THE FRUIT GARDEN. 203 



dwcting the operations of gardening with convenience ; 

 this being provided for, the fewer the better. Where 

 horse labor is employed, the main walk, either through 

 the center or around the sides, should be nine or ten feet 

 wide. Where manual labor alone is employed, as in 

 small gardens, five or six feet will be snfiicient, and even 

 four feet, as that admits of the passage of a wheelbarrow. 

 Between each compartment, or line of trees, there should 

 also be a path, two or three feet wide, as a passage for 

 the gardener or workmen, and others who may desire to 

 inspect the trees. Where the . expense can be afforded, 

 the main walks should be gravelled, so as to be dry and 

 comfortable at all seasons, and in every state of the wea- 

 ther; for it is presumed that every man who has a fruit 

 garden, worthy of the name, will wish to visit it almost 

 daily, and so will the members of his family and his 

 friends who visit him. The labor and expense of making 

 a walk depends upon the nature of the soil. If dry, 

 with a porous subsoil, absorbing water rapidly, six 

 inches of good pit gravel, slightly rounded on the top, 

 will be sufficient. If the soil be damp and the subsoil 

 compact, it will be necessary to remove the earth to the 

 depth of a foot in the center, and rising towards the sides, 

 so that the excavation will resemble a semicircle ; this is 

 filled with small stones, and a few inches of good pit 

 gravel on the top. This makes a walk dry at all times. 

 We often see very comfortable and neat-looking walks 

 made of spent bark from the tannery ; six inches deep of 

 this will last two or three years, and no excavation is 

 necessary in any kind of soil. It is not to be supposed 

 that so great expense will be incurred, in any case, in the 

 formation of the walks of a fruit or kitchen garden, as 

 those of a pleasure ground or flower garden, and there- 

 fore it is unnecessary to suggest either costly modes or 

 materials. The chief point is to secure dry, comfortable 

 walking, without introducing any material that will 



