534 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 13,1894 
practical, attentive, and obliging gardener, visiting his customers 
daily, vending his wares personally, and keeping a sharp eye upon 
his assistants in the garden, would probably make a very good 
living from the few acres of land given up to market gardening. 
Teddington is a wealthy neighbourhood, and the mellifluous tongue 
of the novelist would ensure a ready sale for his produce. But 
what would the world have lost if the novelist had been engaged in 
the somewhat sordid and unsavory details necessary to make a 
market garden of this limited area profltable to the market 
gardener ? 
Now from this experience Mr. Blackmore the novelist has 
misused his high literary position by addressing a series of articles 
to the most influential journal in the world, denouncing fruit¬ 
growing in England as a “ fatal fad.” The alliteration is apt 
and venomous, and it is scarcely credible that an educated 
Englishman could offer such unworthy counsel to his fellow 
countrymen. 
The land is not the property of one generation only, it is held 
in trust for others to come. The cessation of fruit tree planting 
in a very few years would cause the fruit supply of England to 
pas* into the hands of importers of foreign produce, with the 
certainty that the vilest rubbish would eventually be foisted on 
the markets, and the waning supply from English orchards would 
gradually descend to prices which would be practically profitless. 
It seems hardly possible that Mr. Blackmore’s literary skill 
could bring about such a woeful result, but that i* what his 
denunciation of fruit-growing as a “ fatal fad ” would bring about 
if his counsel were followed. The agricultural returns have shown 
that for some years an annually increasing extent of land has been 
devoted to fruit tree culture, and many thousand acres are now 
occupied by fruit trees ; many thousand more are necessary before 
England is properly equipped to bid defiance to the foreign grower. 
Mr. Blackmore would have done better service to his countrymen 
if he had advised his Devonshire friends to cut down their worn- 
out and useless trees, and in place of these time-worn veterans to 
plant the county with young trees. The coming Devonian would 
then link his name to other Devonshire worthies as a public 
benefactor, which the author of the pernicious saying, that the 
important industry of fruit-growing in England is a “ fatal fad,” 
dees not deserve.—E. R. H. S. 
EDGINGS FOR KITCHEN GARDEN WALKS. 
A QUAKTER of a century ago Box was used to form edgings 
for the principal walks in nine-tenths of the kitchen gardens 
throughout the country. Its use for this purpose has of late very 
much decreased, but even now instances may be met with in newly 
made kitchen gardens where the time-honoured Box edging is a 
conspicuous feature. But little fault can be found with them on 
the score of appearance, if the requisite labour is expended upon 
them. When, however, the necessary anuual attention of clipping 
and filling up blank or thin places is in the least neglected the 
edgings become unsightly rather than ornamental. 
Even when they are kept in the best condition I question if 
there is a kitchen garden in Great Britain in which the labour 
expended upon Box edgings could not be more satisfactorily 
employed in other directions. These are points strong enough I 
think to sound the death knell of edgings of this description for 
kitchen garden walks, but I have yet a stronger one to advance. 
It is this, where chemical weed-killers are used for clearing walks 
—and who would be without them ?—much damage is frequently 
done where the walks are edged with Box. Of course the pre¬ 
caution of fixing a board an inch or two from the edging should 
at all times be taken when weed destroyers are used, but somehow 
or other browned patches in the edgings soon show themselves 
after such applications. Sometimes this may be caused through 
inadvertence on the part of the workman, at others in consequence 
of the Box roots having penetrated the walk. No matter how 
brought about, the result is the same—disaster. To put the matter 
in a nutshell I maintain that the edgings of all kitchen garden 
walks should be of such a nature as to be secure against mishaps 
of this description. One or other of the many materials possessing 
these good points are within the reach of all, and the sooner they 
are universally utilised for that purpose the better for both 
employers and gardeners. 
Plain or corrugated edging tiles with a wide base, such as are 
largely manufactured for the purpose, are in every way suitable. 
I prefer those with a plain, smooth surface, as they are less liable 
to be chipped or broken, and their trim rounded outlice is in 
keeping with a well managed garden. Tastes, however, differ, and 
those who consider a corrugated surface more pleasing to the eye 
will find no serious objection to that form of tile. In preparing 
the ground for fixing these edgings, after the trench has been 
taken out it is important to tread the soil and make it uniformly firm. 
