THE MANSE GARDEN. 63 



tion, in order to have the full benefit of the season 

 for ripening, and for the same reason the superfluous 

 shoots must be cleared away. All that is not duly 

 ripened, especially of the peach, is killed with the 

 winter frosts, and must be cut clown to the nearest 

 fresh buds in the spring. Avoid crowding and have 

 no blanks. The small shoots may in general be two 

 inches apart ; and twice as much would be an unne- 

 cessary freedom. The reason of this closeness is the 

 constant succession of young wood that must be kept 

 up ; some always coming forward to take the place 

 of older and thicker branches that must be removed. 

 Some little variations in the contiguity of the shoots 

 must be admitted according to the size of the leaf, 

 the fruit, and the nature of the wood as to bearing. 

 But whoever proceeds according to the above direc- 

 tion will not go far wrong, and will acquire by a little 

 practice an exactness which no ordinary patience 

 would serve for writing, and far less for reading. 



Nothing more should be wanted for your entire 

 success, did you enter to the possession of your gar- 

 den as of your house with walls unfurnished, and 

 had all to do after your own taste and fashion; but 

 the probability is that you succeed to a garden not 

 without trees, and that most of them will be found 

 in no small disorder. When your predecessor was 

 about to leave the world, he either had the fruits of 

 the upper paradise in view, and cared less for the 

 lower; or being unfit, through age or lingering dis- 

 ease, for the oversight of his affairs, the stewardship 

 devolved upon his wife; and what heart to the garden 

 could she find amidst flowers that seemed the ghosts 

 of bygone summers, and fruits that had a savour of 



