TUE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
U;J 
ON GAEDEN WALLS : A LESSONS FOE TOWN 
GAEDENEES. 
BT AV. B. PUIOB, ESQ., CLAPTON. 
E of the greatest disadvantages witli which the town 
gardener has to contend is the brick wall which usuallv 
divides his premises from his neighbour’s, and which is 
not only an unsightly feature in itself, but appears 
especially contrived to preclude as much as possible the 
free circulation of light and air, and in other respects to add to the 
difficulties of surburban cultivators. Indeed, in some of those 
enclosures attached to residences of older date, when space 
was less valuable, or bricks less costly, these separating walls are 
so high, as to reduce the so-called garden to a coffin-like strip, 
equally adverse to health as to enjoyment. In such melancholy 
situations the borders will be found dank and water-logged, and the 
soil sour and utterly unfitted for wholesome vegetation ; inhabited 
for the most part by sickly lilacs — when ill-done the shabbiest 
of trees — abundant crops of toad-stools in neglected corners, diver- 
sified by scrubby trees, sometimes fruit trees that never bear. We 
are now speaking more particularly of houses with some pretension 
to respectability, forming for the most part the residences of the 
middle-class population of large towns, although it is in the metro- 
polis the evil chiefly prevails. Not only is the modern system of 
building in rows of streets, back to back, the premises being 
separated by a close wall instead of open palings or rails, preju- 
dicial to the healthy and elevating pursuits of the garden, but it 
has a serious bearing upon the public health. In houses so built, 
and so shut in, often with so short a distance between the backs, 
the space so enclosed forms a species of culvert of stagnant air, the 
inhabitants virtually breathing and re-breathing each other’s exha- 
lations, and those of their closets, drains, and dust-bins, ahvays 
prominent objects in such localities. The mischief is often agora- 
vated by blocks at each end. The air in these enclosures never gets 
disturbed or set in motion, except some violent wind accidentally 
sets in in the special direction in w’hich they lie. No wonder that 
fever becomes more prevalent year by year, and that its unnoted 
ravages are found more fatal than virulent epidemics. The legislator 
who would enforce a law for opening out these mischievous 
boundaries, and restoring the utmost circulation of the air in close 
neighbourhoods, would deserve the gratitude of the generation. 
The influence of plants upon the atmosphere is a scientific truth too 
widely known to admit of question ; indeed, such action is one of 
nature’s balances, which cannot be disturbed without injurious 
results. Eestore healthy vegetation to crowded neighbourhoods, 
and you restore one element for counteracting disease, as well as 
promoting a moral tone and elevating tastq amongst those who at 
present have little encouragement, from adverse conditions, for such 
developments. 
But, however, our walls are there. The landlord will not 
IJaj. 
