LA YING OUT THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 385 



moisture, a small body, not liable to lose by evaporation, may be as 

 effective as a larger one so constituted as to lose a great deal. The 

 borders for fruit trees form an important part of the kitchen garden, and 

 should always be prepared with a due regard to the soil, the climate, 

 and the kinds of trees to be planted. The bottom should generally be 

 prepared so as to prevent the roots from penetrating into the subsoil : 

 though as this naturally limits the supply of water to the roots in dry 

 seasons, and consequently gives occasion for artificial waterings, a 

 better mode than making the borders very shallow, is never to dig them, 

 and to spread the maijure always on the surface. By this means the 

 roots will not be forced downwards, as they necessarily must be when 

 the surface is loosened and exposed to the drying influence of the sun 

 and wind?, or the exhaustion of crops of vegetables. The subsoil of 

 the borders, however, ought in every case to be drained. In planting 

 fruit trees in the kitchen garden, we would on no account whatever 

 introduce standards, or any description of fruit tree, in those parts of 

 the open garden which are to be cropped with herbaceous vegetables ; 

 because such trees injure the surrounding crops by their shade, and 

 seldom produce much fruit, or fruit of good quality, in consequence of 

 their roots being forced down into the subsoil by the necessary stirring 

 of the soil among the herbaceous crops. We recommend no fruit trees 

 to be planted in the kitchen garden excepting against the walls, against 

 espalier -rails, in rows along the walks, or in compartments by them- 

 selves. A forcing department, a frame ground, and a reserve ground, 

 are accompaniments to every complete kitchen garden, and even the 

 smallest has at least a reserve and frame ground. The two latter 

 accompaniments are generally placed exterior to the walls of the 

 garden, in that part of the slip which is nearest the stables, and the 

 forcing department is sometimes placed there also ; though more gene- 

 rally it consists of glass structures placed against the north wall of the 

 garden. The best outer fence for a garden is a sunk wall, the ditch in 

 which it is built serving as a main drain, into which all the drains in 

 the interior may discharge themselves. The wall of this fence may 

 be carried up three feet or four feet above the surface of the ground, 

 to render it more effectual as a fence, without at the same time pro- 

 ducing too much shelter and shade in the slip. In many places it is 

 customary to surround the slip with a shrubbery bounded by a hedge, 

 which has a very good effect for a few years while the trees are young, 

 but when they grow large they produce an injurious degree of shelter 

 and shade. The main entrance to a kitchen garden should always be 

 so placed as to look towards the main feature within, this feature 

 necessarily being the south side of the north wall, not only because 

 that wall supports the hothouses when there are any within the garden, 

 but because on it are grown the finest fruits. As an example of 

 a kitchen garden arranged agreeably to the foregoing observations, 

 but combining also a flower garden, which is frequently required in a 

 suburban villa, we refer to fig. 331. It contains one acre within the 

 walls, and half an acre in the slips ; and the following references will 

 explain the details : 



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