ENCLOSING, LAYING OUT. 



19 



month of June, in order for it to become thoroughly dry in every 

 part before the arrival of frost. In making the foundation, great 

 care must be taken t6 go lower down than the depth of the trench- 

 ing, in order to come at the solid and immoveable earth. 



31. As was observed before, the use of one half of this wall, for 

 horticultural purposes, would be lost, unless wall-trees could be 

 placed on both sides of it ; and wall-trees cannot be placed on the 

 outside, with any chance of utility, unless there be an effectual 

 fence to protect the trees on that wall. I knew an old gentleman, 

 one of whose garden walls separated the garden from a meadow, 

 which was unprotected except by a common hedge. Those per- 

 sons of the village who were fond of wall-fruit, who had none of 

 their own, and who were young enough to climb wails, used to 

 leave him a very undue proportion of his fruit, and that not of the 

 best quality. He therefore separated a strip of the meadow from 

 the rest by a little fence, very convenient for getting over ; turned 

 this strip, which lay along against the wall, into kitchen garden- 

 ground, planted excellent fruit-trees against the wall, trained them 

 and cultivated them properly ; and thus, by furnishing his juvenile 

 neighbours with onions for their bread and cheese, as well as fruit 

 for their dessert, ever aiter he kept the produce of the inside of 

 the garden for himself, generally observing (as he once particu- 

 larly did to me) that he was not so unreasonable as to expect to 

 have any of the produce of the exterior garden. 



32. But there is no necessity for making these sorts of diver- 

 sions, if you can, with the greatest ease imaginable, elFectually 

 protect the fortress against every species of attack. This pro- 

 tection is to be obtained by a hedge made of hawthorn, black thorn, 

 or, still better, with honey locust, the thorns of the latter beiog just 

 so many needles of about an inch and a half, or two inches long, 

 only stouter than a needle and less brittle. The space between the 

 wall and the hedge ought to be a clear rod, allowing, besides, three 

 feet for the hedge. This hedge ought to be planted in the following 

 manner. The p^ants being first sown in beds, and then put into 

 a nursery, ought to be taken thence when their stems are about 

 the thickness of the point of your fore-finger. They ought to be 

 as equal as possible in point of size ; because, if one be weaker 

 than the rest, they subdue it ; there comes a low place in the 

 hedge ; that low place becomes a gap ; and a hedge with a gap in 

 It is, in fact, no fence at all, any more than a wall with an open 



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