28 



CASSELL'S POPLI.AR GAEDENING. 



art, aad hence the wildings of the shelter seem ever 

 bent on starving- out the fruit-trees so soon as they 

 get a footing in the richer larder of the fruit garden. 

 While any over- sheltering that has been exaggerated 

 into injurious shadow, at once becomes apparent, 

 and can be easily remedied, the roots of the shelter- 

 ing trees commit their robberies in the dark, and 

 their presence is often as unsuspected as mis- 

 chievous. 



The surest mode of avoiding this danger is to 

 keep the shelter sufficiently far off. Another mode 

 which also answers well — gives immediate shelter 

 and keeps the rambling, roving roots at home — con- 

 sists in throwing up earth-banks or mounds on the 

 cold sides of fruit gardens. This gives the eleva- 

 tion of several years to the shelter at starting ; a 

 greater depth of soil for the roots, that fosters rapid 

 growth, and if tolerably rich soil is used, it will keep 

 them at home, instead of roaming all over the fruit 

 garden, seeking what fruit-tree food they may 

 devoxir. 



Finally, in regard to shelters, evergreen or coni- 

 ferous trees or shrubs are to be preferred, not only 

 on account of their denser, thicker shelter when it is 

 most needed in the early spring, but likewise inas- 

 much as their roots remain nearer home. On no 

 account must Ash, nor Elms, nor Beeches be used ; 

 the first two especially will run any distance in 

 search of food, and starve out the roots of any other 

 sort of shrub or tree whatsoever. 



Hedges for Shelter. — To avoid the possible 

 injuries from a tree shelter, hedges are often used; 

 and these are in some respects better, and if planted 

 or allowed to grow sufficiently thick and tall, are very 

 efficient. Beech, Hornbeam, Privet, Holly, Yew, and 

 Scotch or Silver Fir, kept cut so as to force them to 

 continue clothed to the bottom, are among the best 

 plants for such hedges. They should be planted in 

 the best possible soil and permitted to grow into 

 dense masses from a foot to a yard through, and 

 from six to ten, or even more, feet in height. 

 Such li-ving barriers are almost wholly impene- 

 trable to cold winds, waves or currents of ice-like 

 air. Like the sand on the sea-shore, they yield 

 slightly to the impact of the blow, but their very 

 yielding breaks its force, while the density of the 

 mass is so great, and the process of yielding to gain 

 new powers of resistance is repeated so often, that 

 little or none of the cold air escapes through to 

 the warmer side. 



Walls for Shelter. — Walls are a necessity for 

 the better sort of fruit gardens. They enable the 

 cultivator to grow such fruits as Peaches, Nectarines, 

 Apricots, Grapes, in the open air, which the cha- 



racter of our climate prevents him from growing 

 without them. Theii" heat-absorbing, cold-resisting 

 properties — to use popular terms — are so great as 

 to create and sustain an artificial climate in their 

 immediate vicinity far superior to the average of 

 that in which they are placed. The facility they 

 afford for the display of semi-skeleton trees over 

 their surface, also fully exposes each leaf, flower, 

 and branchlet to the full force of the sun, thus 

 accelerating and heightening growth, maturity, and 

 fertility. 



But as mere shelters they are inferior to those 

 already described. For such purposes their very 

 strength becomes their weakness. They often' 

 merely change the direction, rather than break the 

 force, of waves of cold air. The mobihty of the 

 movable screen furnished by a belt of stunted 

 trees or a thick hedge, holds fast, as it were, the 

 power of the wind, and sifts out or tones down its 

 force by its firm network of small twigs and leaves. 



A Dry Bottom. — It is impossible to exaggerate 

 the vital necessity for this. (See article on Draixage.) 

 It is not only essential to the health of the fruit 

 trees, but also to their fertility. Whether drainage 

 will be needed or not, can readily be tested in a very 

 simple manner. Dig out a space a convenient size, 

 from a yard to four feet deep ; if the water stands 

 in for weeks or a month at a stretch, the land must 

 be drained, and the di-ains in a fruit garden should 

 not be less than four feet deep, as fruit-trees, like 

 most others, seem to have a mania for hunting for 

 and finding drains. Hardly are they found when the 

 roots revel along in them to such bad purpose as to 

 block them. Hence the need of deep drainage in 

 fruit gardens. However, there are large tracts of 

 country where drainage will not be needed, and the 

 open test-holes, as already suggested, will soon de- 

 termine the question of drains or no drains to the 

 satisfaction of the cultivator. 



Suitable Soil. — Almost any soil resting on a 

 dry bottom, having a favourable aspect, will grow, 

 or can be made by the aid of stimulants to 

 grow, fruit-trees in the open air. Hence, no 

 amateur, artisan, mechanic, or labourer need be 

 deterred from making the attempt to grow fruit 

 in any or all sorts of soils. The land that will 

 grow good Oaks will, with a little care, grow good 

 Apples, Pears, Cherries, or Plums, and almost any 

 kind of soil may be made to gi^ow either. Even 

 sheer clay, with a liberal addition of cinder-ashes 

 and road- sand, and a bushel or two of cocoa-fibre 

 refuse to start the trees in, may be made to grow 

 tolerably good fruit ; and mere sand, emiched with 

 house-slops, may be forced to do likewise. It is a 



