40 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[October 24. 
there is not a man living who can give a proper degree 
of weight to such prescriptive doctrine by an incon- 
trovertable course of argument. To be sure, we shall 
be told that this sort of width looks better; and, more¬ 
over, we have heard an old lady—a great stickler for a 
wide border—affirm, that for early peas and lettuces we , 
should be made totally dependent on our continental 
neighbours if all the English peach borders were 
narrowed so as to be merely a receptacle for the roots of 
the fruit-trees. Now, this old lady, though a most 
respectable sort of person in principle, is not fit to hold 
the candlo to our good friend Beaton’s “ Aunt Harriet.” 
The latter personage always took care to dart her eagle 
eyes through the murky halo which ever and anon 
enshrouds truth, unless the latter must be looked for in 
the bottom of the well, when, of course, it assumes a 
piscatorial character. To come to the point then, we 
do fear that peaches in England have seldom had fair 
play since duck and peas became all the rage; but it so 
happens, as we do well know, that the ducks have no 
occasion to wait three days for the peas, if our clever 
coadjutor Mr. Barnes be followed in his sound articles 
on kitchen gardening. 
We venture to affirm fearlessly then, that nine inches 
of width in the border to every foot in height of the wall 
is sufficient, from the ground level up to the very zenith 
itself, although few carry their gardening matters with 
so high a hand. Now we do not deem it necessary j 
to drive every culinary esculent from the wall borders; 1 
to grapple with this portion of the subject will, how¬ 
ever, lead us too wide for our present ramble; and we 
must pursue our course by assuming the nine-inch 
standard to be correct for the present. 
Now for the walks, which of course run parallel with 
this border; for we see no reason to alter their time j 
honoured position. As we write in the main for small 
gardeners, we must of course advocate economy in the 
width of these necessary apipendages. Still, we would 
have our readers understand that these breathing places 1 
are not room thrown away, for they doubtless serve to j 
economise a healthful circulation of air, which is of 
immense importance to vegetation. For gardens of half 
an acre we think that four feet may suffice; for an acre 
we would go to five feet; and for gardens of two or 
more acres seven feet—the latter being about the width 
our landscape gardeners allow in pleasure ground walks, 
being, in fact, the width requisite for three persons to 
walk side by side. 
We have now to recommend a marginal border for 
espaliers in a trained state, or for very dwarf standards; j 
indeed, if our dwarfing processes be followed, no over- ! 
grown fruit-trees will be found in kitchen-gardens; and 
we will engage to produce by far more fruit, and a much 
greater variety of kinds, in this way than ever was j 
accomplished by the old and unsystematic mode, and— 
what is of equal importance at least—in one-third of [ 
the time. In these days of steam, people cannot think 
of waiting seven years for a pear or an apricot; be it 
ours, therefore, to show how these things can be done. 
This marginal border need not be more than four feet 
in width, and may run parallel with the walk. It 
should be occupied entirely with fruit-trees, either under 
a dwarfing system or as trained espaliers; and, indeed, 
with the walls, will produce all the fruit that any family 
can consume, provided the trees are established and 
managed on sound principles. The details connected 
with this branch of the affair we at present pass by; 
they will form the subject of future papers. 
We must now stay to offer another observation con¬ 
nected with the width of the borders and the formation 
of the walks. If the borders are made of the width 
here suggested, it will be found good practice in making 
the walks to take care that the bottom or subsoil of the 
walk is composed of some open soil fit for the roots of the 
trees to penetrate; for although in their earlier stages 
the border itself will amply sustain them, yet when the 
trees acquire some age, and a considerable size, the soil 
beneath the walk will become full of fibres, and hence 
they will deiive much assistance. Such subsoil, how¬ 
ever, must be of a very open character, or the walk will 
become too retentive of moisture. Some persons may 
object to this, but we have had ample experience of, we 
will not say the necessity, but the propriety of this 
course, which may indeed be considered a very proper 
adjunct of the narrow border system, and it is, indis¬ 
putably, making the most of the soil and space. In a 
subsequent paper we will carry on the subject, and those 
who are forming new gardens, and desirous of planting 
select collections of fruits, will do well to wait a little 
while until the subject is fully examined. We are 
aware that some of the points have been in part 
handled before, and that somo of our readers are quite 
familiar with them ; it must not be forgotten, however, 
that The Cottage Gardener has an accession of read¬ 
ers who have not studied the earlier numbers, and also 
that it is necessary to be very explicit in even little 
things with another and numerous class. 
Oun Hardy Fruits. —I must beg to congratulate 
“L. M. N.” on the production of so useful and sensible 
a register of the past spring as he has inserted at page 
25 of the present volume. Such records are of consi¬ 
derable importance, as enabling persons hundreds of 
miles apart to compare notes, and to deduce useful 
inferences. Nevertheless, as there seems a slight amount 
of—shall I say supererogation, in the matter, I beg per¬ 
mission to offer a few remarks. 
“ Exemption from severe weather,” says “ L. M. N.: ” 
these are neither my words nor opinions. Again, to 
answer another point,—I really do not suppose that 
there was a “mistake in the instruments,” nor infer that 
“ all unprotected fruit must perish.” I do, however, 
infer, that “L. M. N.” is a non-protectionist, and I by 
no means dispute his right to that position ; but I would 
beg of so sensible and temperate a correspondent to 
consider the question of jmotection on retarding prin¬ 
ciples, and see if he cannot discover the germs of a good 
idea, based on the relation the root action bears to the 
branch, the former being steadily influenced by a daily 
advancing temperature — the latter experiencing the 
occasional drawback of a whole week’s vicissitudes. 
Until, however, root management is better understood, 
I have little hopes of a sound understanding on this 
head. “ L. M. N.” has done well to refer to the well- 
ripened wood of the south. This is the great fact. 
R. Errtxgton. 
THE ELOWER-GARDEN. 
New Plants. —The great fault of public writers with 
respect to what they say about new plants is, that they, 
the writers, myself amongst the rest, are too apt to 
jump into conclusions, and to pronounce a new plant 
as either good-for-nothing, or else praise it up to the 
skies; and for some years past we have had a writer or 
two who take a different course, but still an objection¬ 
able one with many, and put up every new plant they 
describe in the scales of comparative merit against the 
most popular plants which happen to be in the same 
genus, and no matter how good former plants may have 
been found; the new plant must be shown to have 
something about it which of necessity must, or should, 
raise it higher in the scales. But of these three ways 
of pushing new plants into or out of circulation, that 
which condemns them before the trial, or just after an 
imperfect trial, is least to be attended to, and the most 
likely to cause bickerings between dealers and the 
public. Indeed, public miters on plants are not re- 
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