144 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



concreting is not necessary, and the natural drainage 

 being good, less artificial drainage wQl suffice. 



SOIL. 



It is an established fact that all stone-fruits can be 

 grown to the greatest perfection in strong-holding soils. 

 •This fully applies to the peach, for it is on a strong 

 calcareous loam, resting on a dry bottom, that it 

 thrives best. The healthiest peach-trees on open 

 walls we have ever seen were grown in a deep strong 

 loam, resting on an immense depth of chalk ; and, 

 generally speaking, the limestone districts of England 

 produce the finest outdoor peaches and other stone- 

 fruits. These facts apply with equal force to^ the cul- 

 ture of the peach under glass. To produce the most 

 healthy, fruitful, and long-lived trees, the best soil with 

 which to form a peach-border consists of the top spit of 

 some old pasture-land of a calcareous nature. It should 

 be taken to the depth of 6 inches, inclusive of the short 

 verdure and its roots peculiar to such land. When 

 carted in, stack it into something like large potato-pits ; 

 and if it can be allowed to lie for eight or nine months 

 before being used, all the better. When it cannot be so 

 arranged, it can be used as it comes from the field. Be- 

 fore it is wheeled into the border it should be roughly 

 chopped up with a spade. Then add to every twelve cart- 

 loads one of old lime-rubbish, one of charred wood, and 2 

 cwt. of half-inch boiled bones. Where neither lime-rub- 

 bish nor charcoal are procurable, an equal proportion 

 of charred soil can be substituted. These should aU be 

 well mixed together and wheeled into the border 

 when in a dry state, making it rather firm by beating it 



