liKNOVATJOX OF SUBUUBAN UAKDKNS. lol 



for twenty years, will frequently be found more or less choked up; the indi- 

 cations of which are dampness and moss on certain parts of the walks, where 

 the surface is lowest ; the sodden, black, soft appearance in the soil, already 

 described ; and mossiness and canker in the fruit-trees When the drainage 

 is defective, there is no remedy but diggin,^ out the drains, or forming others 

 in their stead, in the same or in preferable directions, and with fresh mate- 

 rials. The surface drainage, also, will often be fbimd defective, from the 

 ground, when the garden was first formed, having settled unequally ; and this 

 evil having been aggravated during a series oi years. In cases of this kind, 

 the hollow places formed by the sinking of the soil will hold water in pools 

 after every heavy shower ; where the walk has sunk, the gravel will have 

 become blackened or muddy on the surface, and the box or other plant 

 edging will look pale and sickly. There is no remedy for this but relevelling 

 the surface ; which implies taking vip the gravel of the walk and its edgings, 

 as well as such of the trees, shrubs, and plants as may grow in the hollow 

 spaces ; and, after raising the whole with fresh earth and gravel, to replace 

 the plants. The sewerage, or drain, from the house to the public drain or 

 sewer, and also the means of conveying water to the house, whether by pipes 

 from a public company, or a well or tank, should be examined. The well 

 will most probably require cleaning, and, possibly, its sides may want to be 

 taken down and rebuilt. The same remark will apply to tanks. 



229. T//e boundary walls, or fences, of the garden, of whatever kind these 

 may be, can hardly fail to require some repairs. If they are brick walls, on 

 which trees have been trained for many years, the bricks will be full of nail- 

 holes, and their joints will be found open from the falling out of the mortar. 

 The connnon mode of remedying this evil is to repoint the wall ; that is, to fill 

 up the interstices between the bricks with fresh mortar, replacing any greatly 

 damaged bricks with new ones : but, as this is attended with considerable 

 expense, a cheaper and more eflfectual mode is to brush over the entire wall 

 with a mixture of Roman cement and water, as thick as it can be laid on with 

 a brush. The wall having been previously brushed over with water to clear 

 it from any loose materials, the mixture should be instantly applied ; and it 

 should be used as soon as made, or it will set in the vessel it was made in. If 

 one coating of this liquid cement he not suflScient to fill up the holes, a second 

 may be given, after the first has been two or three days laid on ; or even a 

 third, if necessary to render the surface of the wall tolerably even. An old 

 dilapidated brick wall, in the Horticultural Society's Garden, was treated in 

 this manner upwards of twelve years ago, and has ever since been almost as 

 good as new. The coping of walls should be examined and rendered water- 

 tight ; otherwise, the water will be liable to get into the heart of the wall, and 

 rot it. For the repair of copings, cement is admirably adapted ; and, even if 

 the coping should require to be entirely renewed, plates of artificial stone, 

 formed of cement, will, in many situations, be found cheaper and better than 

 any other. When a wall is in a bad state, and it is not considered desirable 

 to bestow much expense in repairing it, the cheapest mode that we know of 

 for keeping it standing for a great many years is, to plant ivy at its base, and 

 allow it to run up ; in which case the ivy will not only protect the sides of 

 the wall, but will form a mantled coping to its top. When the boundary 

 fence is of wood, it should be examined, to ascertain whether the parts are 

 rotten " between wind and water" (that is, at the surface of tne soil), which 



