268 
THE AMATEUR’S KITCHEN GARDEN. 
regarded as a curiosity than a profitable tree, for it is only 
about once in seven years that these standards ripen a fair 
crop of fruit. As a rule this fruit requires the hottest wall 
that can be found for it, and it should also have a deep 
border, for if in a shallow border, a hot summer causes the 
death of large branches, the Moorpark variety being peculiarly 
liable to this mishap. During a term of very hot weather it 
is advisable to shade apricot and peach trees on south walls 
to moderate the heat to which at midday they are subjected. 
The employment of apricot stocks is much to be desired, for 
the plum stock commonly used certainly favours the sudden 
dying away of large branches which occurs from time to time 
in almost every garden. The best varieties for a small place 
are Moorpark , Shipley s, Breda , and Turkey. 
The Cherry is a troublesome fruit where birds abound, 
but there is a way out of that difficulty. Cherries grafted on 
the Mahaleb stock form pretty dwarf trees, that are eminently 
fertile, and a plantation of such may be covered with old 
fishing nets while the fruit is ripening, and thus at a small 
cost the crop may be saved without any slaughter or noisy 
scaring of the birds. The subjoined figures represent two 
methods of protecting. If it is intended to protect the trees on 
an outside border, or “slip,” as it is usually called, it is 
simply necessary to have cross pieces, D, resting upon the 
garden, wall and boundary wall or fence, b b, and supported 
by u plights, c c. In protecting the trees on an inside border, 
the. cross-pieces, D, must be supported at one end by an 
upright, c, as here shown, eeee in the two sketches repre- 
sent rows of strawberry plants, which could be thus protected 
without additional cost, a is ol course the ground-line. It 
