330 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



them, if the bottom be perfectly dry, or rendered so, any hght 

 loamy garden-soil will be sufficient. The principal failure of 

 figs in this country arises from not choosing a proper situation 

 for them, as far as regards the aspect, the best in the garden 

 should be allotted to them and vines. 



Fears. — A dry deep loam is the best soil for the pear-tree, 

 when upon a stock of its own species, but on a quince stock, 

 it requires a soil rather moister ; however the bottom of the 

 border should be dry. A gravelly bottom is good, provided 

 there be sufficient depth of mould over it. A clayey, wet, 

 spongy bottom is the worst of all, and should be guarded 

 against by draining, and the bottom of the border secured by 

 a floor, similar to that recommended for peaches and nec- 

 tarines, or else a floor formed of pavement, or other durable 

 materials, to prevent the roots, which are apt in this tree to 

 penetrate to a great depth, from getting into a bad sub-soil. 

 The border should be made good to the depth of three or 

 three and a half feet, and composed of good hazelly loam from 

 an old pasture, previously prepared, as already described for 

 peach-trees. If the loam be not rich of itself, it should be 

 assisted by the addition of a portion of well rotted dung, such 

 as has been used in cucumber or melon-beds, and mixed well 

 with the loam in the compost-yard. The pear is, generally, a 

 hardy tree, much more so than the apple, and will prosper in 

 soils where apples will not live. Pears require a soil much 

 stronger and deeper than any other of our cultivated fruit- 

 trees. 



Apples. — In preparing borders for apples, if the soil be 

 tolerably good, and the sub-soil perfectly diy, little else is re- 

 quired, but if the sail be not naturally good, it must be im- 

 proved by removing the bad, and substituting better mould. 

 In soils extremely sandy, gravelly, or clayey, apple-trees will 

 thrive but little, and in wet ones, they soon canker and die. 

 One-third or one-fourth of virgin loam of middling texture, 

 with a small addition of very rotten dung, will improve soils 

 of a very bad nature sufficiently for the production of good 

 apple-trees. 



Cherry. — The cherry delights in a dry, light, and rather 

 sandy soil, but not gravelly, in which latter soil it soon pe- 



