FRUIT GROWING 55 



destruction to the hedge for about fifty 

 yards, further up the soil was so poor that 

 even brambles could not obtain nourishment 

 enough to make them fruitful, and the 

 standard trees are still standards and little 

 else. Along the top where the soil is 

 better the mirabella has flourished, and the 

 bramble has straggled over the ground, and 

 passers-by have some hindrance to their 

 vision. It is a sad picture, but true never- 

 theless ! 



Then in the garden itself some 2000 black 

 and red currant bushes, 1500 gooseberries, 

 1000 raspberries and standard plum trees 

 were put in ; that is to say, they were 

 ordered by me and arrived on the spot, but 

 as to the planting of this endless number of 

 trees, for this in my inexperience I had made 

 no adequate provision, as the amateur, until 

 she has had a bitter experience, has but the 

 poorest idea of how to deal with numbers. 

 An old gardener, whose best days had ended 

 ten or twenty years ago, and a young boy 



