one inch in the foot to 

 the longitudinal centre of the house, where, if 

 considered necessary, a gutter brick could be 

 embedded in, and level with, the concrete or 

 chalk surface, covered by another placed upside 

 down, and connected with a drain, as a means of 

 carrying away any superfluous water that might 

 otherwise accumulate at the roots of the trees at an 



