HOW AEE WE TO IMPROVE ? 



315 



places in their little shmbberies^ at present entirely devoted 

 to tliat miserable shrub tlie Privet^ and some of its most 

 worthless allies. I know well the kind of objection that is 

 made to some of these suggestions — the boys would gather 

 the fruity &c. Small blame to the poor boys for making an 

 occasional attempt on the little fruit that comes in their 

 way, and for exercising a little ingenuity in getting at what 

 is for them such wholesome and delicious food ; but if the 

 fruit were as plentiful as it ought to be they would not be 

 so tempted. 



It should be remembered that some of our hardy fruits 

 are capable of affording quantities of wholesome food to the 

 people; but before they do so efficiently we must take 

 them out of the class of things that are carefully walled 

 in gardens;, overdone with kindness, or perhaps mutilated 

 to death by excessive and unnatural pruning, and recognise 

 and take full advantage of the fact that many excellent 

 kinds are as hardy and easily grown as the Blackberries 

 and Sloes of the hedges. Eor the purposes herein sug- 

 gested thoroughly hardy and free-growing sorts should alone 

 be selected ; but it must not be supposed that first-class 

 fruit, even of the continental varieties, cannot be produced 

 in this way. The other day in visiting the gardens at Oak 

 Lodge, Kensington, my attention was attracted by a very 

 large and handsome Pear tree growing among the Rhodo- 

 dendrons and other choice shrubs which adorn the margin 

 of a piece of rock-bound water. Upon further inquiry I 

 found it was a fine old tree of the Beurre Diel, which, 

 without pruning or attention of any kind, produced abun- 

 dantly such good fruit, that of twelve samples of the same 

 fine variety recently laid before the Fruit Committee of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society the fruit of this tree was pro- 

 nounced the best. I by no means mention this as a 

 remarkable instance, but merely to prove that the finest 

 Pears may be grown by the simplest means, and that the 

 tree is worth cultivating for its beauty alone. The garden 

 of Oak Lodge is the best designed town garden I have yet 

 seen, and Mr. Marnock, who arranged it, left several 

 of these old Pears in conspicuous positions when laying 



