January 2.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
a 1 :j 
I 
over a bottom of brick-bats lying on a bed of clay ; be¬ 
cause, drain bow you would, the bricks will suck up 
moisture, and keep the bottom of the walk damp; and 
damp bottom is inimical to this kind of walk altogether. 
One more turn, and we shall begin the concrete; and 
that is, that this new way of making walks, after the 
Roman fashion, does away witli one branch of garden¬ 
ing—but where or when did we hear of a revolution, or 
a great change, which did not affect the interests of some 
party or another. These kinds of walks do not produce 
weeds; we have a good many of them bore which have 
not been weeded since I first mentioned the subject last 
spring; and the Editor, who looks over this sheet, 
looked very keenly over these walks last September, and 
he can say how many weeds he saw. I have been con¬ 
sulting Wells, the foreman of the pleasure-ground, yes¬ 
terday, to sec if we could make out how much money is I 
spent on his department in a year for weeding walks j 
Wells is one of those conscientious men who think three j 
times before they answer you once, for fear of giving a 
wrong answer; and I can always rely on what be says. 
Between us we have settled that five shillings a year 
cover the expenses of weeding the pleasure-ground, with 
the exception of two walks that have not yet been remo¬ 
delled ; and there is a carriage-road from the mansion to 
the coach-stables here, which is much used, and from 
the end of 18J3 to this day it lias not been weeded at all, 
except six inches on each side, which is swept up when 
the roads are cleaned in the spring, and again just as 
the family are expected back from the London season. 
I never saw a weed on this road, and there was not a 
single particle of gravel put on it since the day it was 
finished. It was made only four inches thick, and 
about one half its length was made over a fresh bottom 
of sandy soil, three feet deep on one side and nearly two 
feet on the other, to fill up a natural hollow. Twenty 
yards of oue end of it had to be taken up last spring, to 
suit alterations, but the men could not well break it with 
their - picks from above, so they loosened away the earth 
from beneath it, six inches or so at a time, and then 
broke the crust into large lumps. This road was made 
about one-half the strength of the one made last spring, 
and that is the report on it at the end of seven years. 
This includes all the sides of this subject, and I make 
little apology for occupying so much time and space on 
it; for generations past we have been on the wrong 
scent altogether with walks and roads—railroads and 
all;—they too might have been laid down at less money 
after the bottom was put right; but now they go too 
fast for alterations, and it was necessary that proofs 
should be brought forward in place of assertions for a 
different way. 
I shall first of all say how the model road was made, I 
and then explain bow we lay down walks. A thin layer 
ot small chalk was placed at the bottom, not more than 
an inch or so, then a layer of the roughest of the stones, 
and a heavy roller, drawn by two horses, passed three 
or four times over this, which compressed the whole to 
about three inches, the stones made to imbed in the j 
chalk, and the chalk squeezed and oozing up among the I 
stones. After that, a good watering with a water cart 
to soften the chalk to the consistency of glazier’s putty; ! 
then a very thin layer of chalk, and another layer of 
stones of a smaller size, or broken with a hammer to the j 
size of a duck’s egg, and over that a mixed layer of the 
roughest of the old gravel and the smallest chalk; 
watered a second time to wash the last layer in among 
the stones; and next day, when this bad drained down 
and the surface got dry enough, the heavy roller went 
over the road again several times. The last layer was 
now carefully prepared, by mixing six quantities of the 
rough gravel with one quantity of the finest chalk, and 
nearly an inch of this was spread over the whole surface, 
except at the sides, where lime was used instead of chalk, 
in order to have a firmer bold to resist the rain water 
that was foreseen must pass down the road a certain 
distanco. The last coat was also slightly watered, and 
when it dried sufficiently to let the roller pass without 
clinging to it, the final rolling was given, much in the 
samo manner as before, and thus a body of the best 
stones that were to be bad in this place were so firmly 
bedded and compressed together, that when the whole 
was dry it would have been no easy task to undo the 
road again; and although the whole might appear to be 
seven inches deep, the roller managed to leave it only 
five. The original intention was to put on another layer 
an inch thick, after the heavy hauling of the Caen stone 
was done with; and this layer would be of finer and fresh 
gravel and the same proportion of chalk, that is, six of 
gravel and one of chalk; the surface of the road to be 
first well damped, but no watering over this layer, as 
there would be no hollow spaces to fill up by washing 
down the compost ; after this last and finishing layer 
was rolled so firm as to make it as smooth as the paper 
on which I am writing, the whole would get a coat of 
very clean and very fine gravel, just enough to give it a 
colour and no more, and the road would stand just six 
inches deep. However, on the principle of letting well 
alone, the chances are that this last layer may not bo 
applied these ten years to come. After a thousand tons 
of stones were hauled up this road in loads, as 1 said 
already, of from five to twelve tons a-piece, the Editor of 
this work was driven over it, and I dare say be did not 
perceive the difference from his carriage passing along a 
wood pavement on the streets of London; and if he did, 
he is still alive—to our great comfort—and may say so. 
After this description, a garden walk is a simple pro¬ 
cess. One stout layer of stones, from where you can get 
them, or of broken auytliings, from shells to rough coal- 
ashes or clinkers, will do for a dry bottom; chalk, or 
chalk lime, or stone lime, in the proportion of one of 
chalk to ten of the other thing will answer, well watered 
and well rolled to the thickness of three inches, and a 
rise in the centre of two inches, half an inch of gravel 
and mixed lime or small chalk, then finish by one- 
eighth of an inch of the best coloured gravel, roll till 
you are tired, but no longer, and—for the sake of variety, 
I kept the best part of the story to finish with, and here 
it is—whatever the width of the road or walk; make up 
the composition from the bottom four inches wider, and 
thus you will have two inches on each side under the 
turf;—the reason for this 1 shall say some other day. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Balconies. —Amid the changing scenes of life, and 
the rapid shifting to and fro of tastes and fashions, there 
are still some things, the use of which remains un¬ 
altered. The Holly and the Mistletoe, so much in 
request at this sacred and festive period, were quite as 
much employed by our Druidical ancestors as by their 
polished Christian descendants of the nineteenth century. 
The mode of using them has been slightly altered; the 
great features connected with their use remain un¬ 
changed. Moralists may inquire about the propriety 
of borrowing such customs from ages, in their opinion, 
so dark and degraded, that their example in all things 
was rather to be shunned than imitated; but we content 
ourselves with looking upon them as signs of general 
rejoicing,—as indications, that though the various classes 
of society have stood too far aloof from each other, that 
now there is something like the attention and the kind¬ 
ness which evidence the perception of a common brother¬ 
hood ; and that must ever exert an improving influence 
upon all. 
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