The proper levels and gradients should then be taken throughout 
the entire length of each walk. Where the ground slopes 
considerably the level throughout should first be taken by the aid 
of a spirit level, straight edge, and pegs, starting at the highest 
point. It is then an easy matter to mark on the peg the height at 
which the edging requires fixing at the lowest end. Next measure 
on the same pegs the difference between the level and the required 
height of the edging. Then find out how many feet the two 
extremities of the walk are from each other, calculate how much 
fall that will allow in every 10 feet, drive pegs in at that distance 
apart in a straight line with each other, keeping the tops of 
each at the right distance from the level. If a line is then 
strained to touch the tops of these pegs, a uniform gradient will 
be secured. 
On comparatively level ground the edgings should slope gently 
in one direction, so as to convey superfluous water along the sides 
of the walk to the drains. In filling up the trenches it is necessary 
to ram the soil and rubble very firm, so as to hold the tiles 
securely in position ; if this is well done in the first instance there 
is but little danger of their being afterwards displaced, except by 
very rough treatment. Hard blue bricks are also excellent for 
forming edgings, and when only short lengths are to be dealt with 
these prove convenient, being generally at hand. When, however, 
a considerable amount of this kind of work has to be carried out at 
one time, it is wise economy to purchase tiles, as by buying them 
in large numbers, and taking into consideration the less labour 
required in fixing, the entire outlay involved is but little more 
than when bricks are used. There are many ways of fixing these; 
some stand them on end in a perfectly upright position, others lay 
them lengthways in an angle sloping towards the walk, and those 
who have a hankering after novelty stand the bricks on one of 
the corner angles, so that when fixed the edging has the appearance 
of a row of equilateral triangles, exactly like the teeth of a saw. 
To my mind this is too fanciful a style to adopt in a kitchen 
garden, and the angles of the bricks are, moreover, liable to be 
broken, and then look unsightly. 
When new gardens are being formed the trenching of the soil 
usually brings to the surface numbers of stones which have to 
be disposed of. If these are of a hard nature, similar to the well 
known Kentish ragstone, they form excellent material for edgings, 
and have the advantage of being the most economical of all. It is 
seldom that stones of this description requires much preparing 
beyond chipping off the sharp edges with a hammer, for to aim 
at complete uniformity would quite spoil the appearance of an 
edging of this character, as its beauty lies in its ruggedness, and 
so long as that ruggedness is not pronounced enough to impede 
the performance of the necessary operations incidental to kitchen 
gardening, these stone edgings answer their purpose from every 
point of view. In fixing the stones a line should be used to get 
the right general level, the tops of the stones being allowed 
to touch the line here and there, the majority of them being 
more or less below it. If this course is followed a rugged yet 
compact edging is secured, which will last for centuries, require 
but little annual labour to keep in order, and will always look 
well. 
Whatevei style of edging is decided upon should be employed 
throughout, as there are few things so incongruous about gardens 
of pretension as the indiscriminate admixture of various styles of 
work through the want of decision to determine which under the 
circumstances is the best. As we have reached a season when 
contemplated alterations are usually carried out, I trust these 
remarks may be helpful to some who in the rush of modern days 
have far too little time to think out the details nec ssary for the 
successful conduct of work in progress,—A Kentish Man. 
CLEANING VINES. 
Now the season has arrived for cleansing Vines, a word or two 
may not be out of place as to the manner in which it should be 
carried out. Judgiog by what one sees in many places where 
Vines are grown, the work is carried out most indiscriminately ; 
often trusted to inexperienced men, whose chief object is to 
strip the rods of as much bark as possible, and scrape them, 
especially about the spurs, as bare as they can be. After this 
performance is finished the Vines are washed, and perhaps plastered 
over with some obnoxious compound. Does this unnatural treat¬ 
ment impair the constitution of the Vine ? In my opinion it 
certainly does. Notice Vines so treated and those that are nover 
peeled or hard scraped ; there is no comparison in the thickness 
of their stems. The one with its thin rods, the other under 
