OCT.! 



THE GARDENER. 



135 



trees, of which the peach and nectarine in our climate 

 are amongst the most delicate, as they rarely produce 

 well unless the borders are warm, rich, and dry, but 

 not allowed to be too dry in summer. The apricot 

 also requires a more sunny and drier climate than 

 ours generally is ; but this tree suffers much from 

 mildew. All these will be most profitably planted 

 against a south wall. 



The soil for the apple and pear-tree cannot be too deep 

 a loam, and if it be on a calcareous bottom so much 

 the better; but it will grow tolerably well in any 

 common soil, neither extremely sandy, gravelly, nor 

 clayey, on a dry subsoil, and with a free exposure. 

 On wet subsoil it will do no good; but after being 

 planted a few years will become cankered, and get 

 covered with moss. Where fruit-trees must be 

 planted on such soil, it should first be rendered as 

 dry as possible by under draining ; next, provision 

 made for carrying off the rain water by surface gutters, 

 when this may be found necessary, which however is 

 rarely the case in the summer season ; and lastly, the 

 ground should not be trenched above a foot below the 

 general level of the adjoining ground: but above this 

 level the border may be raised another foot by the in- 

 troduction of fresh soil, thus making the whole depth 

 for the roots two feet. The trees should be planted 

 rather in hillocks of earth above the surface than in 

 pits dug below it. There is no point of more import- 

 ance than shallow trenching and shallow planting in 

 cold wet soils, in which deep pits and deep pulveriza- 

 tion only serve to aggravate their natural evils of 

 moisture and cold."^ In putting down peach- 

 trees, &c., observe these rules, — to raise the hillocks to 

 such an elevation above the surface as wdll allow for 

 smkmg only so far that ultimately the collar or part 

 of the stem whence the first roots proceed shall be be- 



• Sang. 



