MARCH. 
77 
with rotten dung. His trees were without fruit; they had been 
planted four years only, against a nine-feet wall; the trees were irre¬ 
trievably ruined with canker, the lower half of the wall naked, and a 
few strong shoots only left above. On my remonstrating with him on 
his mistake, he replied that the Rectory gardener had advised him to 
try whether they could not be brought round by such means ; and, said 
he, my Roses always have it, and nobody has finer Roses than I have. 
Having looked over my friend’s kitchen-garden—a suburban one— 
which, though he had only resided himself two years there, was a very 
old garden and had been manured annually for perhaps a century, I 
pointed out to him his error, and the slight difference between Rose 
and Peach culture ; and this season he has taken my advice, in getting 
rid of this extra encumbrance of rich soil, and no doubt will hereafter 
succeed better. 
There is a general impression among the proprietors of this class of 
places, that the soil of a garden cannot be too rich ; and because 
Asparagus, Rhubarb, and a few other things grow well enough in it, 
other vegetables and fruit, as a matter of course, should do the same ; 
and when, from the cause even of over-richness of soil, wall-trees pro¬ 
duce nothing but wood, no remedy presents itself beyond applying to 
the manure-heap—thus bringing to a shorter end trees already dying 
from a plethora of the same thing, and which is unquestionably destroy¬ 
ing hundreds of trees yearly. 
The only remedy to make these over-rich gardens productive is to 
clear a good portion of the richest earth away. Generally speaking, 
there are but few places where an exchange may not be made for fresh 
earth, as this garden soil forms one of the most valuable dressings for 
pasture or meadow land which can be met with. It is not always pos¬ 
sible to get turf, or even soil from pasture land; but, failing this, that 
from arable land, if moderately fresh and loamy, will form no bad sub¬ 
stitute. Next come old banks, the parings from roadsides, and any 
scraps of fresh soil obtainable where alterations are making. When 
the rich topsoil has been removed, spread a good dressing of quicklime 
over the lowered surface and fork this in; if the lime is an inch in 
thickness it will do good. Afterwards road-scrapings or old mortar may 
be added, when the soil is heavy ; and marl, or a dressing of the 
scourings of ditches, when light. When this is well mixed with the 
lower spit, bring in the fresh earth and well incorporate the whole 
together. Rather than do this imperfectly, I would recommend that a 
portion only be done at once, selecting those parts on which Peas, 
Cauliflowers, Cabbages, Onions, and Carrots are to be grown, and leav¬ 
ing the plots appropriated to Asparagus, Seakale, and Rhubarb for after 
consideration, as it is found the latter are not so particular to soil as the 
former. Above all, the fruit-tree borders, if they cannot be entirely 
renovated, should have fully one-half of the old soil removed and re¬ 
placed by fresh, draining the borders when necessary, and having a 
good rubble bottom one foot deep, over which two feet of the compost 
should be placed for the trees. I may here add, that many kinds of 
fruit-trees may safely be lifted, if carefully done, and the roots laid in 
any spare piece of ground while the borders are being renewed, more 
