HOW ARE WE TO IMPROVE? 



327 



fashionable fruiterers to the carriage waiting at the end of 

 the Kow/"' To market gardeners I may with respect to 

 this fndt offer a word of advice^ though I have not ventured 

 to do so with regard to other matters. To succeed with 

 the Peach you must remove it altogether from the chance 

 culture now bestowed upon it; you must employ men to 

 give it full attention in spring and early summer ; you must 

 select suitable soil in the first instance^ and thus avoid 

 expense for what is called made ground. You must 

 take care to protect the trees in spring_, as the careful 

 French cultivators do ; and you must take advantage of the 

 very cheap and excellent way of erecting walls that I have 

 alluded to. No chance culture on any walls that may 

 happen to sm'round the place will alter matters much. 



The same remarks apply to some extent to the private 

 gardeners and to amateurs. They should pay more atten- 

 tion to walls^ erect more and utilize those they already 

 have. I had a letter lately from Mr. J. A. Watson of 

 Geneva,, in which the writer describes a village church 

 as being covered with Peaches and Nectarines^ and goes 

 on to state that the sexton gives a lecture on the su.bject 

 now and then to the natives on Sunday mornings. I do 

 not wish the example to be followed^ nor the glorious old 

 Ivy to be disturbed even for the luscious Peach ; but we 

 may do a good deal more than at present with our unoc- 

 cupied walls. Probably many readers who live near Oxford 

 can testify to the beauty and profit that results from the 

 villagers covering their walls with Apricot trees. The same 

 may be done in many parts of England where such a thing 

 is not now to be seen ; but in the case of cottagers and 

 others the only thing likely to do good is example. If they 

 see a specimen of success they need no other encourage- 

 ment. And perhaps I may here suggest that a present 

 of a few good kinds of trees^ and perhaps a few minutes^ 

 advice from the gardener^ would be more productive of 

 benefit to cottagers than many other things given them in a 

 charitable way. 



As to our various other hardy fruits^ including the Apple 

 and Pear^ there can be little doubt that it is to good 



