Formation ot a Vegetable Garden 



ever so employed now. The custom has become obsolete. 

 Solid walls are now required. 



The foundations should be deep and the ground on 

 which they are built firm, so that the amount of trenching 

 necessary for bringing the garden into good tilth will not 

 imperil the stability of the wall. Such advice may seem 

 superfluous, but I can assure my readers that it certainly is 

 not so, for there have come under my own observation 

 cases where it was looked upon as a crime to dig deeply 

 near a wall, and this for the very simple reason that it 

 would cause it to quickly topple over or sink. Two and a 

 half feet below the surface is the right depth for a founda- 

 tion. To have it less is to be guilty of the " penny- wise 

 pound-foolish" species of economy, or to compel the 

 forgoing of that thoroughness of cultivation 

 which is so necessary for all crops, but more 

 especially so for fruit-trees. 



A wall, also, of the given height of ten 

 feet should not be less than one brick and 

 a half thick, that is fourteen inches; and 

 should be built in the form shown in Fig. i. 

 The foundations should be twice the width 

 of the wall, and should gradually diminish as 

 shown in the illustration. In a considerable 

 length of wall it is better to have piers about 

 twenty feet apart. Some sort of coping will 

 also be found necessary to keep out the wet, 

 and should be so formed as to obviate the 

 dripping of the rain on to the fruit-trees. 

 It may be either sloping one way or both ways. In cases 

 where, for some reason, the outer side of the wall is not 

 23 



FlG. i. Section 



of brick wall. 

 A Earth line. 



