144 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



concreting is not necessary, and the natural drainage 

 being good, less artificial drainage will 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. Before 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, and 1 cwt. of bone-meal to every 6 

 cubic yards of the whole. Where neither lime-rub- 

 bish nor charcoal are procurable, an equal proportion 

 of charred soil can be substituted. These should all 

 be well mixed together and wheeled into the border 



