FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
411 
at about eighteen inches deep. If the trees 
are very vigorous they may be thus pruned 
all round ; if less vigorous, only partly round : 
that is to say, more may be pruned away 
when the trees are very luxuriant, than when 
they are less so. Sometimes one side of a 
tree becomes over vigorous ; in this case, if 
the roots on that side are pruned, the branches 
will be checked and become fruitful. The 
repetition of root pruning should depend alto- 
gether on the state of the plant. Sometimes 
one operation will serve to bring under the 
vegetative powers, so that for a series of years 
afterwards no luxuriant vigorous growth is 
made ; in this case, it should not be repeated, 
but if necessary the tree may be fed by a 
supply of liquid manure while its fruit is 
growing. Sometimes the operation has less 
effect, and then needs to be repeated sooner, 
at two or three inches further from the stem. 
The great objection to growing fruit trees 
in a garden is, that they shade the vegetable 
crops and prevent them from attaining their 
proper perfection. The great advantage of 
root pruning is, that it enables even those 
whose gardens are small, to maintain a set of 
healthy miniature trees, which while they are 
too small to do any injury to the vegetable 
crops, are yet capable of bearing a consider- 
able quantity of fruit. 
SLOPING BANK CULTURE. 
If the surface of a level piece of ground is 
planted at one time with one kind of crop, 
the advance towards maturity will be equal, 
or nearly so, through the entire crop, unless 
local differences, such as a variation in the 
soil, or shade in some part, should interfere 
with this result. If the surface of the same 
ground is thrown up into sloping banks, 
running east and west, so as to present one 
face to the south, another to the north, and in 
that state is planted all at once with one kind 
of crop, a decided succession in the maturity 
will be the result ; the plants on the one side 
being placed in a warmer position than those 
on the other, will grow most rapidly. The 
shady sides of these sloping banks are also 
useful in summer in raising salading of all 
kinds, which, if it can be kept moist enough, 
is always of better quality when grown in cool 
soil, than in that which is liable to become 
much heated from exposure to the sun. This 
fact may be turned to advantage in a variety 
of ways. Sloping banks are of most value in 
cold climates ; in such they may be most 
usefully applied in accelerating spring crops, 
retarding summer crops, and preserving store 
plants (such as cabbages, lettuces, &c.) through 
the cold season. In England, for instance, 
the strawberry season may be much prolonged 
by planting an early variety on the south 
side of one of these banks, and a late variety 
on the north side ; in which case, the former 
becomes earlier, and the latter later, than 
ordinary ; and it is so with vegetables. 
The ground is very easily arranged in this 
sloping form. Supposing it to be previously 
ridge-trenched, as shown by the dotted lines 
in the accompanying diagram, it will only be 
necessary to remove the soil at a, and cast it 
in a ridge form at b, the bottom of the slope 
being as much below the ordinary level, 
shown by the line c, as the top of the ridge is 
above it. This forms a slope of about 6| feet 
on each side ; so that there is an actual gain 
of 1| foot in every twelve feet width of ground 
thus arranged. If it is required to form these 
banks at the time of trenching, the soil may 
be disposed in this form as easily as it can be 
laid in the smaller ridges, into which it is 
usual to arrange the surface of trenched 
ground. To dispose a level surface into 
banks, it is only necessary to throw up the 
soil from a to form the top of the ridge b. 
This method becomes most important to 
the cultivator in cold climates ; there it may 
assist in the preservation through the winter 
of his store plants of cabbage, lettuce, cauli- 
flower, &c. ; and his crops of spinach, of 
parsley, and of early peas. The shelter 
afforded by the ridges will partly effect this ; 
and it will, moreover, often be experienced, 
in severe seasons, that, while the plants on 
one side the ridge have been injured or de- 
stroyed, those on the other side will have 
escaped unhurt. 
EARTHING UP. 
This consists in banking up the soil around 
the stems of various plants, and is done for 
different purposes. Thus a portion of the 
surface-soil two or three inches in depth and 
three or four in width is drawn up on each 
side of the lines of peas soon after they spring 
up, for the double purpose of steadying the 
plants and sheltering them from currents of 
wind sweeping along the surface of the ground; 
the same may be done with advantage to the 
crops of beans when just sprung up, and to 
