CHAP, yi.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 135 
as to afford an extent of wall proportionate 
to that of the ground. In front of the wall 
is a border for the roots of the fruit trees, 
ten or twelve feet wide, and beyond that 
a walk usually four feet wide, leaving a plot 
of ground in the centre for the culture of 
culinary vegetables and espalier fruit-trees. 
The central plat is usually divided by a main 
walk up the centre, five or six feet wide, 
and two or four side-walks, three or four feet 
wide; the smaller plots enclosed between 
these walks being again divided into oblong 
compartments, or beds. 
The general form and arrangement of all 
large kitchen-gardens being alike, it is obvious 
that they must have been determined by 
some general principle; and this principle 
appears to be utility. The walks are made 
straight, that the heavy loads wheeled along 
them may not be in danger of overturning, 
which they would if the walks took a serpen¬ 
tine direction; while the compartments are 
divided into oblong beds, for the convenience 
of digging and cropping; it being found 
most convenient to sow vegetables in straight 
lines, to allow of weeding and hoeing be- 
