100 
THE FLORIST. 
If the soil be poor and exhausted by cropping, or if it be an old garden,* 
a dressing of rotten dung and tenacious loam, or even clay, equal parts, 
five inches in thickness, should be spread over the surface of the 
border.: it should then be stirred to two feet in depth, and the loam 
and dung well mixed with the soil: the trees may be planted during 
the winter, and in March in dry weather; the border all over its sur¬ 
face should be thoroughly rammed down with a wooden rammer, so as 
to make it like a well-trodden path. . . . This border must never 
be stirred, except with the hoe to destroy weeds, and of course never 
cropped. Every succeeding spring, in dry weather, the ramming and 
mulching must be repeated, as the soil is always much loosened by 
frost. If this method be followed, Peaches and Nectarines may be 
made to flourish in our dry southern counties, when they have hitherto 
brought nothing but disappointment.” 
But the same writers who teach us to make our fruit-tree borders 
open and porous tell us, that move the tree or plant into a pot and then 
it must be potted firm. I know it is the usual practice to make the 
soil round Strawberries grown in pots for forcing quite firm—much 
firmer indeed than we make our Strawberry beds in the open garden, 
and Mr. Rivers and others treat their fruit-trees in pots in the same 
way. Now, if the plan holds good to have the plants firm in the soil 
when grown in pots, why should we differ from it when they are growing 
in the open borders ? 
It is a well-known fact that both Vines and Peaches, and other fruit- 
trees will grow prodigiously the first few years after planting in hollow 
porous borders; Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots are, however, pro¬ 
portionately short-lived—a very few years, and they fall victims to 
disease. So great has become the competitive feeling among gardeners, 
that it is now thought scarcely possible to make Vine borders too rich— 
and rich they must be to produce the bunches and leaves we see occa¬ 
sionally at exhibitions. I do not predict, however, a very long career 
for such productions ; plants, no more than animals, can stand this 
excessive gorging without suffering, and it will be well if these exces¬ 
sively rich and porous borders do not in a few years engender disease 
which Vines grown under less excitement will escape. What gives 
cause to underground mildew ? Will not these rich porous borders 
encourage it ? To sum up, are we right, theoretically and practically, 
in making fruit-tree borders open and porous, to the extent recom¬ 
mended, or not ? I shall be glad to hear what you or your corre¬ 
spondents have to say on the question. 
An Amateur Fruit Grower. 
CHRONICLES OF A SMALL GARDEN.—No. VIII. 
Spring is once more upon us. After a most unusual winter, charac¬ 
terised by excessive dryness, and unaccompanied by much severe cold, 
save just at the latter part, we are now enjoying the genial influences of 
* If the border be new, or rich with manure, a coat of the loam or clay only, 
four inches deep, will be sufficient. 
