THE MANSE GARDEN. 69 



too, with trees most frequently in such condition as 

 above described. And as the chief thing is to bring 

 your own skill, and occasionally your own hand, into 

 requisition, the above methods of reforming bad trees 

 are the most likely to promote that end ; and if that 

 end be once gained, all the rest will follow of course; 

 for there is something so attractive in horticultural 

 occupations, that we never find them abandoned by 

 those who have once engaged in them; and to effect 

 that first engagement, we can figure nothing that 

 will present so strong a motive as an obvious, and 

 quick, and certain process of establishing beauty and 

 fruitfulness in the room of confusion and sterility. 

 Nor is it to be expected that you shall have the 

 satisfaction of beholding such a process, if your de- 

 pendence be not on your own resources, but on the 

 common routine methods of your professional man ; 

 it being far more probable, in these circumstances, 

 that you will first endure, for some seasons, the ugli- 

 ness of ill grown, useless trees, and then, after sus- 

 taining as much disgust as serves to fix the resolu- 

 tion, root them out, to place more hope on the young 

 of your own planting; from which, however, you will 

 gather very little bulk of fruit for ten years. 



But we now proceed on the supposition that you 

 have new ground, and a new wall to furnish ; and 

 here it is almost certain, unless you have bestowed 

 more attention than is usually given to the works of 

 others in which you have no personal interest, that, 

 on proceeding to plant, you will find yourself in 

 doubt as to many things ; and that, long after the 

 work is done, you will either suffer regret on account 

 of the place chosen for certain fruits, or, in order to 



