KITCHEN-GARDEN AND ORCHARD 45 
for cutting? Even is there beauty of flower and foliage 
in many of the humblest vegetables, a beauty which, 
because unlooked for, is doubly welcome. 
The site of the kitchen-garden should be fixed in 
close proximity to the house and stables. On no account 
should it be so arranged that a portion of the pleasure 
ground must be traversed to reach it. If it can be walled 
in so much the better, both on account of the added 
shelter and for the facilities afforded for the growing of 
wall fruit. The plan should be entirely regular, the 
walks crossing one another at right angles, the fruit 
borders and vegetable beds laid out with due regard to 
convenience and economy of space. 
A suitable aspect is very important—land having a 
gentle slope to the south being by far the most suitable. 
In any case the position should be an open one, with free 
exposure to the sunlight. The presence of large trees, 
whose branches overshade and roots impoverish the 
soil, will be extremely prejudicial. The question of 
boundaries is one in which the initial cost will be more 
considered than the adaptability of various forms to 
certain situations. A good yew hedge, or even a split 
oak fence, may occasionally prove useful, but nothing 
can equal the merits of well-built walls. No doubt 
they are expensive, but a close examination proves that 
they are really more economical in the long run. If 
well built, and properly treated, they last some hundreds 
of years; they provide the best form of shelter, enabling 
a variety of tender vegetables to be grown, without the 
loss occasioned by cold and exposure: they afford 
support for trained fruit-trees, which by their high-class 
crops return no insignificant proportion of the initial 
outlay. The hedge, cheaper though it is at the outset, 
possesses few of these advantages. Constant attention, in 
the shape of clipping and training, is necessary, if it is to 
afford adequate shelter; it is many years before it is of 
