WALL FRUIT. 59 



VIII. 



The Fruit Crop Hautbois Strawberries Lilium Auratum Sweet 

 Williams Carnations The Bedding-out. 



August 15. It is, I find, a dangerous thing to 

 leave a garden masterless for even a month. The 

 best of gardens will probably fall short in some 

 respect, and I certainly discover several matters 

 which would have been otherwise had I remained 

 at home. My readers will hardly be interested by 

 the details of my grievances ; it is pleasanter to 

 tell where we have been successful. 



The wall fruit, however, I must mention. The 

 ants and the aphis, and possibly some frost, have 

 destroyed the Peach crop utterly. There is not a 

 single Peach, and the Nectarines, which are cer- 

 tainly a hardier fruit with us, only number thirty 

 in all ! The Apricots have done fairly, and were 

 so early that we gathered three or four in the 

 last days of July a full month before their usual 

 time. The Moorpark Apricot, which we owe to Sir 



