192 



HORTICULTURE. 



Fruit-tree and ridged up, it is found ultimately to be in a much 

 ^""| er !l- better condition for receiving the plants. 

 ""Y" The soil of the borders is at first made higher by some 

 inches above the walks, than that of the quarters in the 

 interior of the garden : the reason is, that the quarters 

 annually receive a large accession of manure, whereas 

 the fruit-tree borders are afterwards to receive compa- 

 ratively little that can add to their depth. Some judi- 

 cious gardeners contend, that such borders are to be 

 manured only with composts, rendered as homogeneous 

 as possible by frequent turning and intermixing. Others 

 do not hesitate to use well-rotted dung : this is dug in 

 with a three-pronged fork, so as to avoid injuring the 

 roots of the trees ; and it is generally applied in the 

 month of November, after the winter dressing of the 

 trees. 



51. The borders, particularly those next to south walls, 

 are in most places cropped with early peas, or turnips, 

 or some other plant which does not extend its roots 

 deep into the earth ; avoiding therefore cauliflowers 

 and beans. But many gardeners disapprove of this, es- 

 pecially in the case of peach and nectarine borders ; 

 and certainly if a crop be taken, it should be of the 

 lightest kind, such as salad herbs, and perhaps a few 

 scattered patches of ornamental annuals next the walk. 

 In order to avoid using the fruit-tree borders, there- 

 fore, it is a custom, in some well ordered gardens, to 

 have low reed hedges or palings run across some of the 

 quarters ; to these the earliest peas or beans are close- 

 ly attached, as they advance in growth, so as to enable 

 them to escape the frosts of March and April more ef- 

 fectually, even than in front of a south wall. It need 

 scarcely be remarked, that fruit-tree borders are kept 

 carefully clear of weeds, and that frequent stirrings 

 with the hoe, or the three-pronged fork, and frequent 

 rakings are practised, the maintaining of the surface in 

 a fresh and porous state being found of singular ad- 

 vantage. When the season proves very dry, they are 

 watered perhaps three times in the week, after sun- 

 set. 



52. In many situations and circumstances, it is found 

 impossible to form a soil for fruit trees, with the care, 

 and at the unavoidable expence, which have here been 

 supposed. In these cases it is necessary to adapt the 

 kind of trees to the soil. On soils naturally very light, 

 gravelly, and sandy, peach and nectarine trees do little 

 good : it is better to plant apricots, figs, or vines, which 

 agree with such soils, and, when trained against a wall 

 having a good aspect, will, in the southern parts of the 

 island, afford excellent crops of fruit. On such soils, 

 even espalier and dwarf-str ndard apple trees are short- 

 lived, subject to blight, and produce only stunted fruit. 

 Next to renewing the soil, the best remedy is to engraft 

 and re-engraft frequently, on the best wood of the trees, 

 giving the preference to grafts of those kinds which 

 experience has shewn to be most productive and hedlthy 

 in that particular place. In shallow soils some have 

 been in the practice of making troughs' or hollows, and 

 filling them with rich earth, for the reception of the 

 trees : but this is not to be approved of; the roots of 

 the tree will probably be confined to the trough, and 

 it is possible that water may be retained in it. In thin 

 soils, therefore, it is more proper to raise the surface in- 

 to little hillocks than to dig hollows. If a tree be 

 planted on the general surface, and have earth heaped 

 around it, it will spread its roots in every direction, and 

 to a great distance, in the shallow soil ; and some sub- 

 Boils, such as decomposed trap-rock, or chalk, are them- 

 selves calculated to afford much nourishment. 



Division of the Garden, fc. 



53. It is, of course, understood, that the wall-tree 

 borders extend all around the margin of the garden, 

 It naturally follows that a gravel walk should run pa- 

 rallel with them. On the other side of this walk, in 

 very many gardens, there is a row of espalier-trees, (or, 

 to speak more correctly, counter-espalier trees), fixed to 

 trellis-rails. If the enclosure be tolerably extensive, the 

 centre is traversed by a broad walk. If it be of the 

 largest dimensions, and possess a cross wall, or cross 

 walls, the arrangement of the walks falls to be altered 

 accordingly ; a main walk proceeding directly to the 

 doors in the centre of the cross walls. The rest of the 

 garden is divided into compartments, and most of these 

 compartments, in some of our best gardens, are laid out 

 in beds four feet wide, with narrow alleys. So many 

 alleys, no doubt, occupy a good deal of room ; but the 

 advantages of conveniency and neatness in enabling the 

 workmen to clean and gather the crop without tramp- 

 pling the ground, seem to compensate the sacrifice of 

 space. For currant, gooseberry, and raspberry bushes, 

 the quarters are of course, reserved undivided ; and nar- 

 row beds are unnecessary in the case of large perennial 

 plants, such as artichokes or rhubarb. Border-edgings 

 are not in use, excepting for the walks next the walls, 

 and the cross walks in very large gardens ; for these, 

 dwarf box is almost universally employed. In the in- 

 terior quarters, however, parsley may sometimes be ob- 

 served forming an edging ; and thyme, winter savory, or 

 hyssop, are occasionally employed in the same way, and 

 harmonize very well with the culinary crops around. 



54. Hitherto nothing has been said of the situation ji ot .), OUSCSl 

 of the range of hot-houses. In many gardens, these 

 occupy a very considerable part of the south wall, that 



is the wall on the north side of the garden. In the 

 area behind them, are sheds for tanners bark, rich 

 mould, and other requisites ; while there is a cart ac- 

 cess to the doors of the furnaces, and these, with all the 

 rubbish necessarily attending the operations of forcing, 

 are completely hid from view. In some places all the 

 forcing-houses form a continuous range ; but generally 

 the pine stove and succession pit, being of different di- 

 mensions, are placed separately. In some elegant gar- 

 dens, as at Raith-House and Wemyss-Castle in Fife, the 

 hot-houses have a flower-garden in front of them, while 

 every thing offensive is excluded from view, as in the 

 former case. In other places the hot-houses are dispo- 

 sed in a different manner : the several kinds of houses 

 stand detached from one another, each being set down 

 as it were in a separate grass lawn; the back part, 

 where the furnaces are situated, is concealed by shrubs, 

 so that the houses seem to stand in little thickets, and 

 thus form an agreeable variety with clumps and pat- 

 ches of trees in the park. Donibristle, the seat of the 

 Earl of Moray in Fife, may be mentioned as an exam- 

 ple of this sort of arrangement. 



55. In many instances, the flower garden is separa- piower ga 

 ted from the fruit and kitchen garden merely by a wall, den. 

 perhaps by a quick hedge. But in modern places, (as 

 gardeners speak ) this garden is removed from the other 

 by a considerable distance. To it belongs the green- 

 house and the orangery ; there is often connected with it 

 a conservatory ; and sometimes, where the owner has a 

 taste for the culture of rare plants, a stove merely for 

 the keeping of tender exotics. 



Where the interior of the walled garden does not afford Slip, 

 space enough for raising a sufficient supply of culinary 

 vegetables for the family, a piece of ground is fenced off 



