384 LA YING OUT THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



force of high winds. Water should never be wanting in a garden, and 

 it should always be exposed in a basin for some time before being 

 used. The garden walls should if possible be of brick ; or if they are 

 formed of stone, or of mud or compressed earth, which in some parts 

 of the country make excellent walls, retaining much heat and lasting a 

 long time, they ought to be covered with a wooden trellis on which to 

 train the trees. It has been recommended by Hitt and others to build 

 the walls on piers, for the sake of allowing the roots of the trees to 

 extend themselves on both sides of the wall. But, as there are generally 

 trees on both sides of every garden wall, it does not appear that, under 

 ordinary circumstances at least, anything would be gained by this 

 mode of building walls, excepting the saving of a small proportion of 

 materials. Where walls are not built of brick, stone, or earth, they 

 may be formed of boards, which, when properly seasoned and after- 

 wards saturated with boiling tar, will endure many years, and produce 

 as much heat in the summer season as brick or stone. They are indeed 

 colder in winter and spring, but that circumstance is often an advantage 

 by retarding the blossoming of the trees, and lessening the risk of 

 their being injured by spring frosts. If a cavity were formed beside the 

 boarding, and filled with pounded clinkers, or charcoal, or coke, much 

 heat would be absorbed from the sun's rays, and thus form a source for 

 giving out heat at night. Reed walls have - likewise been used, and 

 even fresh-cut furze, closely packed together, will stand eight or ten 

 years and form a good shelter. Concrete again is very commonly 

 employed for walls in France, and sometimes in this country. It is 

 cheap, strong, durable, and warm. Where the walls are formed of 

 brick they may always be built hollow, to save material ; and as very 

 little additional expense will be required to form the hollows into flues 

 or channels for hot-water pipes, such an arrangement should not be 

 neglected in the colder parts of the island. The walks in the interior 

 of the garden are laid out in a direction parallel to the walls, and 

 espalier-rails are commonly formed parallel to the walks. Exterior to 

 the walls, a narrow portion of ground is enclosed which is technically 

 called the slip, the object of which is to admit of getting the full benefit 

 of the wall on the outside as well as within. 



In trenching and levelling the surface of the kitchen garden, care 

 must be taken to form a complete system of underground drainage ; 

 not only by having drains formed of tiles to carry off subterraneous 

 water, but by having the surface of the subsoil parallel to the exposed 

 surface, both being inclined towards the situation of the drains ; so 

 that the water on sinking down from the surface may not rest in 

 hollows. The best situation for these drains will generally be under 

 the walks. The depth of the soil of a garden should seldom be less 

 than from two to four feet, this depth being penetrated by the roots of 

 even the smallest kinds of culinary vegetables when growing vigorously. 

 The depth of the soil, however, ought to bear some relation to its 

 quality, and to the climate. A loamy or a clayey soil in a humid climate 

 need not be trenched to the same depth as if it were in a warm and 

 dry climate ; because one use of the soil to plants being to retain 



