112 THE ORCHAED AND FRUIT GABBED. 



dry subsoil, and the borders for them must not be too 

 deep, too damp, nor too rich. If the subsoil be not dry, 

 it must be made so by draining. The bed for the trees 

 may be two feet deep in earth, six feet wide before a 

 wall which is about ten feet high, and eight feet wide 

 if the wall be higher. Many good judges recommend 

 that these borders should not be cropped ; it is at any 

 rate imperative to place upon them no deep-rooting 

 crop, nor any that would require a degree of working 

 of the soil which might injure the roots of the trees. 

 If the locality be high and dry, the bed may be raised 

 eight inches above the gravel path ; if low and damp, 

 one foot, and in very cold parts it may be yet more 

 raised. A good, sound, slightly adhesive hazel loam 

 is the best soil ; this is a rich soil of a brown or hazel 

 colour, from the admixture of decayed vegetable matter, 

 and it requires no addition of manure, but a third part 

 of good dark garden mould may be incorporated with 

 it, and half that quantity of leaf-mould. If the subsoil 

 is not favourable, it is best to plant on stations, as 

 before described. The trees may have a top-dressing 

 of manure every May. 



Mr. Hivers recommends the following preparation of 

 a peach border in light, poor localities : Make a com- 

 post of equal parts of rotten manure and tenacious 

 loam or clay, and spread it over the surface five inches 

 thick, if the soil be poor and exhausted, or if it be an 

 old garden, and four inches if the border be new, or 

 rich with manure. 



Stir the bed to the depth of two feet, mixing in the 

 compost thoroughly. The trees may be planted during 

 the winter, and in March, in dry weather, the border 

 all over its surface should be thoroughly rammed down 

 with a wooden rammer, so as to make it like a well- 

 trodden path ; some light, half-rotten manure say from 

 one to two inches in depth may then be spread over it, 

 and the operation is complete. This border must never 

 be disturbed, except with the hoe, to destroy weeds, 

 and, of course, never cropped : every succeeding spring, 

 in dry weather, the ^warning and dressing must be 



