December 26.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Jill 
a considerable way before the old entrance, and right 
and left of it, averaging about a yard to be cleared away, 
altogether there was above half an acre so altered ; two 
approach roads had also to he lowered, and one had to 
be turned to a different line ; in one plan three sections 
of this ground were given to guide the men in removing 
the earth, and each of the sections passed through the 
carriage-road. Mr. Barry could not possibly know how 
deep these roads were, but in his sections he showed 
them eight inches in depth ; some gardeners make their 
garden-walks deeper than that; but irom this “ fact I con¬ 
clude that if Mr. Barry were to lay out a carriage-road for 
himself, he would not make it deeper than eight inches, 
perhaps not so deep, seeing he would have to pay for it 
out of his own pocket. One of the approaches is up a 
steep hill for a considerable way ; the upper portion of 
this was lowered nearly two feet, and some way down 
the foundation was made higher by nearly as much; the 
new bottom being made of loose sandy soil. A new road 
was made over this loose bottom, not eight inches, but 
only five inches in depth, and in three days after it was 
finished they began hauling huge loads of Caen stone 
over it, from live to twelve tons a piece, and with from 
four to ten horses, two and two a-breast, and this went 
on for the nest month, or longer, and nearly a thou¬ 
sand tons were at the front door by that time; and 
nearly as much this autumn has been hauled up on the 
same'road since the autumn rains fell, and damp weather 
came on; the very best time to prove a new road five 
inches deep. Now, with ten horses drawing twelve tons 
of stone or feathers up a hill on a new-made road, and on 
loose sandy soil bottom, the wheels being not broad- 
rimmed, how deeply did the wheels sink in ? For such 
a weight McAdarn would make a road from sixteen to 
twenty inches deep, and would have men with hammers 
breaking the large pieces of stone which the wheels 
squeezed up from I do not know what part of his road. 
But in truth, these narrow wheels could hardly make 
their impression on the surface of this road, much less 
sink into it at all; and I have seen the wheel of an 
empty barrow leaving a deeper mark in a garden-walk 
than these wheels leave on this road this very week. 
Therefore, I conclude, that a road five inches deep, 
properly made, will carry ten tons any day in the year, ; 
without in the smallest degree injuring the foundation, 
even if that foundation was damp clay, but properly 
drained. 
The reason I did not write about walks sooner, al¬ 
though pressed to do so by our worthy Editor, and by 
many correspondents, was that I might see what the 
effects of these heavy loads would be on this new road 
during damp or rainy weather; for I knew all along that a 
large quantity of stones were bespoken to come over this 
autumn. The loads come up now as easily as those last 
May, although during the interval the road had a more 
severe trial than that with the ten, or let us say five ton 
loads of stone. Whenever we had a summer thunder¬ 
storm, and one in particular, on the eve of St. Swithin, 
the drainage from some acres of land collected into one 
stream and passed rapidly down this road. There was 
no preparation made for it to drain any other way, nor 
will there be until the works at the house shall be 
finished. I have seen one part of the road near the top 
of the hill covered with a sheet of water from side to 
side, and of some depth, in one rapid current, and yet no 
harm done to the road, or to the sides ; and soon after 
that I promised to show a way of making walks on any 
sort of declivity; but before I do so, let me be under¬ 
stood that all I mean to say refers to carriage-drives and 
garden-walks, in parks and pleasure grounds, and all 
descriptions of gardens, and not to common roads. I 
may remark of such, that Mr. Zelford had some parts of 
his roads made stronger in the middle than at the sides. 
This road that I am writing about was made about foui- 
times stronger at the sides than in the middle, and our 
new walks, for the last half dozen years, are so made in 
order to resist the action of streams which must ne¬ 
cessarily run along their sides at times. 
Upon a careful consideration of all kinds of land on 
which this style of road or walk is to be made, and 
allowing for the old prejudice of deep made roads, I 
have fixed on six inches as the maximum deptli of a I 
carriage-road on the worst kind of bottom, and four j 
inches for that of a walk over such bottom, and from 
two to three inches for the best kitchen-garden walks— i 
where, if the bottom is not good, there is always a suffi¬ 
cient inducement to make it so. It is only in a kitchen- 
garden that I would ever consent to a drain under or 
near the bed of a walk: hut every walk in a kitchen- ! 
garden ought to have a drain under it, as deep as the i 
ground in the borders or quarters is ever likely to be 
stirred, and as deep, besides, as any body chooses to go 
to the expense. These drains I would cover with bad 
soil to within two feet of the top if I could not get chalk 
to fill in instead ; chalk, underdrained, being, as I j 
believe, the kindliest bottom for the roots of all kinds of 
trees, and if it is in small pieces, watered and rammed 
as the work proceeds, no roots will penetrate through it; 
but it must not come in contact with the drain. A cover¬ 
ing of a few inches of clay or had soil should intervene 
between the drain and the chalk, to keep it back in case 
it should walk into the drain and encrust it; after that, 
twenty inches of good soil to fill up the drain, and this 
should be perfectly dry when put in, and pressed down 
hard, so that it should not settle any afterwards. We 
have now four inches to fill in with the walk, one of 
which should first be filled with small or sifted coal- 
ashes, or chalk in powder; this is intended to intercept 
in some degree the damp from below, and to prevent the 
roots of trees on either side clinging to the bottom of the 
walk, and getting scorched in hot weather. I have suffi¬ 
cient experience to know that roots will pass freely under 
such a walk and get spoiled in hot summer without this 
precaution; and I have also proof enough that the most 
healthy portion of the roots will be found under such a 
walk after a few seasons, and when that is the case the 
trees need less assistance from the water-pot. In all 
places out of a kitchen-garden I would take as much 
precaution to keep dampness from the bottom of a good 
walk as I would do for my bed-room, by drawing away 
from it —not to it; and then the remaining three inches, 
I would make in such a way that no water could pass 
through to the bottom, but should split sideways ; and, for 
such a walk, one inch rise in a ten feet walk, from each 
side, will do that. Thatis, in plainer words, the centre of 
a ten feet walk should be two inches higher than the turt 
on either side of it, and the half inches allowed for the 
thickness of the turf, will add so much to the fall from 
the centre of the walk, and, last of all, the walk itself is 
to be one body of solid concrete, made with anything 
except gravel that will concrete—from an oyster-shell to 
granite; all the particulars of which I shall explain next 
! week. Id- Be atom. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Corr,ea. —This is an elegant family of plants, nearly 
always in bloom, but dowering most profusely in winter 
and spring, and therefore well worthy of notice now. 
For this, and many more of our ornamental plants, we 
i are indebted to Australia. It is placed in the Natural 
Order of Rue-worts (Rutacece), though, so far as mere j 
appearance goes, it is less like a Crowea, an Eriostcnwn, 
or a Dictamnus, than an Erica or an Andromeda. Its 
corolla is tubular monopetalous, divided into four seg- - 
ments at its point; in some of the most beautiful species | 
