104 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



the garden, there to remain one year after grafting, 

 and then to complete the rows at once upon well pre- 

 pared ground. In this way there will be less risk of 

 blanks; for though grafting be ever so carefully done, 

 some, at least in dry soils and dry seasons, will give 

 way; but when you have trees of your own lifting, 

 it will be owing to mismanagement alone if one in a 

 hundred die by transplanting. Supposing, then, you 

 have the paradise stocks, whether by the walk sides 

 or elsewhere, in readiness for grafting, a great part 

 of the interest in the designed scheme is to be de- 

 rived from your own handywork. In any of your 

 rides, when you meet with a good tree, whether re- 

 markable for the abundance or the flavour of its fruit, 

 it is easy to procure a few slips; and though you may 

 not get the name, you make sure of the quality, which 

 is of more consequence. Having grafted your trees, 

 many of them will bear the second or third year after 

 the operation; and it is astonishing how many dozens 

 of fine apples may be gathered from a little thing not 

 half the size of a gooseberry bush. After bearing 

 copiously for a few years, in the close order of one 

 to every yard, it may be necessary to take out every 

 alternate tree, giving room to those that remain; and 

 the compactness of the rows may, during that period, 

 be maintained by pruning to smaller dimensions such 

 as are destined to be removed, and allowing those 

 that are to remain to extend their branches, before 

 you have caused any vacancy by extirpation. Thus 

 your walk, more beautiful in this case if it be of grass, 

 will present an alley bordered with close apple hedges 

 groaning under a load of various coloured fruits, and 

 all of your own selection. Such a prospect, easily 



