378 Notice of a Visit 



number of this Magazine. The reason assigned by Mr. Ker 

 for this practice is, that it causes the buds to break better, wliile 

 Mr. Paxton whitewashes to ripen the wood. I think, however, 

 that the only real good such a dressing can do, is to check the 

 increase of insects, and it would probably be an effectual cure 

 for the brown coccus, often so troublesome in peach-houses. Some 

 of the wall-trees, as pears and morello cherries, are very good; 

 others, as the apricot and peach, very bad ; but in every place 

 where I have been, with one or two exceptions, the peach trees 

 look unusually ill, the last wet and sunless summer having im- 

 perfectly ripened the young wood, which, in consequence, gums 

 and dies. 



It appears to me that the evil influence of an ungenial season 

 might in a great degree be counteracted by a proper formation 

 of the border, by which the roots of a tree might be kept under 

 almost as much control as its top. 



Formerly it was, and frequently is even now, the practice in 

 making wall borders, to take out or to trench the ground 3, 4, 

 or 5 feet deep, and from 8 ft. to 12/t. wide; and then, if the situa- 

 tion were low, or the subsoil wet, to make a single drain along the 

 front, parallel to the walk. In such borders the trees grow and 

 bear comparatively well, so long as their roots remain near the 

 surface ; in a few years, however, the roots begin to dive down- 

 wards, meeting with no obstruction, but rather encouragement 

 (the best soil in trenched borders being at the bottom), and 

 finding at all times an abundant supply of moisture ; and the trees 

 soon acquire a luxuriant, and consequently a sterile, habit, which 

 the severe winter pruning to which strong-growing wall-trees are 

 usually subjected, confirms and increases rather than restrains. 

 Where a case of this nature occurs, it would be well to try the 

 radical remedy of " cutting off the supplies," by taking the trees 

 entirely up, and replanting them near the surface, carefully giv- 

 ing the roots as nearly a horizontal direction as possible ; this, 

 however, would only be a temporary cure, calculated to check 

 redundant growth for a few years, but not permanently, as the 

 roots would get too deep again if not prevented by a substratum 

 of some impenetrable material, which it would then perhaps be 

 impracticable to apply. Instead of those deep and narrow pits 

 which defeat their own end, I would have the borders for peach, 

 apricot, cherry, and plum trees 15ft. wide; for pear or apple 

 trees, 18 ft. In depth, no border, under ordinary circumstances, 

 need exceed 2 ft. 6 in. at the wall, deepening with an even slope 

 to 3 ft. at the walk ; parallel to which, if the situation is low, 

 or the subsoil retentive, a good tile drain should be constructed 

 1 ft. deeper than the bottom of the border, and filled up with 

 rough stones, of which a layer 6 in. thick (covered by a few 

 inches of leaves to prevent the soil from filling the interstices) 



