The Choice of a Place 



garden are lower than the outside road, it is extremely diffi- 

 cult to shut them in effectually. From a gentle eminence, 

 too, it will be easy to conceal all the bad features of the 

 adjoining property and to make use of all the better objects 

 in enhancing the beauty and variety of a scene. 



Any extravagant height, however, above the rest o.f the 

 country will produce an amount of exposure, both for the 

 house and the garden, which will destroy some of the enjoy- 

 ment derivable from a habitation and prevent the plants in 

 a garden from flourishing luxuriantly. It would, moreover, 

 occasion some inconvenience in regard to the approach. To 

 have constantly to toil up a steep ascent before a place can be 

 reached will neither be agreeable to man nor horse, and will 

 contribute somewhat to lengthen the journey. A very mod- 

 erate elevation is therefore best, and will be specially appro- 

 priate where any member of the family has delicate health 

 and cannot endure much in the way of bracing winds. 



5. Soil. — Of almost greater moment than the altitude of 

 a district is the character of the soil, and this, rather as it 

 affects the health and the comfort than with reference to its 

 influence on garden produce and operations, although the 

 latter is far from being a matter of indifference. Scarcely 

 anything will grow well on thoroughly stiff land, and it is 

 very unpleasant and laborious to work it, besides requiring 

 more attention as to the choice of weather for going upon it 

 than can usually be afforded. 



Nothing is' more unsatisfactory than to have a house and 

 garden on a clay soil. No amount of draining will convert 

 it into an agreeable and open state. And whatever ingre- 

 dients may be added, or amelioration by working it may be 

 attempted, it will still remain more or less cold and sticky, 

 and in some degree unfit for developing vegetable life per- 

 fectly. It will be bad to keep clean, and to dig, and to crop, 



