A GARDEN IN VENICE 



scissors and knife and billhook must be kept at 

 work to let in air and sunlight. 



After a time our thick heads found out one 

 cause of failure. The soil is made; brought in 

 boats from pulled down houses or dust heaps, or 

 from the bottom of dredged canals. One rose 

 you plant may have the luck to light on an ancient 

 dung heap, the next vainly strive to root in the 

 scorched debris of some long-forgotten fisher's 

 kitchen. Again, the soil on the surface may be 

 sweet and wholesome, but all plants that have 

 tap-roots, or seek deep feeding, would find at 

 some three feet down salt earth or even salt water. 

 I have seen in a very hot and dry summer the 

 surface in places white with a salt efflorescence 

 drawn up by the power of the sun. 



Peach trees, therefore, have so short a lifetime 

 that I have renewed them twice and some even 

 three times already. Nor does cutting their tap- 

 root before planting add materially to their en- 

 durance. Only lateral root running trees can live 

 to full age. So our Marinelli last, lovely with 

 white flowers or red fruit each in its season, 



F2 43 



