KITCHEN GARDEN. 89 



chemical ingredients ; besides which, the top soil may be increased 

 by the addition of soil from outside sources, or if it consist of strong 

 clay, it can be corrected by the addition of sand or slightly burned 

 ballast. A good loam is the best, but it is often convenient to have 

 one part of the garden with stronger soil than the other. The depth 

 of soil should be not less than 2 ft. 6 in. If the subsoil be not good, 

 or if it contain, as often happens, too much oxide of iron, the fruit 

 trees should have a paved space under each, and this must be drained, 

 to prevent roots from penetrating too deeply. When the required 

 soil is brought in from an adjacent meadow, the field should not 

 be stripped, but the surface removed for the depth of one spit in 

 alternate strips, say 2 ft. wide, and the field should be crossed, 

 trenched, and manured. 



The form of the garden does not in reality make any difference 

 to the growth of the plants, but it is more easily worked when it 

 takes a quadrilateral form. Much depends on the aspect of the walls, 

 for fruit ripening on them. The sun's rays are generally most powerful 

 between one and two in the afternoon ; the consequence is, that a 

 wall with a western is warmer than one with an eastern aspect, 

 though the sun shines on one as long as on the other. To equalise 

 this the walls are frequently placed with a south-easterly aspect, but 

 this must depend on the requirements of the place. 



A northern boundary wall is generally used on its southern side 

 for lean-to hothouses, and on its northern for the boiler-house sheds, 

 the fruit-room, mushroom house, etc. ; but the wall forming the 

 southern boundary is not so important, for its southern side is outside 

 the garden, and is more or less liable to be shaded by a screen of 

 planting. 



Speaking generally, the more southerly the latitude of the place, 

 the more can the line of the walls be turned east of south, so that 

 the southern wail may come at right angles to the sun at n a.m. 



