58 On the Cultivation of French Pears in Scotland, $c. 



two trees, which had been supplied with spring water. The leaves 

 also of the former trees were almost double the size of those of the 

 latter. Even in the following spring the difference was perceptible, 

 as evinced in the larger blossom and more vigorous setting of the 

 fruit. 



In the management of borders, it is of great importance, conti- 

 nues Mr. D., to preserve the surface-roots of trees. At the cot- 

 tage garden the borders have never been dug since the trees were 

 planted ; and when manure is applied, it is laid down and covered 

 over with about six inches of the surface mould. The soil, when thus 

 treated, becomes filled to the surface with fibrous roots, which 

 would be injured or destroyed were the border to be dug. When 

 the manure is retained in a body near the surface the border 

 is kept in a moister state, and the roots do not penetrate down- 

 wards to the sub-soil in search of water. Even where vegetables 

 are raised, as early crops on the border, the soil is never disturbed 

 to more than six inches in depth ; and the crops are ready earlier 

 than in the ordinary mode of digging to the depth of eighteen 

 inches. When the fibrous roots of trees have been injured by 

 digging the border too deep, they will soon be restored if a 

 layer of manure, six or eight inches thick, be first laid on the sur- 

 face, and then beaten down with the spade, and covered afterwards 

 with about six inches of mould. The roots will at once begin to 

 strike out and run along the undersurface of the dung, forming 

 at length a complete mass of fibrous roots. 



When vegetables are raised on fruit-borders, they may affect the 

 atmosphere, in regard both to heat and moisture, in a degree that 

 may sometimes prove beneficial, and at others injurious, to the trees. 

 When the wall, for example, becomes heated, the air in contact with 

 it is rarified and carried upwards, and fresh air from the surface 

 of the border moves forward to supply its place ; in this way a cur- 

 rent of air is soon formed, which continually passes over the heated 



